We love a good trip. But do we love, specifically, the airport portion of that trip?
There are exceptions, but the answer is usually no.
We’ve already explored the myriad miseries that can be found in a hotel room. Now we’ve asked frequent travelers and colleagues what they hate about the pre- and postflight experience.
The good news is that many airport operators are listening to the most common gripes. Matthew Johnson, aviation leader at the design firm Gensler, said CEOs have been shifting their approach.
“They’re not just running an airport, but they’re also looking for a [hospitality-centric] mindset,” he said. “You want to move terminals from a place that people have to move through to a place that they actually get as an extension of their journey, and it’s memorable and it’s enjoyable.”
The bad news? Airports can still be a huge bummer. These are some of the major complaints.
Mixed messages at TSA
A viral meme has been going around social media for the last few years showing nervous travelers struggling to navigate security checkpoints — or pretending to — set to a soundtrack of a man yelling instructions. The title is usually something like “the most stressful 3 minutes of your life.”
Do you have to take out your laptop? Wait, I can keep my shoes on? The rules feel arbitrary. The goalposts keep moving.
There’s truth behind the trend: Even frequent travelers might feel like novices going through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints because the requirements might be different from airport to airport, depending on the technology available to security officers. (At least the shoes-on policy is consistent across the country now.)
Amateur hour
We get that some travelers might not know the exact routine to expect at security. But some rules never change — and still seem to catch fliers by surprise.
“The worst one to me is people who wait until they’re about to step through the security scanners to check their pockets and then they do a little dance of taking out their wallet and their keys and they’re emptying a pocket full of change,” said Kyle Potter, executive editor of the travel site Thrifty Traveler. “The time to do all of these things is the moment you step out of the car.”
Almost all of those items, he said, can go into a bag before getting into the security line.
Never-ending terminals
Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, is frustrated by “unnecessarily long walks” down lengthy concourses. He said many airports have removed moving walkways, a decision he called “heartless.”
“Customers end up walking a great deal, and if they are making a connection and their inbound flight is delayed, that means they have to run,” he said.
Drew Henderson, a Philadelphia-based flight attendant for a major U.S. airline and a host of the podcast “Two Guys on a Plane,” said the way concourses connect is often baffling.
“It’s just a series of long hallways that don’t make any sense,” he said.
His husband, Rich Henderson, also a flight attendant, has his own gripe about gates: when they are small and clustered close together.
“It creates so much congestion in the concourses,” he said.
Tiny bathroom stalls
There are airport dances, there is the need-to-use-the-bathroom dance, and then there’s the contorting you have to do to fit yourself, a personal item and your roller bag past the bathroom door and into the stall.
Too often, that door opens toward the toilet, leaving mere inches to navigate. At best, it’s not graceful; at worst, your luggage is having a lot more contact with restroom surfaces than anyone would advise. In elementary school terms: The bathroom floor is lava.
To airports that have designed their restrooms with customers (and their bags) in mind: You have our gratitude forever.
Gross salads that cost $20
We celebrate a fantastic airport restaurant. Unfortunately, only a few rise to greatness. More often, travelers are faced with sad sandwiches, dry bagels, overpriced fast food or limp salads.
It’s “trash,” Henderson said.
“I could make a better sandwich with like a cheap loaf of bread at home,” he said. “This looks like it’s been sitting in the refrigerator for a week and a half.”
Julie Beausoleil, 24, an Ottowa-based businesswoman, tries to pack her own food but said granola bars can go only so far for a super-long day of flying.
“I’ll just try to find the cheapest thing, but then at the same time I don’t want to pay $8 for a muffin,” she said.
Harteveldt will often “go hungry” or resort to a fruit-and-cheese box from Starbucks.
People who refuse to use headphones
You may think your favorite comedian’s new special is must-see TV. You may need to take a very important business meeting.
You should feel free to take part in those things without subjecting the rest of the airport to them at full volume.
“The worst is FaceTiming inside of the plane before takeoff or in an airport lounge or anywhere in the terminal,” Potter said. “We’ve all got headphones, people.”
Not enough seats by your gate
Unless you’re a three-hours-early kind of person, chances are you’ll get to your gate and find most seats taken by other passengers and their carry-ons.
Need to find a place for a family to sit together? Good luck with that.
11 hour overnight layover on these chairs
#airportlife #airport #budgettravel
| TravelNowhere to sleep
Beausoleil found a different conundrum during an overnight layover heading home from a months-long trip: plenty of open seats, all with armrests dividing them.
“You can’t lie down,” she said in a TikTok that she titled “Biggest airport pet peeve.”
She said that during her layover in September, she couldn’t find anywhere to lie down except for the ground.
“I stayed up, to be honest,” she said. “I watched shows. It was a really long day.”
Never enough power outlets
So many phones, so few places to boost their power. It’s an age-old complaint by travelers, and it is not going away.
“Everybody has multiple devices,” said Johnson, the airport design expert. “It’s not just your phone; it’s your laptop, your iPad if you’re like me. Then with the family, you multiply that by four.”
Many airports have added more outlets in recent years as demand has increased. But sometimes those give false hope.
“I really love that all of the airports have added like some sort of charging capabilities at the seats, but they forgot to plug them in or put a power source anywhere near them,” Drew Henderson said.
Gate lice
Is it hope for a quick boarding process? Is it an effort to cheat the system? Whatever has people crowding around the gate before it’s their turn to get on the plane, it’s annoying to just about everyone.
At least one airline has adopted a solution for line-skippers: American Airlines delivers a specific sound when someone tries to get on the plane early.
Baggage claim jostling
No one likes waiting for a bag after trudging off the plane. But cramped baggage claim areas make the situation even more stressful, Harteveldt said.
Joe Sasto, a Chicago-based chef, creator and entrepreneur who usually travels once a week, said his biggest peeve is people crowding around the conveyor belt waiting for their bags. He travels with heavy cooking equipment and knives, adding to the stress.
“Trying to get these big suitcases off the baggage carousel when everyone’s just standing there oblivious like it’s their first day on earth sparks a little bit of frustration,” he said.
So much more
Travelers have a chorus of additional complaints: confusing signage, inconsistent thermostats, a dearth of water bottle refill stations.
Some bemoan carpeted floors (which do have some fans) and overcrowded lounges.
There are impossible-to-find ride-share pickup spots and car rental counters in practically the next Zip code.
Peak holiday travel season is just around the corner. Who else can’t wait to hit the airport?
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