Slept at Chicago O’Hare about a week after 9/11. I arrived early evening and my flight was taking off at six the following day. I caught a train into the city for a few hours and then shortly after midnight I trained back to the airport. I was expecting it to be busier than it was, but I am used to NZ (Auckland) International which has flights coming in and out around the clock (albeit irregularly). I found a place where there were a dozen or so other people snoozing and security patrolled regularly, curled up on a bench and had some shut-eye for a few hours. No problems and I would do it again.
I’ve done it when I had to, but there is no way I’d do it by choice for $100. Check out www.sleepinginairports.com for tips and it might rate your airport.
Some are, some aren’t.
Last December (so this is post-9/11), a friend and I were scheduled for an overnight flight, leaving Seattle in late evening, connecting in Denver, and arriving in New York early in the morning. The first leg got screwed up, a perfect storm of weather and mechanical problems, so when we left Seattle we knew we were going to get into Denver well after the connector to New York had left, with no alternative flights available. The next possible flight from Denver to New York didn’t leave until the middle of the following morning. That meant we’d be getting into Denver at 1am, and killing several hours before a 9:30am departure. (Not one of my favorite vacation experiences.)
We found a carpeted spot surrounding a bank of pay phones and cash machines across from our airline’s ticket counter, spread out, and went to sleep. Nobody asked us what we were doing, or bothered us in any way. There were a couple of other people doing the same thing at the next machine bank down the way. The airport was as quiet as a tomb overnight: we woke up when one guy went by with one of those floor-polishing buffer machines, but that was it for noise. The lights stayed on, and I wished I had an eye-mask, but other than sleeping on the floor, it wasn’t a big deal.
Trip to Europe in '03, my wife and I spent the night in Newark. We ended up in some sitting area in the baggage claim. There were a whole bunch of people doing the same thing. No security came and bothered us, but it was still a crappy night’s sleep.
Same trip, on the way back, we spent the night at Gatwick. Again, there were a bunch of people all over the airport doing the same thing. Again, a crappy night’s sleep. And again, no security felt it necessary to wake us up.
I have spent the night in many airports. Most recently I had an 8am departure from SFO and arrived about 2:30am from Atlanta. I grabbed a sandwich from the 24hr shop, did some email and found a quiet corner to rest in (I know SFO pretty well so am aware of a few semi-hidden places). Other than the “We are currently at threat level orange” announcements every 10 minutes, it was fine.
Other places I have napped or intentionally spent the night: Dubai, Entebee (Uganda), Singapore, Colombo.
I do it all the time. I’ve got a crappy connection between two job sites, and the one city imposed a night curfew on the airport. By the time I get from one leg of the flight to the next one I have 5 hours to kill. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I can nod off for a while, using my cell phone as an alarm clock. Nobody’s ever bothered me. I am careful not to have a carry-on that someone could lift.
I have spent the night in airports and in my experience it wasn’t a big problem, but I was always beyond security.
The other thing to consider is that sometimes you can get incredible deals at airport hotels if you show up late enough at night (after everyone else has checked in) and just name a price that you can afford. I have spent some very restful nights at the Westin hotel at the Detroit airport, which is a very nice hotel, by just going to the desk around midnight and saying “hey, the airport Marriott is offering me a room for $x, can you match that?” Typically by this point at night the hotel has the choice of just leaving the room empty, or making whatever I am offering to pay, and the incremental cost to them to clean the room afterwards is pretty small. Plus, I’m a business traveler and I usually look like a business traveler, so they might assume I am more likely to spend money at their hotel bar, or on room service, etc.
Anyway, I guess my point is that if you think you might be uncomfortable sleeping in the airport (I did it but it was no fun), consider taking that $100 you’re saving and spending half of it on a nice room that would normally cost twice as much. If they turn you down, then that’s ok, you’re just back to sleeping on the floor which is what you were going to do anyway. I understand that by spending half of it you really aren’t “saving” that $100 anymore, but for me the nights sleeping on the airport floor were not worth it.
umm, may I ask a question?
You’re going on a cruise, which is an expensive vacation–and you want to save $100?
It would be easier to save $100 on the ship (cut down on the “extras”-the bar drinks, the casino, the formal restaurant, etc), and during the day trips when you dock. (cut down on shopping at the tourist traps)
You may succeed in “spending the night” at the airport—but I doubt if you’ll succeed in sleeping, and you’ll be starting your vacation feeling miserable.
Just my .02
YMMV (your misery may vary)
In my youth, to save money on our last day of vacation, a friend and I spent the night in the Anchorage airport. And it was a like a campground ! We were by no means the only ones. I suspect with all the campers/backpackers that visit Alaska, they’ve come to expect overnighters.
