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This thread can be responded to in two ways. Which airport have you had the LONGEST layover of your entire life in? Or which airport have you been to the most?
My longest layover (I believe) was probably at the Kuala Lumpur airport. We were flying to Tioman Island and our flight was at 7:00am. The plane failed to show up from its previous flight and it was not until 12:00 noon that it finally landed, was fitted for travel again, and we boarded. About 2 hours into the flight there was mechanical failure and the plane rather then flying another 2 hours to our destination turned back and flew 2 hours back to KL. We waited again for our plane to be ready and finally got to Tioman island at 6-7pm. All in all we spent a little over 13 hours at the airport dilly dallying.
Runner Up, Tokyo Airport. My mother had me board a bus for the airport at 3:00am as I had a flight at 5:00am from Japan back to the US. Upon reaching the airport I was very confused as the airport reception desks were not open. Upon further investigation and careful study of my plane ticket I realized my flight was at 5pm not 5am. My mom started bawling on the phone when she realized she could have spent just a few more hours with her little boy. I was pretty mad at first, but fortunately I had Enders Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon which I had not yet read. Those 12 hours waiting were actually quite enjoyable
In terms of gross time, I've spent more time at San Fransisco's airport then any other. The longest layover I've had there was 4-5 hours however, since I grew up in Asia, and since we always went to the US every summer and occasionally in the winter, and we always flew to Utah via San Fransisco. Over 15 years I've chalked up several days at that airport.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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My longest layover was probably in LAX for 5 hours. I've had remarkably good luck with flight delays (car accidents en route to the airport aside).
Gross time, HNL, hands down. SEA is a distant second.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Most of my flying has been into or out of Burbank. Nice little airport, that. My then-not-yet-husband was very amused the first time he flew in there and they rolled the stairs up to the plane.
My longest layover was, I think, a 6- or 7-hour layover in Phoenix. It was mostly overnight. I just slept there. In a chair.
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My longest layover was in St Louis on the way to Madrid. Almost 24 hrs. (I missed my connection because they airline decided to detour to ft smith. I have NO idea way.) They had to get me a hotel room.
The one I've been to the most is probably SJC
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Most of my flying has been out of Birmingham, and Atlanta. For pretty obvious reasons, I think. Longest layover was in Texas, en route to Phoenix for a business meeting.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I was flying out of LAX for christmas and had to be there before six am. They cancelled my flight without warning (after being herded like cattle for over an hour to the check in desk), and the next flight wasn't until eight pm. The crusty rusties didn't even want to let me use their phone, when they were the hoozats that cancelled my flight. Yeah, bad day.
I'm in LAX all the time... or if I'm not in it, I'm driving in circles around it picking up roommates.
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I flew out of Tel Aviv in the mid 90's. Even back then it was recommended that we be to the airport 3 hours before our 6:00 am flight departed. We got there even earlier than that because the last shuttle left for the airport around midnight. So we waited nearly 6 hours before boarding the plane. The minute I got to my seat, I fell asleep. I woke up a short time later to find we were landing in Tel Aviv. A bird went through one of the engines on take off. We spent about three hours in the airport while the airlines figured out what to do about the visa status of all the passengers and then they finally took all our passports and tickets and delivered us to a hotel where they fed us and gave us a place to sleep but absolutely no information. Then the next morning we had to back at the airport by 3:00 am again.
It wasn't at all a fun experience, but we did eventually get one of the best breakfasts I've every had. A full out mid-eastern/Israeli breakfast buffet.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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quote:Originally posted by porcelain girl: I'm in LAX all the time... or if I'm not in it, I'm driving in circles around it picking up roommates.
That reminds me of the 8 hours I spent one Sunday driving around SEATAC where I was assured every 15 minutes that my friends flight was expected to land in 15 minutes. It turns out that my friend's Northworst flight had circled over a fogged in Spokane airport until it ran out of gas and made an emergency landing in Moses Lake. Then the passengers rioted because the bathrooms on the plane had been closed due to a water leak and eventually got let out on the runway. After getting fuel and peeing on the runway, they returned to circling over Spokane where they were eventually allowed to land but then weren't allowed to take off until the bathrooms were fixed. And all this time, Northwest kept saying that the flight would be arriving in 15 minutes. Couldn't they have atleast told me the flight had been delayed indefinitely in Spokane and let me go home.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Air France. It has screwed me over time and time again, the first time for 14 hours, the second time for 12 hours. First time, hotel room; second time, nothing -- only a soda can and a sandwich.
Do not fly Air France.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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DIA is a wonderful place to sleep off a layover. You can pass out on the benches in the forest of potted trees.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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O'Hare. School trip to Canada. Time remaining till flight: 40 minutes.
