Airports you've never left! (Well... only transited through!)

[Pushka]

We travelled to Europe in 1987 and had to refuel in Muscat. We were not allowed off the plane and the plane was surrounded by heavily armed soldiers. Us tourists back then were a dangerous lot.

 

[Shano]

DFW - about a dozen transits and only 1 stopover, forced due to a late arriving flight from LIT
ORD - about 6 transits
NRT - 1
DPS - 1
LGA - 1
DEN - 1

Remembered a few more:

WUH - 1
STL - 1
LGW - 1

 

[drewbles]

Up until last year, I had DFW firmly on this list, having been through it probably 20 or so times over the years. Last year, I actually spent a night in Dallas/Fort Worth, so I have to cancel that. FRA Also, but I ended up spending a night there several years ago.

The main ones I came up with off the top of my head are:

DOH
BGI
DUS
LGA
GLT
ROK

There was quite a list of places I had only ever transited until recently. Then, for various reasons, I ended up stepping outside the airport

And i'm sure there's more, but I cannot for the life of me think of them.

 

[gwilli1]

Im normally a point to point person ...until joining AFF . ATL & DFW are my only two.

 

[LadyC]

A fairly short list for me - BOM, DRW, DFW, EZE, MEX and MIA. BOM was 30 plus years ago, as mentioned in a previous post, where the stop was required en route to Europe.

 

[Skyring]

I'm thinking that this is a particularly arid thread. It makes us think back over our travels, and I notice certain airports, mostly hubs, keep recurring, but is there a point to discussion?

A lot of times, an airport is just a place to swap planes. Or in the case of the long flights to or from London or New York, get back on the same plane. If I want to get home from London, Singapore isn't a destination. It's a few shops and a lounge. Coffee and a shower and a chance to move around a bit.

Whenever I fill in one of those "How many countries have you been to?" memes, I skip over the places where I haven't left the airport. I am sure that Finland has much to offer, and technically I have walked upon the land surface (well, tarmac surface) of that nation, but I don't count my brief interlude between Osaka and Istanbul as actually being in Finland. Or Helsinki. For one thing, I didn't get a stamp in my passport.

Places like LAX and Heathrow and ORD and DFW pop up many times as transits and in each case (well, maybe not LA) the city is worth exploring. London is a place that takes a long time to explore, with the history, the literary memories, the art and culture. Chicago and Fort Worth are superb American cities, full of unique cultural experiences. The best steak I ever ate was in Fort Worth, and Chicago has some amazing architecture.

But I guess if we don't have time to leave the airport, and when it's only a few hours it's always a rush and a risk, then the airport is the destination. Perhaps a better question would be like this:

When you haven't left the airport, what''s worth doing to fill in the time? (Apart from getting sozzled in the lounge, of course!)

For me:
LAX. LAX is the reason I got into the QFF/QP/WP thing. In January and April 2005 I had two long transits there as an Economy passenger. It was T4 in those days, and that horrible round area, full of tired cranky people, very few power points and an irritating announcement about luggage every ten minutes or so, got me thinking that there were better ways to spend my time. After that, I've always been in the lounge. The shops in T4 are limited and very ordinary. There's a Starbucks and a burger chain, a newsagent and maybe one or two others. The upside was that I could look out to see an incredible range of aircraft landing and taking off and taxiing. The same goes for other large airports, but LAX seemed to have a lot of interesting airlines.

DFW. Mmmmm. Some great American dining here. TGI Friday is just over the top American. There's a Ben and Jerry's - though for some inexplicable reason they weren't offering Cherry Garcia when I was there - and a whole bunch of Texas souvenir shops. The airport itself is very well designed - you can walk around the whole thing - a veeery long walk - and it seems like you're on some endless airport anywhere treadmill. Or you can take the AAirtrain around and around and around.

ORD. Ummm. Probably not my favorite airport in the world.

HKG. Awesome shopping. Worth looking into some of the out of the way places for unique offerings. Pickled squid feet and so on. Lots of planespotting opportunities, but the constant haze makes for poor photography. I generally browse around the shops and then retire to the Fwing, where people bring me drinks until I have to run a kilometre or so to my gate.

SIN. Gotta be my favorite airport to spend time at. Often I fly here just for a chance to sleep at the airside hotel. There's a cinema, swimming pool, great shopping, almost a holiday theme park.

LHR. YMMV, according to terminal. Some of the older ones are just horrid mean little places with low ceilings and gloomy corridors. T5 is a pleasant change. I like the electrical gadget shops, full of interesting devices to drain the plastic and stretch the carryon. The Champagne Bar in the BA First lounge is one of my favorite places in the world. So long as I can stand up well enough to get onto the plane, the onward flight is just a happy blur.

 

[NM]

Ams
cgk
chc
ccu
drw
dxb
han
hnl
kwi

 

[kamchatsky]

The only airport which i have never left outside is PER in 1989. I have never been to PER since. I need a good excuse to go there.


I have transited in other cities before but eventually I have left airport for sightseeing in subsequent trips.

 

[ozmille]

I think for me just CVG, ORD and IAH. I always try to sneak a stopover in Asia on the way back from Europe. And will do a stopover in DXB soon as well. Always nice to see new stuff.

 

[drewbles]

I'm thinking that this is a particularly arid thread. It makes us think back over our travels, and I notice certain airports, mostly hubs, keep recurring, but is there a point to discussion?

Well it is an open discussion thread. We could move it to the O/T thread, but that may be too in danger of being on topic

 

[JohnK]

LAX - 3 (Walked between terminals outside so dad can have a cigarette)
ORD - 3
STL - 2
MIA - 1
DFW - 1
IAD - 1
DCA - 1
LRE - 1 (Got outside for a couple of minutes)
RMA - 1
MQZ - 1

I have lost count of the number of times I have transitted LHR, SIN, HKG, TPE and MNL but I have also had stopovers in those cities. I have also transitted most Australian capitals at one stage or another.

 

[Shane B]

LAX for me.

 

[Pleb Status]

I must have flown through LAX more than 30 times and only left the airport once (and that was one time too many!). Never left DFW on more than 20 transfers through there.

 

[Dave R32]

PHL x 2
DEN x 2
BKK x 1

 

[Ewing]

It used to be DFW for me, but I ended up deciding to go see the local area one trip (and spent a night in Arlington).

On the other foot, I left LAX on my first visit there. Have only transited since

 

[Paddy55]

Forgot SEA with Drewbles!

 

[Formal Hall]

Transited Rome (FCO) four times last month. The shade of green on every surface is still with me.

 

[drewbles]

Forgot SEA with Drewbles!

I have actually left SEA several times though

All these airports that everyone merely transits... I leave!

LAX, DFW, SEA, MIA. I was at all of them last year, and actually left them! Multiple Times!

Up until last year though, DFW and MIA were firmly on the 'transit only' list. I wish MIA was. It's a hole!

 

[RooFlyer]

Flight memory tells me 98 lifetime airports, only 3 never exited: Sao Paulo, Hanoi and Toulouse.

Re LAX. It took me about 10 transits to realise that there are a number of OK things to do via a short, cheap cab ride to while away a couple of hours (since you are forced to be land side anyway).

Eg Boardwalking at Venice or Manhattan beaches, the 'In-n-out' restaurant perched right at the end of one of the run-ways, to name but a few. Lets face it, LAX is one of the worst airports to while away time ...

 

[Blackadder]

Used to have two, DFW fell off the list following a enforced lay over thanks to a East Coast storm causing chaos in the NY/NJ area.
The only one now is CLT.