I was talking in current times re: full to nearly full planes. Sure in the decades of our lives we can come up when stories of sparser flights. We all saw the 2020 pics of lightly booked flights.
I’m talking 2024, largely domestic flights.
I’ve lived here almost 30 years and agree that it’s a terribly managed airport. Arriving by car onto airport property is a cluster, parking can be like the Hunger Games (your best bet is reserving a spot in advance) and it’s standing room only in the old terminals (A&B) as well as the Centurion Club lounge. We always had to wait the longest in Charlotte to retrieve our bags when coming home. Also horrible is exiting the airport to try and find your ride to the whistles and screaming of the traffic control people (no Southern hospitality out there!) We’ve always had TSA-Pre and never had an issue with the security lines but if only one checkpoint is open, it’s going to be a problem.
When I came back to Charlotte from my Europe trip last month, the gate thing malfunctioned, and they couldn’t secure it to the plane. So after 9 hours in an airline seat, we had to wait an additional 20 minutes for someone to fix it.
Being an AA hub, the Charlotte airport is extremely busy and crowded all the time and they just can’t keep up with the growth.
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Interesting you mentioned parking. I was going to say that too, but I didn’t know if our experience was just because of construction or something. We had 3 vehicles arriving from 2.5-4 hours away at 1-2pm to find all of the garage entrances chained. We drove around and around to find a gravel lot wayyyyy far out with maybe 12 spots left. Signage was terrible.
I would never have guessed an airport like CLT would have been like that. Reagan, sure. But not Charlotte. I guess I’m used to RDU. I really like that airport. Perfect size for crowds for me.
I book my parking spots right after I book my flights 
They do have a few off-site options with shuttles that people say work well but if you’re not from here it would be hard to know about them.
At one point, they closed the upper departures area to cars completely while they finished up some construction. Traffic was backed up outside the airport property and people had to walk in with their luggage.
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I recently flew to Phoenix on a flight that was about 2/3 full. I think that’s one reason why this airline won’t be flying to Phoenix again until October!
Midweek travel seems to be easier to be on flights that aren’t full. D25 flew a Wednesday late afternoon nonstop flight from SAN to BWI a couple weeks ago and had the entire row to herself. She flew back on a Tues morning nonstop flight back to SAN and said there was no one in the middle seat but she was near the front of the plane - she said if she had gone further back she would’ve had the whole row. I think since it was a cross country nonstop route, it prob isn’t full of business travelers. Being early May, there weren’t many families either since kids are still in school. This was on Southwest.
I’ve had the same experience as her. When I visit her, I typically fly midweek since those are the cheapest flights.
I have kids in college in Chicago and Cincinnati - the Cincinnati flights are never full. Chicago flights are mostly full but there are usually rows with open seats. H and I had no one between us on either flight on a recent roundtrip to Chicago.
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We live near Los Angeles and frequently need to drive into LAX which has a well earned reputation as one of the most difficult to access.
Most recent almost fiasco…my son and I were dropping off his GF for a departing flight on a midweek evening. Luckily she likes to be at least 2 hours early for departure. There is complete gridlock more than 2 miles out from the terminal. I manage to exit and loop around to another access which has the same gridlock. We sit there not moving an inch until about an hour before her departure. So glad my son was there to help. He finally grabbed GFs luggage and they ran the 2 miles to the airport. In the rain. She made her flight, but I’m guessing many folks did not.
I kept waiting to hear that there was some major issue which closed the airport…nope. Just a regular evening in LA. 
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Wow, sounds almost as bad as Beirut! 
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LAX will be a mess until the '28 Olympics. A lot of roadwork completed at night and weekends. Numerous projects underway, including refresh of all terminals, and a new people mover with long-term plans to move all parking/shuttles offsite.
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Both flights of our RT travel to Hawaii in April were 2/3 full. The FAs made multiple announcements to prevent folks from changing seats because that could have affected the load balance.
Ok, well
Hawaii. 
My last three plane trips all stops/routes have been full with people on standby who didn’t get in! Madison, NYC, Boston! Everyone crunched in!
A trip to Boston in March was quite full! I think most of the pax were students. Plus a few business travelers like me. A flight to Denver in early May was also full. Lots of septo-‘and octogenarians traveling to their grandkids’ graduation. I counted 12 wheelchairs waiting on the ramp when I exited the plane.
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D and my sister both flew fairly empty planes described above in 2024.
That was another thing – the crowded hallways. It’s hard to move quickly when gate seating is insufficient for the number of waiting passengers, and they spill out into the hallway…
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If you want to be treated like first class while in coach give the flight attendants some starbucks gift cards when you board. They will be so nice to you. I have been buying a 10 pack of $5 cards and giving them. I do feel a little bad because starbucks prices.
It also really feels good to make someone’s day.
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Wonder if you are in one of the same Facebook groups I am on. They talk about that sbx gift card gift frequently.
At holidays I give them holiday themed small gifts. Hand them out to many airport and tsa workers who have to deal with the masses on the holidays.
Speaking of spilling out (and to pile on CLT a bit more), my son was involved with the great CLT meets World Scout Jamboree incident in 2019. Given the already tenuous performance of the airport, the forces that be decided to shove most of the US contingent that were taking flights through CLT…
My son’s flight was cancelled and if I recall correctly it was about 10 hrs before it was all worked out. He NEVER agrees to fly through there anymore. 
Since all involved with CLT seems to know CLT’s reputation, I can’t figure out why anyone thought this could work despite the weeks of planning the article said they employed.
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No one told the scouts (or scout leaders) to check in on the website before arriving at the airport? (Page implies that there was a backup at check in.)
As far as I could figure out, the airport, the airlines, and the BSA previously discussed the implications of thousands of scouts being dropped off by their buses and vans to catch their flights. And they all felt they could pull it off. After that it was all on cruise control (as there really isn’t an alternate airport to head to that connected to the west and elsewhere from CLT). It all happened pretty fast and there was not much opportunity to plan around it once the house of cards started falling.
The weather definitely was a big deal, but it was also quite true the airport just can’t handle volume very well. Even without the weather, I’m guessing it would have been a logjam.
If the scouts simply filled up the normal AA flights leaving CLT, it seems like the same problem could occur on any day when the AA flights out of CLT are full, since it would be a similar volume of passengers and baggage.
Even if weather related cancellations are part of it, such events are not that rare.
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