Tell us an airport story

[joe]

Almost every new "slow" travel experience begins and ends with a paradox : you are propelled through the sky at 600 mph. Going through an airport and spending time there is therefore part and parcel of most traveling.
So - tell us about it. What do you like about them? What not? Have you had any exceptionally good/bad/interesting experiences in them? What are your insights about these places?

To get this going, I'll start, and if the thread picks up, I'll add some more :
I just love airports, and actually any hub of travel (bus and train stations as well). If I'm in one, it means, first of all, that I'm already in a state of heightened excitement - the journey has started, and travel is around the corner. Airports are also a bit special in this respect, because it seems to me that they're one of the few places where almost everyone in them is happy, and it shows : the outbound are on their way to an adventure, and the inbound are glad to get back home and meet the ones they've missed.
Airports are a portal to a different perspective.

 

[phirhon]

Travelling from Australia, we spend a lot of time in airports getting to and from Europe. It is just something we endure. Our most interesting ? or alarming ? experiences have both begun in provincial airports in France. Some set up. Our first overseas trip was to the UK in 2004 for our son's wedding. While there we visited Wales, my mother's birthplace, and bought her a lovely pine cone shaped crystal ( heavy ) souvenir. We then travelled by the channel tunnel to France for a few days with our son and his new wife and flew back to London from Dinard. My husband had the 'thing' in his carry on and was invited in to a private room to have his bag unpacked in front of armed guards. It looked remarkably like a hand grenade on the scanners! This experience followed us home in Dubai and Singapore.
In 2008 we flew back to the UK from Limoges. We checked our bags in and then went to drop off the car. We came back to hear my husband being paged. We went to the desk and were taken to a private room where I could see my bag on a table. Despite it being my bag, they would only allow my husband in as they unpacked it until they came to my hairdryer. It looked remarkably like a gun! Much laughter and all was good. So security is there!!!

 

[Ian Sutton]

For me airports are mostly for enduring and likewise the flights. The cattle-herding from location to location, and the artificial nature of everything there . However...

• Smaller airports can be a comparative joy, and if possible we'll use them even if it costs a little more. Our own local airport had 2 gates but I think that might now be up to 3 or 4. Very little queuing. The highlight of returning there, is we can be in a taxi home within 10 minutes of the airplane wheels touching the ground, and home inside 20 mins. Cambridge airport even better: 1 lounge, 1 gate and the same person that checks you in, also sees you onto the plane. Amusingly they have a baggage carousel that rotates either side of an external wall, which they load on the outside, and you pick up on the inside. The luggage probably only travels ~ 6-7 metres on it's rotating journey before coming back round again!
• My partner is a New Zealander, and hence has to complete a landing form every time she returns back home to the UK. In some of the big airports, this can mean over an hour queuing up to go through customs, though Norwich is only a couple of minutes. We were in the queue in Norwich once and we joked with another guy that it was the 'naughty queue' which raised a chuckle and the term has stuck in our vocabulary.
• Passing through security check in an Italian airport, the officer asked my partner to take her boots off before going through the scan (as they often do). She said "No" and the officer just shrugged and waved her through
• For those that have flown Ryanair, up until the last couple of years, they used to have a loud and annoying piece of self-promotion they used to play on landing (unless significantly late landing). On one flight, the pilot decided to do the 'spiel' himself which made a welcome change, especially as he was doing it tongue in cheek.
• Flying out of Darwin (to Sydney), the lady sat next to me remarked "on, it's one of those planes". "Those planes?" I replied. "Yes" she said" "the last time I flew on one of these it crashed" (that was back when I was still overcoming a fear of flying)
• The same lady also expressed relief when she saw her bicycle being loaded onto the plane. That seemed odd, so I had to ask her why she was taking her bicycle from Darwin to Sydney. It turned out she'd ridden the outward leg, right through the centre of Australia) and this was the return leg.

 

[aap519]

One time going through security at O'Hare airport I was pulled to the side and they started swabbing my hands and put the swab through a machine. Then I remembered right before I left our house I cleaned the kitchen counter with Windex with Ammonia-D. I am sure it was the ammonia that set off a sniffer.

One time going through security at the Amsterdam airport, I saw my wife get pulled to the side and brought to a private room by female security personnel. Turns out it was her underwire bra that cause the issue.

