The only problem I have with LAX is if you are in the wrong terminal for whatever reason getting to another terminal is awful. Otherwise it isn’t bad or good, IMO. But I do try and fly into and out of Burbank whenever possible.
I mentioned in a recent thread on Barcelona that the wife was standing in line at the airport there to check in for her flight back to Bangkok. A man came passing through from right to left and cut in front of her. When the guy in front of her in the queue reached the counter, he discovered he’d just been pick-pocketed! His money and passport – ticket, too, maybe – were gone! The wife said the airport police claimed it happened all the time.
Bangkok’s airport, Suvarnabhumi, three years old now, I like much less than the old Don Muang Airport. I find Suvarnabhumi an ugly monstrosity, and it’s chock-a-block with scammers, many of them dressed as “helpful” officials. Plus it’s farther to get to for most people now.
One thing I’ve always found weird is Calgary’s domestic smoking lounge. It’s in an awesome location and I can’t believe they save it for a smoking room and not like an exec lounge or something. Beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the tarmac, and literally meters to the left of the arrival gate. I’d hang out there if I was on a layover, except I’d choke to death on the smoke.
Shush, I know. Calgary is the largest airport I’ve been in. I actually worked in the business district near the Saskatoon airport and we’d go to the Tim Horton’s there for lunch, it was quicker than any other location. Go crappy little airports!
Several years ago, the airport in San José, California was re-named for Norman Mineta, a Japanese-American who was the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
There were big banners and signs throughout the airport, on the airport shuttles, etc., that proudly proclaimed “Welcome to Mineta San José”!
“Mineta” is a vulgar word for oral sex in some Spanish-speaking countries. My friends from Argentina were shocked that an airport would have that name!
(They use the same word in Polish and “minette” in French – with the same meaning.)
Maybe someone told the airport officials about these alternative meanings, because when I was at there last month, the only “Mineta” sign I saw was inside one of the underground pedestrian walkways, well out of the main public view. 
My only, well, biggest gripe with Swampy is that it’s too darn cold. I once was stuck in the departures area for a night and I got frozen blue trying to sleep. I ended up walking up and down the area like zombie until I could board the plane.
Where’s that’s airport (somewhere in Colorado?) that used to have that creppy-ass mural of the guy with a gas mask and bayonet and dead kids in coffins?
Also, I’d like to hear what some people thought of my hometown airport, McCarran in Las Vegas. I always found it tacky. I mean, metal palms trees? Come on…
Tacky, stench of cigarette smoke. Must be in Vegas.
Yes, but it gets bonus points for actually being in Las Vegas, as opposed to being god knows where else, like 30 miles out in the desert.
Stepping outside would have cured that. 
That airport sucks, because I lost money in the slot machines there while waiting for my flight.
Heathrow is OK, if you are just transferring to another flight. Checking in there sucks. (I honestly would consider taking the train to Liverpool, checking in, flying to Heathrow and then continuing to my destination.)
Cairo is remarkable. A huge, important city with an airport that would not do for a county seat in the US.
That’s why only tourists play and locals very rarely do!
Yep, I checked the keyboard on a couple of internet terminals. There is no @ key on the keyboard, nor does it mention to use the Alt Gr in combination with any other key.
Wow, that’s stupid. Don’t they realize that a lot of people using the keyboards will NOT be familiar with the QWERTZ layout, will probably want to use email, and will need to know where the @ is? The three QWERTZ keyboards I have on my desk right now all have the @ marked right underneath the Q, so they must have chosen to use keyboards that leave it out.
This cracked me up
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1514&Itemid=59
Never connected through there but have flown in and out a lot. It tells you everything you need to know about the UK - their state of the art Terminal 5 is a decidedly average mid-nineties design merged with a small overpriced shopping mall. Their state of the art IRIS immigration system consists of two machines (one always broken) which seem to be powered by a 486 running windows. Its cheaper and faster to book a car into town than to take public transport. All the security staff want to work for the TSA in JFK when they grow up. Pitiful. And the rest of LHR is worse.
But better than JFK terminal 8, I must say. That seems very new, and designed from the ground up to fit into the JFK ‘traveller misery theme park’ ethos.
Haivng said that, both are much nicer than places like Catania (siciliy) or Nairobi. But then they bloody well should be.
Hmm, I had a pleasant experience at Indira Gandhi. Even did some shopping and got some Subway sandwiches.
Cairo International was pretty horrible though. A lack of seating and I hate “gate waiting rooms” (Schiphol, you’re just as guilty). I guess I prefer my hometown airport’s terminal which has one security check-in. Oh, and Jamaica, you’re a tourist destination, a little f’ing air conditioning would be appreciated.
As for good airports, Narita, Japan was quite nice. So was Reykjavik’s (even though they had the “waiting rooms”. )