Ransoming the car at Lindbergh Terminal

[question everything]

Any idea how they calculate parking rate? Even with e-park?

How can they jump from $16.00 - the maximum daily charge - to $30 with additional four and a half hours?

[hermetic]

1. Welcome to the new Merica

where "they" can do whatever "they" want. No justification required anymore for any gouging. Just whatever the market will bear.

In all honesty tho, they did this to discourage parking there as they don't have enough spaces for every one person who comes thru the airport. They hoped to get more people into the outer parking spaces.

[question everything]

2. OK. So let them post a rate that says

$5.00 each hour for a maximum of $50 a day, or so. But at least be consistent. And... didn't they just add more parking space?

[GAspnes]

3. the airport relies on revenue from Northwest & Mesaba

and we all know how well *they've* been doing.

The MAC is doing something similar, reneging on their agreement to include air conditioning in the 65 db DNL zones. Now they're trying to get the homeowners to pay half.

Welcome to The Economy in 2005/2006.

[hermetic]

4. I feel compelled to say

anyone who flies now should really be prepared for the worst of all possibilities. So, when you actuallly do get on a plane, and your luggage arrives with you. And you don't have to endure a cavity search at the gate. You should just be thrilled you got on. OR, you could just plan your future without the benefit of air travel, unless you got the bucks. I'ts that simple.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. I'm getting up early to take light rail tomorrow:

bus to downtown (it goes past my place), then on to the light rail.

This is what I did in Portland, and I never worried about parking fees or no-show shuttles/taxis again. :-)

[dpbrown]

6. Makes me wish we'd have invested in long-distance train service

Instead of bailout after bailout for the airlines.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Me, too, but then again...

if I took the train to Japan, I'd have to go through Canada, Alaska, take a ferry to the Kamchatka Peninsula, another ferry to Sakhalin Island, and another ferry to Hokkaido.
:-)

[GAspnes]

8. there would be a direct tunnel

a super-Chunnel, west coast to Japan.

Of course, the earthquakes might make that a bit problematic...

[dpbrown]

9. With the Iraq war money we could build a bridge to Russia

Now that might be money well spent.

:-)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I'm reporting in from Kobe, Japan, to say that taking the light rail to

the airport worked, and saved me from taxi and limousine drivers who either don't show up or don't show up till the last possible minute.

I'm also here to report that going non-stop from Chicago to Osaka-Kansai is one loooong trip. And to think that I have to reverse the process next week!

I have one cool thing to report, though. We flew over Siberia, and I have never seen any place that was so utterly empty--no trees, no roads, no houses, not even any evidence of animals, just snow, mountains, rivers, and lakes.

[dpbrown]

12. Maybe they can move the ANWR elk there

Just kidding...I felt that way about northern Finland, as well

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. I fly a lot, sometimes use light rail

to get from the parking lot to the airport. The light rail line is awesome. (BTW, I never have any problems flying either -- having to wait in line for security is mildly annoying, but I've never had any hassles.)

[question everything]

13. Indeed, we did this on New Year's Day

when we landed in the evening after an ice storm and the taxis - we did not park then - were few and the line was long.

We took the Light Rail to downtown and from there found a cab - and was half the cost.

Yes, if the train went to all the suburbs it would be great. And what is nice - it travels on street level.

Two years ago we took the subway and then the AirTrain from Manhattan to JFK. The problem was, we had to use the stairs to get in and out of the subway, no escalator which would be very cumbersome with a lot of luggage.

Same the other day in Chicago. We took the Blue Line to O'Hare. But it is a subway once it gets into the near north of Chicago and one has to take the stairs.