OT: For the road-warriors

Main thing I like about San Diego airport is the time you step off the plane to the time you make it out of the airport is quite short. I remember my first trip to HKTJ last year, I think we landed at 2:33pm and I was on the 992 bus at around 2:45. Most of that time was spent waiting to deplane.

LaGuardia has to win worst. Joe Biden is right it’s like a 3rd world country airport. And the construction all around. Fuck that noise.

I usually drive when I’m road clubbing though.

I remember pilots saying that San Diego was an accident waiting to happen. Partly because of the way the runway was situated, partly because of all the military flights in the area.

LaGuardia is terrible. Detroit is not that bad. Midway is far from the worst.

HIgh on my bad airport list was the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. The runway was built on a jetty that stuck out into the harbor. Aircraft had to come in low over the city and make hard turn onto the runway. Check out this video: youtube.com

I flew into that airport twice. The first time was during the day. On the side of the runway was the wreckage of another aircraft that a couple of days earlier had run off the runway and into the harbor. The second time was at night in a heavy rainstorm. The pilot missed the approach twice and had to go around. On the third attempt the pilot landed so hard the flight attendants screamed when we slammed down on the runway.

Agree that LaGuardia is horrible if you are forced to be there for any length of time. It is not too bad getting in and out, but once you are past security there are almost no food options and the small bathrooms were designed to accommodate maybe 1/10th of the people who use them.

LAX is a slightly better version of LGA, but still pretty bad too.

Orlando has decent amenities, but it takes a fuck long time to get through the place. JFK suffers from these same problem on the departure side. For me, ease of getting in and out of an airport is as important as the amenities and I hate flying out of both airports because I have to build in a big cushion to get through security and to the terminal.

Airports I love are certain smaller market ones like JAX, CLT MKE and MCI. Each has decent amenities and is not tough to get in and out of.

Most of the rest that I travel, like DFW, LAS, MIA, DCA, BOS and a few others are more middle of the road, each with pros or cons but nothing that makes me love or hate them.

For connecting airports, I hate ATL, which is why I am not a FF on Delta. If you have a tight connection window and your connecting flight is in another terminal, then you're toast. I also avoid O'Hare at all costs from December through April.

I love PDK because of the 57th fighter squadron restaurant there but generally fly out of McCullom. Craig airport in Jacksonville is easy to get in and out of.

@Doc.... I loved landing in Hong Kong.... that runway was more than a jetty, they lengthened it by reclaiming some land. Just poured shit into the ocean till it filled up and they could pave on it

Daddillac: Given those favorite airports, I'm guessing you fly your own airplane. The Gold Club in Jacksonville backs up to Craig Airport. You can tell it used to be one those military airplane themed restaurants like the 57th Fighter Group.

D-lac could be 1 of many things: 1) Flies his own airplane 2) Company has own flight department and pilot staff 3) D-lac uses charter company when need arises. 4) D-lac is fractional share owner.

Yep, I recall CRG, and Gold Club. If I recall, PDK isn't that far from Follies. There may still be a club practically off the approach end of SAN runway.

Good summary from rick wrt passenger POV.

I agree about LaGuardia- as it is miserable.

Also towards the bottom is Newark, NJ. Its crowded, dirty, and everyone working there seems like they’d rather be getting dry fucked in the ass.

I know Orlando gets a bad rap, but it seems pretty nice to me. The security lines can be long.

I’ve flown into Jacksonville and Tampa recently, and they were nice - as they were smaller and less rushed.

LAX Is pretty bad, unfortunately I have to go through it in October, fortunately just once. Bangor was worse but thst was ages ago.

@drEvil: You are correct. The restaurant used to be called Henderson's and was done up with sandbags and "bombed out" walls and partitions. One of the city's health inspectors quipped at the opening, "I've shut down places that looked better than this!"

It had very good food, but it was very expensive for that time (~1982) and dinner for two with a bottle of wine was about $45. They actually had a feed from the tower at Craig playing all the time.

Yes, LaGuardia is awful. San Diego is great, so close to downtown, many food options.

Surprised that Atlanta Hartsfield is ranked so high. It's fine but not amazing. Detroit is surprisingly nice. So many other airports just so-so.

Best small market airport: Palm Springs.

I have a fractional share of sorts.... me and a buddy bought a King Air last year so I guess 50 percent is fractional. I have flown commercially maybe 5 times in the past 5 years, it is just a lot easier albeit more expensive to go this route. The plane was in Delta's charter fleet, so I felt comfortable with it as I know very little about airplanes

ATACdawg... that is like the 57th fighter group.... you can sit with headphones and listen to the tower. They also have pretty good food. Great beer cheese soup.

Yup. This was named for Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. They even had a wrecked C-47 and another wreck out back (can't remember what it was ; it's been 37 years, lol).

If you are ever in Atlanta try 57th fighter, if you enjoyed the other place, very similar it sounds

The proud Bird restaurant at LAX supplies great food along with the view of aircraft landing and speakers for the LAX tower.

google.com

yeah but LAX is a dump of an airport, I really expected more out of LA

There used to be a number of military aviation theme restaurant around. I seem to remember one near Fort Campbell, KY, themed on the 101st Airborne Division. I wonder if it’s still there. The 57th Fighter Group is the only one I know of still open. I like it but it’s showing some wear and tear.

The 391st Bomber Group Restaurant that used to be on the south side of PBIA was a great spot to watch the planes take off and land and they served great food, closed a few years ago, now Trump's plane usually occupies the area where the restaurant was when he stays in Mar-A-Lago

All sucky: Miami Houston LAX Heathrow (especially if you land from US and need to connect within the UK) Houston

I know I said Houston twice. That's because it's twice as sucky as the rest.

I don't travel much.

Couple of years ago flew into Philadelphia (PHL) - felt kinda dumpy ftom what I recall.

From what I recall it was a cinch to get in and out, not a lot of foot traffic and it was fast getting thru security (I flew in and out on a weekday in mid September)

I like DFW (Dallas/Ft-Worth) airport - it's huge and spread-out (27 sq-miles which is larger than many cities; Denver airport is the largest in the US at a whopping 52 sq-miles).

As I mentioned I don't travel much - but many airports I've been to, it's one continuous terminal that everyone drives into - DFW has about 5 different terminals that are physically separate from each other by a good-distance - e.g. only those flying out of terminal-A drive into that terminal instead of everyone driving into the same area.

The airport has a main-road/drag that is about 3 lanes in each direction and then there are off-ramps onto each individual terminal (kinda like a freeway within the airport grounds).