What's the best / your favorite airport that you've been to?

[Brandon]

Sounds like LAX is a winner in the worst of category.  I count no fewer than seven people who think so on this thread.

[Pete from Boston]

The only airports currently on my "avoid" list are O'Hare and Philly.  Both have too much sloppy, counterintuitive layout from haphazard growth.  Philly at least has a nice new terminal (either renovated or built anew) with a food court with some legitimately healthy and good options, but I've still spent too much time waiting for a bus to putter along the tarmac and get me from terminal to terminal to want to go there again.

O'Hare is a lunatic maze that makes changing flights a harrowing ordeal.  It is the site of the single longest distance I have ever run with a suitcase.   

[billtm]

I really like O'Hare's Terminal 5. (The international one) It feels very modern and open.

[bookem]

Probably my hometown bias showing, but I'm casting a vote for PDX.  The post-security concourse connector ensures you don't have to stand in the TSA lines if you need to catch a connecting flight in a different part of the airport, light rail stops right at the doorstep, most rental car facilities are just across the street from the terminal, huge glass canopy keeps out the copious rain but lets in as much natural light as possible, strong margaritas at Sandoval's... I could go on.  (The place could sure use a Voodoo Donuts, however.)

Also, SAN is a kick, if only for that approach right over downtown SD as you're landing.

OAK is nice little quick-in, quick-out airport, but the baggage conveyor chewed up some poor shlub's suitcase while we were waiting for ours.  Also, for a fairly small airport, I couldn't understand why we had to take a shuttle to the rental cars.

[on_wisconsin]

Any airport that has decent ground-side amenities (restaurants and shops) is a favorite in my book.

[formulanone]

...my biggest pet peeve is when those same shops just increase your time between tight connections. Usually, they don't want a moving walkway in front of their mini-malls (MSP and JFK's terminal 4). Put that cluttering stuff in a central hub like CLT does, for example.

[realjd]

...my biggest pet peeve is when those same shops just increase your time between tight connections. Usually, they don't want a moving walkway in front of their mini-malls (MSP and JFK's terminal 4). Put that cluttering stuff in a central hub like CLT does, for example.

ATL does a decent job of that. The bulk of the shopping is usually clustered around the escalators.

That reminds me though: I hate airports where the gates aren't announced until the very last minute to force people to spend as much time in the central shopping hub. Or when the airport is designed so that you're forced to walk on what's invariably a windy, indirect path through a duty free store. SYD does this on arrival (right before immigration and quarantine) and on departure (right after immigration and security).

[formulanone]

Duty Free Shops make no sense to me...sure, let the international tourists get away with paying no tax, and huge quantities of items nobody should be purchasing large quantities of, like 2500 cigarettes or a gallon of Johnny Walker. If you're not travelling internationally, don't even think of buying anything other than a lot of candy or perfume. I'm guessing that the prices of everything are already high since they're in an airport, so are you really saving any money?

In short, I suppose that I don't travel enough out of the country to get the gist of this concept.

[briantroutman]

Duty Free Shops make no sense to me... I suppose that I don't travel enough out of the country to get the gist of this concept.

I think the duty free shops' biggest constituency is precisely people who don't travel out of the country much–and who don't really know how it works. These people have vague recollections of hearing about great deals at duty free stores and think this is their opportunity to "put one over"  on the government... And so they end up spending lots of money on liquor and perfume that they probably wouldn't have bought in the first place.

I've been to duty free stores in a number of countries and in international waters and have yet to see any screaming deals. The supposed advantage to buying at a duty free store is that you're exempted from paying the state, provincial, or national taxes of locality in which you're making the purchase, but you're still bound by the laws of wherever you're going–and there may be taxes or duties to be paid on your duty free purchase.

A woman called into Clark Howard a few weeks ago–she was on her way to Mexico, and the duty free shop had a "buy 2, get 1 free"  sale on cartons of cigarettes, but unbeknownst to her, Mexico law limits travelers to two cartons. And in this case, she wasn't facing a paltry $10-20 duty charge but an outrageous fine of like $2,500. The woman gladly offered to throw out or otherwise forfeit the third carton, but the Mexican customs officers told her that paying the fine was her only option.

