Small airports suck

I once had to spend an hour and change there waiting for a friend to meet me after missing a flight. It was like 8:30 at night, so I figured I'd just grab a beer and wait for her to turn up.

Nope. The bars were all closed.

 

I've flown into Palau, too. I was 13. Long time ago. I'm 39. Iirc it was a terrifyingly short runway. My dad was stationed in Japan and we were headed home, and took a vacation in Micronesia. The home bound flight went something like Truk, Palau, Majuro, Kwajalein, Honolulu. Or Guam. Can't remember. One of those airports had a runway that seemed about a football field long. Even as a kid, it was frightening.

 

Guessing that was on Northwest back in the day.

And the smallest airport I've flown a commercial flight into was a dirt strip in Belize with a corrugated shack that served as a terminal.

 

The old Dodgers plane in the late '70s early '80s had issues flying out of Vero Beach. I'm sure the folks in that row of houses at the end of the runway got an up-close look at the landing gear.
At the end of spring training, everybody was limited to one suitcase. Any other luggage, golf clubs, extra satchel with media guides, etc., had to go on an equipment truck that took several days to get back to L.A.
Everything and everybody had to be weighed in on that getaway day.

 

DTW is awesome. Whenever I fly west from my current location I go through there.

I work at an airport, not a small one, that is the worst in the US.

 

leo1 is right. Miami is the worst for me, by far. Just depressing.

I loved Milwaukee. Course, I flew out in the middle of the day, but the bookstore was worth it on its own.

And KC is horrible. It also has the individual gate security, with no bathrooms inside. So if you check in, then have to go to the bathroom, you have to go back through security. Sucks.

 

Denver International Airport has good and bad characteristics;

The actual airport itself is easy to navigate...good variety of restaurants/bars/shops.

The area around it (right now) is a cluster fuck. So much construction around that place, if you miss a turn, basically just go back to the main gate, and start over.

Oh, and the fact that you almost drive into fucking Wyoming is another negative.

 

The few times I have flown into Minneapolis-St. Paul has been in January. You could just sense the people on the plane knowing how brutally cold it was.....had a real peach for a pilot one time.....told us on approach that temperature was -8 in the middle of the afternoon, but that it was sunny and 82 in Miami.

 

Only "bad" experience came in Miami.
Flew back from Merida, Mexico on my way back to college in Iowa in February 1991. Got into Miami around 10:30 or 11 p.m. for my connecting flight, but my connecting flight wasn't until seven hours later.
Nothing was open, not even bars, which I found strange for an international airport.
Remember, this is right after Gulf War I, so there were constant messages over the PA about unattended luggage being taken outside and destroyed.
Wound up sleeping on top of my bags in the waiting area and boarding my plane just before dawn.
I was the only passenger on the flight north to Daytona, where we picked up more passengers and headed home.

 

Miami may be the most fucked-up major airport in America. Signage that doesn't make sense. Employees who speak two or more languages but don't speak English. Shuttle/taxi pick-up is a zoo. Moving between some terminals means having to go back through security.

Was on a flight out of there a few years ago where we backed away from the gate about 10 feet and had stop because a pair of service vehicles ran into each other behind us and they had to clear the accident scene before we could move. Took about an hour.