How many airports have you been to?

[DINGO Joe]

I'm not exactly sure how many I have been to.  Not more than 75 I'd guess.

Would also be curious to know what people's favorite airport is.  

My favorite ones are all really small, like Waterloo, Iowa or Columbus, Mississippi or Gilmer, Texas.  You can get there five minutes before your flight and no one hassles you.  

My first flight would have been to Waterloo, on what I thought was Braniff but after a little research had to of been Ozark.  Braniff, of course was much cooler:



Harrisonburg is a very easy airport to fly in and out of, beats Philly or any Baltimore-Washington.  Can't say I really enjoy any airport I've been in, even way back when I traveled with my father and he has access to the private lounges.  Just a place to get a beer and ordinary food until cattle herded on to the next locale.

[DINGO Joe]

Angus, you didn't like Detroit? I'm referring to the McNamara Terminal, with the monorail, fountains, etc. Not the other terminal where they have like everyone other than Delta.

First time I flew Detroit, I wasn't aware and really had no reason to consider that if you're flying to or from Japan to anywhere in the Eastern 2/3rds of the US, you're probably going thru Detroit. For whatever reason my connecting flight to Harrisburg, PA was going out of the international terminal and when I stepped on the monorail to go that terminal--nothing but a sea of Japanese.  I was very baffled and very tall.  It was good practice for when I actually did get to fly to Japan.

Besides that, my other basic memory of the Detroit airport is they were really really trying to sell beef jerky.

[DINGO Joe]

Braniff, of course was much cooler:

That reminds me of a story.  Braniff was known for painting its planes in different colors.  Braniff had only one 747 in its fleet, painted orange and used on the Dallas-Honolulu route.  Supposedly an air traffic controller after having noticed that each time he saw a Braniff 747 that it was orange asked the pilot if all of Braniff's 747 were painted orange, to which the pilot simply replied, yes.

Somewhere in the attic I have a couple of Braniff model planes packed away.  One was the orange/brown and the other was the blue/green.  The 70s were wondrously tacky.

[DINGO Joe]

way back when I traveled with my father

I remember back in the day.  First time I ever flew on an airplane was in about 1974 and my father's company paid for it, so it was first class.  The whole family flew to Amsterdam and our seats were on the upper storey of a two-decker.  KLM 747 I think it was.  Remember when people could smoke on planes?  All the second-hand smoke you could handle.  I remember when I was a kid I could walk up to the cockpit door and open it and talk to the captain.  C'mon in son, wanna see how a real airplane works?  That was special.  Back then people had leg room, even in the cheap seats.  And First Class was really special.  The big screen movies and fresh baked pastries and copious sodas and ice cream.  We also went on some cheap seats from time to time.  The cheap service back then was better than the first class service now. 

As recently as 15 years ago I still remember getting on an airplane with my electric guitar case.  No one asking me what was inside it or x-raying it to look for weapons, or asking me to check it and stow it below because it was so big.

Times have changed.  Not having to take off my shoes at the airport or actually having leg room on a plane now seems like it must have happened in a dream.  Nowadays it's like, "Oh, you want to take a suitcase with you?  That'll be an extre twenty-five dollars, please."   Seriouly?

I can't necessarily speak from the same perspective, as I certainly did not fly in 1974, but I certainly agree with your overall point. Traveling is not so fun now a days, and not necessarily just because of the security aspect, but air service is just not the same as it was even 10 years ago.

Random - but you can still smoke on some airlines (not in the US, but many Middle Eastern airlines).

I agree with all, much of the fun of flying has been sucked out, as for terminals I never really thought there was much fun to be had there.