Category Archives for Airports.
Is there any worse airport in the United States than Denver International Airport? I don’t think anything else even comes close. To start, Denver airport has the worst TSA setup in the country. In fact, this has been a mess for more than a decade. It just never gets better. And they clearly don’t even think through trying to make it better.
DFW is sometimes derided as standing for ‘Doesn’t Function Wet’ considering the operational challenges it seems to face whenever it rains. But the airport clearly doesn’t function icy, either. And American and airport leaders indirectly traded barbs at each other over its issues on Thursday.
For years, the ‘worst airport gate in America’ was generally considered to be 35X at Washington’s Reagan National airport. There were competitors, like Miami’s D60 and the old D9 at LaGuardia before the terminal was redone. But 35X was the stuff of legend.
Detroit airport is planning to add a cigar lounge, and anti-smoking groups are freaking out, claiming it “would expose millions of travelers and airport employees to harmful secondhand smoke.”
By law, flights to and from Washington’s close-in National airport are limited to 1,250 miles, except for a handful of trips created by Congress and handed out by the Department of Transportation.
DOT finalized its award of new ‘beyond-perimeter’ slots at Washington’s National airport, granting flights to American, Delta, United, Southwest, and Alaska. But their process for doing this was probably illegal.
Four men were involved in a battle royale at the Chicago O’Hare American Airlines terminal 3, where wet floor signs were turned into weapons and the three-against-one smackdown included an employee at the airport.
When you’re at the airport you’re in a separate dimension. You aren’t in one place, you’re between places. Time zones lose meaning. So the idea that there’s a span of time where it’s acceptable to drink a beer? “It’s five o’clock somewhere” is literally true.
United’s hub at Washington Dulles has long held a precarious position. It’s been on the potential chopping block many times over the past 25 years. As a result, it’s a place that’s seen little investment – until now.
There’s a growing elite consensus that the TSA has been fixed and is no longer a problem. I think that the narrative is misleading. TSA pays screeners more, so it doesn’t have a problem hiring screeners. That’s made a difference in security lines at some airports. But that’s the only dimension along which they’ve seemed to improve. It’s also the one most visible to travelers, so they’re getting too much credit.
The Justice Department has halted the DEA’s airport searches after a report revealed over $3.2 billion in cash was seized from passengers without charges over a decade, citing abuses, improper targeting, and likely constitutional rights violations.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
