Which airport terminals do you know your way around by memory?

[Happy_Lendervedder]

Back in my heyday of work travel (in the 00s and early 10s), I was in 2-6 airports a week. The ones I got to know the best were my home airport, Detroit, MCI (Kansas City; small, not hard to figure out the horseshoe shape), BWI and STL.

I lived in Chicago for a while, so I got to know O’Hare and Midway for a while, but I don’t think I’d remember much anymore. Maybe I would. Then over the course of two years, my employer held 10 trainings in Las Vegas, so I got to know the Vegas airport pretty well too, especially the incessant sound of Wheel of Fortune slot machines.

[Pork_Rind]

SEA
PDX
SFO (United)
SBA although it’s practically cheating, it’s so small
LAX (United only)
ORD (United mostly)
IND

I didn’t think I would say this, but man, I miss airports.

[Spoons]

I know Toronto quite well; both Terminals 1 and 3. Oddly, there is no Terminal 2–it was demolished after Terminals 1 and 3 were built. They had the capacity, so there was no need for another Terminal 2. And there was no need to rename the existing terminals.

Calgary is another that I know well. Even though it is only a few years old, I’ve flown in and out of the International terminal frequently.

[txtumbleweed]

DFW is my home airport and I worked there in college so I know not just the terminals but remember many of the nooks, crannies, and side roads around the field. Suspect many are gone with all the remodels but can certainly find my around pretty confidently.

As a college kid pushing wheelchairs, the AA cafeteria was great, especially if you got there about 9pm as they were closing down. They had a nacho plate on the menu and at closing you would get pretty much all the taco meat that was left as well as all the toppings you wanted.

Best place for a sack lunch was a service road that ran just off the ends of the west side runways. You could sit there a couple 100ft off 18R and feel the turbulence as the airplanes went over, a great place for spotters. If I remember correctly you turned where the AA maintenance hangers are and it took you into the employee parking area. Looks like it is gone now, I know it was closed to the public around the time of the Gulf War.

If you are traveling through and have time between flights, Pappadeaux’s for Cajun food (Terminal C, it is below the concourse in an old TrAAin station) and Cousin’s BBQ in Terminal D are my favorites. Whataburger opened out there a couple of years ago in the Terminal E satellite which is a bit of a hike but worth the trip if you have time.

When I was travelling regularly I could find my way around LAX, IAD, ORD, PDX, PHX, SEA, PHL, STL, ATL and numerous small airports. I’ve walked the entirety of BOS and PHL as I had plenty of time to connect from a Barbie jet terminal over to the mainlines so just hoofed it.

Restaurants across the airports have all gotten the same, though I do like grabbing a dog at Gold Coast in Chicago or seafood in Seattle. Otherwise anyplace I could sit comfortably and get good internet and power was a good spot.

Only airport I found annoying was MCO (Orlando) and that was mostly due to the elite status types bringing their families through the high speed security line and clogging it up.

[Maserschmidt]

@Happy_Lendervedder

Back in my heyday of work travel (in the 00s and early 10s), I was in 2-6 airports a week. The ones I got to know the best were my home airport, Detroit, MCI (Kansas City; small, not hard to figure out the horseshoe shape), BWI and STL.

I traveled a lot through MCI in the 97-01 window, and my main memory is a layout where security had been set up outside each of the gates, meaning once you went through it there were no amenities - food, restrooms, etc. As a flyer who liked to get in that last pitstop before leaving, I kind of hated it. [let me know if I’m misremembering that layout part]

[peccavi]

@txtumbleweed

Restaurants across the airports have all gotten the same, though I do like grabbing a dog at Gold Coast in Chicago or seafood in Seattle.

Tortas Frontera in ORD is a favorite, but you need extra layover time (for the line, which can be considerable)

[Icarus]

Too many to list…

[WildaBeast]

@txtumbleweed

Restaurants across the airports have all gotten the same

I would tend to disagree with that. In recent years many airports have made an effort to encourage local restaurants to open branches at the airport. Sacramento has Squeeze Burger, Dos Coyotes, Jack’s Urban Eats (I though they had La Bou but they’re not listed on the airport’s website, so I guess they’re not there anymore), all local places you’ve almost certainly never heard of unless you lived here.

[LSLGuy]

@Maserschmidt

I traveled a lot through MCI in the 97-01 window, and my main memory is a layout where security had been set up outside each of the gates, meaning once you went through it there were no amenities - food, restrooms, etc. As a flyer who liked to get in that last pitstop before leaving, I kind of hated it. [let me know if I’m misremembering that layout part]

You got it exactly. The terminal was a marvel of walk-up-and-get-on convenient design that opened just before the beginning of the airline security era. Which then got worse as at least some carriers tried to min-hub out of there which involves plane changes and hanging around the terminal for a couple hours. The TSA happened to make security even bulkier.

