311–320 of 320 posts
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My brother just went through Schiphol two weeks ago. Scheduled his connecting flight with a five hour layover just to be sure. Took him 5 hours and 20 minutes to make it through security.
Did he make the flight?
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I agree with you — I've never bought anything other than food at an airport — but the shops wouldn't be there if they didn't make money.
I remember reading a book a while back that mentioned that the luxury shops in airports don't make any money and don't expect to make sales. They're there to make you see Armani handbags for $2500 and think 'Wow, Armani must be a really luxury brand to have $2500 handbags on sale!'. This then makes you more likely to later buy an Armani t-shirt for $80. The store in the airport is there to make you think the brand is…
Airports make 2/3rds of their money by renting space to shops, and the remaining third by allowing planes to fly. They have a strong incentive to be inefficient, so you will feel you need to arrive 2 hours before departure, or even more, because you don't want to risk losing your flight. I flew ~1,000 times, and saw ~300 airports. I could write tens of books on how to make airports better... But the problem is that t…
an interesting exception is Munich airport, which was originally designed to minimise the distance passengers have to take to reach their plane. Well visible here: https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/assets/news_articles/... Say you arrive by taxi, you would go down the street in the middle, drop off at one of the four check-in areas (the triangular structures), then make your way through check-in and security and…
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Imagine having "spare" 50€. Unless you're absolutely rich, you probably shouldn't default to using a cab in a city known for it's amazing public transport.
$50 after walking off a $1200 flight, $60 upgrade to board early, and $12 in cocktails is not a substantial amount. Plus lunch/dinner on the way to/at the airport for $40. And you're gonna pay $8-12 to get downtown via public transit, then make a transfer to a bus and walk two blocks to your hotel. Fifty bucks for a taxi is a lot, but a rounding error on a transatlantic flight/trip, and will drop you off in front of…
If you have the budget to eat at the airport, drink cocktails and pay for early boarding, then you're most likely loaded.
If you're not rich, but still pay for convenience services like that, I'd say you have irrational spending behavior.
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You have a very weird circle of associates. Schönefeld was always the bad airport and now the Brandenburg airport took over that title. Tegel was always the quick and convenient one.
I thought Tegel was notoriously the very worst airport in the world? The facilities were atrocious . A security setup like cattle pens. It was like a bad bus stop - grim and dark and raw concrete. It didn’t even particularly have good routes did it?
I always preferred going to TXL from ARN, felt like I was getting a flying bus to my destination, very close to the center so it was a matter of disembarking and getting to the center in 30 minutes or less. Flying to Schönefeld had the same atrocious facilities and another hour of a train ride to the city...
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The food at terminal C at EWR post renovation is perfectly fine, if ridiculously expensive. Terminal A sucks though. Can't say anything about B, I've only used EWR for domestic travel.
I beg to differ. Compared to PDX, TPA, DEN, SAN, SEA and even SFO, I would say the updated Terminal C is still lacking, especially at those appalling prices. The whole OTG iPad thing is stupid too, and I assume leads back to corruption at Port Authority.
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> I agree that buses are cramped and that trains are way more comfortable, but I think we can also agree that whatever space you don't have in a bus, it will be even worse on a plane... Depends which class you travel, and with which airline. Even in economy, the "legacy" European carriers are generally more comfortable than a bus. The ability to pay more to make the travel bearable is an advantage of air travel. > Al…
> Spending 12+ hours on a bus is not an improvement over a 2 hour flight My argument is that there is no such thing as a 2-hour flight. We still need to factor the time to get to the airport, check-in/boarding, getting off the plane, waiting for luggage, and then getting from the airport to your actual destination. That easily transforms any trip into a 5- or 6-hour event. Factor in that if you are flying to a place…
Arguably off topic, but having suffered through BER several times, I have a few tips to share which might reduce your own suffering. First: post-security you will find some of the most disgusting food ever served in an airport, but hey it’s also expensive and the servers don’t hide how much they hate being there! However, there is a little shop near the left-side stairs that sells better alcohol as well as soft drink…
I would add two more suggestions here: 1) If you have 50€ to spare always take the taxy to the city center. If you take the train you will hate this airport as much as the one at Frankfurt. You can thank me later. 2) Use security lanes 1 or 5. They are the furthest and less busy. Everyone usually just queues up by the nearest one. Don't trust the indicators.