[on_wisconsin]

MSP

There is a special spot reserved in hell for the designers of airport terminals that put next to nothing land-side, pre-TSA when it comes to places to eat or shop/ kill time. :looks glaringly at MSP and MSN:

[Pete from Boston]

MSP

There is a special spot reserved in hell for the designers of airport terminals that put next to nothing land-side, pre-TSA when it comes to places to eat or shop/ kill time. :looks glaringly at MSP and MSN:

I chalk this up in part to legacy infrastructure from the pre-9/11 days.  There was no real need to have landside services since everyone could go airside.

[spooky]

MSP

There is a special spot reserved in hell for the designers of airport terminals that put next to nothing land-side, pre-TSA when it comes to places to eat or shop/ kill time. :looks glaringly at MSP and MSN:

I'm sure there's a reason why you would want to kill time land-side, but I can't think of it.

[oscar]

MSP

There is a special spot reserved in hell for the designers of airport terminals that put next to nothing land-side, pre-TSA when it comes to places to eat or shop/ kill time. :looks glaringly at MSP and MSN:

I'm sure there's a reason why you would want to kill time land-side, but I can't think of it.

The last time I killed time land-side, I almost missed my flight due to really slow TSA screening.  Ever since, I've tried to get air-side ASAP.

[Brandon]

MSP

There is a special spot reserved in hell for the designers of airport terminals that put next to nothing land-side, pre-TSA when it comes to places to eat or shop/ kill time. :looks glaringly at MSP and MSN:

I chalk this up in part to legacy infrastructure from the pre-9/11 days.  There was no real need to have landside services since everyone could go airside.

I don't see much point to having a lot of landside services.  I hope there's a special place in Hell for designers who make you exit through security just to go to another concourse.  Yes, that's you, LAfuckingX.  All concourses should be connected airside.

[Pete from Boston]

MSP

There is a special spot reserved in hell for the designers of airport terminals that put next to nothing land-side, pre-TSA when it comes to places to eat or shop/ kill time. :looks glaringly at MSP and MSN:

I'm sure there's a reason why you would want to kill time land-side, but I can't think of it.

There's certainly less of a need now. However, in less phoned times, this was where you waited for people arriving. 

[cpzilliacus]

LAX - Dirty, old, and no airside connections between most of the concourses.

DCA (Reagan National) is mostly new and clean, but has no airside connections between its three new concourses and one old terminal.  (Could the new terminal be the newest example of pre-9/11 design?)  That's my main gripe, since I often end up in a concourse different from the one where I want to grab some breakfast in the morning (slim pickings for food pre-screening), but can't without an extra pass through TSA screening.  I use it anyway because it's so close to my apartment, but still.

It is indeed a long walk between terminals (I have had to do this many times as part of my job).

[on_wisconsin]

There's certainly less of a need now. However, in less phoned times, this was where you waited for people arriving.

Still important today, given all the delays and other things that can turn a perfectly planned quick airport pick up into an utterly boring, mind numbing, unpredictable all day affair.

[Brandon]

There's certainly less of a need now. However, in less phoned times, this was where you waited for people arriving.

Still important today, given all the delays and other things that can turn a perfectly planned quick airport pick up into an utterly boring, mind numbing, unpredictable all day affair.

That's why we wait at home until someone calls from Midway, or wait at the O'Hare Oasis until someone calls from O'Hare.

[cpzilliacus]

I've been to duty free stores in a number of countries and in international waters and have yet to see any screaming deals. The supposed advantage to buying at a duty free store is that you're exempted from paying the state, provincial, or national taxes of locality in which you're making the purchase, but you're still bound by the laws of wherever you're going–and there may be taxes or duties to be paid on your duty free purchase.

I like duty free stores that sell stuff that I normally cannot purchase at my destination - usually traveling home from Europe.

Examples include liquor that is difficult to find stateside, like 120 proof Finlandia vodka and Sweden's Skåne Akvavit (curiously, Skåne Akvavit is owned by Altia, which in turn is owned by the Finnish government).

[MikeTheActuary]

I've been to duty free stores in a number of countries and in international waters and have yet to see any screaming deals. The supposed advantage to buying at a duty free store is that you're exempted from paying the state, provincial, or national taxes of locality in which you're making the purchase, but you're still bound by the laws of wherever you're going–and there may be taxes or duties to be paid on your duty free purchase.

Before my wife quit smoking, we made a point of buying the legal limit of cigarettes at duty-free stores when traveling abroad.

The last time we did this was on a cruise: we were able to get her cigarettes for $18/carton, vice the $63/carton price available at home.

