re: New Orleans airport was a great experience

So 9:25 am .. Peak time or no? 925 flight Wednesday am and my family likely thinks I'm nuts to get there at 630.

I fly out of MSY regularly on my commute to ATL and have picked up guests there several times since it opened.
My thoughts:
It's a nice terminal but tons of glass. Even in fall it can feel like you're in a green house. Summer may get interesting.
Some times the place is empty and dropoff/pickup takes no time whatsoever. Other times it's packed and very frustrating how unorganized the process seems. They corralled cars in the text lot a few days ago to help control traffic. I don't see the situation improving until more infrastructure is built. Some easier things could get done rather quickly such as extending the right turn lane onto Veterans allowing those that want to go to the city use an alternative route instead of waiting at the light to get onto Interstate.
The road that the rental car and parking shuttle buses take, Bainbridge, is awful. Not a good impression after exiting a brand new terminal.
I don't check bags so I have no idea what's up with the delays.

Overall a good experience save for the crazy traffic jams during peak times.

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Baggage claim takes way too long still for some flights. Traffic is much worse than what it was at the old airport

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Picked up a family member whose flight arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday. Getting from the Interstate onto the airport property was no problem.

But after entering airport property, getting to the arrivals dock was a complete clusterfrick. Traffic funneling through tight turns with poorly marked lanes. Taxis, Lyft drivers, and individual drivers having to merge, cross over lanes, circle through the departure dock 3 or more times. Cell phone lot full with users held hostage to avoid an even bigger gridlock at the arrival gates. Baggage claim at least 30 minutes after deboarding.

Only NOLA could spend a billion dollars, years of "planning" and construction and have something so screwed up. And all of this has nothing to do with a Loyola flyover or Interstate exit construction. The disaster is with the design of the arrivals pickup location. And that arrivals section is surrounded by airport and parking garages, so it's either impossible or ridiculously expensive to fix.

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New Orleans airport was a great experience

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glad to hear.

once you realize that 95% of what you read, see, and hear on television (and most of the internet) is propaganda, the better off you are.

We also had a great experience. Through check in and security in no time. Terminal is beautiful. Love the seat covers on the toilets. Has to be the best place to take a dump if you can’t do it at home.

The only downside is that the person who dropped us off said getting out was a hassle and it sounds like picking us up will be more of the same.