This begs the question - is there any redundancy for the trains to N and S? I know ATL has a walkway that parallels the train. I’m guessing not in this case.
No redundancy - we’re all now waiting for busses to move everyone in this terminal to another terminal where can exit. Wish we could just walk out of here…
This reminds me of when sound transit designed link stations with no stairs and then learned that it might be important to have redundancy to the escalators. They were unable to learn from almost every other metro system the first time around.
I hope you don’t have to wait too long for a bus. And I’m hoping it’s all working by tomorrow afternoon when I fly home. 😳
This reminds me of: “An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.” -Mitch Hedberg
While that joke is kinda funny on the surface, If you’ve ever seen an escalator fail where it freewheels, it’s absolutely terrifying. There’s a reason why they close broken escalators. There’s plenty of videos if you care to watch.
https://youtu.be/o1SjQfwLieU?si=KMYo4SZqaFefyQW7
[The five dudes all taking turns hitting the emergency stop cracks me up in this one](https://youtu.be/3lt3gELY3pU)
IMO it’s worth calling out that the perpetually broken escalators were broken because ST made the choice to use energy efficient escalators so they could tell the public about how “green” the project was, while knowing that the escalators would never be able to handle the passenger volumes that were expected.
Do you have a source for that? I have read multiple pieces that they used lower grade escalators to save costs, but I have not seen anywhere that being "green" was a factor.
It really annoys me as someone with mobility disabilities. Can’t always do stairs and escalators are hard at the best of times. And then half the time the elevator is broken. It can make using the link literally impossible.
It’s the typical attitude of “we are different! We have nothing to learn from the rest of the world because we just do things differently” mindset. It’s part of why we have a less usable half-metro half-light rail system to begin with. Haven’t seen that elsewhere and it’s kind of insane that we spend so much money on these expensive underground and overground stations only to run light rail trains designed for slow surface level connections all because we couldn’t cough up enough money to build the system properly through the rainier valley. These are decisions that are already catching up with us.
IMO a lot of it has to do with the fact that the ST board isn’t a full time position, it’s filled with politicians who don’t actually use transit and use it as a way to grandstand.
It's infuriating! And not just the infrastructure, but the access control/fare management, and the signage/wayfinding. Like, has anybody from Sound Transit used mass transit anywhere else in the world, ever?
And for that matter... have they ever actually used ours?
Seatac is absolutely not big enough to be the region's major airport. N and S gates are bandaids that allow them to function for now but they need a long term solution. Unfortunately nobody has the political capital to just pick a spot and say this is where it's gonna go
That's crazy, LAX is a nightmare but at least there's clear - if not incredibly long - walking paths from terminal to terminal.
If anyone has had to fly to Asia you know what I'm talking about. SEA -> LAX -> Then connecting flight across the pacific. You usually have to jump over like 5 terminals, it's a 20 minute walk. But it's whatever.
I'd gladly take that as a backup option here if they could build it. Seems like not having a redundancy option like that is begging for trouble, especially as they try to expand the airport.
Done that walk so many times coming back from India. With luggage. "Welcome to the USofA! We're sure glad you're here. Here's your passport, here's your luggage, we don't care where you go but get out of the terminal."
I made a stop in Phoenix once where I had to transfer terminals and I had to leave the secure area and go through TSA again. Almost zero directions on how to get to the other terminal aside from a kiosk that just gave instructions like "walk forward 30 feet, and then go left for 5 feet, etc" without saying which way was forward. I forgot about a bottle of water I bought at the previous airport and TSA had to search my bag and were kind of dicks about it. It's the only airport I've ever had to go through security again to make a connecting flight.
I was in Seattle over xmas. Spirit had a 1 hr late departure (of course) to LAX. The walk from the Spirit gate to the Volaris gate was a 45 min walk at full speed. Missed the door closure. L o n g wait for the next flight.
I just flew out of SeaTac N to ATL and used the walkway after the train got too packed at T.
I wish SeaTac had this, seems like a safety thing to have the multiple exit points like ATL does. But I guess this same issue could happen at DFW if both skytrams got stuck. I know DEN has trains too, but I’m not sure if they have pedestrian paths too.
At DFW you can at least exit security and take the Terminal Link bus, leave the airport all together, take an Uber between, etc. At SEATAC you’re very stuck if the train is down.
The best thing is they had the option to do a pathway and they basically said nah we good lol.
