I wondered if Charlotte would be mentioned. They got the rocking chair idea from our small airport on the NC coast. Charlotte is my favorite large airport. I especially like the statue of Queen Charlotte where it looks like she's taking a bowling ball to the gut.

Believe it or not, I like O'Hare, just for that ligh-sound tunnel where the lights follow you and different sounds chime as you walk by them.

Kansas City is pretty nice. Every airline has its own little terminal and the parking bus takes you right to it.

Dislike:

San Diego, I don't care to look outside my window see somebody across from me in a building window. They must have miossed the memo about removing your airport to outside of the city.

DFW, like the KCI system in reverse. 4 big ass terminals and your connecting flight is always at the furthest gate. Plus, the cart nazis who honk at you to get out of the way and then block you off when you're running to get to your connecting flight.

St. Louis - the tram has ALWAYS just left for the other side as I'm walking up to it.

<s>Reagan</s>Washington National. It was already named after a president. The one time I flew out of here, it was jam packed and folks were setting off the metal detector constantly and TSA did nothing about it.

Raleigh - Hey, we haven't changed anything in the last hour. Let's knock down a garage, cordone off large areas of pavement, and remove an escalator.

And one no longer in major use - Denver's former Stapleton airport. You know the Fisher Price toy popcorn push mower? That's what it feels like to land at Stapleton, after making a kamikazi descent.

Worst. Airport. Ever.

St. Louis - Got stuck there twice on a 2 hour delay and then a 6 hour delay. It looks likes its made out of spare parts and its not well tended.

Denver International - Love it. its artsy and open and big

Seattle/Tacoma - Not bad. its small and simple and easy to navigate. No lines.

My best ever ever ever - Copenhagen, Denmark. It was awesome! It could almost be a destination! Open, airy, cafes and shops. Quiet places to sleep. And you can smoke anywhere.

Worst... That crappy-ass terminal in Atlanta - the new one that's like a bus station (Terminal F?). It feels like temporary housing - just a steel building like a wharehouse. Seems like I always end up waiting in that one.

For long layovers, I've learned to go to the international terminal and people-watch. You don't see a lot of obese European women - in fact, they're often quite slinky and nice. And your odds of getting to smoke are greater in the international area.

My favorite airport is Denver. I love the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain area.

I love taking off at LAX! It is breath taking to fly over the Pacific Ocean.

China's definitely an "emerging market" will a million and one "up and coming cities" but I was incredible impressed with Xiamen International in the Fujian Province. Flew through there for a conference in Bangkok and while the airport actually feels a little small, the customer service can't be beat.

My broken Chinese was met with a strange friendliness and subsequent introduction to a woman who spoke English. I was hooked up with a very well-priced hotel and then was escorted, via a free shuttle and valet worker, to the actual hotel. Incredible.

I agree with you on both of these... Copenhagen is quite pleasant.

It's best at night when you can see the Santa Monica pier and then marvel at the size and spread of Los Angeles County below... it's friken huge!


Did anyone here ever take off or land at the old Hong Kong Airport? Apparently the planes would have to make an almost 90degree turn in mid-air and they would come very close to buildings... you could see the people inside. I never had the chance but drove by it on the way to see a client. Anyone have any first hand experiences?

I had to re-read my above post just to m ake sure that I didn't hate all airports... I don't... so now i will...

BWI - Baltimore/Washington International... Plane got in late, due to weather, I swear at the furthest possible gate from the front door of the airport... No automated walkways... the bathrooms STINK to high heaven... signage in baggage claim doesn't clearly indicate a taxi stand - oh wait - it does indicate one taxi stand that after waiting 20 minutes, with a dozen other people, I find out it's really not a taxi stand despite the big green sign that says taxi stand... we were clearly supposed to guess.

Philadelphia Internationa... Not a great place for connections... arrived in terminal F - again at the last possible gate... had 25 minutes to get to terminal B.. it's a 10 minute walk (if you are ben johnson on steroids) to the area where you get the shuttle to terminal B - then it's three automated walkways and another 10 minute walk (with no coffee around) to get to the right gate...

BWI and Philly are the two airports that I fly out of. I can second that BWI sucks. I hate it there, but is cheaper than philly. Philly I dont have any real bad to say, nothing has ever gone wrong there.

PDX (Portland Oregon) where I fly to when going "back home" I have nothing but wonderful things to say about. Great Airport.

I practically live at O'Hare this time of year. When we were looking at houses last year, proximity to the airport was actually high on our list. That said, I love Terminal 1 (United), but really don't have much good to say about the rest of it. I love the fact that old brontosaurus statue from the Field Museum (Sue the T. Rex took its place) is right there in the middle of it.

I'll confine the airports that I hate to ones that other people might have been through (ask me about my Charleston, WV adventures!).

Cincinnati - if you ever have the misfortune to fly Delta in Cincinnati, make sure that you're going to a large enough city that you don't have to take ComAir, their small destination carrier. You have to take a bus to what amounts to a glorified bus terminal.

San Fransisco - can we make getting a rental car any more inconvenient?

