Favorite Airports?

[OCGuy81]

I'm on the road quite a bit for business, and have been through my fair share of airports.  Some are great, others I cringe at the prospect of flying into, or having a connection at.

I'm a bit of a homer with this, but my favorite has to be John Wayne Airport (Santa Ana/Orange County) right near my own backyard.  Not a hub for any airlines.  I've never experienced a delay leaving, and it's very easy to navigate.  Compared to other LA area airports, especially LAX, I love flying from my home airport.  Though it always throws me when the engine power is cut at takeoff for quiet flight over Newport Beach!

Others that I enjoy flying to are.

Portland International Airport:  GREAT airport.  Nice places to shop (no sales tax!), good places to eat (awesome beers!) and not really subject to many delays in my trips.  Plus, from what a client told me, merchants at PDX aren't allowed to charge more than they would at a non-airport location, so no inflated prices. 

Minneaplois-St. Paul International:  I visit family in the upper midwest often, and compared to O'Hare, MSP is really nice.  A bit large to navigate, but good restaurants.

Kona Airport (Hawaii):  I took my wife and girls to Hawaii last year, and we went to Kona on the big island.  There is something cool about getting off the plane onto the tarmac.  Plus, the "terminal" is just a collection of a few mall buildings that look like huts.  And stepping off into the Hawaiian sun? Always nice.

What're your favorite airports?

[realjd]

Favorites:
ATL - Delay-prone in the summer, but has by far the best selection of restaurants and bars out of any airport in the world.
DTW - Nicest hub in the US for any airline IMO. Easy to get around and much less stress than ATL
IND - Brand new. Great O/D airport.

Honorable mention:
SLC - Easy connections, and microbrews in the SkyClub. I just wish it had more flights to/from the east coast.
DEN - Multiple microbreweries in the terminal. It loses points for being out in the middle of nowhere, and no SkyClub

Most hated:
ORD - I've never flown to/from or through here without at least a 3 hour delay. Old, dirty, difficult to get around
LAX - See ORD, only without the delays. Horrendous security lines for O/D traffic, difficult connections for transiting passengers
SJU - Old, cramped, and almost no food airside. Crappy place for a layover.

Any smaller out-station airports (MLB, FWA, HSV, ABQ, etc.) are nice, even if they typically lack the amenities of a larger airport.

MSP is a fairly nice airport, but the layout is beyond comprehension. And have you ever had to make an A or (God forbid) B to E or F connection? Pure torture.

[OCGuy81]

Couldn't agree more with you on ORD.  ALWAYS delays, even at off-peak times.  I avoid that one like the plague.

I'm also not a fan of DFW.  I've experienced nothing but delays there, and the distance between gates seems to be miles.  I don't mid walking, but when I'm hauling suitcases? Not so much.

Going east, I generally like to connect through Phoenix Sky Harbor or Denver.  Can't believe I forgot to mention Denver.  That's a nice airport!

[Coelacanth]

MSP is a fairly nice airport, but the layout is beyond comprehension. And have you ever had to make an A or (God forbid) B to E or F connection? Pure torture.

I agree that there are some long hauls for some connections, but what large airport doesn't have these? And I don't understand what's hard to comprehend about the layout. It's a big H. Terminal runs east-west and concourses run north and south from each end.

Of course, I may not be entirely objective here.

Favorite airports for me:
DTW
DEN
BNA
MCO

Least favorite:
ATL
IAH
PHL
SEA

[kurumi]

Favorites (some of these are "me toos" with OP):
Changi, Singapore. Clean, well-run, and we were super late for a flight to Denpasar and they held the gate for us.
PDX. Open, uncrowded, good location for highway and transit
Kona. I like how it's surrounded by lava instead of the typical beaches and palm trees. Like you landed on another planet.

Least favorite:
Delhi. (Though they were working on a new section in late 2007 that looked much nicer)
Dulles. Going through customs there is like "welcome to the US - f*** you".
SFO: more annoyed that they have so many flights SJC doesn't, so we have to make the trip up 101
Narita: Y U NO closer to Tokyo???
SUX. Combination of little irritants, some of them the fault of United. But I fly into Omaha now, and drive to Sioux City (though not using I-680, apparently)
BDL, terminal B. This is that 1952-vintage wing that was thankfully closed in 2010.

I'm sad that at some point Atlanta replaced the Cylon voices ("By. Your. Command.") on their people movers; the recorded voice sounds more natural now.

[OCGuy81]

SUX. Combination of little irritants, some of them the fault of United. But I fly into Omaha now, and drive to Sioux City (though not using I-680, apparently)

Sounds like a very fitting airport code! 

[OCGuy81]

SFO: more annoyed that they have so many flights SJC doesn't, so we have to make the trip up 101

I agree with this too! I like SJC a lot more.  I find in cities with more than one airport, such as LA, the smaller airports (such as Ontario and Orange County) are preferable to the big boys like LAX.