One time on an overnight flight, after the lights went out, a women was holding both of flight attendants arms behind her back as they were walking down the aisle. That scared me and shot adrenaline into my system. Turns out the woman was blind and the flight attendant was leading her to the bathroom.

Another time on an overnight flight, I suddenly see this guy walking down the aisle with a black box on his head. I thought it was some nut with a bomb on his head. Turns out there's a Jewish sect that does that. I had never heard of that before.

 

[aap519]

Flying out of Darwin (to Sydney), the lady sat next to me remarked "on, it's one of those planes". "Those planes?" I replied. "Yes" she said" "the last time I flew on one of these it crashed" (that was back when I was still overcoming a fear of flying)

Ian, I'm still laughing over this one

 

[Andrew]

the outbound are on their way to an adventure, and the inbound are glad to get back home and meet the ones they've missed.

I can probably think of many stories, including unexpectedly running into people I know, but that quote reminds me of something. I had a fairly long connecting time at Chicago Midway Airport a few days before Christmas, and decided to sit at an empty gate area. I saw people start to come out of the jetway, and I could tell that their expressions were not usual for people arriving at their destination. I heard that their flight to Denver was cancelled for snow, and they didn't have much prospect of getting there before Christmas. Since I'm so interested in travel practicalities, while I felt sorry for the passengers, it was interesting to see how they and the airline were handling the matter while it didn't affect me. This included advising people who would have been connecting in Denver on going to O"Hare to find other airlines to get them West. The airline was Frontier, which did not have interline agreements with Southwest, which dominates Midway.

 

[Pauline]

We were on a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City where we would connect to a flight to Albuquerque. We were coming home after a month in Hawaii, with a stopover for a few days in Santa Monica. We could have flown Southwest direct LA to ABQ but we had points with Delta and I was using them. We were seated in Business Class and the flight would not take off because two Delta employees were arguing about who would sit in Business Class and who in Coach. Both were flying standby. The one already seated in Business would not give up his seat to the other employee who was insisting he should have it. We all listened to them fight for 30 minutes. I can't remember how it was resolved but finally we took off, arriving in SLC late.

They said our ABQ flight would be held and we ran through the airport missing it by minutes. No more flights that day. They booked us on a morning flight and gave us vouchers for food and an airport hotel. I was furious and I was not going to stay in some stupied airport hotel. We had driven Seattle to Santa Fe many times years before and I thought it was an easy 6 hour drive from SLC to Santa Fe, so we rented a car and started driving around 8pm. By midnight we were still in Utah and stayed in a hotel beside the freeway. We drove through Colorado all day the next day. I forgot to mention this was February. The roads were clear but the snow banks were over 10 feet high in places. We barely made it home by 6pm in time to get the cats from the kennel.

I showed Delta!! It was an exciting drive though, and very beautiful.

 

[Colo]

Many moons ago… (before 9/11 and I still smoked) I was travelling from Washington DC to Los Angeles. A work trip that I had to repeat all too frequently. I had to change planes in Chicago, and upon arrival my connecting flight had been delayed for a few hours. I decided to go outside and enjoy a cigarette.

There was a lot of commotion at the middle doors to the outside, so I just walked to last door and went out. Surprisingly there was no one curb side, no taxis, no hustling travelers… just me. Enjoying my cigarette, I was enjoying being outdoors when all of sudden two men grabbed me. They pulled the cigarette out my mouth throwing it to the ground and stepped on it. I was about to object when I saw they both had machine pistols under their jackets. So, I said jokingly, hey you guys must be pretty radical anti-smoking enforcers. One smiled showed me a badge and just said a VIP is arriving directing me to stand still. Which made a lot of sense to me since they were physically holding where I was standing.

A moment later a procession of limos arrived, and one the big black autos were flying the flag of Sweden. Oh, is it the Prime Minister? No, the King was the reply, and the two holding my arms kept me in positive control and walked me through the doors right behind him. He looked over with questioning look and kept walking. Through the lobby to the metal detectors where he cruised through follow by a bunch of folks that were making the machines beep like mad. My gentleman escorts released me at the metal detectors and walked through. The king looked back and smiled again, and I waved. He waved back an off to his charter aircraft. Me, I went had my cigarette and the hustle bustle of Chicago was back in full force. That was my encounter with royalty.