The smart ones broke out sleeping bags, and sleeping pads. It was not very comfortable, and loud. We found a reasonably private area down in one of the gates (but this was before 9/11). But the damn automated messages were a real nuisance. Definitely plan on eye shades and ear plugs !
Most of the concessions had shut down by the time we arrived. But I hit upon a plan that worked brilliantly: we ordered a pizza ! I just gave them directions on which airline entrance, and I met them at the curb. You never saw so many envious eyes as we walked our steaming pizza through the makeshift “campground” !
I recently had to spend an entire day and night in the Madrid airport. There were a few other people there, and I don’t remember even seeing a security guard or cop the entire time. Everybody was left alone.
By all means, check your baggage beforehand (except for essentials). And bring stuff to ease the boredom . . . a book, magazines, crosswords, especially an iPod. And stuff to eat. And don’t plan on getting much sleep. I walked around a lot most of the time.
Since the OP is looking for informed opinions, let’s move this to IMHO.
samclem GQ moderator
I’ve done it to save $100, and I would do it again. Just put in some ear plugs and find a quiet place to curl up out of the way. I wouldn’t go behind counters or anywhere you can’t go during normal operating hours. Just stake out a patch of floor.
In my experience it helps to go to the international terminal. There’s usually other people sleeping there because the flights come in at stupid times and you have someone to comisserate with. If they have padded seats w/o armrests you should sleep on those. If they have padded seats with armrests you can squeeze underneath you can sleep on those, too. Have fun on your cruise.
I am wondering if most of the posters here are missing Monstro’s key point that she is looking into spending the nite on the public side of security. This is an entirely different proposition than spending the nite at an airport gate. While it might be doable at an airport like MCO, for most airports it’s a non-starter, IMHO.
I’ve done that a few times, and as long as you can prove that you’re going to be moving on, I didn’t have a problem.
I spent the night at Gatwick a couple of times on the public side, in the mezzanine lounge area. The first time was between a trip to Vienna and going home to the US, when I was leaving England after living there for two years. I had left most of my luggage at the airport before going on the Vienna trip and got it out the next morning before checking back in for the US flight. The second time, my flight home was very early the next morning and I didn’t want to bother hunting up a place to stay near the airport; since I had stayed there overnight a few years earlier, it seemed like a good idea to do it again.
It was fairly comfortable–they had large, cushioned benches you could lie down on–and was well lit with staff around, so I felt safe even though I didn’t get much sleep. But that was in 1987 and 1990, before security was as strict as it is now. I doubt it would be possible to do the same there today.
I used to spend the night at Gatwick for early flights home to Gibraltar for the Christmas and Easter holidays when I was a student in the UK (mid 1980s). There were usually several of us coming in from different parts of the country and we all knew each other, so we would end up staying awake most of the night catching up. They also had TV lounges and the seats were OK for sleeping. Since then it seems that airports have purposely installed armrests to prevent people from doing this
In 2002, I spent the night in Philadelphia Airport, sort of on purpose: I was on a flight to Phoenix that was scheduled to leave at 6 PM. But a freakish storm kept delaying the flight about 20 minutes at a time until just after midnight. We were set to take off when the captain announced that the change in day meant that one of the crew would be working seven consecutive days, which violated federal safety laws. So the flight was cancelled.
We got off the plane and stood in line for another two hours to claim our luggage and book flights for the next day. The airline was paying for motel rooms, but I did the math: take a cab (for which there was a line) to the motel, check in, unpack, pack the following morning, check out, another cab to the airport in time for my 10 AM flight.
I opted to find a corner in the airport and sleep on the floor with my luggage.
Airport personnel didn’t bother me, which was probably wise.
Yes, but on the far side of security and years ago. But I didn’t sleep WELL. I’ve also slept in train stations throughout Europe and don’t recommend that either.
There are probably a lot of very cheap hotels near the Miami airport - probably one with free shuttle service - that you could get off Priceline.
You want to fly in for a cruise a day early anyway. The surest way to blow all your money at once is to end up with a delay in your flight at miss the ship - they will not hold it for you.
I appreciate the responses. I don’t know what I would do without ya’ll!
I bought a ticket for the day before. I will have 14 hours to blow, but it seems worth it because I saved close to $150. The cruise is already kind of expensive for me right now (my sister is renewing her vows so the whole family is going. And I wanted to support my sister). So at least I feel like I’m doing the best I can to control costs where I can.
I have a plan for not sticking out like sore thumb, and I’ve found a couple of websites that have tips for sleeping in the Miami airport.
It is. I did it last year. I don’t know if I’d call those benches “comfortable” though.