Airports of the World: Subjective Assessments

[godfry n. glad]

The last time I flew, I flew Delta, so I went through Atlanta, for the first time ever.

Compared to other airports, Atlanta is a strong 'meh'. It's not great; it's not sucky. Amenities that are available for the trapped traveler are passable, but expensive, as seems to be the international standard. Travel to departure bays is clunky. Delta logo overkill, as one might expect.

Paris' DeGaulle I didn't care for at all. Very confusing multi-level exchanges were required. Exceeding long lines. It could have just been my specific experience that time, but it was a PITA. Dragging shit all over the place was difficult. It was also hot....overheated.

Bordeaux was nice, but probably because it was small and cozy, if bland.

The airport I remember being a nice place to hang out during layovers was Minneapolis-St.Paul. I think that is Northwest's hub city.

Do you have a favorite? How about one that should be avoided, if at all possible?

[ChuckF]

I've had good and bad experiences with Atlanta and I think it really depends on the time of day I think. It's way too big for my tastes. But the train is kind of cool.

CDG is horrible. It is my least favorite airport after Heathrow. The French aren't very good at queuing in the best of circumstances, and CDG with its poor signage and tiny space between the doors and the check-in areas makes it much worse. It should be better now that they've finished some of the improvements that supposedly make it easier to get between terminals. It will be a huge help when they finish the express train to Paris, rather than having to take the stupid RER into the city. Orly is awesome if only because of the OrlyVal automated train thang. Toulouse also has a neat little airport. It's very quiet and sleepy.

I like Reagan National because it's easy to navigate and it's right there on the metro line. It's much more convenient than Dulles and you don't have to take those big stupid people-movers everywhere. Logan is one reason I don't go to Boston.

[ceptimus]

My own experience:

Worst: Khartoum International Airport.
Best: Singapore Changi International.
Others: :meh:

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah...I think everybody's experiences of any specific airport are tainted with personal luggage we carry, what has happened to us to the point where we ended up there, and what our prospects are for the immediate future. It's one person's slice of a few hours in a day of a place that serves thousands upon thousands a day. Very subjective.

[ChuckF]

Yeah, definitely. Whenever I think of Zürich I think of the bowling alley-like atmosphere of cigarette smoke, the German motorcycle porn that cost a lot more than I expected, and the insistent Japanese guy who kept knocking on the door of my bathroom stall until I opened it and screamed at him.

[Zehava]

The airport I remember being a nice place to hang out during layovers was Minneapolis-St.Paul. I think that is Northwest's hub city.

The half dozen times or so I went to Milwaukee WI, for GenCon the flights almost always when through Minneapolis-St.Paul, I do believe it is a Northwest hub. Nice airport.

One trip went through Chicago O'Hare instead. With a 45 minutes layover I thought I'd get a chance to see a little of the airport, fat chance. It's so huge and our connecting flight was on the far end of the airport that the 45 minutes was barely enough time to get to the next gate.

Heathrow was interesting as well. My first international fight and the the sight of armed guards with sub-machine guns walking around in the airport was a little disconcerting. Things started out iffy by the last second pull up on our first landing attempt as the controllers placed an outgoing plane onto our runway!

Denver looks like a nice airport, architecturally anyways. I've only been through it night on the return international flight. I don't have any plans to ever go back there though as the one flight in was enough (very rough approach).

Though I don't remember much about the airport, the take off out of Orange County is a bitch for me. The rate of climb is very steep due to the bitching of homeowners who built homes on the hills surrounding the airport that the pressure change is quite rapid. My ears have always been sensitive to pressure changes, hell I have to pop them going over or down Sylvan Hill, so the high rate of climb tends to really hurt.

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah, definitely. Whenever I think of Zürich I think of the bowling alley-like atmosphere of cigarette smoke, the German motorcycle porn that cost a lot more than I expected, and the insistent Japanese guy who kept knocking on the door of my bathroom stall until I opened it and screamed at him.

:lolhog:

[curses]

I have extensive experience with Atlanta. It used to be better, it's a pain in the ass now. Best airport I've ever been to has to be Ft Lauderdale/Hollywood Intl. Hell, even LaGuardia was nice over a night flight.

Newark sucks hands down.

Gatwick can be crappy, depends on the time of year. I refuse to go to Heathrow.

Philly was crappy too because of the long lines.

