I’m unsure if it’s better to have someone there for the place you’re arriving at, or the place you’re returning to. One way or the other, it’s a feeling of welcome that is difficult to replicate.
Nowadays, it doesn’t seem as if it happens as much. People are always in a rush, parking is too expensive and a pain in the ass… Just come to Gate H at Terminal 2, Get as close as you can to the front so I can see you!
But, I guess the rarity of it makes it all the better. The fact that someone doing that for you, just even the act of doing it, means there’s some effort that had to have been put in.
And let’s be honest, it’s welcoming. It’s the reason (at least one of the many), people own dogs. There’s something nice about that little guy being at home, excited, when you get home. This is like that, times about 30 or 40. It’s just a really big, like 4-story, dog waiting for you at the airport. Sort of.
Polar Opposite of this Feeling?: Realizing how unlikely it is that this will happen for you at any point in the near future. I’d need to get killed in some sort of accident in another country for people to be waiting for me at the airport. Even then, I don’t know if I’d blame them for not wanting to deal with the parking at Newark airport.
scott spinelli 
Good one … So true!