Good Airports, Shitty Airports

I will give kudos to the Lubbock airport for that one time I showed up to the tsa screening ten minutes before my flight was supposed to take off and it was no problem. Idk where else I could have gotten away with that 👍

I’ll go ahead and say a bad airport is Denver. I had like a half hour layover and it took forever to walk through the terminal to get to where I needed to go and I arrived just in time for boarding. And I was dead last as far as priority to get on the plane, but no problem because that was the section getting in there at that moment. What a sprawled out monstrosity.

Boston's Logan is my least favorite airport.

Favorite? I'm holding out for an airport that provides a strip club!

I’ve connected through Atlanta more times than I can count and for a big, busy airport it’s very good.

It lost its #1 ranking this year for world’s busiest to an airport in China. (What a shock)

The food choices in Atlanta are pretty good. Better than any other airport I’ve seen.

Cincinnati used to be a decent airport when they were a Comair hub. Easy to get around a lots of convenient flights. But since Comair went under flights were substantially decreased and it kind of sucks now.

Airports are part of the modern day hazing ritual that is modern US air travel.

LaGuardia was a shithole but I haven't flown through in 3 years.

Newark has ungodly wait times, and takes forever to get from point A to point B. Oh, and everything inside is overpriced, and once I got horrible food poisoning.

Chicago O'Hare has shit amenities and is in need of a refresh.

I've always had good luck with Boston Logan. Fortunately that's where I fly out of these days.

I despise O’Hare - it’s only redeeming quality: it’s not Midway

@Electronman there was Dr. Müllers in FRA airport. Heard tales of massages at SE Asian airports

@tochka. Sounds good! Nice way to pass some time while waiting for a flight. Now we need similar services at U.S. airports.

Worst: Charles de Gaulle, Newark Liberty, Reagan National, Sea-Tac.

Best: Brand new Salt Lake City International that opened in September 2020.

I like the secondary airports in Texas that Southwest goes to: Dallas Love and Houston Hobby. Those airports are easy to go in and out of because they do not have the crazy traffic of DFW or IAH. You have the opposite in Chicago. Midway is a mess compared to O'Hare. Honestly, I've been to so many airports in my life, they all blur together and are kind of the same.

Large airports are good for layovers with plenty of stores and amenities, but the smaller airports are better departure/arrival ones with shorter security lines and simpler ground transportation (no complicated paths to rideshares or long shuttle rides to a parking lot/car rental).

Love Minneapolis. Denver is a cool airport too although it's so fucking far from anything.

Vegas airport sucks. Oakland is ok. Toronto has a nice one.

So I'm no airport expert as I mostly road trip...

That being said..

I really HATE Sea-Tac. I dunno why but that airport stresses me out a lot every single time.

DFW and Dallas Love Field have always been easy for me. MSP was kind to me. PDX has been kind to me.

Other airports I just don't particularly remember. I think DC was stressful for me too but that was so many years ago.

I've only been once, but Phoenix seemed pretty nice.

Not running as it was before the pandemic, but flying out of Worcester, Mass to Florida was like flying from your friend's house. last time I flew from there my wife dropped me off at 3:35 for a 3:50 flight. I was at the bar by 3:40; on the plane by 3:45 and airborne by 3:59. The gate is 100 yards from the sidewalk.

Writing from Houston, and I've been taking many trips Hobby -> Den. Hobby is smallish and easy to get in and out. Den is like a huge metropolis. Houston itself is like living in a humid barbecue pit. How can anyone live here?

I am no fan of my closest airport - Newark Liberty. As mentioned above, the security lines are long and it’s a challenge to navigate when it gets busy. The positive aspect is it’s about 30 minutes from my house. It’s much more convenient than flying out of JFK or LaGuardia.

One other airport I’ve enjoyed is Orlando as it’s large and comfortable.

Atlanta is ok - but it can be a challenge if you have a connection - as the gates/terminals can be a long distance apart.

My experience with other airports is too old to be pertinent.

San Diego sucks. Tampa has had some construction lately, but still easy to use. Nashville used to be wonderful, but growth has taken its toll. Not particularly fond on Ft Lauderdale. Do not like St Louis.

Random, Houston Hobby really only services Southwest. Houston Bush is the big airport with all of the other airlines. Yeah, Houston is a LOT more humid than Denver. I have lived in both cities. Denver in the summer is great.

BWI here in Baltimore is pretty good. I like the southwest airports in Dallas Love and Houston Hobby, as well as the smaller airports in West Palm, Sarasota and Ft. Myers.

Worst airport I’ve ever been in is Kansas City. You enter the curb on the inside of a concave circle and it’s only one gate deep. No concourses. Very difficult to navigate, horrible if busy and limited food. It’s been a few years since I flew through there but it should be imploded so they can start over.

I have family in Sarasota - Bradenton so flew in there a number of times. Loved the convenience of a small airport but the airport is in a confined space with fairly short runways. And I understand they have fairly strict noise abatement rules so the pilot gets it up pretty

Kansas City is shit, but luckily, I've only been there one and will probably never return, cause it's Kansas City.
LAX is about the worst, except for the fancy new international terminal, which is among the best. Too bad it's 30 minutes on a bus to get there and back. Stuck overnight tried Jet City Strip (?), was pretty OK.
ATL is huge and busy, but efficient. Can be difficult to get a quick snack on a 30 minute layover (impossible at LAX). Stuck overnight uber'd up to Folleys!!!
Salt Lake is just slow. Nothing particularly special, except that every other US airport is so overcrowded it seems downright pleasant not being so. Though, getting stuck overnight would suck.
Memphis is similar, only redeeming quality is not being overcrowded, which makes it downright pleasant in comparison to most.
Dubai does the whole limit access to the gate area until 1 hour before departure... (similar to Kansas City) which limits seating in the terminal and overcrowds it. Horrible. Bangkok does this too, but the terminal is just so damned big.
And BKK, skytrain to Sukhumvit, a 4 hour layover might be cutting it too thin, but might be possible to squeeze in a successful trip to Soi Cowboy and make your flight.
Having always stopped in Bangkok (never just a layover), my favorite layover so far was in Munich, 14 hours, had to rent a car and drive 45 minutes one way to find an FKK club.
Seoul in Honk Kong also have pretty top notch beautiful airports with lot's of interesting shit, but it's still a fucking airport.
Frankfurt is, I think, a lot closer to a bunch of larger FKK clubs, but a freaking mess to change planes in, had to enter and exit EU immigrations to get from gate to gate on a 90 minute layover...

Frankfurt used to have nice showers. (Been a few years since the last time I was through there.) You might not even see them because it was down a hallway and not well marked, but there were maybe a 1/2 dozen private shower rooms with toilets and sinks too. A cleaning lady would mop and clean after every use so it was always spotless and there were towels and soap and stuff for you. Nice refresher in between flights if you have some time. Don't remember the exact cost but it was very reasonable like maybe 10 or 15 Euro.

And before you perverts get any ideas, NO the cleaning lady didn't do extras! But she gladly accepted a tip.