The arrivals lanes at John Wayne Airport are often congested and late last night was no exception. I was there to pick up my son and ran into much more traffic on the lower “arrivals” level than I anticipated at 10:45pm when I remembered this tip from Matt Haughey (A Whole Lotta Nothing via 43 Folders):

When picking people up curbside at the airport, tell your friends/family to meet you in departures, not arrivals. Especially on weekends and holidays, the arrivals area at most major airports will back up ridiculously as people hog the lanes and wait for people.

There are clearly some flaws with this strategy — certainly if everyone did it, the airport would be total chaos. But my son had no baggage and was already at the curb when I pulled up so it worked like a charm!

Now if only the nearby Fatburger had been open late …