San Jose - for an airport that hosts some of the brightest minds in the world, this has got to be one of the most poorly designed airports I've ever seen. Getting and returning a rental car is nearly impossible without 45 minutes to burn, the traffic bottleneck starts 1/2 mile from the terminal, and the security checkpoints are slow to the point that they might as well be doing a full cavity search on every traveler.

LaGuardia - why does it always smell like urine, even in the winter?

Boston - a study in how to make a passenger unfriendly airport. Hope you aren't hungry or need anything to read once you're through security...

St. Louis - they recently changed this, but I went to the Starbucks stand about a year or more ago. I ended up walking down an abandoned concourse where most of the lights were off, the pay phones had been ripped out, and all the moving sidewalks were off. It was creepy, but it was a lot better the last time I was there.

Detroit - only take Northwest in and out of here. Otherwise you're in the DMZ.

Minneapolis has a nice airport, especially if you're stuck since you can ususally find a good place to eat or kill time. Atlanta's not bad, especially if you're willing to go to Terminal B to get your Chick-Fil-A fix. Charlotte's airport is nice too.

I have flown in and out of the old Hong Kong airport - Kai Tak
It was quite the experience - You fly in low over the cityscape, then make a hard (I mean hard) right and bank into a fast landing, right in the middle of the city. It was cool. Also, getting to and from the airport was fairly convenient as we're right in the middle of the city. But it was really crowded and the facilitites were old. They still used the old "ticker style" DEP/ARR board (kind of neat).

The new aiport is gorgeous and has great facilities. But takes about an hour to get to. Still, great airport - awesome food and shopping - beautiful inside etc...

I also found the express train from the city really convenient. You check your luggage in at the station, no need to worry about carrying it in and out of the train.

Heathrow is a nightmare. Last time I was there I nearly missed my flight because of the incredibly long trek through the terminal between connections...and they are so rigid about customs. I stood in one line for 10 minutes then was told to get to the back of the other line...sigh.

Best airport...Aberdeen. No customs check when you arrive unless you need to declare something. Then they ask that you use the "red phone" and call them, otherwise you're on your way. And plenty of friendly folk to carry your bags to the taxi.
Maybe its changed since the London bombings, but it was like that in "04. I'd say Heathrow is worse now.
Maybe Gatwick is worth a try next time around.

I will only speak for recent experience:

Denver-DEN (current home airport): Great, easy/quick train between concourses, centralized security moves fast. However, if you check luggage, they tend to be a bit slow returning them post-flight. It's one of the best laid out, however, which means late flights into Denver are rare, even during winter storms. Needs better public transportation though.
Dallas/Fort Worth-DFW (en route to ZRH): Ugh. Could they possibly make the sky train any slower? Customs here is pretty stupid too: they dump you out of security once you go through customs, which could cause you to miss your domestic connection. Security is slow too.
Zurich-ZRH (vacation): Pretty well organized, quick customs/security. Needs to beef up its winter weather preparation. When I flew out there was a mild blizzard that more or less shutdown the airport; inadequate deicing machines and 3 runways reduced to 1 led to this.
Detroit-DTW (family visit): This was my old home airport. It used to be much worse. Recent changes have made it easier to get around the terminals and between as well.
Chicago/O'Hare-ORD (vacation): Getting to the CTA trains is a bit of a long walk. Excellent food marts.
San Francisco-SFO (work/vacation): The airtrain<->BART connection is a little bit slow/annoying. My favorite part is all the international airlines you can see here. Last time I saw planes bearing Lufthansa and Air France livery, no doubt fresh from Frankfurt & Paris.

I have been to many other airports, but not recently. I usually don't bother with amenities like frequent flyer lounges but then again most of my flights are direct or with very short layovers (<1hr).

How about airlines?

Frontier Airlines: Great if you live in Denver and need a domestic flight. Cheap, friendly staff, and no frills.
American Airlines: Worst customer service ever. When I was flying to O'Hare about 2 months ago, they cancelled all the flights the night I was flying there because of snow in Chicago, even though 3 other airlines in Denver (Frontier, United, & Southwest) were flying there that night. They left one of my bags behind and failed to reimburse me for my expenses as a result of their staff's negligence.

From memory, Northwest, Delta, and United were all OK. I'm not sure if I've flown any others.

The smallest airport I've flown out of is Purdue University Airport (KLAF). When it had commercial service, there was only one gate and usually served only 2 turboprop commercial flights a day, inbound and outbound. In fact, the ticket counter/gate area took up less space than the rental car area. Needless to say, security was a breeze. :thumbsup: It was astonishing how much longer it took to travel through KDTW (which was always the other end of my trip) than KLAF. Literally speaking, whenever I traveled through KLAF, I could leave from home an hour from the flight's takeoff time. But with KDTW it was always around 2-3 hours, taking into account checkin, security, and travel time.

By the way, which Sault Sainte Marie airport did you use? For those unfamiliar with the area, there are two cities called Sault Sainte Marie, one in Michigan, USA and one in Ontario, Canada, just across the border. KCIU, the one near the Michigan city, is only served by Northwest Airlines out of Detroit. The Soo is a nice little town, and if you're ever in that area, you should check out Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, one of Michigan's best sights.