You don't get a second chance to make a first impression. That's what I was thinking on Friday, May 9 when I arrived at the just-opened Terminal B space, new home of United Airlines at Boston's Logan Airport.
By "just opened," I mean 10 days earlier. Wow! I had no idea this transition was taking place when I booked my flight to San Francisco last month, and only learned of it through mainstream news reports. So I was eager to check it out.
Prior to the United-Continental merger in 2010, United was a long-time occupant of Terminal C going all the way back to pre-dereg days. As a kid in the 1970s, I would go up to the old control tower's observation deck (long-since closed), and a highlight was watching United's morning non-stop to San Francisco, usually a 747, pull back from C gate right in front of us.
At Logan, Continental and predecessors such as People Express didn't have nearly that kind of pedigree. The carrier bounced around over the years, finally landing at Terminal A prior to the merger. So once the two carriers joined up, they had to somehow be brought under one roof at Logan.
In the works for a couple of years, it not only provided 10 new gates for United, but also connected the American gates on side of the terminal with U.S. Airways gates way on the other side. (See the former pre-United layout at left. The new concourse links Gate B-21 with the area around B-27.) The effect was to create one big continuous post-security concourse that surrounds the terminal on three sides. Not a bad retrofit!
United kitted up the new space with the latest "do-it-yourself" gadgetry such as self-ticketing kiosks, which allow you to check bags unassisted. The gates have self-scanning units with glass doors that part when you're cleared to board, just like a subway turnstyle. One release from United boasted that you can go from curb to plane seat without dealing with a human being.
Well, not quite. You still have to deal with the TSA, and that was the big disappointment the morning I came through. I already had my boarding pass and wasn't checking any bags, so didn't need to use United's nifty new ticket area. But I did need to join a stress-inducing long line (will I make my flight?) at the woefully inadequate TSA checkpoint.
It wasn't clear where you should go, what line you should stand in, or how long any line was. And, to make matters worse, a TSA agent was letting random groups of people move out of sequence to even up the various entry points to security. To someone trying to make an early morning flight, there is nothing worse that this kind of chaos.
I know this has nothing to do with United, or the other airline tenants in the terminal. But it's a huge, huge black eye that colored my whole experience of Terminal B. It can be spectacular in all respects, but all the effort put into the new space by United and Massport (which owns and runs Logan) is completely wiped out by bad TSA processing.
It doesn't have to be this way. The new security point in Terminal C, opened just a few years ago, is far easier to navigate. So in terms of the value of first impressions, United should work with Massport and the TSA on the way security is handled if this new $30 million space is going to bring added value to their Logan operation.
Once beyond security, I barely had time to notice any of the features, as my flight to SFO was already boarding. (Yes, I did use the new "people-less" boarding process, but a United gate agent had to coach me on how to do it.) Incredibly, the 757-200 had plenty of empty seats! This is so rare nowadays that it deserves a mention. I had selected my seat near the back when I booked, and found I was surrounded by empty seats! I could actually stretch out across three, and slept for a good portion of the flight, something I haven't done in years.
I returned on Sunday, when I had more of a chance to look around. I found the new United concourse to be pleasant enough, but nothing spectacular. There's very little that's distinctive: even the carpeting is the same as in United's San Francisco terminal! A lost opportunity.
At least the windows are vertically oriented instead of horizontal, avoiding the caged-in "prison bar" effect that prevails at so many other new terminals. Score one for common sense!
The low ceiling makes a modest effort to swoop upwards toward the slightly higher windows that look out on the tarmac, but the effect is on such a small scale that it hardly seems worth the effort. Also, portions of the ceiling are hung with netting in various colors, which lends a festive note but also clutters up any grandeur the place attempts to achieve.
At the end of the new concourse, a right turn puts you in space built a few years ago for U.S. Airways, which has a much bigger feel by comparison. The ceiling is also curved, unlike the United ceiling, which is straight. How come the new United space couldn't mesh with this, at least in terms of scale and shape? I'm all for variety, but this just seems mismatched and strange.
Back in United's new space, one thing that bothered me was that the gate areas seem awfully undersized. The seating itself is varied and interesting — some of it looks like vintage living room furniture. But there's clearly not enough. While I was there, a flight to Houston that was boarding, and the scrum spilled well out into the walk-through area, blocking anyone just trying to get by.
Still, it's nice to see United in one space at Logan. Now the puzzle is, of course: how to combine the U.S. Airways and American space now that they've merged?
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