27 February 2006

Port of Seattle

Does anyone else resent how the Port of Seattle continues to screw people?

Apart from the fact that it is one of the most expensive airports in the country, which by itself is just outrageous considering it gets federal money and so can't produce profits, how do they get away with just sticking it to the little guy without any fanfare?

Recently, they quietly added a little sign to the car rental counters which essentially say that they are going to collect $4 PER DAY from every car rental to pay for a new offsite car rental structure.  Argh!  Firstly, these off-site structures are horrendous!  It turns a few minute task into a half-hour or more ordeal involving over-crowded shuttles, endless walking, and interminable queuing.  They just consolidated these activities at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix and the results are disasterous to frequent travelers.  Secondly, $230 million dollars!  Just to further inconvenience travelers?  What?

Okay, so I disagree with the whole consolidation thing to start with.  Fine.  Getting in and out of Phoenix which used to be a lovely experience is now a nightmare of wasted time and inconvenience.  I can accept that.  But then to find out that the Port of Seattle is going to charge me $4 PER DAY so they can build this monstrosity which might save someone a few pennies and turn my car rental experience into a hellish schlep-fest of agony, that's just too much!  If they want to save money, do it on their own dime.  Don't make me PAY to create a new process which will increase my pain, suffering, and inconvenience.

Lastly, I challenge anyone to find information about these fees, the new structure, any of this online.  I'm pretty handy with the net and I couldn't find anything.  The only reason I know about it at all?  Because a rental got screwed up and while waiting at the counter I read all the signs, including the itsy-bitsy sign which gives the high-level details, but nothing more.  The web address included for more information?  portseattle.org.  What garbage.

So maybe I'm just getting worked up.  Is there some hidden benefit I'm not seeing here?  There certainly has been none that I'm able to testify about after experiencing this change in Phoenix.  Perhaps I need to setup a website and start getting people riled up about this.

What do you think?

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