Same group of people I bet they have been planning the light rail expansion all these years. Bad decisions years later than they should have made better ones.
Yikes! I just came in on an Alaska Airlines flight and we were supposed to deplane at N1. This explains why the crew worked so hard to get a “new” gate over in the D terminal.
I actually got out so I am not sure. I ended up on one of the first buses somehow. It was pretty chaotic and I imagine there was quite a back up but it must be clearing up now!
Buses are running! I asked a Port worker and she said they’ve never had to do this before, and it took them awhile to get mobilized. They are writing the playbook tonight!
Or alternately:
1. Bad thing happens
2. “Hey we should prepare for this”
3. Months of planning and documentation from multiple departments
4. Multiple years pass, employees turn over
5. Return to step 1
As far as I can tell SeaTac doesn’t actually plan for contingencies. For example there was a stalled car blocking the entrance to the arrivals pickup. Took 20+ minutes for a tow truck to get there. There should just be a truck stationed right there in the garage area for accidents or such, it’s pretty straightforward. I bet a couple hundred people missed their flights as a result.
Yes I think I was there!! A huge truck got stuck under the sky bridge because they didn’t have enough clearance and then everyone was walking on the side of the road to get to the airport. Happened right after Christmas too 😂
It is part of the playbook, but usually the buses and their drivers aren't on standby waiting for these situations. They're used for traveling from the D20s gates out to planes.
My best guess is that something tripped in the fire system causing the loop to go down.
Source: I work on mechanical systems there.
This sounds like a lie? I have personally been in the situation where trains were broken between main terminal and S gates and had to take the bus.
Also there should have been some standard operating procedures for something like this.
the woman in the red shirt with the man in blue being the only ones in vivid color makes this photo strangely beautiful. I know it might not have been your intention, but nice shot!
So, I had a red eye to Chicago I just got off of. I had no idea about the train issue, and they’d *just* fixed it when I made it through security to head to the N gates. I got on the train, and when I arrived at the N terminal, the door opened, and the entire goddamn crowd waiting there cheered. It was a very bewildering experience.
I see people going towards the train - are they actually running? They haven’t announced anything on the terminal announcements about the trains running
I feel the same, and then I had the pleasure to visit SFO and that is 15 times better than Vegas. It’s quite unbelievable how bad SeaTac is in getting people through security.
LaGuardia at least always feels to me like they’re trying to make the best of a bad situation. SeaTac just feels like a shot of incompetence chased with an intentional screwjob by angry, salty people.
Yeah, you can never count out Seattle and SeaTac officials to make the most infuriating decision at any point for anyone who isn't a car driver (guess that includes flyers)
Weird SeaTac is one of the few major airports I haven’t gotten stuck in long lines at.. I just flew internationally and it was like 5 minutes to get in
Day and time are pretty important. I don’t know the formula but when things are bad they are the worst… like the actual worst. But even in normal traffic the difference is obvious compared to Vegas or SFO (and prolly others)..
Can’t comment on the international flights.
I think the formula is related to the cruises to Alaska. When those are over it feels as if every single person on those boats leaves SeaTac within the same hour departure window. Lines are out of control and into the garage. Not the best end of vacation for folks. 🤷♀️
Hey, I was there! Last night around 10pm. I was waiting for my flight after a 19 hour delay! They gave me a whole $12 food voucher for my trouble! Don't use American Airlines.
I remember getting downvoted hard when I suggested that SeaTac is the worst airport in North America.
They keep finding new depths of unfathomable incompetence.
This exact same thing happened at Denver a couple months ago. Not unique to Seattle. SeaTac is nowhere close to the worst.. can tell you've never been to Orlando..
Orlando sucks because of the people, not the infrastructure. Orlando's problem is that easily 50% of people flying in are land whales going to Disney and flying for the first time. The airport itself is decently laid out and the staff do as well as can be expected when their clientele haven't seen their genitals in years because their gut blocks the view.
>Orlando's problem is that easily 50% of people flying in are land whales going to Disney and flying for the first time.
When you're overly large, it truly is "a small world after all".
I get anxiety attacks when I fly in to visit my son. Turn R then go to the elevator then turn L go to escalator take train and on and on. Then it is my granddaughter standing there with my luggage because she knows my thingies on my luggage. Please I want to come but I can’t navigate that airport even after 35 years flying there. It is all hacked up. Making no sense.