Person #1: Hey, what seat does everyone have? Me: 26C Person #2: Hey, my seat's 26C! Everyone: *panic*
They had split our group up, and put us on two different flights, one of which would arrive in Winnipeg early enough to catch our train, the other of which would not. The delay wasn't huge -- about an hour -- but the amount of panic packed into that hour made it seem like much, much longer.
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I've only flown once in my life, in 1990. From Flint Bishop airport to Chicago to Tulsa and back. Chicago seemed like a nice airport. I was at Wayne County in Detroit as well, but not as a passenger.
Posts: 1042 | Registered: Jan 2001
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Longest layover: Seoul airport, flying from Kumamoto-Newark (I think it was Newark. Coulda been JFK). I went ahead and got a hotel room. Other than that, I had a 6-hour wait in London, trying to get to Madrid.
Most frequent airport: easily Dulles, due to many pickups/ dropoffs. (We live about 20 minutes away.) I probably have flown out of/ into BWI more often, though...cheeeeeper.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I have had a great many long layovers. I'm guessing the longest were probably mostly at JFK, but I recall a pretty long one at Heathrow and a long one at Charles de Gaulle as well.
I've presumably spent more time going through LAX than any other airport. If NY/NJ didn't have three airports (two of which I have spent considerable time in), that might have beat it out, though.
I prefer Burbank to LAX, but not enough to pay an extra $100 (often the price difference). Especially since it's a father drive.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Mid Continent International Airport (MCI), or as it is currently known, Kansas City International Airport. Between a tally of time spent and number of times visited, it wins hands down for me.
Now, though, it's a good 3.5 hour drive away.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Most frequent airports - Vancouver, BC and Edmonton, AB. Been to both of those hundreds of times. Vancouver, both picking up/dropping off people plus flying, Edmonton mostly just picking up/dropping off.
Longest layover - Hong Kong. 11 1/2 hours. The flight from Canada to Sri Lanka to meet my husband and get married.
Worst airport ever - Sharjah, UAE. All Air Arabia flights go there & fly out of there, and that's the worst airline ever. The airport has no signage, is disorganized to the point of chaos, it's packed, and it takes forever to get out of. And it's not pretty. It's not even utilitarian.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I've only had one layover in my life, but it was insanely short (in fact I don't even remember it as it was so short and so long ago). The rest of my flights I've paid the extra amount to go direct (even the way too long flight from Houston to Tokyo).
As for what airport I've been to most, it'd probably be Bush Intercontinental in Houston (IAH), followed closely by Hobby in Houston (don't recall the letters for that one). Tulsa's airport is probably close to those two as well, but not as high.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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I had a voluntary long layover at IAH once. Continental overbooked during spring break week. They were going to bump one student (then they would have to bump one shaparone too) unless someone stepped up. Since I traveled all the time then, I was not in any major rush in getting to DC. So I took the travel voucher and free meal tickets and waited 13.5 hours. It was a boring day, but at least the kids got to DC together.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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The airport in which I seem to spend most of my time is (London)Stansted Airport, STN - aka the 10th circle of hell. Sadly it is *the* hub for UK/Europe cheap flights. It's a rotten place, but at least it's better than it was.
I haven't got a favourite airport, but the guy in Borders Books in Chicago O'Hare gave me a free bag for just buying three paperbacks. Hoorah!
Posts: 892 | Registered: Oct 2006
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quote:I prefer Burbank to LAX, but not enough to pay an extra $100 (often the price difference). Especially since it's a father drive.
We try to get tickets when they're only $20 to $40 more at Burbank (each), but will pay up to $60 more each ticket for the convenience-- for us, Burbank is 15 minutes from home, while LAX is more than an hour, sometimes two if traffic is atrocious. If we can't get them at Burbank we can almost always get them at John Wayne for less than at LAX, and that is only 30-40 minutes from us, so we prefer that. We almost never fly from or to LAX.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Heathrow to Ottawa. A lot. Longest layover was at Toronto during the 1998 ice storm. Other than those airports, I've only also been to Orlando. Nice airport.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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None of the airport layovers I've had have ever been too bad.
Greyhound layovers though... ugh. Greyhound doesn't put you up if something goes wrong. So having to sleep on the floor of the SLC bus station during a blizzard... until a security guard started kicking everyone awake at 5 AM. That was bad. Or getting stuck in Springfield, Missouri for 24 hours because of overloaded buses. Bleah.
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Detroit was the bane of my first fifteen years. We always tended to fly through there to get to Florida to visit family, and got stuck darn near every time - including twice overnight. To this day I try my hardest to avoid it.
The longest layover I've had was most likely one of the Detroit overnighters, probably along the lines of 18 hours. I had a 7-hour layover in Philly last May and there was that really long one in January of 2000 in Minneapolis when a blizzard hit; I think that may have been 10 hours.
The airport to which I've been the most? Wow. Good questions. I'm pretty sure it's O'Hare. It might wind up being Tucson, but for now, definitely O'Hare.
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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