I am approaching 2 million miles on American Airlines. In those miles, I have encountered Rob Reiner (nice guy), Billy Bob Thornton (no contact), Greta Van Susteren (Not Impressed – albeit it seemed she was of herself), and I had a brief chat with John McEnroe who was extremely friendly.

However, my most special moment traveling was in LA airport. I arrived extremely early for my flight back to DC. I found a quiet place to read in isolated corner. A woman came in and sat across from me and began reading a stack of papers. I looked a little harder, and it was Julie Andrews! I am of age that the Sound of Music is hands down my favorite movie of all time. (don’t laugh too hard) Not wanting to bother her, I sat quietly for about 30 minutes before I HAD to introduce myself and like a star struck little boy let her know I was her greatest fan. I have never done anything like this before, but had to ask, may I have her autograph. (I know I shouldn’t have, but she is my favorite). She smiled and signed my boarding pass. I thanked her and returned to my seat. The flight to NY boarded a few minutes later and she gathered her stuff smiled and walked away.

It was not until the next week, when I was home, the kids had on one of the entertainment shows. I heard the host say that Julie Andrews had been in LA and learned that her surgery on her throat had gone bad. She would not be able to sing after the surgeon’s mistake. I often wonder if that was the report she was reading… In what must have been one of her lowest moments, she was a gracious lady and acknowledge a fan. That boarding pass is in a safe place and my memory has not faded.

I guess this post crosses a couple threads

 

[Roz]

We had our worst airport experience in 2005, with a Virgin Atlantic flight out of Boston. I can't possibly write everything that Virgin screwed up because it would take pages. Bottom line is that our flight didn't leave until 3 days late, Virgin held our bags hostage for over 24 hours, and lied to us all the way along about what was happening. If anyone really wants to know the full horror story (with photos) look here.

Fortunately we had travel insurance -- and that experience proved to me that I should never fly without it.

I also learned about this website, which is worth bookmarking: Sleeping In Airports.

 

[Ian Sutton]

3 days!!!!

 

[Ian Sutton]

A little smoking related one.

On my first trip to Australia, Royal Brunei were coming out quite cheap, and I read they'd just had a new fleet of aircraft delivered (the story goes the Sultan thought they ought to have a national airline, so he arranged for one to be set up). The flights were great, and the food (ordinary 'coach') was a joy.

The only real glitch was the modern/clean airport in Brunei, where the staff were a little disorganised. Chief amongst the problems, was the allocation of smoking seats. There was a large gaggle of non-smokers complaining that they'd been given seats in the small smoking area at the back. I did a quick head-count and it looked like the vast majority of the smoking seats had been given to non-smokers... if only they'd realised they could have had a non-smoking flight, as they had the only seats you could smoke in!

 

[PokeyMindy]

We had our worst airport experience in 2005, with a Virgin Atlantic flight out of Boston. I can't possibly write everything that Virgin screwed up because it would take pages. Bottom line is that our flight didn't leave until 3 days late, Virgin held our bags hostage for over 24 hours, and lied to us all the way along about what was happening. If anyone really wants to know the full horror story (with photos) look here.

Fortunately we had travel insurance -- and that experience proved to me that I should never fly without it.

I also learned about this website, which is worth bookmarking: Sleeping In Airports.

"Listerine breath strips"

I vaguely remember that horror story. Had you talked about it on Slowtalk?

 

[DDTraveler]

Like the OP, I also mostly enjoy airports, especially on the outbound flight. Like everyone here, I've endured my share of late flights (one from SFO to Honolulu was nearly 12 hours late, missed an entire day of vacation), lost bags, weird pat downs, and the cattle herding. More recently though, I've been doing my best to book business flights (through frequent flyer programs) both for the flights themselves as well as for the lounges -- having a nice seat, with wifi and an electrical outlet, a snack and possibly a glass of wine, makes for a very nice start of a trip.

A few years ago when I was just getting into the FF game, I was able to book roundtrip first class tickets on British Air from San Francisco to London Heathrow. My daughter and I had never flown first class, and it was a treat! But what we remember the most was the first class BA lounge in Heathrow -- fabulous -- full sit down restaurant, showers, and all sorts of amenities. We've not flown first since, but it was a luxurious experience.