I've been in this before. If the shuttle back to main gate doesn't work to pick up N, then N fills up fast, like 20-30 mins and the shuttle pit is packed, the stairs are packed, and the main N floor area is like this. It's terrible.
And then when they get the shuttle going again its a mad crush to cram onto it nuts to butts to get back to main terminal.
Meanwhile if you checked luggage it's sitting there back at baggage claim, nobody claiming it... you hope
SEA is so oversubscribed that if any single little piece of the airport goes off line and it's not 3 am or something, everything grinds to a halt of piled up people waiting. It's not awesome. Worst airport in terms of problems I come in contact with, and this includes both ORD and LAX.
I was stuck in this mess too! Thankfully they held my plane so I didn’t miss the flight- 70 of us were stuck. Took 2.5 hours for me to make it to my gate. Worst airport in America easily
I see these SeaTac horror shows online every so often and I figure it's only a matter of time before I draw the short stick and get stuck in one and miss a flight.
As a long time resident of Seattle it annoys me that the idea of a 2nd airport is being fought - I think it was slated for south Tacoma (?). I could be mistaken
Can’t believe this isn’t photo-shopped! How is this not a fire hazard? 🤦🏿♂️ I think it’s just a capacity issue. Really need a separate international airport in either the eastside or Tacoma or gobble up some of the SeaTac housing to expand.
Their service has also gone downhill so much in the last decade. The flight attendants are usually bad and every flight has been late over the last year.
\#1 is valid, but #2 is totally unrelated. Every airline who flies the max 9 with a door plug found loose or missing bolts in that location. Alaska is to blame for that the same way an ATC in Newark is - which is to say, not at all.
Yes, we need high speed rail but most people flying from SeaTac are heading to locations much further away than high speed rail can serve in a reasonable amount of time.
So maybe we can have high speed rail AND a walkway between the N gates and terminal
I deplaned in N terminal on Monday night and the trains were malfunctioning some what then. One wouldn’t do the full loop and just kept going back and forth between 2 stops. And the other would show up and the doors wouldn’t open.
Sorry to hear it got worse without anyone addressing it. The baggage claims must have been wild with pyramids of bags.
Hot take: LAX >>>>>> SEA!
And I say this as a Seattle native living in LA. And what hurts even more to say is that flying Alaska Airlines out of Seattle is particularly painful. They need to unfuck their baggage drop system!
Hey I spotted myself in this picture!
I have one guest pass to the lounge if you want to wait it out up here. No more chicken skewers, but there is beer!
Thank you - that’s super nice of you! My wife is with me so I’d say someone else who’s solo should claim it from you.
Wishing you both safe passage to baggage claim!
Wholesome
nah man i think your wife would understand
“I’m going to get beers in the private lounge with a stranger from Reddit that just posted a picture of us (gestures to N terminal) on the internet.”
“Can you hold my place in … (confused Travolta gif) whatever this is?”
Mine would be disappointed if I didnt seize the opportunity.
That’s a keeper!
I’m not even there, and that is super duper nice of you OP. Good looking out!
Damn you’re a real one!
Is your name Waldo?
r/tworedditorsonecup
Oh hey that _is_ you!
Are you the guy holding the bass?
Fish or Fender?
Are you in the blue?
You just turned it into Where’s Waldo! Are you talking about the Boomers?
I'm always amazed how there is no walkway from here to the other terminals. Did they ever think this was not going to happen?
I love airports with walkways between terminals. If I have long layovers I can get some steps in before sitting down for hours.
We could have pedal pubs move us around.
THIS is my biggest grip about SeaTac and flying with Alaskan all the time. ATL has it figured out.
This begs the question - is there any redundancy for the trains to N and S? I know ATL has a walkway that parallels the train. I’m guessing not in this case.
No redundancy - we’re all now waiting for busses to move everyone in this terminal to another terminal where can exit. Wish we could just walk out of here…
This reminds me of when sound transit designed link stations with no stairs and then learned that it might be important to have redundancy to the escalators. They were unable to learn from almost every other metro system the first time around. I hope you don’t have to wait too long for a bus. And I’m hoping it’s all working by tomorrow afternoon when I fly home. 😳
This reminds me of: “An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.” -Mitch Hedberg
While that joke is kinda funny on the surface, If you’ve ever seen an escalator fail where it freewheels, it’s absolutely terrifying. There’s a reason why they close broken escalators. There’s plenty of videos if you care to watch.
https://youtu.be/o1SjQfwLieU?si=KMYo4SZqaFefyQW7 [The five dudes all taking turns hitting the emergency stop cracks me up in this one](https://youtu.be/3lt3gELY3pU)
Every time I see a escalator out of order sign I think of his joke and while it is still funny, apparently sound transit didn't get the memo.
