A Traveling Fool

*if this feels like deja vu, it's because I've made an update and reposted.

I recently spent 10 days out of New York City (7 of those days out of the office!) as part vacation, part funeral and the journeys to FL, CA and back to NY made me realize something about airports.

For starters, I’m a pretty good traveler. In general, I’m laid back but I like to have plenty of time to get settled at the airport. I’m also a decent flyer; I’m not really bothered by flying and usually pack my own snacks and entertainment.

But in an ideal world, I fly direct, one big city to another. And I get an aisle seat. This past trip didn’t really have aisle seats or direct flights but I was able to make some observations about airports. I’ve decided that there are three categories of airports and pluses and minuses to each.

1. Big Cities (NY, LA, Chicago)
These airports may have more delays but they are equipped to handle massive amounts of people. They have major food options but nothing too fancy or crazy, people aren’t usually spending a lot of time in these airports.

2. Hubs (Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, Atlanta)
These airports are giant. They usually require a tram to get you from point A to point B. There are tons of food options, stores, and seating areas. People end up spending time in these airports but the planes are usually a bit smaller.

3. Commuters/Smaller Cities (Birmingham, Orange County, Burbank)
These are the airports that are less crowded but also less staffed. They don’t stay open late and neither do the limited food and drink options. Again, smaller planes and shorter flights.

I don’t have much more to say about these except that it is interesting how airports meet certain needs and depending on your reasons for travel, you may hardly ever visit the big city airports or if you’re me, hardly ever visit the hubs or commuter airports. I didn’t go to all of the examples listed above on my journey so I had to draw on some past experience. However, my travels did take me from LGA to DCA, DCA to JAX, JAX to BHM, BHM to SAT (didn’t get off the plane), SAT to LAX, SNA to LGA.

The real question is, anyone know all of those airports based on the abbreviations? ;)