JFK was neat but my memory is skewed because we sat down at the end of the international terminal and watched the Concorde take off.

Myrtle Beach was OK too, small regional airport, short lines, only one restaurant that I remember.

[Sock Puppet]

Hong Kong Intl. is, as you might expect, enormous. Wear comfy shoes and make sure every one of your bags is of the rolling variety. It will be one hell of a long walk to go from anywhere to anywhere. How crowded it is seems to be a crap shoot. When I arrived it seemed nearly deserted, making its immense size sort of spooky. When I departed, however, the line to get through customs was insane. My crazy Wing Chun teacher got us through the line by flashing a cop badge (one of the students was from SFPD) and said we were all special agents. Seriously, it worked. Otherwise we would never have gotten to our flight in time. However much time you're told it will take to get through, double it.

[wildernesse]

I don't have a lot of airport experience since I haven't flown much. When I flew into Atlanta on my first flight, the airport was amazing! I had so much fun, riding the train and exploring. (Country came to town!) It was also 1996. Since then (all post 9/11), my return trips have been not so much fun.

I think my favorite airport is probably Salt Lake City, because you have a nice view of the mountains from the airport. It is also just the right size, and it feels very sunny in my memory, if that makes sense.

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah, it makes sense. A lot of airports over a lot of years and they start to blur together.

I remember Bishkek largely for the long walk across the open tarmac, the climb up the circa 1950s vintage rolling stairs into the Aeroflot jet, and the number of my fellow passengers carrying chickens in cardboard boxes.

Moscow was quite nice. It was clean, newish, and busy. It was right on one of the ring lines of the metro underground, if memory serves.

St. Petersburg's airport is like Bordeaux'; smallish and cozy...except for the duty free shop....that was garish.

[godfry n. glad]

How many people here have been to Frankfurt?

I stayed over night in a hostel-ish hotel nearby. It was initially confusing, but possible for even a frustrated non-German speaking transient tourist to figure their way through....example: me.

It's like a HUGE, but well-planned airport in the US, but in everything was in German.

[ChuckF]

I've flew through Frankfurt once but I don't remember much about it because my sleeping pill hadn't worn off yet and I was pretty groggy. The city (and the train station) is more memorable than the airport. Which I cannot say for Brussels.

Ok, these airport threads made me go look for good airfare. Should I gtfo of the US for a week and fly to Paris next Monday, just to dick around for a week? Found a <$500 fare on Iberia. Do my part for the (Spanish) economy?

[Zehava]

I was going to say much the same as ChuckF, but then I remembered it was Hamburg we flew into and not Frankfurt. :P

Not that I remember much about Hamburg as were were running late and needed to get to our train ASAP.

[godfry n. glad]

Should I gtfo of the US for a week and fly to Paris next Monday, just to dick around for a week? Found a <$500 fare on Iberia. Do my part for the (Spanish) economy?

Why not skip Paris and go directly to Ibiza via Iberia?

[curses]

Haven't been through Frankfurt, but I have been through Stuttgart. I don't really remember much about it other than we had just had a 2 hour layover in Amsterdam and I was ready to get off the damn plane.

[ceptimus]

I changed at Frankfurt on my way to and from Khartoum. It was a typical big airport for me, except that on the outbound leg they added some lulz by announcing that our flight was now departing from a different gate, about five minutes before it was closing. All the passengers had assembled at one gate, and we all had to rush to the other side of the (huge) airport to get to the new gate. :( Naturally, having rushed all the way, we were then kept waiting for about an hour...

The reasons Khartoum sticks in my memory as particularly bad:
The plane circled the city a couple of times before the (night) landing. The captain actually announced to us on the P.A. that this was because he couldn't understand the air traffic control and had seen a plane moving around on the runway he'd been told to land on!
I couldn't get out of the airport for about two hours - I was sent from official to official to get numerous vaguely-defined pieces of paper and stamps, until I offered one official a bribe to sort things out!
No aircon (or if it did exist, it wasn't working) and the whole place was insufferably hot.
No shops open. I couldn't even get a drink of water.
The place was filthy, especially the toilets.
I was mobbed by beggars while trying to get from the airport exit to a taxi.

[ms_ann_thrope]

US:
I like LAX, SFO, PDX, and SDF.
I hate ORD, LAS and PIT.

Rest of World:
I like AMS.
I hate LHR and MXP.