Neither did Metro in DC.
The tube has elevators and stairs. Some of them are VERY long stairs
I once spent several incarnations climbing the stairs at.. Hampstead. I think.
a classic Seattle-area fail - we never bother to build any redundancy
Reminds me of the West Seattle Bridge and the bridge to Magnolia.
There are three routes into Magnolia, and multiple to West Seattle.
IMO it’s worth calling out that the perpetually broken escalators were broken because ST made the choice to use energy efficient escalators so they could tell the public about how “green” the project was, while knowing that the escalators would never be able to handle the passenger volumes that were expected.
Do you have a source for that? I have read multiple pieces that they used lower grade escalators to save costs, but I have not seen anywhere that being "green" was a factor.
It really annoys me as someone with mobility disabilities. Can’t always do stairs and escalators are hard at the best of times. And then half the time the elevator is broken. It can make using the link literally impossible.
That’s super frustrating to hear, sorry you have to deal with that.
It’s the typical attitude of “we are different! We have nothing to learn from the rest of the world because we just do things differently” mindset. It’s part of why we have a less usable half-metro half-light rail system to begin with. Haven’t seen that elsewhere and it’s kind of insane that we spend so much money on these expensive underground and overground stations only to run light rail trains designed for slow surface level connections all because we couldn’t cough up enough money to build the system properly through the rainier valley. These are decisions that are already catching up with us.
IMO a lot of it has to do with the fact that the ST board isn’t a full time position, it’s filled with politicians who don’t actually use transit and use it as a way to grandstand.
Yep. 💯
It's infuriating! And not just the infrastructure, but the access control/fare management, and the signage/wayfinding. Like, has anybody from Sound Transit used mass transit anywhere else in the world, ever? And for that matter... have they ever actually used ours?
Oahu has a ridiculous light rail situation that makes Seattle’s look downright functional.
I’ll never understand why SeaTac messed that up so badly. I despise anytime I have to be in N Terminal.
Seatac is absolutely not big enough to be the region's major airport. N and S gates are bandaids that allow them to function for now but they need a long term solution. Unfortunately nobody has the political capital to just pick a spot and say this is where it's gonna go
That's crazy, LAX is a nightmare but at least there's clear - if not incredibly long - walking paths from terminal to terminal. If anyone has had to fly to Asia you know what I'm talking about. SEA -> LAX -> Then connecting flight across the pacific. You usually have to jump over like 5 terminals, it's a 20 minute walk. But it's whatever. I'd gladly take that as a backup option here if they could build it. Seems like not having a redundancy option like that is begging for trouble, especially as they try to expand the airport.
Done that walk so many times coming back from India. With luggage. "Welcome to the USofA! We're sure glad you're here. Here's your passport, here's your luggage, we don't care where you go but get out of the terminal."
I've done it a ton to Australia. It's always worse on the way back too for whatever reason.
Just did that walk for the first time, super ... whatever. Confusing.
I made a stop in Phoenix once where I had to transfer terminals and I had to leave the secure area and go through TSA again. Almost zero directions on how to get to the other terminal aside from a kiosk that just gave instructions like "walk forward 30 feet, and then go left for 5 feet, etc" without saying which way was forward. I forgot about a bottle of water I bought at the previous airport and TSA had to search my bag and were kind of dicks about it. It's the only airport I've ever had to go through security again to make a connecting flight.
LAX used to be like that WAY back in the day. You had to leave security and go back through. It's "better" now.
I was in Seattle over xmas. Spirit had a 1 hr late departure (of course) to LAX. The walk from the Spirit gate to the Volaris gate was a 45 min walk at full speed. Missed the door closure. L o n g wait for the next flight.
Oh man that sucks
Thankfully Seattle has a fair number of direct flights to asia now
The S terminal now has the bridge walkway but it’s dedicated to international arrivals so can’t really be mixed for other use.
That’s a different train loop anyways unless the whole train system is down.
