My last flight out of National (DCA) they RAN OUT OF COFFEE at 7:00 in the morning in our wing. Both places that sell coffee were out. If there had been a riot I would have joined in but apparently nobody had the energy to start one.
LAX has Kogi BBQ now! And some other nice places apparently! I can’t wait to do an airport pickup next time!
Denver is rather sparse, choice-wise, esp in the evening.
Each terminal is different. And if you’re picking up people, the food will be on the other side of security from where you are and hence inaccessible.
Seriously? I think it is one of the very best. Good food, not overly expensive, tons of variety, very accessible. Maybe in terminal C where the off-beat airlines have gates, but A and B and the main terminal are fantastic.
Huh. I gotta agree with DrDeth on that one. Not sure what terminal we usually use, but it sucks. Frankly, I think they all suck.
I remember one time we where waiting for a red eye. Still before midnight I believe. NOTHING was open in our terminal. Not a blessed thing.
I don’t like places that don’t have anything before security. O’Hare is like that. It’s probably because other people used to be able accompany to your gate even if you weren’t flying.
Yes, C gate. But Southwest, American, Delta are “offbeat”?
The airport in Luanda - Aeroporto Internacional 4 de Fevereiro - has gone through some major renovations and looks quite nice although food selections are still somewhat limited. Getting in and out of it is still a pain due to heavy traffic. Most of the outbound flights to the US and Europe leave around midnight, and the food and shops close at 1700 so you have to bring water and such.
Absolutely! I had a layover in Cleveland once, and not only did they not have any steamers, the TSA agent was kind of a dick about it.
When flying back from Hawaii a few years back, we took a puddle-jumper from Maui to Kona (on the big island), then were to board a widebody for the flight back to Chicago. Kona International Airport was, well, quaint. Most of it is actually open-air, with thatched-roof “huts” providing shade. They still use the big mobile staircases to get you on and off of the planes – no jetways. There was one very pedestrian cafeteria, and a gift shop, and restrooms – and that was about it.
When our flight home was delayed 6 hours due to mechanical issues, there was literally nothing to do (and the cafeteria and gift shop had long since closed). At least the weather was classically Hawaiian (i.e., gorgeous).
They are for Denver. Denver is a United hub so those airlines generally don’t bother competing for traffic in and out of Denver. United has about 90% of the gates in Terminal B and A has Frontier (used to be based in Denver and still has tons of traffic there) and all the international airlines.
BTW, Southwest is expanding rapidly in Terminal C so things should get better. Delta and AirTran are the only other airlines in that terminal. American is in A.
Yep, one problem with the larger older airports is the inconsistent services offer from terminal to terminal – and the inconsistent terminals themselves, of course. Find that Terminal 4A is a decently modern facility designed to accomodate security and passenger amenities, but Terminal 1C was built during WW2 and last renovated during the Carter administration. Or like the observed situation in Panama where the food court is all the way over at the central terminal. I remember a great feeling of joy upon the demolition and replacement of the old AA Terminal 8 at JFK, one of the great dumps.
There’s also the issue of designs that become obsolesced by external forces. Kansas City was made for easy flow from curb to gate, but that means they have no real way to isolate all of airside from all of groundside so you end up with a checkpoint for every 2 or 3 gates (sometimes just for one) and no amenities past the checkpoint (in a couple of cases no restrooms!). Pittsburgh was built to be USAir’s mega-hub back in the good days but then the airline got bought out and changed identities and left, it turned into an abandoned mall with huge distances between everything and the far ends of concourses simply walled off or even torn down altogether.
To the thread question: my homebase, SJU, is not alone in having its concessions insist on keeping hours that would be appropriate for a small rural town, while the airlines insist in piling on a whole bunch of flights arriving and departing between 11pm and 6 am. I’m hoping the new management can alter that; if I have to be there at 3am to check in, let me find coffee. Or cocktails. Or both. At least in the newer concourse A they have increased the number of electric plugs for your phones and tablets.
At least in recent years they made it so all the concourses connect on the good side of security at SJU, but the one or two people-mover conveyor sidewalks in the whole place seem to have not moved since the Bush administration so it can be a *&^%$# slog for a connection or to get to the proper luggage claim area. (Meanwhile the new management took the Duty Free shop in concourse A and relocated it so that it spans the concourse, i.e. to get to gates A1 to 7 you have to walk/roll through the middle of the shop.)
The airport I flew out of didn’t have flush toilets until fairly recently (and the outhouses were in sad shape)
Of course that is a GA airport and not a commercial one.
Brian
That’s the one I was going to mention. There was shit all to do past security in the international terminal. But it looks like they redesigned it and unveiled it this past April, so there’s plenty of stuff past security now. (I haven’t flown out of O’Hare internationally since the redesign.)
In general there’s a big difference in the design of terminal amenities in terminals (or concourses) used for domestic non-hub, domestic hub, and international gateway.
Hubs are well-provisioned with eats & retail because passengers are expected to spend time trapped there while changing planes. At least during the hours where the airline’s schedule is dense. Very early morning or late at night pickin’s can get slim. I fly a lot of (pre-)dawn patrols where they’re just unlocking the only coffee stand as we’re starting to board. And when weather makes a hub run an hour or more late into the late night, services often can’t stay open.
Departing passengers at non-hubs are assumed to arrive curbside, get through security, and get on their plane within a few minutes, leaving no time for buying much more than a newspaper or pack of gum. Arriving passengers linger even less, literally running from the jet bridge to / through baggage claim and out to ground transportation.
International terminals are designed more like hubs, but include duty free stores. The margins on these are awe-inspiring, so you’ll see square footage lavished on those vice on food courts or non-duty free retail.
There is also a strong assumption nowadays that nothing retail, including food, belongs on the outside of security. Because nobody other than travelers ever sets foot inside the building. Going inside to meet somebody arriving or send off somebody departing is so … 1950s. Pick-up/drop-off happens at the curb with a stern cop with a stopwatch poised to roust you if you move too slow and impede traffic flow. Travelers are assumed to arrive, deal with airline check-in as needed, and then pass through security, finally to lounge, if at all, on the secure side.