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I liked Amsterdam, big, roomy and plenty of options. Paris was a nightmare. Talk about outdated and crowded. I will agree with McCarran, not very pleasant. San Diego is not that great either, at least for connecting to Southwest flights. Rome was okay, I appreciated the shuttle that took us from plane door to the baggage pickup without having to walk a long ways( granted, that was Altalia ) Milan was okay, no complaints. LGA is not nice but convenient, been so long since I went through JFK, don't remember much, Newark I had no gripes but it has been a while since I was there. I like PHX but worry about AA taking over USAir and if there will be reductions in flights. The airport was built for America West which was taken over by USAir. I am NO fan of USAir but hate to see reductions in flights there.
Most of the problems identified by the article prompting this thread stem from (1) the TSA, and (2) faster increase in flight-load than in airport capacity. The latter is in some sense good news, for it means burgeoning travel activity. The former is more a reflection of the American skepticism of government, and government's response to this skepticism.
Asian airports, and to a lesser extent European airports, aim to be elegant. Flying is regarded as more of an upper-class, exclusive experience. In the US, flying is more generic and middle-class. Airplanes have become buses with wings, and airport culture reflects this. That said, I can not report huge difference in quality of transit-experience between [Singapore or Hong Kong] vs. [Frankfurt or Heathrow] vs. [O'Hare or LAX]. Yes, the airports are in descending order of elegance, panache and flair. But queues are long everywhere, food is expensive everywhere (actually cheaper in US airports!), flight delays occur everywhere, gates are swarming masses of humanity everywhere.
Airport layout reflects the values of the underlying society. American airports are laid out as American towns, and European airports as European towns. American airports are dispersed, with gates adjacent to gates, stores interspersed everywhere, one end resembling any other, and no discernible nucleus. European airports have vast central areas of congregation and retail, beautifully appointed, and then splinter out to individual gates, with nothing in between. The centralized nodes are connected by elaborate transportation networks, but between the gates one has to walk. One can find food/beer throughout American airports, walking back and forth between any far flung-gate and any other (except the occasional isolated international terminal, such as Terminal 5 in O'Hare). In European airports, once one reaches one's gate, one is ensconced in a micro-world isolated from concessions or other services.
So there is a cultural difference between US airports and airports elsewhere in the world. But overall I don't see the differences as being too huge. The article's claim that American airports are "awful" is hyperbolic and excessive.
Cincinnati, Denver and San Francisco are on the list for World's Best Domestic Airports. LA is on the list for World's best Airport Terminal.
Charlotte, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami, Seattle, Honolulu, Atlanta, Dallas, New York JFK, Minneapolis, Raleigh, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Newark, and Boston also received awards.
It's somewhat disappointing that more US airports are not on the top of the international list, but hardly an indication the US airports are awful compared to other countries.
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