While travelers love buying cheap fares, whether cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages, they are often at a loss as to what to do once they arrive at the airport waiting for the departure of their planes.
The following are some of the more creative activities select airports are offering to fill travelers time until their planes take off:
Singapore Changi Airport offers free 24 hour a day access to a movie theater. It also offers customers free use of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaming systems. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the airport as are 500 free Internet kiosks.
Customers at Washington Dulles International Airport are provided free access to a nearby Smithsonian Museum. A 15 minute bus ride, which costs 50 cents, takes travelers to the Udvar-Hazy museum. The museum is located in a set of huge hangars and displays an SR-71 Blackbird, the space shuttle Enterprise, and the Enola Gay which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Visitors to the Estonia Tallinn Airport are able to use a free Skype (which was originally written by Estonian programmers) video chat booth to make unlimited, free video calls anywhere in the world. It also offers 14 free Internet kiosks and passengers can connect their own laptops via the airports free Wi-Fi.
Travelers at Amsterdams Airport Schiphol can gain free access to the Schiphol Airport Library. This is a showcase for Dutch culture, with translated versions of Dutch literature available and Dutch music. Nine of the 25 seats in the library offer use of free iPads.
JFK International Airport (or more specifically Delta in Terminals 2 and 3) has installed 200 iPads at restaurants near gate areas. They can be used not only to order food, but to surf the Net, check email, and stream videos. Delta is offering the same service at LaGuardia.
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei is offering free morning and afternoon tours of Taipei to fliers who have long layovers. www.cheapfares.com