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I’ve only flown out southwest recently out of Stl but I think that airport is great. Among the best I’ve been too. Phone charging is easy to find. Gate areas are fine. Tsa is not a pita to get through typically. Multiple bars. Schlafly you can buy and boars the plane with. I like it. I slept about 4 hours there a few nye ago.

Kansas City is fine because by the time you finally make it there, odds are the plane is boarding.

Memphis airport has a blues bar between terminals that is one of the best people watching places in the world. And you can smoke in it as of 8 years ago.

Atlanta I never went through security for a domestic flight which I imagine is not good. But I hate that place. I was so far away from our boarding area that it was close to another boarding area and an airport official asked for my seat. Now I’m not one that takes kindly to authority figures and just instinctively said no. Turns out he needed it for a like 95 year old ww2 vet waiting for one of those electric buggies to pick him up and whisk him off. It would have taken 30 seconds. But I didn’t know who it wasn’t s for or how long he needed it. And there were literally zero seats anywhere else and I had my kids so F off was my mindset.

Caribbean airports in Barbados, Dominican Republic, and Exuma all were terrible but i think it was legal to drink outside of bars and in the airport seating areas which imo pretty much negates anything negative so long as you aren’t offput by everyone waiting for two flights staring and judging at your alcoholic tendencies on disPlay. Cancun is fine except the entire checking out process is a massive scam. I mean it’s a [expletive] joke they’re allowed to do that legally. Makes me think Mexico is a huge [expletive] joke of a [expletive] waste. [expletive] that place.

Denver is too big.

Vegas needs better food. But they will let you go through security barefoot if you’re unable to find your shoes from the night before and are running late.

Phoenix seems like a massive waste of space and they don’t have enough texmex food in it.

Love in Dallas earns its name with excellent food and bars in close proximity to the flights even it you’re e more a sardine than a human. Dfw seems to be fine too although see my extensive thoughts on Denver and apply them to dfw too.

Okay. North Carolina may be the biggest mixed bag for me regarding airport love/hate. They have all the restaurants and bars from what I remember. Great people watching. But it’s a trek to get from a to b. But that food court that’s faux open air is awesome imo. But there are no good food/bars near the gates.

Ft launder dale is way too small iirc. Tampa is a blur to me. Ditto Orlando. Miami is way too expansive with not nearly enough seafood dining choices. Give me a break.

Ima give bwi as my sneaky best airport. Sure it’s a pita to return a rental and then get to the plane and the people are snarky af but there’s a massive bar where people arrive/check in which makes meeting up with folks a breeze. Also. Expectations are so low that it surpasses them. Okay. Maybe not the best but it’s not the worst.

Oh forgot Chicago. I personally love O’Hara and it’s layout and how they sell booze from little to go carts like you’re on a golf course. Sure it’s a pain to get checked in but whatever.

Midway I can’t really remember so couldn’t have been too bad.

Boston was a blur and not really memorable either.

Oh Arkansas stuff

Little Rock is maybe the best airport in the world. Super easy to get to. Super fast check in and tsa approval. Close parking. Bars both in and out of the tsa line. Food is fine. Plenty of room and chargers. Employees are friendly. I’m biased but pretty easily my favorite airport.

Northwest Arkansas is the exact opposite. Gotta drive through goat fields to get there. Super slow roads. Workers act like it’s the best airport ever invented. No bars. One [expletive] restaurant. Also, limited hours on said [expletive] bar and restaurant. Worst airport ever.

O'hare: I have only had to go through security a few times at o'hare and don't remember having any issues, I usually have layovers there. A lot of people to fight through if you are pressed for time and it can be a long way from one end to the other. The terminal is like walking through a mall; stores, kiosks, food/snacks, cocktails everywhere. I recommend stopping at The Billy Goat at the food court for an Italian beef w/peppers sandwich. Picking people up at O'hare isn't to bad besides the massive amount of Chicago traffic.

George Bush in Houston: I have gone through here a lot since my daughter lives in Houston. Easy in and easy out. Security isn't to bad to get through. Terminal is big with a decent selection of food to choose from.

Orlando: This to me is the worst. I have gone through here two or three times. You would think that a city that can weave millions of people through lines at amusement parks could get a handle on getting people through security. They have about 12 lines that funnel down to 4 to get to the detectors. If you have an early flight make sure you get there plenty early.

This. And TSA precheck doesn't really help here.

I was there last month, got there plenty early, and the signs said they were too busy to let me through and that I needed to wait. When I got back to the gates, I understood why. They must have had 2,000 people leave in a half hour time frame in my little section of the terminal. Apparently the Orlando airport has grown immensely, and they don't know how to manage their flow yet. Also, their WiFi sucks. But it seems like they've spread out that they can fit all the airplanes, even if they have no clue how to deal with the security logistics.

