I love flying into LGA when they take the approach that has you going past all of Manhattan.
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Oh yeah, that definitely doesnāt make sense then.
Eh, the area around Heathrow aināt that special. NYC is a nice city to visit too, but the airports are not that great to be stuck at. Itās not like you can just do sightseeing when youāre trying to catch the next flight out.
the worst airport to get stuck at is LAX, especially if youāre flying international and have to walk like 20 minutes to get to the terminal
I donāt care about the walking time unless I have a tight connection. I like to walk, and often opt to kill time by walking around the airport when I donāt actually need to, just get some exercise.
I care if itās clean, if there are reasonably comfortable chairs, if you can fit your suitcase in the restroom*, if there are decent meal options, and a place to buy a magazine or a bag of Reeceās Pieces or a phone charger for a not-too-outrageous price.
Much lower on the list but nice is if there are pleasant things to look at while Iām waiting (SLC earns back some points here because the views are gorgeous, DTW has a nice pleasant interior).
*Iām looking at you, SLC: did it occur to precisely zero people that the Salt Lake City airport would be hosting travelers???
Heathrow has good beer on tap.
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Thereās a nice restaurant at Heathrow just outside security (or at least there was). When I was visiting a relative in London he drove me to Heathrow and we arrived plenty early so we ate there. But you wouldnāt want to go through security to eat there if you were already in.
Security at Heathrow is weird. Thereās multiple layers to it. You show them your passport & boarding pass and they let you through one level and wait a while. Then they check your passport & boarding pass again and let you through another level where you wait some more. Then you do it a third time to get to your gate, and you canāt do the third one until your flight is about to board. I donāt quite understand the point to it all.
I think itās to make you shop more because you canāt get to your boarding gate until close to the flight
And if youāre unlucky enough to have to change terminals for a connecting flight you repeat the security process even when you use their special transit procedures to stay within a secured area.
If itās a matter of waiting for a few hours, then I can see why that could get old, though there are worse things than watching a football game in a pub while drinking some warm beer and eating Cadbury chocolate. If the next flight out was the next day then we wouldnāt be tied to the area around the airport and could make a nice evening out of it.
She sounds like a candidate for a relaxing train ride in a roomette from NYC to Florida? Great way to meet other people as well.
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LGA got much nicer after their renovation. Iāll be flying into JFK from London, my least favourite of the NYC area airports.
Ugh! Iāve never changed at Heathrow. The one time I was scheduled to do that I changed my ticket and spent several days in London instead.
Iām ok with walking as well, Atlanta airport can be a pleasant walk if youāre one of the few people who avoids the plane trains. But tight connections can be a pain, which is one of many reasons I donāt like to fly American. Dallas airport is huge, one time I had to do a 1600-metre dash just to get to my connection. I was very grateful I didnāt have to check luggage since it would not have made the trip with me. (And that was at a time when the airline was vigilant about enforcing carrion baggage size.)
If you had a confirmed seat, sure. If the seats are on the basis of waiting in line for hours or they will give your seat away if you donāt show up at the gate when youāre called so they can re-check your ID or some other such nonsense then you are essentially chained to the airport itself.
Badly needed! I havenāt been since they renovated. The last time I went to NYC I took the corporate jet into Teterboro, which is definitely the way to go if you can swing it.
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I prefer to walk if I have enough time. When walking I like the faux rainforest between concourse A and B.
when i went to apc in boston in 2018 from manhattan, i took amtrak rather than fly. canāt remember my rationale, but amtrak worked well.
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my last flight into lga landed close to midnight on a sunday. not rush hour. it took me at least an hour to catch a cab. the cab line was massive.
doing that again in a few weeks. not sure why iām pretending it will be any better. 