It’s a shambles. Short of building all new terminals there’s simply no way to convert what they have into what they want. KC not exactly being a booming metropolis these days there’s not the funding or interest to fix it.

Last time I went through there (Pre-COVID) they’d made some baby efforts to put portable food carts inside security. But to your point, no bathrooms.

[LSLGuy]

@WildaBeast

I would tend to disagree with that. In recent years many airports have made an effort to encourage local restaurants to open branches at the airport. Sacramento has Squeeze Burger, Dos Coyotes, Jack’s Urban Eats (I though they had La Beau but they’re not listed on the airport’s website, so I guess they’re not there anymore), all local places you’ve almost certainly never heard of unless you lived here.

Back in teh 80s it was all one-off restaurants that reminded one of nothing so much as the hotel restaurant in a holiday inn. Not good. From the 90s to, say, 2010, the idea was to have national chain franchises and little else. Mostly fast food and fast casual, but if they had a nice sit-down restaurant it’d be a national chain too.

Starting around 2010ish things started to move the other way with, as you suggest, prominent local places being added to the national franchise line-up.

Nobody knows what post-COVID will look like. Some airport operators are arguing nobody will want to touch anything so it’ll all be automat-style prefab food ordered via your phone. Others suggest air travel will be slow enough to recover that most retail & food spaces will remain closed for years for lack of customers. Others predict business as pre-COVID usual in a year or so.

[garygnu]

I know SEA now that I’ve lived up here a few years and have to fly more for travel than I used to. I know the Southwest terminal at SJC pretty well, but it’s super simple.
Although it’s been a few years, I could probably still get around at OGG. Y’all here are probably the only ones why I think Maui’s Kahului airport has the coolest code abbreviation.

[WildaBeast]

@LSLGuy

Back in teh 80s it was all one-off restaurants that reminded one of nothing so much as the hotel restaurant in a holiday inn. Not good.

Of course at that time you pretty much always got a meal during the flight, so I would expect there was less demand for airport restaurants back then.

[Die_Capacitrix]

At one point I knew EWR quite well, especially for Continental flights. We’ve been discussing avoiding it for future trips because there are very few places to go for quiet hanging out, unless you go to one of the lounges.

ZRH keeps changing, but I was managing to keep up. At one point it had the only semi decent dim sum in the area.

I don’t think Islay airport counts.

[Maserschmidt]

@LSLGuy

Nobody knows what post-COVID will look like. Some airport operators are arguing nobody will want to touch anything so it’ll all be automat-style prefab food ordered via your phone. Others suggest air travel will be slow enough to recover that most retail & food spaces will remain closed for years for lack of customers. Others predict business as pre-COVID usual in a year or so.

I will say, airport bar dwellers do love their bars. I’m sure some form of that will come back.

As for food, prepare yourself for a 100’-long display case of Wolfgang Puck selections.

[eenerms]

Reno, NV., Madison, Wisconsin., Indianapolis, Milwaukee.

[Robot_Arm]

I grew up near Seattle, so I got to know Sea-Tac very well. When I was a kid, I remember when the central parking garage and the satellite terminals were just built. I haven’t been there in about ten years, but checking online it looks like the basic layout is still the same. I’m one of those people who has a pretty uncanny sense of direction. I had to go to the airport once to change a ticket, so I parked, went in to the terminal, found out that the counter I needed was at the far end, walked there, and then walked straight back to my car by a different route. My mother was with me, and was flabbergasted. I also had the best coleslaw ever at Sea-Tac; with little ginger chips in it.

These days I know Logan like the back of my hand. There are hallways connecting the terminals that most folks never use. There are all kinds of places at an airport, like the USO office or the chapel, that are in those out-of-the-way places.

@WildaBeast

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.

I had family in St. Paul, so I’d been through MSP several times, but not since 1990. I was there last year and my goodness has it changed. Concourse G (or whatever it used to be called) used to be the long one. This time, I had to go all the way down to Concourse A. As luck would have it, I also went to Twinburger, and found the observation deck. And I’m still trying to figure out how that tram at Concourse C works.

[Maserschmidt]

@Robot_Arm

These days I know Logan like the back of my hand. There are hallways connecting the terminals that most folks never use. There are all kinds of places at an airport, like the USO office or the chapel, that are in those out-of-the-way places.

Yes, Logan has all sorts of side corridors and random rooms. And while Terminal D was never much of a terminal, I did think it was funny when it was ghosted out of existence… I suspect its absence can be confusing.

[RealityChuck]

Albany International Airport, though there’s not much to memorize.

First floor: baggage claim to the left, ticketing to the right.
Second Floor: Security checkpoint. To the left are seat for waiting. There’s also a Dunkin’ store and a gift shop. Once through security, there are three wings (A, B, and C) that lead to the planes.
Third floor: An observation deck (you used to be able to hear the tower talking to the planes) and art gallery. Some very nice exhibits in the latter that change every few months.