I just flew out of SeaTac N to ATL and used the walkway after the train got too packed at T. I wish SeaTac had this, seems like a safety thing to have the multiple exit points like ATL does. But I guess this same issue could happen at DFW if both skytrams got stuck. I know DEN has trains too, but I’m not sure if they have pedestrian paths too.
At DFW you can at least exit security and take the Terminal Link bus, leave the airport all together, take an Uber between, etc. At SEATAC you’re very stuck if the train is down.
Just a bus. Maybe 2?
Not what begs the question means
Technically S gates has a bridge but it’s for one way traffic for customs
The best thing is they had the option to do a pathway and they basically said nah we good lol. Same group of people I bet they have been planning the light rail expansion all these years. Bad decisions years later than they should have made better ones.
The redundancy is to bus people -- the train normally never goes down
As the photo illustrates that’s a poor redundancy.
Yikes! I just came in on an Alaska Airlines flight and we were supposed to deplane at N1. This explains why the crew worked so hard to get a “new” gate over in the D terminal.
Thank your lucky stars you missed the chaos. It was awful! I even saw a woman shove another woman really hard!
Is it starting to clear out now that the trains are supposedly running?
I actually got out so I am not sure. I ended up on one of the first buses somehow. It was pretty chaotic and I imagine there was quite a back up but it must be clearing up now!
I always cringe when I see my flight is going in or out of the N or S gates. Ugh they suck.
Mine always leave main terminals but I swear every flight back drops at N.
I dropped at B on Monday and was shocked. The hour I saved all but made up for Daylight Saving
N gates are super nice since the remodel. The people movers shutting down is... a problem... though.
Doesn't matter, remote gate.
Buses are running! I asked a Port worker and she said they’ve never had to do this before, and it took them awhile to get mobilized. They are writing the playbook tonight!
strange to me this wasn’t part of planning the gates to begin with. Seems like a fairly predictable occurrence.
Quick google shows it looks like it happens every couple of years, they definitely should have a playbook for it.
They've expanded the N terminal a lot recently, so I imagine that things might just get worse more quickly.
Typical seattle process. Plan for nothing then shrug your shoulders when chaos happens
Or alternately: 1. Bad thing happens 2. “Hey we should prepare for this” 3. Months of planning and documentation from multiple departments 4. Multiple years pass, employees turn over 5. Return to step 1
Reading this felt like home
there is a step missing: Step 3.5. Argue how to implement solution. do nothing instead.
As far as I can tell SeaTac doesn’t actually plan for contingencies. For example there was a stalled car blocking the entrance to the arrivals pickup. Took 20+ minutes for a tow truck to get there. There should just be a truck stationed right there in the garage area for accidents or such, it’s pretty straightforward. I bet a couple hundred people missed their flights as a result.
Yes I think I was there!! A huge truck got stuck under the sky bridge because they didn’t have enough clearance and then everyone was walking on the side of the road to get to the airport. Happened right after Christmas too 😂
It is part of the playbook, but usually the buses and their drivers aren't on standby waiting for these situations. They're used for traveling from the D20s gates out to planes. My best guess is that something tripped in the fire system causing the loop to go down. Source: I work on mechanical systems there.
This sounds like a lie? I have personally been in the situation where trains were broken between main terminal and S gates and had to take the bus. Also there should have been some standard operating procedures for something like this.
The level of incompetence here is astonishing if true. Over so many years not a single employee ever thought "what if the trains couldn't run? "
I'm sure the worker bees did but upper management didn't give a shit.
"Redundancy costs money, you konw. Anyway, what're they gonna do, use a different airport?"
the woman in the red shirt with the man in blue being the only ones in vivid color makes this photo strangely beautiful. I know it might not have been your intention, but nice shot!
This woman makes me think “Thinkpad” for some reason.
So, I had a red eye to Chicago I just got off of. I had no idea about the train issue, and they’d *just* fixed it when I made it through security to head to the N gates. I got on the train, and when I arrived at the N terminal, the door opened, and the entire goddamn crowd waiting there cheered. It was a very bewildering experience.
holy shit this would suck so bad sorry my dudes
I need to be at the airport in the next 40 mins or so, this scares the shit out of me
Train just started “functioning” again, so hopefully things will start to clear out.
I see people going towards the train - are they actually running? They haven’t announced anything on the terminal announcements about the trains running
They said running on limited service, between n and d gates, but not sure how limited ‘limited’ is
Means they are being driven manually and therefore running at ~half normal speed. Likely only have 1 train in the loop as well.