DD

 

[joe]

In the last ten years I've traveled abroad three times, and in all instances we went through Milan Malpensa. The last time, we had about three hours to while away at the airport in the late evening, before boarding the flight home - a sort of contemplative pause in which you still slowly digest what has just come to an end, think of what is waiting back home, and try to see how it all fits together.

I remember sitting there and being pretty amazed at what essentially I was seeing : people of many nationalities, cultures and human types, in different attires and fashions, milling about, passing each other, some alone, some with others, some slightly "lost", some completely in charge, all carrying around a pack or suitcase of what they each deem essential, and all of them with a very defined and short-term purpose - getting from point A to point B as conveniently as possible.

I thought that actually it's quite intriguing that I've never seen a single instance of bad behavior between people in an airport, occuring because of a cultural or national distaste, and that an airport seems to be a special type of "no-man's land" - or everyone's land - that might be a good model for mutual respect and cooperation.

What do we basically have at an airport? A tight security system with pretty much zero allowance for disruptful or violent behavior, and on the other hand multitudes of people who quite simply have a very good and defined thing to do, and do not want anything to interfere with that. They certainly don't want to be taken to a little room and asked questions by people they hardly understand, and they want to spend their precious time well.

I'm sure I haven't traveled enough to see the more negative sides of this, but in my humble opinion there is something the peacemakers can learn from airports.

 

[Joana]

Speaking of objects being mistaken by security:
In 2003, we were leaving Rome and heading for London. I felt very organized because I had packed our gift purchases in my carry on bag, so there would be no danger of losing them in my checked bag. When my carry on was checked, the woman at the security gate became very disturbed, and pulled out one bag. I had forgotten that the mezzaluna ( a sharp double bladed chopper for herbs and veggies) I had purchased was in that bag. My husband was able to stuff it in his carry on and check it at the airline counter.
In 2013, we were leaving Paris to return home. At the security gate, my carry on went through the scanner and caused great concern. The woman checking my bag was stony-faced and put a wooden stick down to open the bag, telling me to remove items. When I pulled out a large ziplock bag, her face suddenly relaxed and she even smiled. In the bag was my small metal water bottle with the stopper on it. Evedently on the scanner it looked like a small grenade! Needless to say, I now make sure to leave the top off.

 

[Fletch]

Forty years ago my husband had been posted to England and on the way home to Australia we decided to visit friends in Nigeria.

The trip ( with 2 small children) didn't start well with fog delaying the flight.

Once on our way the flight was uneventful until we were approaching Lagos and it too was fogged in!

When the pilot felt there was a window to land, the landing instruments at the airport were not working well and we came in through the fog to see that the runway was to our left. The plane aborted the landing and took off again.


Once on land we were met by a friends workmate who worked for an airline and "walked us through"arrival proceedings. We were transferring to a flight to Port Harcourt. After he left us we had to get our boarding passes but unfortunately he didn't tell us that we needed to bribe the ticket officers. We didn't have any money because we hadn't arrived through the terminal!

After sitting in the transit lounge, under a tree, for several hours and watching the lady with all our tickets ( paper ones in those days) in her hand and several Port Harcourt planes leave, she eventually gave us 2 boarding passes for the 4 of us and told us to watch which plane our luggage went to and run to it when the gate opened!

We ran as best we could with little children and hand luggage that included Brussel sprouts for our Christmas lunch.

We scrambled to the last 2 seats. Unfortunately for some people they were on the plane without seats. They proceeded to sit in the aisle and refused to move. About 15 minutes later some army personnel arrived and pointed their guns at them. They moved then and we could take off!!

 

[Pauline]

About 15 minutes later some army personnel arrived and pointed their guns at them. They moved then and we could take off!!

Yikes! I thought my story with two employees arguing was bad!

 

[SMJ]

I was flying Qantas to Australia a few years ago, and a male passenger near me was questioning every little thing to the flight attendant, and not very pleasantly.
The food items ( which were delicious) were his worst fear; and finally when he had elicited from the FA that each item of food was fresh/ no additives/ and a dozen other stipulations, he asked how fresh the milk was.
The FA , without batting an eyelid, leaned into him and said loudly, in her lovely Aussie accent: Listen Sir, this milk was grass this morning. "

 

[SMJ]

If you haven't listened to the Podcasts: " Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase"; tune in!!
Hilarious stories from an anonymous flight attendant about flying.