TAMPA-TPA
 

One of my local airports, Tampa International Airport, to be exact has been ranked as the worlds 3rd best in Airport Service Quality by the Airports Council International (ACI) for airports handling less than 20 million pax per annum. The two airports ranked above TPA were Gimpo in South Korea and Chongqing in PRC.

Question; Do these type of awards really matter to the vast majority of travelers who, most, if not all, will choose an airport for convenience and/or price of a seat on a given airline? And apart from an individual airports management and those types who infest boards like this one, who cares?

Never been in TPA. I disagree with your assertion that pax won't care what airport they use if the fare is good. I will always use AMS or FRA as my hub in Europe to avoid LHR, regardless of price. Likewise I'll always try and use ATL in the states. World's busiest airport and it's just so easy. Some LONG walks but it all makes sense. Regular travellers, particularly business and first, are very discerning with airports and carriers.

All being well, I will let you know later in the year?

Cant be too hard with the hell hole that is MIA close by. The immigration experience there is one of the worst I have ever encountered

Couldn't agree more, I waited 2hrs in immigration in November on par with LHR I believe!

I have flown in to TPA a fair few times but always on internal flights so have never had long to wait for immigration or customs...no time at all in fact! It's a nice enough airport to depart from, nothing special. Security wait times were pretty much the same as any other airport I've used. It does seem to offer fairly standard airport facilities. A few fast food places, some shops and free wifi.

I'll be visiting again in May, although once more I'm arriving on a domestic leg from ATL. I'm departing from MIA about 2 weeks later, judging from the immigration horror stories this is the right direction to be going in when using MIA!

Must say that my worst US Airport experience has been ORD...2 hour wait to be spoken to rudely and have my belongings strewn out over a table and scrutinized because I had the temerity to declare the confectionery I was bringing in! :mad:

I have flown in a few times direct from LGW and as an international passenger it was a good experience. A significant part of the benefit is that there are relatively few international flights and so immigration is fairly quick. I also found immigration to be quite friendly which is a far cry from previous experiences at MCO. It is also pretty easy to get to the car hire desks and to get out of the airport which again is an improvement on a number of other US airports.

We always use TPA when going to Florida, and although the prime reason is location [we holiday on the Gulf Coast] I would choose it every time over Miami even if it meant an overnight hotel stay, due entirely to the speed through immigration.
The BA flight from LGW is the only international arrival in late afternoon, and when we arrived on Feb 5th [still in Florida as I write] we were through immigration less than 30 minutes after the aircraft touched down. Admittedly we were relatively near the front of the cabin [in WT], but even so, a good performance. Also, staff were all polite and friendly.
The only downside is the design of the departure area - the limited number of restaurants and stores are all in the central departure area, and once you pass through the security area for each satellite, there are no other facilities.

^^^^I think you will find that the F Departure lounge, the biggest and the gates that are used by DL, has adequate facilities. Never flew international (trans-border doesn't count) so can't comment on E Departure lounge.

CabinCrewe: Miami is at least a five hour drive south and east from TPA. But yes, I agree, MIA CBPA are very unhelpful especially after a long flight out of any South American point. This is also, I suspect, the main reason for the surly attitude.

Could not agree more about Miami - always tried to use Fort Lauderdale just up the road whenever possible - lot better place than Miami and not many international flights with friendly and polite staff. Been to Tampa itself - bridge etc. but not the airport so cannot comment on that.

Yes Compton and I sympathize however, with FLL being almost 100% cruise related traffic and at least a five hour drive distant I, personally, would be almost totally excluded from using it. Same problem exists here for me, TPA being my best option due to PIE, SRQ and RSW being mostly vacation traffic operated by discount carriers with MCO only being slightly better. Oh for the days when I was based at either LAX or ATL.:O

As for "Tampa bridge", are you referring to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge crossing between Pinellas to Manatee Counties or one of the three causeways that cross Tampa Bay between Pinellas and Hillsborough County?

If heading for mid Florida I always use TPA, even if my eventual destination is close to the Orlando area. However, same as edi_local I have only arr and dep TPA on domestic sectors. It's a pleasant average type of airport to use. As for the MIA area, I rather enter the U.S. via ATL and fly domestic to either MIA or FLL. I do remember flying into FLL on an international (LTU) flight many moons ago and leaving the airport in a rental car with my family only 30 mins after touchdown!