Hmm… cities where all I have done is change planes or make a stopover:
USA:
Charlotte, NC
Dallas (DFW airport)
San Francisco
Pittsburgh
International:
Panamá
Bermuda (diverted flight)
Such a sorry life is mine… always have had direct flights…
Except for once when I moved from Los Angeles to a little north of Philadelphia. From LAX to Philly, we stopped over in dallas/ft. worth, then to atlanta, georgia, then to philly.
I was born in El Paso, so the Dallas stop wasn’t anything new…
But Georgia, oh Georgia! Been to the airport!
New Jersey - sort of. We flew to Newark and got the bus to NYC. So there was the scenic bus journey (straight from the credits of the Sopranos) as well as the airport.
I just saw the airport in Jakarta on the way to Australia but I stopped in Bali on the way back so I can’t claim Indonesia. I’ve also had many airport stopovers in Britain, France and Germany but I’ve visited them all on other occasions. Up to a few years ago, my only sight of Italy was Rimini airport (from the tarmac). There are a few cities where I’ve only been to the airport but no countries.
While this is not exactly in an airport I was at the Warsaw railstation on my way from Berlin to Moscow. It was the only time I got to eat in the 30 some hour trip. I ended up getting like five bucks worth of money and was floored by how much I got for it. The problem is that when I had come from stuff costing a few pounds to now costing 1000s of whatever it confused me so I ended up short changing the woman at first.
So, the N. Kentucky/Ohio dopers are telling me that I need to scratch Ohio off my list and add Kentucky? The Cinncinnati airport is in… Kentucky?
I’ll add a couple of Honorable Mentions:
Los Angeles – I’ve seen quite a bit of California, but my entire LA experience has taken place at Union Station (where I was harrassed by the LAPD!) and LAX. Although, I did have an absolutely excellent view of LA from the air!
Connecticut – I lived there for 3 months when I was 1 year old, but haven’t been back since (although I came close when I was in Rhode Island last year.)
And an appropriate quote:
“It doesn’t matter if your destination is Heaven or Hell, if you’re flying in Texas, you’ll connect through Dallas…”
–Kinky Friedman
I’ve been to Tahiti!
Well, just on a re-fueling stop en route from L.A. to Melbourne, Australia.
It was pretty sweet, though. Got out of the plane and walked around the very, very small airport. The main terminal was an open air building (no roof)!
2 a.m. or something like that, though.
Spiff
States and territories:
Puerto Rico
Michigan
Arizona
Nevada (Having spent three hours in the Las Vegas airport, I am confident that I have seen as much of Las Vegas as I ever want to see in this life.)
Country:
The Netherlands
England (London), France (Paris) and the Netherlands (Amsterdam), all stopovers en route between New York City and Tel Aviv for me.
I’ve never been in an American airport in a city or state I hadn’t already seen. I’ve stopped over in Las Vegas and St. Louis, and I’m scheduled to stop over in Detroit in January, but I’ve been to all three of those cities outside the airport too.
Interesting. I have nearly the inverse effect.
My last job involved extensive travel & I went through most of the major hubs. Yet only Phoenix qualified, on a flight to Denver. I took a direct flight home on Frontier, hadn’t realized they flew direct or I would have none.
USAir - Charlotte, Philly, Pittsburgh - have driven through PA numerous times, done work in Pittsburgh, & a number of cities in the Carolinas.
Delta - Cincy & Atlanta - worked in both, visited Mammoth Cave
Northwest - Detroit & Minneapolis - several trips to Grand Rapids, lived in Minneapolis for 5 years.
Southwest - KC - Mom is from there. Baltimore - well I live in MD. Chicago - see below. Never got to Dallas.
United - Chicago. Went to UC for 2 years.
American - One of the few I haven’t flown. Isn’t their hub in St. Louis? Covered in advance I guess.
Utah - Flew to Oregon for my brother’s graduation a few years back, switched planes in Salt Lake.
Georgia - Going to the Carribean this month. Guess where Delta’s main hub is?
London, England - I had an overnight layover there MANY years back, when my family was returning from a trip. Allegedly we took a bus tour of the city. But I don’t remember it.
Minnesota is the only state where I’ve only been to the airport. (Otherwise, I’ve visited 48 other states. I’ve never even been to an airport in North Dakota.)
I’ve been an airport-only visitor to five countries:
Jamaica
Managua, Nicaragua
Frankfurt, Germany
Entebbe, Uganda
Bamako, Mali
I’ve had layovers for
pittsburgh Northwest
los angeles Southwest
columbus America West
pheonix America West
dubai
frankfurt
paris
That’s because you were in KY. The Cincinatti airport really is in Kentucky. Their official name is the Cincinatti Northern Kentucky International Airport. http://www.cvgairport.com/directions.html If you look at the Yahoo Map you’ll see the airport on the other side of the river, across from Cincinatti.
New York. Stopped over at JFK between Tel Aviv and LA. Took off at 9 am on a cloudless day. We circled Manhattan before turning west. It was really cool.
Texas. Stopped at Houston on the way to and from Mexico City once. Was very tempted to buy something with “Don’t Mess With Texas” written on it. Resisted temptation.
North Carolina. Was highly amused by the Stockcar Cafe in the Charlotte airport.
There are a couple other states that used to be on this list (Illinois and Pennsylvania), but I have since visited the non-airport parts of these places.
Shiphol airport, amsterdam. I still list it on my “countries I’ve been to”, but I would love to actually VISIT it someday.
Christchurch, New Zealand from 4 - 5:00 am. Couldn’t see squat landing or taking off.
Sydney, Australia - I don’t think we even got off the plane. Bummer.
Puerta Vallarta, Mexico - there just long enough for a passport check.
Fairbanks, Alaska - Actually, I don’t think I missed much.
Thanks, Frank #2. My revised list:
Illinois
Georgia
New Jersey
Kentucky
Very interesting, everyone! In fact, these results are much more interesting than I anticipated–I just expceted a lot of “Been to DFW”-type answers. Shoulda known better!
(BTW, lieu, whilst I had time to kill in Waco I looked up your M.S. thesis–I didn’t know you had the Notorious Bob as your advisor!)
I’ve had that same experience (twice) and I’ve only been to the airport in Minnesota.
What I can’t believe is that nobody has had an experience other than at airports. In the late 70’s we took our oldest boys on the southern route to California, then up to Oregon and a northern route back home. Just about when we headed south towards home, I believe in Iowa all it took was crossing a bridge to get to Nebraska. We crossed the bridge, turned around as soon as possible and continued on our way home. It was totally intentional. 
California: Saw LAX for about an hour on the way back from Maui. It sucked. LAX, not Maui.
Arizona: Was in the Phoenix airport for about an hour on the way to Maui.
North Carolina: Stopped in Charlotte on the way back from Ft. Meyers, FL.
Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh airport…well, not really. Just the runway and stuff, 'cause I stayed on the plane. On the way to Ft. Meyers. May also have seen some of it from the backseat of a car, but I’m not totally sure.
New York: Only half counts. We visited DC, then for some stupid reason that I’m sure made perfect sense to my dad, drove up to Baltimore, stayed a couple of days, then went to Atlantic City, then took off from one of the NYC airports. Didn’t get to see the city, which sucked.
Actually, kniz, I’ve come close to doing something similar, but couldn’t convince my research partners. We’d spent two weeks banging on rocks throughout Oregon, and eventually found ourselves in Portland. I begged, I pleaded, and I groveled, but could get NONE to agree to take a quick trip across the border so that I could say I’ve “been” to Washington. So as it stands today, I’ve spent quality time in every western state except Alaska, Hawai’i, and… Washington.