the mixed-up airport of San Jose
Jul. 22nd, 2010 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacToday was my first experience picking up passengers at the new Terminal B. On first visit, it was kind of bewildering. Those of you who might do likewise might want to know about it.
My passengers are not cell-phone-equipped, so the plan was to park the car in the garage opposite Terminal B and meet them at the security exit point.
1) There are two sets of lanes flowing between Terminal B and the garage, with a traffic island separating them. The set on the right, next to the terminal (and therefore the one that serves as a dropoff zone), is the one you get on by following the main signs to Terminal B. The one on the left turns out to be the express exit road from Terminal A.
Neither one will get you into the garage. (It took me about four times around to confirm that.) To go to the garage, you have to look for a separate "Terminal B Parking" sign on the left of the road earlier on, on the other side of the garage before it turns around to go past the terminal. Take the slip road here and it will take you into the garage.
2) If the sign at the garage entrance says it's full (and it probably will, because most of the garage is for rental cars; only a small portion is for terminal parking), that doesn't mean it's actually full. There could be, and indeed on this occasion were, more empty than full spaces in the one-hour terminal-pickup parking section on the ground level. "Full" means that the long-term parking section is full. (The employee sitting at the entrance explained this to me.)
3) The outdoor lot south of the garage is not a separate lot, despite Mr. Roadshow writing about it as if it is. Its only entrance is from inside the garage. Even it, however, can have a couple empty spaces, visible from outside, when the garage is posted as full. (The employee will say, "Oh, those must be handicapped spaces." They weren't.)
4) When you walk over to the terminal, do not ask the staffers at the "Information" booth where anything is. They won't know.
5) The security exit point is upstairs. It is plainly visible to anyone coming up the escalator. This includes outgoing passengers who all respond to the sight by looking around in puzzlement, trying to figure out where the security entrance point is. (It is, as you arrive at the top of the escalator, immediately behind you, where it is least likely to be seen, especially as there is no helpful sign pointing to it.)
6) There is much more room outside the security exit point to wait for your passenger than in Terminal A. There is, however, a) nowhere to sit, and b) no helpful flight monitor to enable you to keep track of when the relevant flight is arriving, though there is plenty of room for both. You have to dash downstairs to the check-in or baggage claim areas, where the flight monitors are again cunningly hidden in the last places you're likely to see them, to check up on flight status.
7) The flight monitor at baggage claim does not list which carousel your baggage will be on. You have to run around and check the displays on each individual carousel to find out that. (Whether this is like Oakland, where the baggage regularly appears on a different carousel than the one displaying the flight, is not yet known.)
8) AT&T cell phone reception inside the airport, though not terrible, is not great.
9) Back in the garage, when you go to the cash pay machine, you will not find a slot marked to put your ticket in. Instead, you will find a slot marked with a drawing of a credit card, although these machines do not take credit cards. (Supposedly the machines at the exits themselves do.) That is the slot to put your ticket in.
10) The garage is full of permanent and temporary exit signs pointing in various mutually contradictory directions. Persevere, and eventually you'll find your way out.
Most of this may become clear once you get used to it. But on first visit, it's anything but.
My passengers are not cell-phone-equipped, so the plan was to park the car in the garage opposite Terminal B and meet them at the security exit point.
1) There are two sets of lanes flowing between Terminal B and the garage, with a traffic island separating them. The set on the right, next to the terminal (and therefore the one that serves as a dropoff zone), is the one you get on by following the main signs to Terminal B. The one on the left turns out to be the express exit road from Terminal A.
Neither one will get you into the garage. (It took me about four times around to confirm that.) To go to the garage, you have to look for a separate "Terminal B Parking" sign on the left of the road earlier on, on the other side of the garage before it turns around to go past the terminal. Take the slip road here and it will take you into the garage.
2) If the sign at the garage entrance says it's full (and it probably will, because most of the garage is for rental cars; only a small portion is for terminal parking), that doesn't mean it's actually full. There could be, and indeed on this occasion were, more empty than full spaces in the one-hour terminal-pickup parking section on the ground level. "Full" means that the long-term parking section is full. (The employee sitting at the entrance explained this to me.)
3) The outdoor lot south of the garage is not a separate lot, despite Mr. Roadshow writing about it as if it is. Its only entrance is from inside the garage. Even it, however, can have a couple empty spaces, visible from outside, when the garage is posted as full. (The employee will say, "Oh, those must be handicapped spaces." They weren't.)
4) When you walk over to the terminal, do not ask the staffers at the "Information" booth where anything is. They won't know.
5) The security exit point is upstairs. It is plainly visible to anyone coming up the escalator. This includes outgoing passengers who all respond to the sight by looking around in puzzlement, trying to figure out where the security entrance point is. (It is, as you arrive at the top of the escalator, immediately behind you, where it is least likely to be seen, especially as there is no helpful sign pointing to it.)
6) There is much more room outside the security exit point to wait for your passenger than in Terminal A. There is, however, a) nowhere to sit, and b) no helpful flight monitor to enable you to keep track of when the relevant flight is arriving, though there is plenty of room for both. You have to dash downstairs to the check-in or baggage claim areas, where the flight monitors are again cunningly hidden in the last places you're likely to see them, to check up on flight status.
7) The flight monitor at baggage claim does not list which carousel your baggage will be on. You have to run around and check the displays on each individual carousel to find out that. (Whether this is like Oakland, where the baggage regularly appears on a different carousel than the one displaying the flight, is not yet known.)
8) AT&T cell phone reception inside the airport, though not terrible, is not great.
9) Back in the garage, when you go to the cash pay machine, you will not find a slot marked to put your ticket in. Instead, you will find a slot marked with a drawing of a credit card, although these machines do not take credit cards. (Supposedly the machines at the exits themselves do.) That is the slot to put your ticket in.
10) The garage is full of permanent and temporary exit signs pointing in various mutually contradictory directions. Persevere, and eventually you'll find your way out.
Most of this may become clear once you get used to it. But on first visit, it's anything but.