All other airports I've experienced have been more or less tolerable.

[Farren]

I fukken hate flying with a passion so any airport I've climbed off at was nice - Johannesburg International, Cape Town, Dubai, Gatwick, Heathrow, Mumbai and Bangalore. Er, those are all the airports I've ever been in I think.

Come to think of it, I preferred Dubai to Gatwick because they had smoking lounges with breathable air if you lay on the floor as flat as you could. Gatwick, in contrast, had no smoking areas in the departure area, which they could have fukken tole me when I arrived and went through three hours early for my flight. Assholes. Did I mention I hate flying? Its like a mild form of torture. I can never get comfortable in those goddamn seats. By the end of an 8 hour flight I feel like I've been subjected to a light beating by a semi-serious pugilist. I ache everywhere.

Oh and Mumbai sucked quite hard when we arrived in India, since we were fleeced of half our rupees. So did the first hotel we stayed in in Bangalore, before we found out you have to look for hotels advertising "euro-style" suites if you don't want a hole in the floor for a toilet and a tap and bucket for a shower (and... toilet paper). The Mumbai seafront hotel we stayed in for our last week in India seemed like paradise, even with the jack-russel-sized rats. I think the fact that our diarrhea had subsided just as we moved in there helped.

Sorry went a bit off topic there

[LadyShea]

I slept on the floor of the Toronto airport because the airline refused to get us hotel rooms (ridiculous bullshit story goes with that). It's nice and modern and fairly clean.

The same airline got us into Gatwick too late for the last train, and we totally fucking paid some guy (I don't know if it was a taxi or car service or what) 60.00 to take us to a hotel and paid 100.00 for it for like 4 hours because Gatwick is fucking disgusting, and I wasn't spending another night in an airport anyway. I still can't believe we let the airport concierge call his cousin or whatever, and got into that car in a foreign country...but that's how desperate I was to get out of Gatwick.

[godfry n. glad]

Tel Aviv is where I slept on the airport 'furniture' (being multiple linked bucket seats of formed plastic...I was desperate). It was major suckitude.

Our flight was a 5:30 am local time flight. We were in West Jerusalem. Arise at midnight after a nap. Ride sucko short bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv Airport. Do the slaughterhouse ramp routine...twice. Subjected to questioning, twice. Allowed to sit for six hours (which made it three hours late).

The lighthearted part was watching the 'undercover' service personnel. The challenge was to identify them. The dead giveaway was multiple checks of potted plants....why were they even there if they posed such a problem? Israelis seem to have a problem being innocuous and discreet. Cheap amusement.

I remember actually pitying the AirCanada personnel who had to live and work there.

Total absence of amenities for trapped travellers, IIRC.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

My local airport (TYS) is absurdly tiny. 12 gates.

I like the amenities at BWI, but unfortunately it's way out in the middle of nowhere.

I'm flying into LAX next month (TYS-Minneapolis-LAX).

[godfry n. glad]

One needs a junior airline pilots secret decoder site (http://www.world-airport-codes.com/).

I've been through LAX once. It was a transfer and it was practically running, off one plane and on to another, across one of their nodes. About eight steps. Easy and quick. I also went from being packed in like a sardine to being one of a small group of passengers equal in number to the flight staff from LAX to PDX. It was par-tay time....but that wasn't LAX. That was United Airlines. Apart from the distinctive terminal building -- because it has been in so many movies, I guess -- LAX made little impression.

Somebody said they like PDX...Really? It seems to me like it's always under construction. But PDX is my local airport.

[ms_ann_thrope]

Yeah, I think that the amenities at PDX are pretty nice (shops, restaurants... not a horrible place to endure a delay). But, it has been several years since I traveled there regularly, so they might have messed things up since then (in the name of "progress," of course). Nowadays if I go to OR, I fly directly into Hillsboro.

[Dingfod]

Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetia Simón Bolivar isn't in Caracas by about 16 miles, but I swear it's closer than DIA is to Denver. The building itself is Early Concretius, paved with terracotta tile. One just has to love the traffic light system of finding out whether or not Venezuelan Customs is going to search you and your bags or not. It's the only airport I've been to where there was a line to get out of the place. Also, it was about 195:degrees:F with the humidity factored in. A plus was the duty-free liquor store, it wasn't even expensive, way less expensive than the parilla mixta at Tarzilandia (http://www.tarzilandia.com/).