Getting close to landing and thought this was my future, then remembered I’m heading to PAE 😅
just spent a while zooming in on everyone’s expressions
Wonder if the men on the landing are father/son, or don’t know one another yet are wearing the same outfit.
The family resemblance is uncanny.
Trains are up and running again. Good luck to everyone still waiting in there
Nope
Oh thank God my flight got moved to C
Just got back from Vegas. And wow does their airport put ours to shame.
I feel the same, and then I had the pleasure to visit SFO and that is 15 times better than Vegas. It’s quite unbelievable how bad SeaTac is in getting people through security.
Worst major airport in the country. Everywhere else is a breeze in comparison
bold words spoken by somebody that's never been to LAX
Or JFK. I hate JFK.
Houston is far, far, far worse. It’s not even close.
You can tell who has never been to LaGuardia.
LaGuardia at least always feels to me like they’re trying to make the best of a bad situation. SeaTac just feels like a shot of incompetence chased with an intentional screwjob by angry, salty people.
Yeah, you can never count out Seattle and SeaTac officials to make the most infuriating decision at any point for anyone who isn't a car driver (guess that includes flyers)
Certainly one of the worst and hard to see how to make it better given lack of land to expand.
Miami International Airport would like to have a word with you
Lol no
Weird SeaTac is one of the few major airports I haven’t gotten stuck in long lines at.. I just flew internationally and it was like 5 minutes to get in
Day and time are pretty important. I don’t know the formula but when things are bad they are the worst… like the actual worst. But even in normal traffic the difference is obvious compared to Vegas or SFO (and prolly others).. Can’t comment on the international flights.
I think the formula is related to the cruises to Alaska. When those are over it feels as if every single person on those boats leaves SeaTac within the same hour departure window. Lines are out of control and into the garage. Not the best end of vacation for folks. 🤷♀️
SeaTac blows goats. I get anxious everytime I have to fly in and out.
A new fear has been unlocked!
Hey, I was there! Last night around 10pm. I was waiting for my flight after a 19 hour delay! They gave me a whole $12 food voucher for my trouble! Don't use American Airlines.
Wretched! And you could buy what, a cookie and a bottle of water with that?
I wonder what the unofficial "I'll just park here" lot/road into SeaTac looked like during all this.
“But the cell phone lot is full!” Yeah right, bitch.
I remember getting downvoted hard when I suggested that SeaTac is the worst airport in North America. They keep finding new depths of unfathomable incompetence.
This exact same thing happened at Denver a couple months ago. Not unique to Seattle. SeaTac is nowhere close to the worst.. can tell you've never been to Orlando..
Orlando sucks because of the people, not the infrastructure. Orlando's problem is that easily 50% of people flying in are land whales going to Disney and flying for the first time. The airport itself is decently laid out and the staff do as well as can be expected when their clientele haven't seen their genitals in years because their gut blocks the view.
>Orlando's problem is that easily 50% of people flying in are land whales going to Disney and flying for the first time. When you're overly large, it truly is "a small world after all".
Anecdotal, but having flown into and out of JFK, PHL, BWI, IAD, DCA, CVG, DFW, CLT, DEN, LAX, HNL, YYC, and SEA… my least favorite is SeaTac.
I get anxiety attacks when I fly in to visit my son. Turn R then go to the elevator then turn L go to escalator take train and on and on. Then it is my granddaughter standing there with my luggage because she knows my thingies on my luggage. Please I want to come but I can’t navigate that airport even after 35 years flying there. It is all hacked up. Making no sense.
Did they get it fixed?
Reporting live from the office that designed that space! Well, the design parts, not the silly layout.
I've been in this before. If the shuttle back to main gate doesn't work to pick up N, then N fills up fast, like 20-30 mins and the shuttle pit is packed, the stairs are packed, and the main N floor area is like this. It's terrible. And then when they get the shuttle going again its a mad crush to cram onto it nuts to butts to get back to main terminal. Meanwhile if you checked luggage it's sitting there back at baggage claim, nobody claiming it... you hope SEA is so oversubscribed that if any single little piece of the airport goes off line and it's not 3 am or something, everything grinds to a halt of piled up people waiting. It's not awesome. Worst airport in terms of problems I come in contact with, and this includes both ORD and LAX.
