[interestica]

I was at Dulles/DC and the air-side transportation was interesting: the jetbridge was also a bus. It's a "mobile lounge" and I guess a few airports have them. There's definitely something interesting when transit isn't seen as transit...but just mobile public spaces?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_lounge

[0xcde4c3db]

Tom Scott video (because of course he did one):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3OqAN4ISOw

[alistairSH]

Yep, Dulles opened just as jet bridges became common. They were originally used for embarkation/disembarkation as well.

These days, they're mostly used to transport international arrivals from the gates (which have jet bridges) to the terminal that contains immigration control. Non-international have an option to use the lounges or a subway (usually depending on which gate you're at and where you need to go - sometime the lounge is faster than the train).

A bit of an anachronism today. But, having grown up in the DC area, they're definitely have a nostalgia factor.

[showerst]

These things have a high 'what might have been' future factor, but man they are annoying in practice. Because you have to wait for everyone to cram inside, it feels much slower than a train or moving walkway. They're very frustrating after a long flight when you just want to get to customs and get home.

[aidenn0]

I grew up near Dulles. Everybody seems to hate on the mobile lounges, but I've never not beaten my luggage to the baggage claim, and I haven't found it any quicker to get from my gate to the exit at other similarly large airports. In any event they are being retired in favor of below-ground trains.

[jfengel]

Partly, that's because the luggage processing is very slow on international flights at Dulles. You have to go through immigration, which can be time consuming (though the automated ones are better of late). There's no reason you should get to baggage claim ahead of the baggage.

Aside from that, though... I think it's just that it feels like an additional step. You want to get going -- especially if you're the sort of person who moves quickly through airports -- and now you're just waiting as the lounge fills up. After a long international flight, you don't want to be sitting and waiting.

I won't be sorry to see the mobile lounges go. They were a clever idea at the time, but they're hardly "lounges" these days. They're just buses, at a time when you really, really don't want to be taking a bus.

[aidenn0]

> Partly, that's because the luggage processing is very slow on international flights at Dulles. You have to go through immigration, which can be time consuming (though the automated ones are better of late). There's no reason you should get to baggage claim ahead of the baggage.

Somewhat OT, but I just realized I've never flown internationally from Dulles. I've flown internationally a fair amount, and I've flown from Dulles a lot, but never the two together.

Less OT, everything I wrote was for domestic flights.

[kiwijamo]

IAD is the only airport I've been to where I've spent an hour at immigration and then walked through to the luggage claims hall to find that my airline's ground handler still hadn't loaded bags from my flight on the carousel (note this was a full hour at least after arrival) so I had to wait even longer there! Every other port I've had long immigration processing, the good thing was my bags were usually already on the carousel. Interestingly, LAX on the other hand was a breeze, my bags was already on the carousel just as I walked in the hall. A brisk walk to intercept my bag as it rolled around and I was outside within minuites. YMMV but IAD is not an airport I'm keen to use anytime soon! :)

[jfengel]

Immigration at Dulles is faster than it used to be, at least for Americans. They're expanding the automated system, with a lot of kiosks. (I'm not entirely sure how that's different from GlobalEntry.)

Which just gives you more time to wait for your bags, I'm afraid. They're building a lot of new infrastructure which might help eventually.

[interestica]

> They were a clever idea at the time, but they're hardly "lounges" these days. They're just buses, at a time when you really, really don't want to be taking a bus.

Yeah they're definitely just buses that can open on each end at this point. They aspired to be lounges and they kind of convey (ha) what could have been. An actual automated mobile lounge isn't that crazy, right? Automation+batter power does make it more appealing.

[lmm]

You don't really want to be in a lounge at all after getting off, you just want to get where you're going. That's why most airports have lounges in departures but not in arrivals. A lounge that you could wait in until boarding time and have it pull up to your plane then might be nice, but with today's "security" procedures you'd need to have all of that built into the mobile section as well, which seems difficult.

[alamortsubite]

Care for an extra dollop of motion sickness after your long flight? Welcome aboard the IAD people movers!