Minneapolis Airport Terminals (Lindberg vs Humphrey)

Have you ever opened a can of worms?  I mean, have you ever just peaked behind some

closed closet door and before you knew it, you had 28 monsters in your room,

jumping on the bed yelling and screaming and refusing to go back to where they

came from?  That’s what happened to the

city of Minneapolis.

Once

upon a time, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul shared a couple of

airports.  There was the larger

international airport called the Charles Lindberg airport, and there was its

little brother called the Hubert Humphrey airport.  Years passed and both of these airports

grew.  They are close enough together

that they began to share some runways and before you knew it, their names were

changed to the “Lindberg Terminal” and the “Humphrey Terminal.”  This was rather amusing because the two

“Terminals” weren’t connected in any way. 

As a traveler, you literally had to take a cab from one to the

other.  Eventually the city connected

them with its light rail system, but you still need to budget at least 30

minutes to get from one to the other.

Anyway,

life was grand.  The Humphrey terminal

handled small charters and vacation oriented airlines like Sun Country and the

larger Lindberg terminal handled the rest. 

The Lindberg terminal grew to be huge. 

It’s one of the biggest in the country at this point, and it handles 99%

of the commercial air traffic to/from the Twin Cities.  Humphrey is still there and while it’s busy

doing its “thing,” the chances of any business traveler having to go from the

Lindberg terminal to the Humphrey terminal were nil.  If you were a vacationer, arriving in

Minneapolis to make your charter plane to Mexico, you would hop to Humphrey,

but that was the exception and not the rule.

Recently,

our benevolent state government saw the two terminals as a potential source of

confusion to travelers from other states coming to our fair city.  After all, most big cities have proper

terminals in their airports with names like “Terminal A” and “Terminal B!”  We must have been crazy not to have had the

foresight to name our terminals similarly! 

A bill was passed and before you could even look up Lindberg and

Humphrey on Wikipedia, they spent more than $3Million tax dollars on new signs.  “Terminal A exit” etc.

I

imagine that someone in the state capital pulled his “big boy pants” up a

little higher as he crowed about how we looked just like New York City.  The trouble was, A vs B is no clearer to an

out of town traveler than Lindberg vs. Humphrey was.  People complained, letters were written,

voices were raised and guess what they did? 

They spent even more money on NEW signs that now say, “Terminal A exit

(Same as Lindberg Terminal).”  I just saw

it while I was driving to the airport last week!  You can’t make this stuff up

Here’s

the best part of all.  You know those

signs you see when you drive to airports in Houston, New York, San Francisco,

etc, that tell you the airlines that each terminal services?  Yea, we don’t have those.  So whether you call it Lindberg, “A”,

“Apples,” or “Rumpelstiltskin,” it’s still going to confuse the daylights out

of travelers who don’t know (in advance) where they need to be!

So,

look on your boarding pass.  It will tell

you.  If you haven’t checked in early,

its best to assume that if you’re flying on Southwest or Sun Country, drive to

Humphrey (or “B”).  Otherwise, head to

Lindberg… that’s what I always do!

EXTRA: If you have questions for Ken regarding business travel,

hotels, airplanes, etc, please call 1-877-49-EXPERT.  Your questions will be recorded and sent to

him.  You can also follow Ken on Twitter

@foodbreeze!