Discussion
hi guys,
with the holiday season upon us, skiing in France at the end of the month, i thought i'd share some of my airport/aeroplane experiences and maybe you could share yours.
Best European international airport: Schipol, Amsterdam. nice clean airport, well laid out and central station only 1/2 an hour away. its also full of disgustingly good looking women.
Worst European international airport: Paris CDG, just a dump, should knock it down and start again. and its full of french.
Most disappointing international airport: JFK, New York. such an amazing city and the airports such a let down, lack of seats and poor amenities.
Most unusual in flight experience: flight from Dubai to kish island(Iran), first time i'd seen an armed guard on a flight, on the return flight on approach to Dubai, someones mobile phone went off! and he answered it!
Scariest experience: Pointe Noire, Congo. What is that mangled chunk of metal at the end of the runway? oh, i see what it is, can i have a seat next to the exit please.
More scary experiences: steward slapping a passenger on a flight from Manchester to Moscow!
Point Noire again: are those guys on the runway security? no they're natives taking a short cut!
Point Noire again: passport control: hand over passport, man says 'you have something for me' i return a blank stare, man puts my passport in his top pocket,'you have something for me', that'll be 10 euros then!(smallest note i had)
Safest Airport: going by how long it took to get from initial check to the gate, without stopping for duty free/bar/toilets-Dubai. 1 1/2 hours.
i'll post more when i can remember them.
let us know yours
with the holiday season upon us, skiing in France at the end of the month, i thought i'd share some of my airport/aeroplane experiences and maybe you could share yours.
Best European international airport: Schipol, Amsterdam. nice clean airport, well laid out and central station only 1/2 an hour away. its also full of disgustingly good looking women.
Worst European international airport: Paris CDG, just a dump, should knock it down and start again. and its full of french.
Most disappointing international airport: JFK, New York. such an amazing city and the airports such a let down, lack of seats and poor amenities.
Most unusual in flight experience: flight from Dubai to kish island(Iran), first time i'd seen an armed guard on a flight, on the return flight on approach to Dubai, someones mobile phone went off! and he answered it!
Scariest experience: Pointe Noire, Congo. What is that mangled chunk of metal at the end of the runway? oh, i see what it is, can i have a seat next to the exit please.
More scary experiences: steward slapping a passenger on a flight from Manchester to Moscow!
Point Noire again: are those guys on the runway security? no they're natives taking a short cut!
Point Noire again: passport control: hand over passport, man says 'you have something for me' i return a blank stare, man puts my passport in his top pocket,'you have something for me', that'll be 10 euros then!(smallest note i had)
Safest Airport: going by how long it took to get from initial check to the gate, without stopping for duty free/bar/toilets-Dubai. 1 1/2 hours.
i'll post more when i can remember them.
let us know yours
One interesting thing on Schipol airport, is there is an Hotel inside the Airport, and in the hotel is about 20 bathrooms, where for about a tenner, you can nip in, have a shower, change clothes etc, the bathrooms are sort of shower, and crapper.
UK airports take note. In Heathrow domestic, there is ONE shower, after a 13 hour flight from Singapore, nothing worse then queing for a shower, whereas in Schipol, well see for yourself.
UK airports take note. In Heathrow domestic, there is ONE shower, after a 13 hour flight from Singapore, nothing worse then queing for a shower, whereas in Schipol, well see for yourself.
worst airport: CDG by a long shot
Best airport: a tough one, probably between Nice and Helsinki
Best flight: considering commercial flights only, probably virgin upper class last October to Las Vegas, bed lay flat out, several lagers and a view over the North Pole :cloudnine:
Worst flight: an early morning flight from Pittsburgh to LaGuardia, ridiculous turbulence in a small turboprop aircraft, then trapped on the taxiway with the aircraft trying to flip in the high winds and hail.
Best airport: a tough one, probably between Nice and Helsinki
Best flight: considering commercial flights only, probably virgin upper class last October to Las Vegas, bed lay flat out, several lagers and a view over the North Pole :cloudnine:
Worst flight: an early morning flight from Pittsburgh to LaGuardia, ridiculous turbulence in a small turboprop aircraft, then trapped on the taxiway with the aircraft trying to flip in the high winds and hail.
Petrol_noggin said:
worst airport: CDG by a long shot
Best airport: a tough one, probably between Nice and Helsinki
Best flight: considering commercial flights only, probably virgin upper class last October to Las Vegas, bed lay flat out, several lagers and a view over the North Pole :cloudnine:
Worst flight: an early morning flight from Pittsburgh to LaGuardia, ridiculous turbulence in a small turboprop aircraft, then trapped on the taxiway with the aircraft trying to flip in the high winds and hail.
