Thoughts on air travel and layovers and other interesting aspects of modern life. In no particular order.


If one must have a 2 hour layover, hope for an airport with an atrium, rocking chairs in every nook available and ample quantities of easily accessible wall outlets.

Airport security in its current configuration has been in place with few changes for 7 years. Why is it that travelers continue to be surprised by the necessity of removing coats & shoes? I admit I am presuming surprise – it might be simple stupidity. Time spent in line provides plenty of opportunity to remove coats prior to reaching the security gate itself, and yet many people wait until the last possible moment to de-coatify themselves.

United and US Airways need to get their flight schedulers together and coordinate their partnership flights more effectively. I felt pretty silly wasting 15 minutes in line at the United counter in Terminal 1 only to learn that I was flying out of terminal 2 on US Airways…until I got to US Airways in Terminal 2 just in time to see 17 people standing in line at the US Airways counters all decamp and head to Terminal 1. They had been standing there for 15 minutes. At least US Airways has little signs posted directing fliers to refer to their flight numbers. United’s counter didn’t even have that.

Airports are portals into a single, surreal dimension in which food, drink, amenities and knickknacks are all available from near-identical outlets under near-identical signs along near-identical hallways. The trappings of The Airport Dimension do not change from entry to entry, no matter where in the country one might be. Only the signs and minor elements of décor differ from location to location. Décor and the ease or difficulty of navigation. Some airports are embarrassments -- O’Hare and Denver, for example – with insufficient wayfinding signage, drab, dirty fixtures and floors, limited presentation of anything decorative, and that mostly for-profit advertising, and awkward placement of pretty much any amenity one might need, from food to restrooms.

Charlotte definitely ranks near the top of the list, in my limited flying experience. Wayfinding assistance blended decoratively into the architecture, clean interior spaces, a variety of dining choices – none of which was McDonalds, to my shock – and a pretty central meeting area between all concourses where the many, many security gates all converge.

New Orleans, on the other hand, is much like O’Hare’s younger, less sophisticated sibling. Who in their insane mind thought that bricks were a clever substrate choice for a venue in which people constantly roll heavy wheeled objects over long stretches of floor? Don’t get me started on the ridiculous lack of wayfinding signs in the baggage claim. It escapes being disastrously confusing only through sheer tiny-ness. OY. That’s all I’m sayin.’