I like Hobby in Houston versus IAH.

I like Love Field in Dallas versus DFW.

BWI I prefer over Dulles.

Of course, this isn't the golden rul 100% of the time.  Midway and O'Hare? BOTH I like to avoid!

[realjd]

Couldn't agree more with you on ORD.  ALWAYS delays, even at off-peak times.  I avoid that one like the plague.

I'm also not a fan of DFW.  I've experienced nothing but delays there, and the distance between gates seems to be miles.  I don't mid walking, but when I'm hauling suitcases? Not so much.

Going east, I generally like to connect through Phoenix Sky Harbor or Denver.  Can't believe I forgot to mention Denver.  That's a nice airport!

I've never connected in DFW. It's great from an O/D standpoint though since the pickup/dropoff lanes are literally feet from the gates.

I agree that there are some long hauls for some connections, but what large airport doesn't have these? And I don't understand what's hard to comprehend about the layout. It's a big H. Terminal runs east-west and concourses run north and south from each end.

I've never gotten lost, but I've also never been able to make a connection without a map. If someone pops out at gate A5 and has to get to G7 for instance, it's completely unintuitive.

I can see how it vaguely resembles an H, but only barely. A/C concourses are connected end-to-end with B completely unconnected. There's the tunnel between G and C. There's the new train that runs the length of the C concourse, but for some reason stops before A even though it's the same "leg". And D concourse has a letter but is little more than a shopping mall.

It's probably fine for someone who knows the airport well or is O/D traffic, but it's a maze for connections if you only are there a few times each year.

As for long walks, it's possible to have a giant airport without long walks. DTW is a great example. Even ATL (and DEN, with the same layout), as much of a pain as it can be, is laid out such that it isn't really a giant walk between any two gates. The problem with MSP is that A and C are layed out end-to-end, a very inefficient setup.

[realjd]

BWI I prefer over Dulles.

BWI only marginally serves the same market as IAD in my opinion. I think DCA is a much better example, and I do prefer DCA to IAD by a large margin. If nothing else, having a direct subway connection automatically makes it a much better choice for DC-bound traffic.

[Coelacanth]

I've never gotten lost, but I've also never been able to make a connection without a map. If someone pops out at gate A5 and has to get to G7 for instance, it's completely unintuitive.
...

As for long walks, it's possible to have a giant airport without long walks. DTW is a great example.

For the record, DTW is a MILE from end to end.

MSP was much more intuitive when the concourses were colors rather than letters. Gold, Red, Blue, Green are pretty easy to find on a map. The given reason for the change was to be consistent with other airports, but why is that such a huge deal? It doesn't take a genius to know Blue Concourse = that large blue area on the terminal map.

Translation guide for those interested:

G = Gold concourse ('G for Gold')
F = Red concourse (think 'Fred')
E = Blue concourse (for some reason 'BluEEEE' is easy for me to remember)
Everything else is Green

[realjd]

DTW is a mile end-to-end, but the handy roof train makes it so you don't have to walk far, and there are moving sidewalks throughout. The tunnel between A and B/C is a bit long, but there are moving sidewalks the whole length there also.

I can see how colors would be much more intuitive in MSP. Letters work in airports like ATL because they're all accessed from one central point (the train) and increase alphabetically other than the T(erminal) gates. In MSP I know logically that the letters go clockwise, but for whatever reason the layout just never clicked.

[rant]
Speaking of moving sidewalks, they're not Disney rides. If you really are too lazy to walk on them -- and their big benefit is speed, not laziness -- please don't block the entire thing!
[/rant]

[Brandon]

Of the ones I've been through...

Chicago Midway - busy, yet I can get in and out easily.  I also like how security does not split any of the concourses.
Houston Hobby - easy to get in and out.  Not too damn big.
Honolulu - Nicely sized, good ocean views, and heck, it is Hawai'i after all. 

[xcellntbuy]

Orlando International Airport has a beautifully designed interior.  The all black exterior of Thurgood Marshall-Baltimore-Washington International Airport looks like a foreboding, clandestine, cloak-and-dagger kind of place.

[txstateends]

Not sure how well this will help in the favorite/not-so-favorite rankings for some of you, but DFW and Love are both undergoing multi-year renovations.  While DFW will retain its general layout afterward, Love is totally revamping into 1 central concourse/terminal area.

DFW project: http://www.dfwairport.com/redefine/
Love project: http://www.lovefieldmodernizationprogram.com/

[formulanone]

ATL - Basically my third home (FLL would be my second); spent many "days" there and I'm just used to what's around and which gates I prefer and which ones to expect on connections. Awful if you have a full bladder and your plane landed at 9am on a Monday morning (great, another 20 minute wait on the tarmac), or sixteenth in line to take off on a Friday afternoon, but there's a certain intensity with being part of a place that has nearly a quarter-million visitors per day.

SAT - (San Antonio) Prettiest airport; not terribly busy, but it's also not the cold, sterile, office complex that many airports are.