The Punta Gorda airport is hilariously small, and it looks like somebody threw acres of drywall up last week for temporary barriers. It felt like the mobile home equivalent to an airport.

LaGuardia really is as bad as people say it is. There's a line in "Crazy Rich Asians" about JFK being full of "salmonella and despair", and yet LaGuardia is clearly worse. They're apparently working on that, but that won't change the fact that somehow the subway system doesn't reach the airport.

Salt Lake City's airport was just nice. The Mormons do some things right, even if they make alcohol hard to get.

Fun fact, SLC has an 18 hole golf course at the end of one of the terminals.

I love flying. My dad actually got his recreational pilot's license before he got his driver's license, and he told me that during high school, he would literally take each paycheck and buy a tank of gas for his car and then drive to the airport and rent a little Cessna for an hour. My first experience in a plane was as a 3-4 year old in one of those little Cessnas with my dad as the pilot. I've flown with him probably 5-10x, but he hasn't maintained his pilot's license for probably 15 years or so. He actually let his license expire for a long time, then his sister passed away and in her will she stated she wanted to be cremated with her ashes spread along the Rio Grande river - so my dad reactivated his license so he could fly down to the US-Mexico border and spread her ashes over the river. I remember as a kid he bought a kit plane, but only finished building about 50% of it. He rented out a hangar at the Springfield MO airport for years where he would slowly work on it for an hour or two each week one night after work. It was a BD-5, designed by legendary pilot Jack Bede. A really neat little single-passenger plane that used a small two-cycle engine about the size of a riding lawnmower.



My first commercial flight was back in like 1988 or 1989 when we flew to LAX for a family reunion when I was like 5 or 6.

Growing up, I had the luxury of being in a family that loved to travel, whether by driving or flying, and we went somewhere almost every summer. One year we drove to Orlando to hit all the amusement parks. We drove west to Vegas and LA one year. We flew to Hawai'i one year, to Aruba for my sister's HS graduation gift, and to the Bahamas for my HS graduation gift.

I've never flown across the ocean to either Europe or Asia/Australia, but have flown a ton throughout the US and to the Caribbean several times. Flown in to Canada a few times. Flown to Hawai'i twice. We have several trips planned over the next few years that will take us to South America, Asia, and Europe.

As far as hub airports go, my local one now (MSP) is my favorite. It is absolutely monstrous, but it is pretty efficiently laid out. The tram only hits the major concourse though, so you may have a super long walk from your gate to baggage claim if your plane lands at one of the outer terminals.

I fly through ATL frequently, and don't get the hate. Considering it is by FAR the busiest airport in the world by annual total passenger output, it's damn efficient.

I avoid ORD (O'Hare) and DFW like the plague. I don't care if I'm flying for business or pleasure, I will go out of my way and pay extra to avoid those two airports. I've had more bad experiences than I'll ever care to admit from those two hell holes. Luckily both cities have a secondary airport that's not too bad to fly into. I'm also a Delta loyalist, so luckily those two airports are hubs for other airlines so I don't often have a flight that is routed through them in the first place.

Yes, MCO (Orlando) is a royal PITA, and yes it is because of the influx of tourists. The airport is currently serving something crazy like 3x or 4x the max capacity it was designed for. They're adding stuff, but it's very slow going.

The best thing I've found to survive airports are lounges. Free food/booze/wifi and a much quieter relaxed atmosphere. Nicer lounges have private showers you can use, and some have massages you can book as well. I've even found a couple with "nap suites" you can book for an hour or two to really decompress and relax. Most lounges are free just for possessing the right airline/travel credit card - if not, they usually sell a day pass for anywhere from $30 to $50. Depending on your length of time at the airport, you may spend that much at a bar or restaurant eating/drinking, so why not also avoid the crowds/noise instead?

My first flight was home from Denver. My dad did work for the soybean association and we had our truck stolen while we were at their convention. Just out of college I flew to Houston quite a bit to visit college friends and chase tail. I recently flew for the first time in 9 years. I just enjoy driving so I rarely fly.

My dad likes to say how he’d flown in a plane 7 times before he landed in one. He also flew the helicopter the first time he was in one.

I love the takeoffs and landings when I fly but I absolutely can't stand any other portion of the entire ordeal. I actively try to avoid flying as much as possible to the point where whenever I have to be in Boston for work, I take the train both ways as much as possible.

If I do have to fly out there for work and can't get one of the two daily direct flights between St. Louis and there, I try and connect through Dulles where at least they have a smoking lounge that I can visit during the layover.