Agree, CDG is the most worst looking airport (from the inside) and service is crap as well
Copenhagen best airport IMHO, and by such a large margin then nothing else comes remotely close. Mind you, that was before the Danes published the cartoons, so maybe it's ringed by protesters these days 
.
Schipol big but characterless...but Munich can be a looooong walk too depending where you arrive/depart from.
Agree CDG's poor, but once flew into Paris Beavais with RyanAir. Now that really is an airFIELD, with a hut for the terminal. Fire truck was.....a truck. A red painted pick-up with a few fire extinguishers in the back.
Can't think of any US airports that are particularly great...but Newark's a bit better than JFK. The rest kind of merge into one nondescript mass of grey concrete and wall-to-wall carpet, although I recall Miami was particularly smelly one time. Although one of the great 'life memories' was on our honeymoon 25 years ago. We'd flown from Lax to Newark and I'd booked a helicopter transfer to JFK to fly home (on a 707 to Prestwick - them were the days!). We were the only passengers and we got to sit up front. When the pilot heard we were going back from our honymoon he made a detour to the Statue of Liberty and just hovered around lining up the best photo shots. And when we came into JFK, Concorde was just taking off so we hovered (at a fair height) over the runway as Concorde ran down the runway and took off below us. Awesome.
Flew out of LAX a few weeks back, usually another big nondescript place, but this time we flow out of another terminal - 2 maybe? Tiny, only two shops, a fast food and a bar, and a single seating area with not enough seats.
Vancouver's nice to arrive into though, but not great to fly out of. Funny rules at security. Apart from the weekly domestic business jaunts, I always travel with a hip flask (for medicinal purposes only of course). Although I've only flown out of Vancouver twice - each time they've had a problem with my travelling malt...but never anywhere else in the US or Europe. After a you can't take that through-yes I can-no you can't-yes I can session, they call over the supervisor who agrees yes I can but only if I'm happy to drink a sample, to which I'm happy to oblige. I found it curious that we had exactly the same conversation and outcome 2 years running.
And the votes for the UK...
LHR T1 = now I know what cows going to market feel like
LHR T2 = incredibly depressing for some reason
LHR T4 = at least there's enough shops to alleviate the boredom
LTN = poor before the new departure lounge was built, now looks nice but actually absolutely dire with nowhere acceptable to eat or drink and not enough seats
STN = purgatory...and why do they always tell you the flights are closing in the main terminal when they ain't even boarding at the gates?
LGW South = the smokiest bars in the universe...and a route march to some of the gates
LGW North = waaay better than the packed South terminal with some quiet hide-away spots to be found
BHX T2 Eurohub = one of the best wee departure areas in the UK
BHX T1 = after the joys of T2, T1 is one of the worst
MAN = thinks its better than it is [like Manchester itself then
)
EMA = dreadful dreadful place...with the most surly security folks in the UK
NCL = like waiting in a sports hall
SOU = very very small, unpretentious, you could do a lot worse
BRS = best avoided when there's packaged flights in the lounge (just not big enough), but OK when its quiet
GLA = initial promise pre-security soon fails to materialise
EDI = decent enough terminal, assuming you don't want to eat or buy anything
. Schipol big but characterless...but Munich can be a looooong walk too depending where you arrive/depart from.
Agree CDG's poor, but once flew into Paris Beavais with RyanAir. Now that really is an airFIELD, with a hut for the terminal. Fire truck was.....a truck. A red painted pick-up with a few fire extinguishers in the back.
Can't think of any US airports that are particularly great...but Newark's a bit better than JFK. The rest kind of merge into one nondescript mass of grey concrete and wall-to-wall carpet, although I recall Miami was particularly smelly one time. Although one of the great 'life memories' was on our honeymoon 25 years ago. We'd flown from Lax to Newark and I'd booked a helicopter transfer to JFK to fly home (on a 707 to Prestwick - them were the days!). We were the only passengers and we got to sit up front. When the pilot heard we were going back from our honymoon he made a detour to the Statue of Liberty and just hovered around lining up the best photo shots. And when we came into JFK, Concorde was just taking off so we hovered (at a fair height) over the runway as Concorde ran down the runway and took off below us. Awesome.
Flew out of LAX a few weeks back, usually another big nondescript place, but this time we flow out of another terminal - 2 maybe? Tiny, only two shops, a fast food and a bar, and a single seating area with not enough seats.
Vancouver's nice to arrive into though, but not great to fly out of. Funny rules at security. Apart from the weekly domestic business jaunts, I always travel with a hip flask (for medicinal purposes only of course). Although I've only flown out of Vancouver twice - each time they've had a problem with my travelling malt...but never anywhere else in the US or Europe. After a you can't take that through-yes I can-no you can't-yes I can session, they call over the supervisor who agrees yes I can but only if I'm happy to drink a sample, to which I'm happy to oblige. I found it curious that we had exactly the same conversation and outcome 2 years running.
