What is your favorite/least favorite US airport?

wegs

wegs

Matter and Pixie Dust
Valued Senior Member
I don't fly all that often, but have attended a few out of state business meetings, over the past few months. My absolute favorite US airport so far is Houston. It's HUGE, has a surplus of various clothing shops, fun bars, and an assortment of restaurants with delicious choices. Its layout feels like a small city built within an airport, if that makes sense. Bravo to the designers! My least favorite I'd have to say, is LaGuardia. Just yuck. Rude people, always under construction, and not at all aesthetically pleasing.

What's yours?
 
Last edited:
look how low those rails to the main atrium are.
children & elderly could easily fall over.
if an adult steps backward or is knocked, they will fall to their death.
ridiculous !

LaGuardia-Airport-Renderings-04-NEWLGA0817.jpg
 
wegs said:
I don't fly all that often, but have attended a few out of state business meetings, over the past few months. My absolute favorite US airport so far is Houston. It's HUGE, has a surplus of various clothing shops, fun bars, and an assortment of restaurants with delicious choices. Its layout feels like a small city built within an airport, if that makes sense. Bravo to the designers! My least favorite I'd have to say, is LaGuardia. Just yuck. Rude people, always under construction, and not at all aesthetically pleasing.

What's yours?
Click to expand...
I loathe Houston airport. The public address announcement speaks to you in a singsong voice, as if you are a five year old, and it is full of the most appallingly fat people waddling about. But I dislike all American airports because they make no provision for anybody in transit to another country. When I used to travel to Latin America on business I got so fed up with the rigmarole of immigration checks at Miami to enter the USA, when I was due to fly out again 5hrs later, having eaten a sandwich and recharged my laptop.

My favourite airport is, I think, Rotterdam: so small you feel you are treated like a human being. And the plane you catch is a little Fokker. :D
 
In the US, I've only flown to and from Chicago and LA. Hated both. All airports, really, but Vienna was quite nice, back in the 70's.
 
exchemist said:
I loathe Houston airport. The public address announcement speaks to you in a singsong voice, as if you are a five year old, and it is full of the most appallingly fat people waddling about. But I dislike all American airports because they make no provision for anybody in transit to another country. When I used to travel to Latin America on business I got so fed up with the rigmarole of immigration checks at Miami to enter the USA, when I was due to fly out again 5hrs later, having eaten a sandwich and recharged my laptop.

My favourite airport is, I think, Rotterdam: so small you feel you are treated like a human being. And the plane you catch is a little Fokker. :D
Click to expand...

That's interesting, I thought there was a blend of fat/fit people at the Houston airport when I was there, recently. I've heard that Houston is considered the ''fattest'' city in the US, so I was expecting to see nothing but obesity there.

I've heard that about international travel, from coworkers.
 
wegs said:
I dislike Chicago too, not as much as LaGuardia though!
Click to expand...
aside from Laguardia's construction, what is the feeling it gives you when you walk through it ?
oppression
alienation
prison
shoe-box
devoid of human feelings...
etc ?

the feeling i get from looking at pictures is old & dying trying to drag the living down with it into a small world of its own making.
i have never been there, but i should imagine it would feel like walking through a grave yard.

renovating such a place takes vast skill and special skills to not simply make it feel like a shiny new lipstick on a corpse propped up in a corner with a laptop sellotaped to it.
 
RainbowSingularity said:
aside from Laguardia's construction, what is the feeling it gives you when you walk through it ?
oppression
alienation
prison
shoe-box
devoid of human feelings...
etc ?
Click to expand...
The anger of those around me, was palpable. As if literally everyone was angry, about something. I went outside to wait for a hotel shuttle bus to arrive, and I could hear people shouting, swearing, calling each other names, dogs barking...it was just bizarre. And it smelled dirty. Like one giant public restroom that hadn't been cleaned in a while.

the feeling i get from looking at pictures is old & dying trying to drag the living down with it into a small world of its own making.
Click to expand...
Yep, good observation.

i have never been there, but i should imagine it would feel like walking through a grave yard.
Click to expand...
A graveyard of angry people.

renovating such a place takes vast skill and special skills to not simply make it feel like a shiny new lipstick on a corpse propped up in a corner with a laptop sellotaped to it.
Click to expand...
lol You've got a point. Like putting lipstick on a pig, as they say.
 
Eventually you learn work arounds. I went to Central America and had to go through Miami. I had a 6 hour layover (since I was coming from Seattle). It seemed that everyone in the crowded Miami airport smoked (maybe it's changed now?).

