Things you learn in an airport in the middle of the night.

Gary Blanchard

Gary Blanchard

beloved, local musician
  1. They do a lot of cleaning with noisy machines overnight.
  2. Even though there are no flights going out, and the only people there are workers or people trying to sleep, they continue to give overhead announcements about unattended baggage and not smoking.
  3. CNN, at 3:embarrassed:0 AM, is just as annoying as at any other time.
  4. The Dunkin' Donuts at Dulles never closes, but they don't have fresh donuts at 2:30 AM.
  5. Despite popular opinion here, Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles will not put you to sleep.
  6. Stratguy must be an insomniac.
  7. Overnight airport workers like having loud conversations at great distance even though some people are trying to sleep.
  8. I get bitchy when I don't get sleep.
 
I hate airports. If I'm in there and checked in and everything has gone as smoothly as possible its still too slow and annoying. I hate waiting at the departure gate just to be shepherded onto a thin tin can where I can barely sit. Im 6'2" and id say thats fairly normal and I can't get my legs in no matter what I do.

I tend to find vending machines and pick weird stuff I've never tried before.

Ive noticed that they tend to clean and shine floors that don't need cleaning or shining at all.
 
I finally got a little sleep, but a fresh crew of United customer services agents came in about 4:30 and began having loud, happy conversations.

"I got to bed 10:embarrassed:0 last night."

"Oh, the reason I'm so hungry is I went to bed 8:30 last night."




I'm so happy for them. :annoyed:
 
Mojo sent, airports late at night are creepy. I used to hate having to stay at work waiting for a late flight to come in just to unload it.
 
Too bad this doesn't work as well at night:
"I play 'spy' at the airport. Do you ever do that? I believe in using that ... Especially a big airport.
You know there's a spy there. Your job- find him."
-George Carlin
 
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Gary Blanchard said:
  1. They do a lot of cleaning with noisy machines overnight.
  2. Even though there are no flights going out, and the only people there are workers or people trying to sleep, they continue to give overhead announcements about unattended baggage and not smoking.
  3. CNN, at 3:embarrassed:0 AM, is just as annoying as at any other time.
  4. The Dunkin' Donuts at Dulles never closes, but they don't have fresh donuts at 2:30 AM.
  5. Despite popular opinion here, Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles will not put you to sleep.
  6. Stratguy must be an insomniac.
  7. Overnight airport workers like having loud conversations at great distance even though some people are trying to sleep.
  8. I get bitchy when I don't get sleep.
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I, as a college student, slept in the Miami airport during a layover one time. Add to this list: that the dulcet tones of announcements in a female voice in spanish does not lull me to sleep, and that a paperback copy of Anna Karenina is not that great a pillow, and further, that the story within does not transmit into your brain prior to exams by you sleeping on it. Oh, and that sleeping pills do not help me sleep, just make me act drunk when I am stumbling around because I can't sleep.
 
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A few years ago when we were in California, our rental car didn't have a registration and we got a ticket. The rental company, I forget which one, said that it wasn't a problem but we'd need to let the worker at the desk know and give them a copy of the ticket.

No problem.

Except that our flight was at 6 AM, and the rental company was closed from 11 PM to 6 AM.

So, we figured, we'll get to the airport (John Wayne in Orange CA) just before 11 PM, get through security, and sleep at the terminal.

Who knew that John Wayne closes up shop at 10PM? We turned the car in, went into the airport, and had to sit out in the lobby in front of the closed ticket counters all night. Not a comfortable chair to be found.
 
Gary Blanchard said:
  1. They do a lot of cleaning with noisy machines overnight.
  2. Even though there are no flights going out, and the only people there are workers or people trying to sleep, they continue to give overhead announcements about unattended baggage and not smoking.
  3. CNN, at 3:embarrassed:0 AM, is just as annoying as at any other time.
  4. The Dunkin' Donuts at Dulles never closes, but they don't have fresh donuts at 2:30 AM.
  5. Despite popular opinion here, Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles will not put you to sleep.
  6. Stratguy must be an insomniac.
  7. Overnight airport workers like having loud conversations at great distance even though some people are trying to sleep.
  8. I get bitchy when I don't get sleep.
Click to expand...

You have no idea! I can always think of one more thing to do, rather than go to sleep.

BTW, all those announcement, stale donuts, and loud workers, are to move you toward accpeted their discounted hotel room next time.
 
Stratguy said:
You have no idea! I can always think of one more thing to do, rather than go to sleep.

BTW, all those announcement, stale donuts, and loud workers, are to move you toward accpeted their discounted hotel room next time.
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They'll have to pry my 70 dollars from my cold, dead hands. :embarrassed:

By the time the hotel shuttle came, drove for 45 minutes, and I got checked in, I would have had maybe 3 hours sleep, which was not worth $70.00.
 
Dulles Airport is so horrible at night. Not that it isn’t one of the world’s worst shithole airports in the day, but it sucks so much more after hours. You poor bastard.

The one time I let an airline put me up an Indian family had rented out an entire airport hotel save the block of rooms reserved for airlines. The entire hotel was one huge noisy wedding party. In retrospect I should have just crashed the party; instead I spent the entire night pissed about not sleeping.
 
I was in Dulles last night too at about 10:30pm. I was on my way home, so luckily I just had to catch the shuttle to airport parking. If I had known you were there I woulda stopped by and said Hi. I landed at terminal D. Where were you?
 
Airport Mojo. I've now slept at the O'Hare, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis airports, and none of them are particularly restful! I guess it's one of the penances one must do when one escapes the midwest and moves to California -- almost every time we go back to visit family, we have some sort of weather-related delay!
 
My Wife and I landed in Portland, Oregon after midnight with a six hour layover. It was January and we were on our way home from Hawaii. The airport was virtually shut down, no heat, minimal lighting no services. We were wearing shorts and t-shirts and freezing our asses off. Thankfully a maintenance guy gave us a couple airline blankets and we curled up on a bench.
 
shoeless said:
I was in Dulles last night too at about 10:30pm. I was on my way home, so luckily I just had to catch the shuttle to airport parking. If I had known you were there I woulda stopped by and said Hi. I landed at terminal D. Where were you?
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Terminal D, hustling to Terminal C. We might have passed each other.
 
Wait...were you on a United flight that landed about an hour late coming from DFW? There were a lot of folks on my flight (the one from DFW) that were hustling, trying to catch connecting flights. At that time of night, if you miss your flight, you're pretty much spending the night. Is that what happened to you?
 
shoeless said:
Wait...were you on a United flight that landed about an hour late coming from DFW? There were a lot of folks on my flight (the one from DFW) that were hustling, trying to catch connecting flights. At that time of night, if you miss your flight, you're pretty much spending the night. Is that what happened to you?
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Except I was coming from Seattle. We were a little late out of the gate, had to detour south a bit due to weather, then they couldn't get the rampway working. I hustled from D28 to C28 only to find the gate closed and the plane was on the tarmac ready for takeoff. I missed it my minutes. They put me on a flight at 9:20 this morning that got me to Hartford by 10:30. I then got to Holyoke Community College by 11:45 to teach my 12:30 class. I am now at the office for 3, 4, 5, and 6 PM appointments. On about one hour's sleep.
 
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