Have you spent the night in an airport terminal?

[Sleeping in EQ]

Please share your stories....

[Bo Diddley]

Not all it's cracked-up to be.

Seems like it's always been with the military in some way. My best night's sleep came at the St. Louis USO right before heading down to Ft. Leonard Wood for basic training. They had some lay flat easy chairs. But the TV was on full blast all night.

[Moliere]

No, but I’ve been close twice.

[Uncle Ted]

I recently had an eight hour layover... I could have spent the night at the airport but took the Heathrow Express into London, met up with some of my England friends, and took in the London night life. Who wants to hang out at the airport all night? So I guess that is a 'no'.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I voted no, but I should have voted yes. I was passing through Atlanta one winter and our flight to Jacksonville, Fla was delayed several hours. We finally boarded around midnight but then spent the next 4 hours sitting on the tarmac waiting for clearance to take off while our wings got de-iced countless times. Landed in JAX around 5 am, about 12 hours behind schedule. I had a big presentation scheduled that morning at a state agency at 8am. Man, what a miserable trip.

[Sullyute]

Technically no, but my 8:30 pm connecting flight out of Chicago was delayed because of weather. Over the course of several hours all other flights were cancelled but they kept telling us ours was going to get out as the pilots were ready, they just needed a crew (the old crew had exceeded their hours waiting). I had already checked midway and Milwaukee for flights but they had nothing until late the next day.

Come midnight they finally cancel the flight. I then rented a car and drove the four hours (plus lost an hour to time zone change) to Indianapolis to catch a 6:00 am flight to my original destination.

So the no sleep was the same, I just did it driving a car instead waiting at the airport.

[chrisrenrut]

Last year in Kauai, our 10:00 pm red-eye was delayed because the plane needed 2 new tires, but they only had one on hand. They had to fly another tire from Honolulu. We ended up leaving about 4:00 am, so it was most of the night.

Kudos to Delta though. They communicated frequently and were transparent the whole time. The pilot had the ground crew order pizza and soft drinks for 120 people.

[Sizzle]

I voted no, but close to it.


Flying from SLC to a South American country on our mission, our flight was grounded for two hours in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the way to Dallas due to a tornado. That meant we missed our connecting flight when we arrived in Dallas. A group of about 20 missionaries had no idea what to do. We wandered the airport for about two hours or so looking for places to sleep. They finally got ahold of the travel coordinator back in Salt Lake and got us to a hotel at like 4:00 am. So we slept in and then spent the rest of the day basically at the Dallas airport waiting for the next flight. Absolutely miserable.

[Katy Lied]

Logan Airport- easy
LAX- easy but scary
Newark- super boring
Boryspil Airport in Kiev. That was the worst. I had to sit on a cold and dirty floor after the restaurant closed at 10pm

[old_gregg]

yes, within the last month. centurion lounge made it less bad, but they’re closed 9pm-5am.

[Commando]

No, but I have slept in a bus station in Buenos Aires. They told me to get off the floor. Most uncomfortable upright night's sleep I've ever had.

[PaloAltoCougar]

David Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. We had a big dinner that went very late, and with a 7 am flight the next morning, we decided it wasn't worth a hotel room for what would have allowed us around three hours sleep. So we went to the airport following the dinner and found comfortable reclining chairs to sleep on, which I did, blissfully, until a "friend" from the Bay Area woke me up around 4:30 am just to let me know he was passing by, saw me and wanted to say hi. Leave me alone.

[CJF]

I’ve done it several times and it’s sucked every single time. Recently I’ve had to do it in Manila. Travel 18 hours plus, get into Manila around 10:00 pm and have a flight the next morning at 5:30 am. So I just transfer terminals and wait it out. It’s rough.

[RC Vikings]

Denver twice. Late flight from Indy and missed the connection, no hotels or rental cars available so I just tried to find a quiet area to spend the night. You can't sleep on the chairs because they all have arm rests so the floor is all that is left. Just a terrible, terrible night and amazing enough the exact same thing happened the next year. I don't like United.

One more, I was working for United while going through college. My new wife and I take a trip to Hawaii since it cost us about $12 each for the flights. We get bumped for the red eye flight and found some floor to sleep on since we were broke. During the night our tickets were stolen to add to the story. While standing in line the next morning my wife faints from not eating and the heat. The United manager at HNL sees we are in trouble and gets us on the next flight.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Denver twice. Late flight from Indy and missed the connection, no hotels or rental cars available so I just tried to find a quiet area to spend the night. You can't sleep on the chairs because they all have arm rests so the floor is all that is left. Just a terrible, terrible night and amazing enough the exact same thing happened the next year. I don't like United.

One more, I was working for United while going through college. My new wife and I take a trip to Hawaii since it cost us about $12 each for the flights. We get bumped for the red eye flight and found some floor to sleep on since we were broke. During the night our tickets were stolen to add to the story. While standing in line the next morning my wife faints from not eating and the heat. The United manager at HNL sees we are in trouble and gets us on the next flight.

Whoa.