[formulanone]

MSP

There is a special spot reserved in hell for the designers of airport terminals that put next to nothing land-side, pre-TSA when it comes to places to eat or shop/ kill time. :looks glaringly at MSP and MSN:

I chalk this up in part to legacy infrastructure from the pre-9/11 days.  There was no real need to have landside services since everyone could go airside.

I rarely see much reason to get to an airport early; the stupid no-water protocol means buying everything after security checkpoints, anyhow. Nearly every American airport has some sort of newsstand and/or bookstore pre-security, and only the tiniest airports do not have anything at all post-checkpoint; there's even a few airports which do not have restrooms after you exit security...

Barely any, which puzzled me why FLL did it recently (three years ago) for Terminal 3. The only convincing reason I can think of is the Sunday crush of cruise ship passengers who are several hours away from their flight, and are then "in limbo" until the airlines are ready to deal with their luggage...on weekends, their airlines won't take their checked luggage until roughly two hours before their flight, because their facilities can't handle the cold storage volumes. I guess you're also forced to walk by them if you're headed towards baggage claim. It's a bit odd, since Terminals 1 and 2 closed up almost everything, land-side...can't speak for Terminal 4, as I've never used it.

I can see how FLL is a pretty lousy airport all around (no inter-terminal connections, kind of messy, lack of services, really backed up on Sundays and winter-time...yet it's the 24th busiest national airport?), yet it's the one I'd known for thirty-odd years, so it gets a free pass from me. Also, generally cheaper than PBI and MIA, and great aircraft photo opportunities without being bothered. Since it rarely, if ever, has domestic connecting flights in its terminals (except for possibly JetBlue and Spirit...after all, you're in America's cul-de-sac), the lack of any terminal connections is rare problem, unless there's been some weird flight diversion.

DCA is a bit annoying, but I always make sure I have at least an hour between connections because of the inter-terminal buses. Probably gets a bit grating after a few hours, or if you want to walk around, I suppose; crazy as it sounds, if I really need to kill time in a large airport, walking is a good way to pass the time and get a little exercise after cramming yourself in a small seat.

[realjd]

Duty Free Shops make no sense to me...sure, let the international tourists get away with paying no tax, and huge quantities of items nobody should be purchasing large quantities of, like 2500 cigarettes or a gallon of Johnny Walker. If you're not travelling internationally, don't even think of buying anything other than a lot of candy or perfume. I'm guessing that the prices of everything are already high since they're in an airport, so are you really saving any money?

In short, I suppose that I don't travel enough out of the country to get the gist of this concept.

There are deals to be had, but you have to look. Often the deals are in local products. Bundaberg rum from Australia is a good example. It's not available at all in the US. Australia has among the highest alcohol taxes in the world ($20+ for a bottle of liquor). I could pick up a 700mL bottle of Bundaberg outside the airport for $35-$40. In the airport, I could get a 1.25L bottle for around $30. Clearly the profit margins are higher but it's still a much better deal.

Other places, I've found the deals to be decent but not outstanding. Typically a bottle of liquor costs the same at the duty free store but it's larger. Standard duty free bottle sizes are 1L while standard bottle sizes in normal liquor stores are 700-750mL depending on the country. The duty free shop will charge the same for the 1L bottle that you'd pay for the slightly smaller bottle outside the airport.

I don't smoke but I understand cigarettes are a really good deal.

[SP Cook]

IMHO,

DCA.  This place was designed for people going to or from DC.  Not connecting.  It is an OK airport if you are going to DC, but they just should not allow connections there.

LAS.  I go to LV all the time.  They just expanded the place, but the new part is just internationals and a couple of airlines.  Renting a car involves taking a bus several miles to a totally seperate area, far more distant that the common off-site areas.  Security, expecially if going to the US Airways/SWA side (in reality the old terminal is two unconnected terminals) sucks. 

CLT.  Not a bad airport, but the small plane terminal is built in this way out deal so it is 10 minutes of taxiing to the runways. 

ATL.  Do you have to have a sub 80 IQ to work at ATL?  People there just don't know their jobs like other airports' workers do.  Always calling a supervisor to acomplish anything.

PIT.  US Airways screwed over the place when it merged with AW, but back when it was a hub, it required vendors to charge "outside world" prices for everything, and most stores would ship any purchases for free.