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah, I think that the amenities at PDX are pretty nice (shops, restaurants... not a horrible place to endure a delay). But, it has been several years since I traveled there regularly, so they might have messed things up since then (in the name of "progress," of course). Nowadays if I go to OR, I fly directly into Hillsboro.

Ewwww....*pinkie up*...That's Silicon Forest stuff, then. Or, Niketown.

[godfry n. glad]

Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetia Simón Bolivar isn't in Caracas by about 16 miles, but I swear it's closer than DIA is to Denver.

Yeah...I guess common questions that those flying into Denver have: "Where's Denver? Is it anywhere nearby? Did you hide it?"

Somebody told me that Denver International was supposed to look like a collection of teepees on the horizon. To me it looks more like those giant, oversized tank trap memorials outside of Moscow.

Ever since finding out that the Turpan train station is 45 km out of town...well, it's curious.

[Crumb]

Yeah, I think that the amenities at PDX are pretty nice (shops, restaurants... not a horrible place to endure a delay). But, it has been several years since I traveled there regularly, so they might have messed things up since then (in the name of "progress," of course). Nowadays if I go to OR, I fly directly into Hillsboro.

Ewwww....*pinkie up*...That's Silicon Forest stuff, then. Or, Niketown.
What do you have against Hillsboro, buddy!? :whup:

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah, I think that the amenities at PDX are pretty nice (shops, restaurants... not a horrible place to endure a delay). But, it has been several years since I traveled there regularly, so they might have messed things up since then (in the name of "progress," of course). Nowadays if I go to OR, I fly directly into Hillsboro.

Ewwww....*pinkie up*...That's Silicon Forest stuff, then. Or, Niketown.
What do you have against Hillsboro, buddy!? :whup:

Against it? Nothing. But 'flying into Hillsboro' with any regularity generally indicates someone doing business with either the Silicon Forest electronics biz stuff, or athletic shoes (Nike and Adidas have corporate centers in Puddle City). It's not a commercial airline airport, but it is a corporate jet airport. That's 'toney stuff' for around here. Top of the food chain, as it were, economically.

:noid:

You're not a shield maiden to "The Man" are you?

[Crumb]

:nope:

[Goliath]

The Cincinnati airport (CVG, I believe) was horrible. The terminals appear to all be separate buildings and you have to catch a very slow and unpredictable shuttle to get from one terminal to another.

Interestingly enough, one of the best gyros I've ever had was at a small Greek foodstand at O'Hare. I had a 45 minute or so layover and wanted a light snack. While I was ordering the gyro and while waiting for it to be made, I was asked twice--once by the cashier and again by the cook--if I was sure that I didn't want something else. I took that to mean that the gyro would be tiny. Not so. That thing weighed about a pound and was freaking delicious. :pleased:

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

God, DIA looks fucking ridiculous with those "mountain" tents.

But they have a delish little French bistro.

[curses]

That thing weighed about a pound and was freaking delicious. :pleased:

I've yet to discover any good food in an airport :sadcheer:

[Deadlokd]

I haven't been in many international airports, about five actually. Dublin, Heathrow :shudder: , Bahrain, Singapore, Narita, Brisbane, Cairns and Sydney. Hmmm, make that eight.

Heathrow blows. And sucks. Fuck we hated Heathrow. We had to go from terminal three to terminal one. Not too bad, a bus took us most of the way (yup, that's right folks, a fucking bus. They need a fucking bus to get you around the rabbit warren that is Heathrow) but terminal three looks like it was made from those old WWII army hangar/ bunkhouses. It was unfinished, cramped and English customer service people suck. Well, BMI's customer service people suck. Hard. The plane was three hours late but they didn't bother telling us there was a problem until the boarding time had come and gone. Fuckers.

Compare that to Narita. It was hot as hell, well, probably around 24 degrees. I'm guessing they turn the air-con up to conserve electricity. The airport is well laid out and it's easy to find where you need to go. And the Japanese rock. We had our then two year old with us and we were treated like royalty. When we got to Narita there was a huge line up for customs but an awesome old Japanese man lifted the barrier and pulled us through to a shorter line. I love the attitude to children there.

Dublin was exactly how you'd expect an Irish airport to be. Relaxed, happy and crowded. Awesome.