And the votes for the UK...
LHR T1 = now I know what cows going to market feel like
LHR T2 = incredibly depressing for some reason
LHR T4 = at least there's enough shops to alleviate the boredom
LTN = poor before the new departure lounge was built, now looks nice but actually absolutely dire with nowhere acceptable to eat or drink and not enough seats
STN = purgatory...and why do they always tell you the flights are closing in the main terminal when they ain't even boarding at the gates?
LGW South = the smokiest bars in the universe...and a route march to some of the gates
LGW North = waaay better than the packed South terminal with some quiet hide-away spots to be found
BHX T2 Eurohub = one of the best wee departure areas in the UK
BHX T1 = after the joys of T2, T1 is one of the worst
MAN = thinks its better than it is [like Manchester itself then
) EMA = dreadful dreadful place...with the most surly security folks in the UK
NCL = like waiting in a sports hall
SOU = very very small, unpretentious, you could do a lot worse
BRS = best avoided when there's packaged flights in the lounge (just not big enough), but OK when its quiet
GLA = initial promise pre-security soon fails to materialise
EDI = decent enough terminal, assuming you don't want to eat or buy anything
:Victor Meldrew:
I just don't beleeeeeive it:
:/Victor Meldrew
Schiphol best airport? having a larf are you not!
MInd you my judgement is coloured by the four consecutive occasions they lost my luggage. Plus those dismal little satellite departure gates with only vending machines and all seats occupied. No thanks.
Copenhagen
I just don't beleeeeeive it:
:/Victor Meldrew
Schiphol best airport? having a larf are you not!
MInd you my judgement is coloured by the four consecutive occasions they lost my luggage. Plus those dismal little satellite departure gates with only vending machines and all seats occupied. No thanks.
Copenhagen
Worst, Banjul airport in Gambia, its a contrete square dumped in the middle of a field. And the one and only time I've been frisked leaving the country, but then again we all were so maybe we all looked a bit suspicious.
Smallest is the Heli port on Gozo, great really cos they book you onto your flight from Malta airport and there is a maximum of 30 in the terminal waiting for the flight, so when you get to Malta you just walk straight through to the departure lounge.
Scariest was Fuerteventura airport, cos my little boy who was 5 at the time went walkabout and we spent a frantic half hour looking for him. Thankfully its not a huge departure lounge.
Smallest is the Heli port on Gozo, great really cos they book you onto your flight from Malta airport and there is a maximum of 30 in the terminal waiting for the flight, so when you get to Malta you just walk straight through to the departure lounge.
Scariest was Fuerteventura airport, cos my little boy who was 5 at the time went walkabout and we spent a frantic half hour looking for him. Thankfully its not a huge departure lounge.
I liked Copenhagen, although overriding memories of a 20 minute walk to a gate.
Seychelles is a bit surreal, it's tiny!
For worst, it's a straight fight between (and I can't believe neither has been mentioned so far!) Naples and Athens.
Naples is a big shed in the middle of a bilding site - and with no organisation whatsoever.
Athens is just horrible - 1960s affair with awful seats and security guards who kick you if you sleep on the floor because your plane is 12 hours delayed and you can't sleep across moulded chairs...
Seychelles is a bit surreal, it's tiny!
For worst, it's a straight fight between (and I can't believe neither has been mentioned so far!) Naples and Athens.
Naples is a big shed in the middle of a bilding site - and with no organisation whatsoever.
Athens is just horrible - 1960s affair with awful seats and security guards who kick you if you sleep on the floor because your plane is 12 hours delayed and you can't sleep across moulded chairs...
but does look nice.grass widow said:
Worst, Banjul airport in Gambia, its a contrete square dumped in the middle of a field. And the one and only time I've been frisked leaving the country, but then again we all were so maybe we all looked a bit suspicious.
Smallest is the Heli port on Gozo, great really cos they book you onto your flight from Malta airport and there is a maximum of 30 in the terminal waiting for the flight, so when you get to Malta you just walk straight through to the departure lounge.
Scariest was Fuerteventura airport, cos my little boy who was 5 at the time went walkabout and we spent a frantic half hour looking for him. Thankfully its not a huge departure lounge.
what I love about gambian airports is the fact that they have snow plows
and mig jets with no engines 
NiceCupOfTea said:
I liked Copenhagen, although overriding memories of a 20 minute walk to a gate.
Copenhagen's also one of my favourites. Very clean, well laid out and not too busy.
Best of all airports IMO is Heathrow T4.
Flew in and out of there twice a week for a couple of years and never had a bad experience.
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