Aspen/Pitkin County Airport — Local services in Aspen

JUST DRIVE. IT WILL BE FASTER AND FAR LESS FRUSTRATING. This airport clearly has some sort of conspiracy going on that apparently all the drivers and locals are fully aware of as we've been warned as soon as we drove in (we decided to take a flight back out to Denver which was a HUGE mistake. Should have just driven). They wait till you check in and go through security to suddenly last minute delay your flight claiming high winds are preventing take offs or landings, even while right outside you can physically see planes taking off and landing!!! We were not the only ones. Every single plane here was delayed no matter where it was going. The airport is small, cramped, and charges $17 for a small bag of chips, relying on the fact that all the people stuck in this small cramped space for hours on end will eventually need to buy food. If we had just rented a car and driven from our hotel, we would've been in Denver long before our plane even took off. And it's one excuse after another for each new delay. At one point, they delayed us an additional hour (on top of an existing four hour delay) claiming that Denver was full of thunderstorms and isn't taking off or landing. Upon checking the weather, it was partly cloudy with SOME wind (not even high wind). And even if Denver had an hour of not accepting flights, it would have still taken over an hour to board and actually fly out there, so it made no sense that they still delayed boarding and take off here! Seriously, just drive. Stay away from this airport as nothing about it is reliable and they do everything possible to make you as uncomfortable as possible. The staff is nice, but that honestly does little to make up for such major delays...

Terrible experience with security today. I pulled up to drop off my boyfriend and say goodbye for his trip, and I was parked in the drop off for not even five minutes. A security guard came up to talk to us and started a conversation and started asking us about our Thanksgiving plans. After about a minute of him just standing there and watching us another security guard comes up and tells us “He asked you to move once I’m not gonna ask you to do it again” in a very rude tone. Mind you the first security guard never asked us to move. He was having a conversation with us the entire time asking us about our Thanksgiving plans. We were never asked to move by anybody until the rude security guard came up and yelled at us. When I told him that nobody has asked us to move yet until he came up and said so, he walked away from me. My boyfriend asked if we could have one more minute without them breathing down our necks. He then said “ one more minute. If it goes over one minute I’m putting your license plate on the TSA board “ and honestly if you ask me, that was very dramatic. I understand airports have rules. But when I’m literally the ONLY ONE car in the drop off area for miles, I should be able to say goodbye to somebody. I didn’t get the security guards name but he was wearing a purple badge and had glasses on. Very very disrespectful...

Flying out from this airport was a horrible experience, especially during the winter. My flight was delayed for 4 hours because they claimed the crew got insufficient rest. Then when it’s time to start boarding the flight is cancelled due to poor weather conditions. They said there will be no flight departures until Wednesday, which is two days later. The airline provided no hotel voucher, transportation voucher, or food voucher. I planned to stay at the airport, but I didn't realize they close at 11. One of the airport workers kept heckling me on if I have somewhere to go and when I planned on leaving. It is now 8pm. Then they go to get the supervisor and then the sheriff was called. Mind you I am on the phone with united airlines trying to rebook a flight and get hotel vouchers. Looking back, they were not hackling anyone else but me. Their racism was on full display because why call the sheriff when I was not being belligerent or causing a nuisance. There was still two hours left until closing time. I had to get an uber to take me to Denver, which is 6 hours away and cost $1200. Aspen is also racist AF, they smile in your face but the whole time don't want you there. I spent 4 nights there and IDK what the...