Australia's airports are fairly well laid out. Brisbane's is tiny, Sydney is huge (not Heathrow or Narita huge, but much bigger than Brisbane).

[Goliath]

That gyro was the only good airport food I've ever had. Other than certain rare exceptions, airport food is either horrible and unreasonably priced (e.g. those pre-packaged "sandwiches") or mediocre and highway robbery (e.g. prettymuch any chain restaurant in an airport).

[godfry n. glad]

I thought the whole captive audience think abetted the tendency to charge 'what the market will bear'. It seems it bears pretty heavy pricing. Every airport I've ever been in, that is.

[godfry n. glad]

:nope:

A private jockey?

Or does somebody like Horizon or Alaska have a "Silicon Run" from the 'Valley' to the 'Forest' and back?

[Qingdai]

I've been in a lot of airports, but it was so long ago. The information is dated.
San Jose, Costa Rica, tiny.
Dallas, I'll pay extra money to avoid Dallas. Too big.
Miami is weird. No food and scary women in fur coats.
Washington DC, is probably the most family unfriendly airport ever.
Jakarta, smaller than you would think. Padang Padang Sumatra, not too bad, but that was pre-tsunami.

Shanghai, they way overbuilt the Shanghai airport for the Olympics. They made it so 3 visiting dignitaries could come at once or some stuff.

I didn't like Narita (1987 & 1988) because as I was flying from Thailand, they almost destroyed my Rebab (instrument) looking for porn. They also had an intense security (for 1987) with sub-machines gunned guards searching each bus. They had protests about the airport being built.

Albuquerque has good chile verde, worth leaving the airplane for :yum:

Singapore was fine (their airlines had the best food). Thai Royal air was deluxe, I also liked their airport. Japan Airlines also had good food.

British airways had cold food. I didn't mind Heathrow, but Gatwick was easier to negotiate.

Munich was OK, I think I went to Frankfurt too, but I don't really recall, because I'd been up for about 12 hours too many by the time I got there.

Tampa Florida and Sacramento, general commuter airports. Nothing to eat or do while you wait.

Portland at least has a Powells bookstore outlet. You can get a reasonable priced used book to read.

[ChuckF]

I didn't like Narita (1987 & 1988) because as I was flying from Thailand, they almost destroyed my Rebab (instrument) looking for porn.
What did they do when they found it?

[Qingdai]

I didn't have any!
:cry:

[ChuckF]

riiiight
:pedobear:

[Qingdai]

Hey, I was 21 then. I had not yet built my porn empire in the crawl space. I was able to attract actual men and get them to do my unholy bidding.

[godfry n. glad]

You mean...

mow the lawn?

or...

or...

like...

:shiftier:

wash the dishes?

[Qingdai]

and sometimes even do the dishes!

[godfry n. glad]

Will you stop butting in when I'm trying to edit.

:glare:

And I'm not a ceramophiliac, so doing the dishes never crossed my mind.

Uh...

Besides I'd never carry that kind of literature in my luggage.

Never.

:shiftier:

[livius drusus]

My favorite airport of all time is Kahului Airport in Maui. It's small and lush and bounded by glass walls so everywhere you looks it's just tropical gorgeousness.

Also surprisingly charming is Charlotte. They have this great stretch where you can sit in huge white rocking chairs and look out the floor-to-ceiling windows.

On a more practical level, I really dug Schiphol. What you can't buy there duty free ain't worth buying.

Atlanta is long and annoying. Every trip a death march, even with the train.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Also surprisingly charming is Charlotte. They have this great stretch where you can sit in huge white rocking chairs and look out the floor-to-ceiling windows.


We have that at TYS, but it's not as impressive as Charlotte's.

[One for Sorrow]

Terminal 1 at RDU is horrible. Terminal 2 was just recently rebuilt, and from the outside is gorgeous (I've been too lazy to walk over there so far and check out the inside) but Terminal 1 has been completely neglected. We had mushrooms (and not the fun kind, afaik) growing in one of the jetbridges, and the pipes in the ceiling spring leaks and drip on a fairly regular basis. We had to replace a computer at the ticket counter last year because of this, and we had to put a giant barrel beneath the leak in the baggage service office for about two days before they got around to fixing that and replacing the ceiling panels. That was about two weeks ago. I always have a headache there--probably from mold or some such shit.

Oh, and several times the water has tested positive for having high levels of some substance that can cause cancer and kidney and liver failure. Stay away from the drinking fountains!

