Navigating Terminal B at Logan Is Simpler Than People Think
Most travelers treat Terminal B as just another airport terminal. It is. But there are enough quirks that if you show up unprepared you will lose time you do not have. I have spent more hours than I want to admit walking from one end of Concourse C to the security checkpoint near the Skyport garage, usually while carrying a coffee that has gone cold. Terminal B at Boston Logan handles the bulk of domestic traffic and nearly all international arrivals. It is split into Concourses A, B, C, and D, connected post-security by the AirTrain. Pre-security, you move between concourses on foot or via the underground train if you need to switch terminals before checking in. The layout looks complicated on maps but in practice you rarely need to traverse more than one concourse unless your airline checks you there unexpectedly. Here is the thing nobody tells you: your baggage claim is assigned by flight number, not by concourse. If you fly into B but your bag shows up at Carousel 12, that is likely in the parking garage area. Allow an extra ten minutes. The walk from Concourse B to Carousel 12 takes about six minutes at a normal pace, longer if you are pulling a suitcase over a crack that seems designed to swallow wheels.
I ran into a real problem last November during a winter storm delay. My flight came in late from London, and I had a connecting flight to Charlotte in forty-five minutes. The gate agent told me to hurry to Concourse B, but when I got there the gate had changed to Concourse A. The AirTrain was running but the platform near my arrival point was closed for maintenance. I ended up taking the underground tunnel walk, which is marked but poorly lit and almost always crowded with people moving in the wrong direction because signage is not intuitive. I made it to the gate with about four minutes to spare. The workaround: always check the gate on the JetBlue app or the Massport app before you move, and allow at least twenty minutes to transfer between concourses even when you are already post-security. The app shows real-time gate changes that the overhead screens miss by several minutes. For checking in, the primary airlines in Terminal B include JetBlue, Delta, American, and United. JetBlue occupies Concourse A and B, Delta dominates Concourse C and D. If you are flying Delta, use the SkyMiles lounge in Concourse C near Gate C30. It opens at 5:30 AM and the line usually forms by 6 AM on a Tuesday. Walking through TSA PreCheck at Concourse C is faster than Concourse B any day of the week because they run fewer lanes but have fewer people. The tradeoff is that Concourse C has fewer dining options after 8 PM. One counter-intuitive fact about Logan Terminal B: the security lines near the Harbor Garage entrance are often longer than the lines at the consolidated rental car entrance, even though the Harbor entrance serves far more passengers. This is because the Harbor checkpoint has only three lanes open during peak hours while the rental car checkpoint, which sees far less traffic, runs five lanes. If you are driving and need to get through TSA quickly, enter from the rental car garage side. You will look like you do not belong there but nobody stops you.
International arrivals go through Customs and Border Protection in Terminal B, specifically in the lower level near Concourse D. The process itself is straightforward but the walk from the gate to the customs hall can take fifteen to twenty minutes depending on your arrival gate. There is no shuttle. You walk. Bring shoes you can slip off easily. The secondary screening area has bench seating that is always full of people waiting for their bags, so if you are traveling light you can sit. If you have checked bags, plan on standing near carousel 4 for about ten minutes after clearing customs before your bag appears. It is not a long wait but it feels longer in that fluorescent-lit hallway. If you need to connect from an international flight to a domestic one, the standard route puts you back through security. The exception is pre-clearance flights from Canada and Ireland, which let you arrive as domestic and skip the second screening. If your connection involves one of those, save yourself the trouble and head straight to your gate. The alternative is standing in line for another twenty minutes with your carry-on under the x-ray machine. Ground transportation from Terminal B includes the MBTA Blue Line at the Airport station, accessed via the free Silver Line bus from the upper level. The bus takes about eight minutes and runs every fifteen minutes during the day. Taxis and rideshares are on the lower level, but the Uber queue can stretch past forty minutes during rush hour. If you are heading downtown and do not have a lot of luggage, the Silver Line to South Station is faster than any car in normal traffic conditions.
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One final practical note: the free Wi-Fi at Logan is adequate but slow. I have tried to use it for boarding passes and it works fine, but if you need to video call while waiting for a flight, use your phone data. The terminal has outlets scattered throughout but they are concentrated near Concourse B seating areas and are frequently occupied by people who have been sitting there since morning. Terminal B at Boston Logan is functional without being elegant. It does what it needs to do and the main strategies for dealing with it are simple: check your gate early, use the right security entrance, and build in buffer time for any connection that involves a concourse change. The airport will not ruin your trip if you know how to move through it. It will if you assume you know the layout without confirming it each time you arrive.
