I just discovered that I can save more than $100 by flying into Miami a day earlier than I need to (I’m going on a cruise). But I won’t have free lodging available, so if I really want to the reap the savings I’ll need to spend the night at the airport.
I wouldn’t be so concerned if I could stay at the gates, but I have to get my luggage from baggage claim (I’ll be away for a week, so keeping everything in a carry-on isn’t an option). So that means I’d have to sleep in the more public ticketing/check-in area. I’m concerned that I would stick out like a sore thumb and be accosted by the police.
Has anyone ever intentionally spent the night at an airport? Does security tend to look the other way, or is someone likely to get tossed out on their arse if they can’t prove they’re actually waiting for a flight?
I’ve never had any problem whatsoever sleeping in an airport, but I’ve always stayed at the gates.
Why can’t you keep your essentials in a carry on, but send your luggage on ahead of you? It will just be waiting for you in the unclaimed baggage section when you arrive at your destination. Thousands of people who get bumped onto later flights do this all the time.
I once spent the night in an airport because I wanted to take the public bus the next morning for $1.50 rather than pay $30 for a cab ride. I camped out behind an unmanned counter. I was accosted by the police who demanded ID from me and who ultimately told me to sleep somewhere else within the airport.
I have no idea if things have changed since 9/11. Also, your treatment may vary depending on which airport it is and your personal appearance.
I’ve slept in the Dublin airport twice and Albuquerque once*. Keep your ID handy, keep your luggage near you, and expect to be roused once or twice by security folks. Tell them that you’re leaving for a cruise first thing in the morning and you should be fine.
Don’t, however, expect to sleep well. In my experience, airports are bright, noisy, and cold around the clock. You can get around it with a blanket (I’ve used a towel as such), eyemask, and earplugs, though.
*Kind of; I had a flight that left at the ungodly hour of one AM.
I thought there was some 911 policy against unattended luggage. Like, if they see my unpicked-up bag, they’ll assume something untoward is inside and do something bad to it.
I had a very early morning flight out of Boston pre-9/11. I took the last train the night before from where I was living in Connecticut, so I arrived at the airport at maybe 1am. I went through security and slept near a gate. Woke up at 5am and checked in. Nobody bothered me at all, though that may have been a pre-9/11 phenomenon.
Due to me not reading the dates right, I ended up spending the night in Gatwick last summer. I wasn’t the only one, apparently it was the thing to do that night. I just wrapped up in my jacket, lay on my large bag, and used my smaller bag as a pillow. Mostly I read Dracula because I was too uncomfortable to sleep well. I don’t recall security going by waking people up, but I was only asleep for about three hours.
I also hadn’t checked in yet. I got to the airport at 8 p.m. and my flight didn’t leave until 7 the next morning. That was a long night.
I’ve intentionally spent the night at the airport a few times, and always outside the gates area. I haven’t been bothered by security, but I have friends who’ve been woken by security, with the latter dutifully stating “You can’t sleep here. If you’re gonna spend the night, check in to a hotel” and then leaving them to fall back to sleep.
You are waiting for a flight and you have a ticket/itinerary/reservation. That book you’re reading is good, but it’s possible you might doze off while reading it. No harm, you have several hours of margin between your flights (even more than they recommend), so it’s unlikely you’ll miss your connecting flight.
My experience is with European airports, so I don’t know if the closer proximity to Gitmo is an issue.
Lastly, a warm jacket beats a blanket for that accidentally-fell-asleep-while-reading look.
I slept at an airport in Sao Paulo, IIRC. It was pretty lame. Colder than heck on a tile (linoleum) floor. The sleep was pretty crappy, and for the first time ever I was glad to sit in a plane seat. Of course, all the clothes I had with me were for the beach, and my sweater served better as a pillow than as a shirt. It shouldn’t be as miserable if you plan ahead. Take a change of clothes for warm and cool, and be sure to take a pillow.
Not if the bag has already gone through security. It usually ends up with a tag that says as much.
This was way before 9/11, but I have done this twice during my frugal youth. Once at DeGaulle in Paris, which was quite the adventure. I remember being awakened by a 5am flight boarding for francophone Africa. I also remember paying the equivalent of $3 for a can of Coke, in like 1990.
The other time was in Phoenix, and it was extremely dull.
No one ever bothered me, either from a criminal or law enforcement perspective. I made sure my stuff was configured in such a way that I slept on top of it, to increase the chance that if someone tried to steal it they would wake me up.
I’ve never done it on purpose, but I have spent the night in LaGuardia once because all the nearby hotels were full (stupid weather). At LGA, they close the gates at night, so we unfortunate souls who had to spend the night at the airport had to spend it in baggage claim. No one bothered us; the more annoying part was finding a place other than the slightly damp floor to sleep.
Note: this was after 9/11, so it’s definitely still possible to do.
I’m not a morning person. So if I have to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight from SFO (around an hour away by car), meaning I’d need to get there at 5:30, and wake up at 4:30, I instead just drive up at 1 a.m., then nap on the floor for 3 or 4 hours. It’s unsatisfying, but getting 3 hours of sleep then trying to drive while utterly exhausted would be worse.
I did it once, wouldn’t do it again. Looked up some Sleeping in Airports websites, did my research. But I think you have to be the sort of person who can sleep standing up. My experience was in Palma airport in Mallorca (Spanish island). Security seemed to be cool about it, but there were constant PA announcements, bright lights, and really nowhere to get comfortable. I got effectively no sleep at all.
Sleeping inside of security is easy and you won’t be bothered. Sleeping outside of security is more problematic and has a much higher likelihood of being seen for what it is: a cheap public place to sleep. It’s not worth it.
FWIW I travel for a living. 2-4 airports/wk. It is basically a crapshoot as to how it will work out, but in general I’d say your odds of feeling like the $100 was well saved are low, even though you are an economy-minded youngster and I am a rich(er) geezer. Look into low-cost alternatives. Don’t start your first cruise day feeling like you have beaten to a pulp. You should feel like that at the end but you need to start fresh.
I wouldn’t even think about doing it for $100, but we regularly spend the night in the Seattle airport when we fly back to the states. We can get $24 tickets from Japan to Seattle on military chartered planes, but we have to be back at the airport in Seattle at 3 am for the flight back, so it isn’t worth it to get a hotel in Seattle. Even with the USO lounge, it’s a major pain in the ass, but it saves us about $2000, so it’s worth it.
The last flight from Anchorage to Homer is around 9pm. Any reasonably priced ticket will get you into anchorage after that time, and the first flight leaves around 5am.
I have spent many uncomfortable cold nights in that airport. And there is a whole town of people that will be able to sympathize with your unfortunate sleeping arrangements when you get back.
BTW the entire Ted Stevens airport is almost completely closed at night and it is cold. All concessions are closed. I have learned a bit though through the years. I usually take a blanket from the airplane with me and after the plane lands I ask the attendants if I can have an extra sandwich or something. There always seem to have piles of food left and let me have as much as I like after telling them my next connection is the next morning.
I’ve done it when I was flying from London to NYC, it was a very-early flight and I was a very, very poor student. Since more than 2/3 of the other people in the two chartered 747s had the same idea, it made for a very large sheep mound!
We got lucky, the seats in Heathrow back then were relatively comfy to sleep on. Many of us had sleeping bags and mats, those went straight for the floor and left the seats for those without.
Make sure to have water, warm clothes and some munchies.
Some airports have hotels that are part of the actual airport. For those sleeping there for time reasons and not for money, they can be a good option (expensive as hell, but not more than those “close to the airport” ones which manage to be one hour away between getting the taxi and whatnot).