The other day I was looking at MSP (Minneapolis-St. Paul airport) on Google Maps and feeling nostalgic for the days when you could actually travel, and it struck me that I’ve connected through that airport probably more than any other. And as a result I have the layout of the Lindbergh (Delta) Terminal completely memorized. If you dropped me in Concourse F and told me my connecting flight was in Concourse C, I’d know exactly where to go without looking at a map or any signs. I’ve even got a favorite place to grab a meal between flights if there’s time – Twinburger down at the end of Concourse G, where you can get a Juicy Lucy. The observation deck near the entrance to Concourse D is also a fun place to kill some time.
That’s probably the only airport I really know that well, apart from my hometown airport, Sacramento. Maybe Denver, but that’s a really easy airport to navigate anyway with its big linear concourses connected by an underground train in the middle.
So what about you? Are there any airports you know you know your way around from memory? And in those airports do you have a favorite in-terminal restaurant/bar/other place to hang out during a long layover?
But yeah, after awhile you get to know at least your part of the whole shebang: where the unnoticed restrooms are, which restaurants rarely have lines, offer better discounts, etc.
It’s also interesting just how quickly that knowledge becomes dated. Terminals are continuously being built, torn down, and remodeled. In the 30+ years I’ve been doing this I can think of several airports where the terminal I started with is 100% gone today; now buried under a runway or a parking structure. In other cases the building is still there but the interior is totally different.
Some folks fly a wide variety of airlines and get to know large areas of several airports. My experience is much more one dimensional. So I know most of the small terminal in smaller cities and also the complete gory details of our large hubs in large cities.
But I know nearly nothing of our competitors’ hubs. Since we park in an out of the way corner at those places and never see the bulk of the whole operation there. E.g. in the OP’s MSP I know our couple of gates and the path from there to the street for a ride to the hotel. But I’ve never seen any of the rest of the giant terminal.
I used to know my way around United’s concourses there at least somewhat well, but it’s been ages since I’ve been there now, so my knowledge of those terminals is most likely out of date by now.
Besides my hometown airport, Cape Town Int’l (CPT), I know Johannesburg–O. R. Tambo Int’l (JNB) extremely well from much business travel there. And I could cheat and say a number of tiny regional airports, but only because they have basically one room before security and one room past security.
Chicago O’Hare and Midway, due to flying in and out of them dozens (and probably more like hundreds) of times over the past 30 years.
I also know Birmingham (Alabama) Shuttlesworth like the back of my hand, due to several dozen trips through there in the past six years (it’s where my main client is located), but that’s a far smaller airport.
I could have said that about La Crosse Regional in Wisconsin, except I was pleasantly surprised to discover they had completely redone the terminal the last time I was there. It used to be a tiny cramped waiting area past security with two gates at ground level, very obviously not designed with post-9/11 security requirements in mind. Now they’ve moved the gates and checkpoint upstairs and expanded to four gates or so, and made it much more spacious and comfortable in the process.
Oakland, though it is small. SFO. When I lived in NJ and worked for Bell Labs I practically lived in the Newark Airport, but it has been a while since I’ve been there.
Now Indianapolis, from visiting my daughter. And I can still get around ORD without looking at any signs, though I’ve hardly been to all of it.
DEN, but I don’t think that counts. Anybody who has been there once, or even glanced at the layout in the inflight magazine will know their way around it.
PDX, SEA, ANC, MSP. I used to know my way through most airports in Europe, including CDG, Heathrow, Brussels, Frankfurt, Moscow and a slew of others, but that was 30 years ago. I’d be stumbling around bumping into walls nowadays.