Also, and the two terminals are not connected, so if you have to go from one to the other, you'll have to go through security again. Be careful connecting in RDU and switching airlines!

[/rant]

But, I've been in a lot of great airports! I love CLT's rocking chairs. Also, the airport code makes me giggle, as does PNS and the airport closest to my hometown, MFR. Yeah, I know I have the mind of a ten-year-old boy. I've been through CLT several times, and have found that in general the people who work for my airline in CLT tend to be kind of mean. Other people I work with have said the same about employees in CLT. I have no idea who pisses in their coffee every morning. That said, I haven't had any real problems, they're just... unfriendly. Nevertheless, when I have a choice I still usually connect through CLT.

I would die of boredom if I worked in Greensboro, NC (GSO).

SEA is surprisingly beautiful. The shopping area in there were made to look like a main street (they had a couple great stores that sold some unique things, too. Made me wish my layover was longer). I felt like I was in Disneyland, Airport.

EUG and PDX were fine, from what I can recall. I've been stuck in SFO twice overnight (because MFR was fogged in) but it was fairly nice airport to be stuck in.

LAS was a nightmare to check in. I also learned today that it has one of the highest theft rates of bags off the belts. Thieves look for large or expensive bags, and golf clubs are probably stolen most often, so get to the baggage claim quick! But,you can throw some money away in LAS by playing video poker while you're there, if that's your thing.

DCA isn't much to look at was really busy when I've been through but was really easy to navigate.

PHL is fine on a good-weather day, but things go to hell in a handbasket quickly there at the slightest hint of bad weather. I avoid it if at all possible, but if you have to fly through there then early in the morning is best. Leave yourself plenty of time to make your connection.

DEN wasn't all that impressive, but I didn't have any problems there. It just seemed kinda dark inside and I had a long layover but couldn't find much worth looking at. I like PHX a bit more for those connections in the middle of the country, probably because it seemed a bit brighter. It's got an ugly view, though.

MCO was kind of a pain, at least in getting to the Disneyworld buses, which isn't as streamlined or intuitive as you'd suppose. It offers quite a lot of shopping, though, in case you didn't buy enough Disneyworld or Seaworld crap when you were actually at Disneyworld or Seaworld.

International:

When I flew into YYC (Calgary) during the stampede, cowboys were playing country music and lassoing passengers as they walked out of the secure area. I damn near walked right back on the plane again. Bunch of clean, wholesome, Canadian freaks. I don't remember much else about it.

Toronto (YYZ) is all right. I've had bad luck getting through customs and immigration without being put through the ringer. I think they just didn't believe that I was there to visit my father. Maybe saying "eh" more and handing them my Canadian ID card right away will help. It's a big airport, but it's not too terrible. At least the airline employees I've encountered there were friendly.

Security in Cozumel (CZM) seemed like a joke. It's a tiny airport. Also, I paid about $5 for some Pringles there, because my dumb ass paid in pesos and didn't figure out how much I'd overspent until about a minute later. I don't remember security in Cancun (CUN) looking so clueless, but of course it's a bigger airport. There were a lot of really stupid, impatient Americans eager to get drunk at both airports, making the rest of us look bad. Not that I expected anything else from going to Mexico during Spring Break, mind you.

Okay, I'll shut up for now.

[Dingfod]

Yeah...I guess common questions that those flying into Denver have: "Where's Denver? Is it anywhere nearby? Did you hide it?"

Somebody told me that Denver International was supposed to look like a collection of teepees on the horizon. To me it looks more like those giant, oversized tank trap memorials outside of Moscow.It's a trap!
:ackbar:

I've yet to discover any good food in an airport :sadcheer:Paschal’s Restaurant in ATL (Atlanta) had good Southern comfort food, the catfish and red beans and rice were good. Luther's BBQ in HOU (Houston Hobby) or wherever you can find it was always good.

My hometown airplop, TUL (Tulsa Intergalactic) is nothing special, believe me.

[Sock Puppet]

The "gourmet" burrito place at Oakland Intl (OAK) has pretty good burritos. It's called 360:degrees: Burrito or something like that. Not authentic by any stretch of the imagination, but good, and only somewhat overpriced.

[Qingdai]

I did forget the airport at Maui. Lovely pools of really big Koi.

