It seems like less than two weeks ago Kathryn and I were spending a morning at Sky Harbor Airport, waiting for a flight to somewhere. This time it’s different though. Today we’re at Terminal 3 instead of Terminal 4.
The check-in process and security screening were incredibly smooth this morning, due at least in part to how early we arrived. My parents gave us a ride to the airport, and I imagine we’d already passed the TSA checkpoint before they found their way back to the freeway.
Now that we’re here, Kathryn and I have continued our running debate about the merits of flying from Terminal 3, especially as compared to Terminal 4.
She has spent more time on the secure side of the terminal, as she was a regular on JetBlue for a while in the not-so-distant past. I’ve spent more time on the public side, usually because I would arrive way too early to pick her up.
My gut feeling is that the food on the secure side is better in Terminal 3. However, because Terminal 3 has far fewer passengers than Terminal 4, the options can be rather limited if you’re flying at a quiet time. Like, um, right now.
On the public side, there’s no comparison. Terminal 3 has no food at all if you’re not flying.
For our part, we had already eaten an early breakfast, so we were looking for something like a burger at 9:30 am. Shake Shack was one of the few places open serving food. It hit the spot.
In short, Terminal 3 is probably a better terminal for flying at peak times, but Terminal 4 is a much better place to be waiting for someone.
So where are Kathryn going? I’ll post again when we get there. I’m hoping for an uninteresting set of flights from here to there, but I recognize that we’re living in interesting times. Anything could happen between now and then.