GSO - (Greensboro/Triad) Loneliest airport? Thirty-two gates, and maybe five appear to be in active use. Clean, easy to traverse, et cetera...but I always feel bad when I land; it's as if it was built for a future that won't arrive in 20-30 years.

[realjd]

^^^
I knew I wasn't the only person here who practically lives at ATL! When I'm not in a SkyClub, you can often find me at the A10 Chick-fil-A or at the quiet tables by the big windows behind the Panda Express in the E concourse food court.

[OCGuy81]

I hear a lot of horror stories about ATL, but my experiences (2) haven't been that bad.  Maybe it's because I wasn't connecting, but actually getting off and attending conferences in Atlanta.   Perhaps connections are what makes this a rough airport?

Both times I flew SNA-ATL and back, no issues, no delays.  Luck?

[OCGuy81]

http://780x378-1.ikiwq.com/aZnOv0PSwIZ27Gy1xN4BYd.jpg

Good to see Love Field getting some, well, love.  I prefer that 100x over going to DFW.  And despite any stigmas it may have, I really like Southwest!  They're organized, they board and de-board quickly, and not charging for bags? Great move on their part!

[realjd]

I hear a lot of horror stories about ATL, but my experiences (2) haven't been that bad.  Maybe it's because I wasn't connecting, but actually getting off and attending conferences in Atlanta.   Perhaps connections are what makes this a rough airport?

Both times I flew SNA-ATL and back, no issues, no delays.  Luck?

Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world by passengers. With that many people connecting, there are bound to be some horror stories. I'm there multiple times a month and have only had one flight cancelation ever. It does get delays regularly in the summer due to afternoon thunderstorms, but missed connections are rare in my experience because all flights are usually delayed if one is, and they are rarely delayed more than an hour.

It also probably has to do with non frequent flyers being more sensitive to short wx delays. An hour delay to me is no big deal, but someone who flys once a decade may be less tolerant simply because they aren't used to it.

[agentsteel53]

Good to see Love Field getting some, well, love.  I prefer that 100x over going to DFW.  And despite any stigmas it may have, I really like Southwest!  They're organized, they board and de-board quickly, and not charging for bags? Great move on their part!

I do appreciate the not charging for bags.  I'm happy to cough up the $10 each way to get a better seat, because it's either that, or I attempt to find phone signal 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds before my departure (good luck with that, if I'm in the middle of nowhere), or reverse-engineer their website to write a script to log me in (did that once, back in about 2003... I don't have that kind of time on my hands these days!)

[realjd]

I just remembered another airport I want to add to my most hated list: LGA. What a dump. I've never been to a dirtier, nastier airport.

[formulanone]

I do appreciate the not charging for bags.  I'm happy to cough up the $10 each way to get a better seat, because it's either that, or I attempt to find phone signal 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds before my departure...

...while checking SeatGuru to make sure you're not stuck in a assigned seat by a lavatory, given a non-reclining-non-exit-row seat, a no underseat-storage location, et cetera. Only to use a totally different style of aircraft due to mechanical issues: Window-seat "xxA", and forget it.

DTW's tram system is annoying. They have 78 gates in a straight line, the tram stops in three places, but you still have to walk some distance, and the tram takes almost as long as walking. Nowhere near as quick as getting around Atlanta. I'd forgive it if the terminal was 50 years old (and they just kept adding on to the existing gates), but it's a new facility dating back to 2002. The only saving grace is that you get to hear English and Japanese over the prerecorded PA system, and written on the signs.



O'Hare almost never has enough terminal seating, especially if you fly Continental/United. Only 20-30 seats for a typical aircraft with 100-120 seat assignments...somebody didn't math right! Go sit on the floor and think about what you've done wrong.

[agentsteel53]

The only saving grace is that you get to hear English and Japanese over the prerecorded PA system, and written on the signs.

gee, that sounds real helpful.  how do you say "this is a TSA alert.  today's threat code is orange: blow up a suspicious package which you see in your immediate area.  consider soiling yourself." in Japanese?

[formulanone]

gee, that sounds real helpful.  how do you say "this is a TSA alert.  today's threat code is orange: blow up a suspicious package which you see in your immediate area.  consider soiling yourself." in Japanese?

Darn it, I paid for two semesters of Nihongo, darn if I shouldn't be able to exploit it once in a blue moon. Or over a lot of Blue Moons.

[tdindy88]

DTW's tram system is annoying. They have 78 gates in a straight line, the tram stops in three places, but you still have to walk some distance, and the tram takes almost as long as walking. Nowhere near as quick as getting around Atlanta. I'd forgive it if the terminal was 50 years old (and they just kept adding on to the existing gates), but it's a new facility dating back to 2002. The only saving grace is that you get to hear English and Japanese over the prerecorded PA system, and written on the signs.

Is there a reason for the Japanese might I ask, this is Detroit's airport you're talking about right?