The glow brought on by snagging cheap airplane tickets, great prices on discount hotel rooms, or even cheap vacation packages, used to be quickly extinguished when travelers faced extended layovers at airports with nothing to do.
The frustration of waiting sometimes hours for your next connection is often exasperated by delayed flights. Although the percentage of late flights dropped in 09 (from18.2% to 16.3% in 08), there were still over 960,000 delayed flights last year.
People used to look at airports as strictly a way station where you sat and waited to move onto your destination. Now many airports offer a wide variety of activities that can productively fill your time until your next flight:
Free high speed Internet service via Wi-Fi is being offering at an increasing number of airports. Even where it is not free, usually for a nominal fee you can access the Internet.
Day spas in terminals are offering a wide variety of massage options, from back rubs and foot massages, manicures and even sometimes seaweed facials.
Impressive displays of public art are becoming popular at many airports, including Denver, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
Working out at gyms by purchasing day passes at airport hotels is an option at many larger airports.
Upscale shopping can be found at luxury boutiques usually located in international departure concourses.
Wine aficionados and beer lovers can often find great selection of wines and fresh local brews.
Lounges are increasingly being made available for nominal fees that offer services such as Internet connections, free drinks, business services and sometimes massages.
Private cubicles are even sprouting up where waiting passengers can take naps or simply work in quiet.