The next time I had to go south (South America) I flew to LA late, got a cheap motel room near the airport and had a direct flight early the next morning to Rio. It was a much more pleasant experience.

I used to have to either fly into Chicago to go to N.C. or through Dallas. It's a drag to fly for several hours, have to change planes, wait, and still fly for a few more hours.

I started flying direct to Atlanta and then getting a quick 45 minute flight to Raleigh from there. Again, much more pleasant overall way to fly across the country.

Sometimes it's the pre-flight planning that matters more than the conditions at a particular airport. Reduce layovers, reserve emergency aisle seats, etc. and the overall flight can be much better.
 
wegs said:
That's interesting, I thought there was a blend of fat/fit people at the Houston airport when I was there, recently. I've heard that Houston is considered the ''fattest'' city in the US, so I was expecting to see nothing but obesity there.

I've heard that about international travel, from coworkers.
Click to expand...
Yes it seems to be unique in all the world. I suppose it may be a product of the enormous distances within the USA that they see air travel as domestic transport, whereas for most nations it is associated with international travel. But it was very annoying to have to get a US visa when I wanted to fly from London to Bogota, Panama or San Salvador, merely because the flights originated in Miami.

Now that I am retired, one of my little luxuries in life is NOT flying. Anywhere. Except for the annual skiing trip to Geneva with my son. What I really enjoy is taking the car on the overnight ferry to St. Malo every summer, when we go sailing in Brittany. That's the way to travel: watch the departure from the deck as we slip gently out past HMS Victory and the naval base at Portsmouth, dinner on board and a cabin, then wake up for pain au raisins for breakfast before disembarking at a civilised hour. And only 1hr time difference.
 
Seattle said:
It's a drag to fly for several hours, have to change planes, wait, and still fly for a few more hours.
Click to expand...
A friend of mine, coming home from Disney World, flew from Orlando to Dallas, then to Atlanta, then to Toronto, then to Calgary and finally back to Saskatchewan. I wonder which airport was his favorite.
 
sideshowbob said:
A friend of mine, coming home from Disney World, flew from Orlando to Dallas, then to Atlanta, then to Toronto, then to Calgary and finally back to Saskatchewan. I wonder which airport was his favorite.
Click to expand...

I had a flight that was almost that bad. I started out in Raleigh, flew towards Charlotte but it was fogged in so the flight ended up going to Orlando and I was then left to find a flight to Seattle, which was my original destination.

The worst flight (partially my fault) was my first flight outside the country and money was tight so I found the cheapest way to get there. It was a charter flight. I live in Seattle and was going to London and Paris. We drove from Seattle to Vancouver,BC. Because it was a charter flight it had "special rules" , the main one being that you had to arrive 6 hours early. If someone was a "no show" they would still have time to fill that seat with someone on a "standby" list.

The airplane had more rows of seats installed than a regular flight so there was no leg room (I'm 6' 1") and I was uncomfortable before we even took off. On the way home we started off in Paris and had to take a train and the Hovercraft (across the Channel) and a train again just to get back to London,getting there at night and having to go back to the airport (6 hours early) the next morning.

With these kinds of rules you are tired before you even get back on the airplane. There's then the long flight back to Vancouver, B.C. and then the long drive back to Seattle.

This is a cost saving routine you will only (if that) do once. I just saved a little more the next time I traveled out of the country. :)
 
sideshowbob said:
A friend of mine, coming home from Disney World, flew from Orlando to Dallas, then to Atlanta, then to Toronto, then to Calgary and finally back to Saskatchewan. I wonder which airport was his favorite.
Click to expand...
Diefenbaker in Saskatoon, hands down. Could have been Regina, I suppose, but it would still win.
Toronto sucks. Used to be quite nice, but they made some serious mistakes with the expansion.
Gander's like a high school gymnasium on steroids.
 
Last edited:
Seattle said:
That's not a U.S. airport! :) If we are going outside the U.S. ... the airport in San Padro Sula , Honduras (no bathroom for starters).
Click to expand...
I know.
Sideshowbob wondered which one his friend liked best.
And who says we always have to colour inside the OP lines?
My mother used to like Frankfurt best.
My own all-time favourite was Montserrat: Open two hours three days a week; one runway, just big enough for a six-passenger prop plane, fall in the ocean if you miscalculated.
Oh, but the view, coming from Antigua...!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top