FLL Connections to Out Islands

[Eva]

I don't know FLL very well, so perhaps the rest of you might know better. We will be arriving in a few days on a US Airways flight to FLL (Terminal 3). Our continuing flight on Continental Connection/Gulfstream departs from Terminal 1.

Last time we did this routing, 2 years ago, we had to exit Terminal 3, go outside, go into Terminal 1, and go through security all over again. What a PITA!! It consumed much of our 90 minute layover.

Am I missing something? Is there a way to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 without leaving the secure area? Or is this airport's design truly this inconvenient?

Any advice would be appreciated!!

[ModeratorTwo]

Eva, we have gone thru FLL many times and you have to go back out into the "public" area to get from one terminal to the other.. WPB is a little more convenient but when you have a long layover at FLL and friends that meet you there with some homemade Goombay's it makes the time fly by.

[Eva]

I'd like to give the airport designers a Goombay Smash! With hemlock in it.... (They, and the designers of MIA, have a special place reserved for them in Hades.)

[DrRalph]

Check out South Florida Airports and Accommodations (http://www.drralph.net/SouthFloridaAirports.html).

[Floridacargocat]

Once you look at the layouts of US airports and compare them with airports elsewhere (Europe, Asia), and take into consideration the various immigration and security regulations, you will find, that here in the USA, a concept - totally different from elsewhere - exists, which makes these transfers within "sterile areas" impossible due to different ways of thinking. European and Asian airports have incorporated these "sterile" transfers to a large extent, US airports were never designed for it. Further, regulations post 9/11 have made evident this different kind of thinking, and they still clash with transportation habits of pre-9/11. That is one of the reasons (a.o.) why a lot of international carriers have stopped flying to third destinations via the US, due to US regulations (no more transit visas and similar facilities). Passengers have a choice of travel.
FLL is not designed for transfers within "sterile" areas (is this an idea for an improvement and greater attraction for FLL?), especially when changing carriers and terminals.
The result is - in FLL - that when you come in on e.g., Delta, and you transfer over to T4 with the commuters going to "paradise" you have to leave and reenter a sterile are ( and your favorite commuters like Vintage and company are now in T4), thus going once again through the TSA screening procedures. Your luggage may have been processed already (interline agreements) or not, but yours truly has to go through another screening courtesy of policies and layouts.
Can it be done simpler? Yes, but the US airports were never designed for that. Solution?

[Eva]

I'm guessing the airport planners have NEVER been anywhere! All it would take is for some of them to experience a slightly late arrival, a layover of less than an hour, and a connection in another terminal. They'd either barely make it (and be frazzled), or not make it at all. You BET they would figure out solutions.

Interestingly, with the new restrictions on liquids, the typical US airport design makes it impossible to take advantage of duty free shops in "sterile" areas. If you stock up on rum at SJU in the duty free shop, and you have a stop somewhere other than your final destination, if you have to leave the "sterile" area as part of your intermediate stop, you'll have to relinquish the legally acquired and carried-on booty. Brilliant.

[Abacoparrott]

All concourses are connected in a single "sterile" area....I thought quite a few other airports were designed this way as well........I also thought that FLL was the exception rather than the rule.....am I mistaken? Ken

[Eva]

I wish that were the case, but it's not necessarily so.

BWI, for example, has only some of the concourses connected via passageway through "sterile" areas; others are not. Thus, when security is backed up for miles for Concourse D, you can't sneak through the shorter security lines in Concourse C and then cut across to D because they are not connected.

MIA is mosly connected, but as of the last time I flew, some of the D gates weren't even connected to the other D gates, requiring a run through security. And, as I recall, E gates were altogether separate. (This may change upon completion of the renovations.)

At LAX, you have to leave the domestic terminals and go outside to go to the international terminal.

DFW's only saving grace is that all terminals are connected via sterile passages.

I wonder if there is a central repository of information like this, to help travelers with routing.

[Beth at Yellow Air Taxi]

Yellow Air Taxi is now operating out of the FLL Commuter Terminal, which is located on the lower level of Terminal 4.

I never really thought that I could contradict Axel, however, this is NEITHER a sterile nor a TSA screened area. I have heard that it briefly was immediately post-9/11, but has not been for the past four years that we have been around.

As all usual carry ons are stored in baggage compartments at boarding, we also do not have a problem with liquids and such.

So, to go from one terminal to the next, you need to exit and either walk or take the tram to Terminal 4, but it is on the same level as the baggage and no long lines.

Beth
www.flyyellowairtaxi.com

[mlmp]

My family and I flew with Yellow Air last week and it was so convenient and easy. I know the new place must be more difficult for you and your employees but it is much easier for those of us who have to connect in FLL to get to MH. Thank you.