[Dingfod]

I did forget the airport at Maui. Lovely pools of really big Koi.There's a Chinese buffet restaurant here where you enter by crossing a wooden bridge over a koi pond containing the biggest damned carp I've ever seen in captivity.

[godfry n. glad]

Is it coy?

[Caligulette]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned DTW (DWT? It's in Detroit), but I rather like it. There's a wacky walkway which reminds me of the "ship" set on which Carl Sagan filmed part of Cosmos - but this one changes colours and has ice-sheet-sounding "music" as you are transported through (by moving walkway or moving feet). It also has a really nifty, big fountain in the main area. Plus, jobs! Perhaps the only place in Detroit which can say that right now.

[Clutch Munny]

The Onion reports on prize for most alienating airport. (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/pragues_franz_kafka_international)

[Sauron]

The last time I flew, I flew Delta, so I went through Atlanta, for the first time ever.

Compared to other airports, Atlanta is a strong 'meh'. It's not great; it's not sucky. Amenities that are available for the trapped traveler are passable, but expensive, as seems to be the international standard. Travel to departure bays is clunky. Delta logo overkill, as one might expect.

Paris' DeGaulle I didn't care for at all. Very confusing multi-level exchanges were required. Exceeding long lines. It could have just been my specific experience that time, but it was a PITA. Dragging shit all over the place was difficult. It was also hot....overheated.

Bordeaux was nice, but probably because it was small and cozy, if bland.

The airport I remember being a nice place to hang out during layovers was Minneapolis-St.Paul. I think that is Northwest's hub city.

Do you have a favorite? How about one that should be avoided, if at all possible?

I like Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky (CVG). It's another Delta hub. Medium size, layed out really well, lots of amenities.

Believe it or not, Providence RI had a really good airport. One long terminal; it's shaped like a letter "T", but the vertical part of the "T" is really short. So it's mostly the horizontal. You can get in and out of there in 20 minutes. Parking never a problem.

Was not impressed with PDX, though. Flew through there on my way to Florence. Airport was kind of run-down and smaller than expected; it looks like it serves a 1960s-era city of 100,000 or so - not a major city like Portland.

Avoid any airport in the London area. They're just incredibly busy. Not a fan of Frankfurt, either. Waaaaay too spread out. 20 minute bus ride from terminal to terminal.

OOOH! Forgot to add - Copenhagen. A full shopping mall inside the airport. Co-workers from Dublin used to buy the $49 round trip fares just to do Christmas shopping at the airport; they never left the building.

[California Tanker]

The problem with 360Degrees at OAK (T1 only) is that you can't get a normal, non-fancy burrito there.
OAK's not a bad airport, it's undergoing some serious refurbishing right now. No USO.

SJC is reasonable enough, but the locations of the security checkpoints are odd. The older terminal is about at its sell-by date, but a new one is being built which looked very nice from the freeway. Unfortunately, they have now built a multi-storey parking lot in front of it, so you can no longer see it. USO sucks.

SFO I've never had a problem with, though the ammeneties are a little lacking. USO is pretty good, though lacks WiFi. They need to figure out a better way of linking CalTrain with BART with SFO: The old direct link is gone, now it's an indirect link. Adds an extra 10-15 minutes to the transit. Another airport undergoing rennovation, the old International terminal is being refitted now.

No particular commentary on other airports, though ORD is awful. Was it Houston that has an inter-terminal monorail both airside and groundside? That's a nice touch. I get on OK with DEN, and really don't have much of an issue with LAS.

Moving to Europe, AMS is on the money. I've always liked it as an airy modern place, and I defy you to find an airport with better train connections anywhere. Best of all, the security checkpoints are at the gates. No queues. LHR (AKA Deathrow, from all the waiting) I used to like (Never had any issue with the inter-terminal busses), but in recent years the security queues have been abysmally long. You need a three-hour layover just to have a chance of making your connecting flight.

DUB's another airport undergoing a massive building program, and it's needed, but I'm not convinced they're not cutting a few corners. I mean, when was the last time you flew intercontinental at a modern airport (Terminal only just opened in the last couple of months) and got onto the airplane by walking onto the tarmac across the painted roads for the baggage tugs? Getting from the far end of Pier D to immigration is a good 3/4 mile hike. The public transport connections are improving, but really need to be uprated to rail.

None of the others strike out at me much. Airports like Vienna do their job with little fuss.

NTM