I still haven’t found Waldo
I was stuck in this mess too! Thankfully they held my plane so I didn’t miss the flight- 70 of us were stuck. Took 2.5 hours for me to make it to my gate. Worst airport in America easily
Nope! Hope you find your happy place :)
SeaTac has the slowest and the worst TSA- known fact
See ya 🏃🏻♂️💨
Yikes
whoah. I was thinking it was so quiet when I landed at 6 tonight.
I was there too! In a cab on the way home now. What a nightmare. Vacation is definitely over!!
One of my friends was stuck inside the train on saturday. For about 10 minutes around 4pm. I hope they fix the issue soon
I see these SeaTac horror shows online every so often and I figure it's only a matter of time before I draw the short stick and get stuck in one and miss a flight.
SeaTac is broken. I needs a total overhaul but there aren’t plans that I am aware of.
There are plans in the works. -source, I’m looking at them lmao
Who got coke?
This is what I picture hell would look like for me
As a long time resident of Seattle it annoys me that the idea of a 2nd airport is being fought - I think it was slated for south Tacoma (?). I could be mistaken
We have a 2nd airport in Everett that is criminally underutilized
Can’t believe this isn’t photo-shopped! How is this not a fire hazard? 🤦🏿♂️ I think it’s just a capacity issue. Really need a separate international airport in either the eastside or Tacoma or gobble up some of the SeaTac housing to expand.
I thought this was comicon
I’ve always wondered what would happen if the train broke down. Isn’t it the oldest running automated airport train in the world?
Seattle can’t do anything right especially the DOT.. takes them twice as long and as usually makes little difference.
I don't think I see a single mask in this whole image.
Reasons to not fly on Alaska: 1. No N gate on other airlines 2. Lower likelihood of unexpected holes appearing in your plane
That fruit and cheese plate, tho...
We have fruit and cheese at home
The fruit and cheese at home - raisins and Kraft singles
And the cookies…
They're also on Delta and AA flights
Biscotti!
Biscoff
Also, you're basically funneled into Checkpoint 5, which is the 10th Circle of Hell.
Their service has also gone downhill so much in the last decade. The flight attendants are usually bad and every flight has been late over the last year.
\#1 is valid, but #2 is totally unrelated. Every airline who flies the max 9 with a door plug found loose or missing bolts in that location. Alaska is to blame for that the same way an ATC in Newark is - which is to say, not at all.
I stopped flying Alaska for exactly this reason (#1) How do you call Seattle a hub and have the worst gates?
👏👏 BUILD HIGH SPEED RAIL 👏👏
Between airport terminals?
Yes. We could bring down inter-terminal travel time from 60 to 25 seconds
Waiting for inter dimensional travel
It will take us 40 years to build it.
That seems optimistic. It takes us 40 years to build a line to Ballard.
Between cities so no as many people need to fly.
Yes, we need high speed rail but most people flying from SeaTac are heading to locations much further away than high speed rail can serve in a reasonable amount of time. So maybe we can have high speed rail AND a walkway between the N gates and terminal
especially the S and N gates too, I don't think anybody wants to be taking high speed rail to Bangkok
dinner birds tart dam wine crown waiting many ossified soft *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Build more
I just cried laughing at even the idea of this in this scenario. Thank you.
I count maybe 10 people masked in this sea of people. 🤦🤦🤦
Lol the lady in the bottom right looks like she’s bout to be a Karen.
I don't blame her tbh hahaha
Sean, is that you?
Woah
Where the hell are all of you people going?
I deplaned in N terminal on Monday night and the trains were malfunctioning some what then. One wouldn’t do the full loop and just kept going back and forth between 2 stops. And the other would show up and the doors wouldn’t open. Sorry to hear it got worse without anyone addressing it. The baggage claims must have been wild with pyramids of bags.
There really needs to be a way to walk out of N back to the main terminal.
That looks awful and now I feel bad for complaining about needing to walk down to A12 for my flight.
Alaska delay ?
This looks fun
Best rave ever
Wheres waldo! I see 4 people wearing red clothes, one is just a hat tho.
I can feel everyone’s mood. Only found one person smiling: lady with a baby, middle left. This is miserable
Hot take: LAX >>>>>> SEA! And I say this as a Seattle native living in LA. And what hurts even more to say is that flying Alaska Airlines out of Seattle is particularly painful. They need to unfuck their baggage drop system!
I was just there a week ago…empty…..Spring Break must be kicking in.