These days, fliers who continue prioritizing cheap travel options, including cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages, are finding that select American airports are offering more than just being points of departure or arrival.
Free Wi-Fi is being offered by many airports. Things that provide travelers with a sense of the local culture or a personal greeting upon arrival are viewed favorably by most travelers.
The following are U.S. airports that Frommers found offer the best freebies:
Chicago OHare offers an outstanding childrens play area called Kids on the Fly in Terminal 2. It takes up over 2,000 square feet and was designed by the Chicagos Childrens Museum with an airport theme. There is a play helicopter, play airplane, play check in counter, and Legos for making towers.
Fort Wayne, IN., has volunteer hospitality hosts who welcome passengers with fresh baked cookies. That local touch, and being a small airport which is easy to navigate and move quickly in and out of, draws passengers that might otherwise fly out of Indianapolis and Detroit.
Honolulu airport offers magnificent Chinese, Hawaiian, and Japanese gardens. A statue of Hawaii born Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Republic of China, can be found in the Chinese garden. The peaceful Japanese garden offers plenty of benches to sit on, while the Hawaiian garden sports tranquil lagoons, bubbling springs and cascading waterfalls.
Los Angeles offers five free shoe shine stands in Terminals 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
New York JFK is where visitors can make use of 200 iPads at restaurants near gate areas of Terminals 2 and 3. Guests can order food, surf the web, check email, stream videos and/or check weather.
New York LaGuardia offers free newspapers and magazines near Delta Shuttle flights at the Marine Air Terminal. Everything from New York newspapers to magazines such as Foreign Policy, Laptop, and News China are complimentary as is use of iPads in the Delta terminal.
Reno-Tahoe is where guests can make free local calls from several airport phones.
San Francisco houses a Yoga room just past security in Terminal 2. Chairs, mats and mirrors help visitors practice their poses.
St Louis is where kids can find free coloring books and crayons. There are historic, 1930s era aircraft hanging from the ceiling near the security checkpoint.
Washington Dulles is a 50 cent bus ride away from an incredible free aviation museum only a couple miles away. Its giant hangars display an SR-71 Blackbird, the space shuttle Enterprise, and the Enola Gay, among many other artifacts.
www.cheapfares.com