I have always been fascinated by airports. It’s simply amazing that we can get to the other side of the world under 12 hours. However, it’s also a necessary evil in the life of an air traveler. I never had much trouble with airports until Delta acquired Northwest and I had to go through Atlanta that one time on a business trip from one city of Cleveland (Ohio) to another city of Cleveland (Tennessee). My flight from Cleveland, OH was put on a holding pattern in the air space over Atlanta airport. According to well informed frequent fliers who had the unfortunate experiences flying through Atlanta, Atlanta is well over its capacity and flight delays are pretty much common occurrences. And of course, my flight was late arriving to the gate and I had a misconnection which made me 2 hours later than I was planning. Fortunately, I had planned my flights in a way that I could catch the next flight out and still make it to my meetings. By the way, eating Wendy’s lunch while driving a rental car was kind of comical.
My favorite airport has to be Narita airport serving Tokyo, Japan. It’s got this sushi restaurant that serves pretty decent sushi, much better than anything I can get in the midwest. Narita also has a decent selection of duty free, although prices are not the best I have seen. Nevertheless, it’s a good place to score a bottle of Suntory whiskey for those of us who don’t get to visit Japan that often. Another favorite of mine is Hong Kong airport. It’s huge, beautiful, clean, and very efficient. I also very much enjoy travel through Minneapolis – St. Paul airport. MSP has these super comfortable couches throughout the airport.
