The last one – for my “At the Airport” column on USATODAY.com – was back in 2009. Times – and rules about smoking in public places – change, so I’m planning to do another airport smoking survey soon.

It clearly remains a hot topic. Here’s an excerpt from a note Ramona Mccarty sent me recently after finding that 2009 column.

I am a smoker and have been for a long time, you are right when you said that rudeness is part of the problem trust that! DFW is one of the main airports I use and it is not smoker friendly, if I could get into Dallas another way I would where smoking is not considered a crime! only an addiction, an addiction that needs to be fed otherwise you get grumpy, mean people, who otherwise are not like that, but because they can’t support their addictions this is how WE turn out. I am going to try Dallas Love Field because they are smoker friendly without harming non-smokers, because that is not our intentions.

Our money for buying and flying is just as good as non smokers so wheres the beef?! we aren’t asking to blow smoke in peoples faces we are just asking for a right to feed our addiction, like people eating and diners, drinking coffee and cafes, alcoholics and bars, shopaholics and clothes stores, smokers and smoking designated areas, snap! Helllooo.

What do you think? Should more airports offer smoking lounges for passengers?  Should cities that ban smoking in public places make exceptions for airports?

(Photo courtesy State Library of  New South Wales, via Flickr Commons)

This week’s treats come from Anchorage International Airport.

From the wide variety of Alaska-linked items for sale in the airport gifts shops, we chose a few favorites, including these tiny figurines of Alaska Bush Babies,

this Alaska sausage with added reindeer meat.

And easy-to-carry, single-serving portions – just $2.95 – of yummy salmon jerky.

Did you find a great souvenir when you were stuck at the airport? If you find something that costs around $10, is somewhat offbeat and “of” the city or region, please take a photo and send it along.

If your souvenir is featured on StuckatTheAirport.com, you’ll get a travel-related souvenir in your mailbox as a thank-you.

A naked swimmer was nabbed near JFK airport, a mom was briefly jailed in Tennessee for yelling at TSA staff at Nashville Airport and refusing to let her child go through the scanner or get a pat-down and, my favorite, the FBI was called in to meet a Southwest Airlines flight arriving at Salt Lake City Airport and arrest a passenger who got unruly when told repeatedly that he could not “smoke” his electronic cigarette.

And then there’s the threat of this weekend’s “car-maggedon” in Los Angeles.
Gridlock – and worse – is predicted due to the scheduled 53-hour closure of a chunk of Interstate 405.

The highway shutdown will certainly disrupt traveler to and from Los Angeles International Airport and, on its website, the airport has a 405 Freeway Alert page offering tips and advice. In addition to suggesting that travelers take the Flyaway bus to the airport or get a hotel nearby, the advisory lists four different helicopter companies that will provide special weekend service to and from the airport.

Unfortunately, one alternate transportation option offered by JetBlue is already sold out.

The airline was offering $4 flights (each way) between Burbank and Long Beach Airports.

See – sometimes the truth IS stranger than fiction.

I don’t smoke cigars and I probably would have been scared to smuggle it back to Seattle from Vancouver, but if they weren’t so darn expensive, I’d have bought a Cuban cigar there at the liquor store (yes, they have one, right next to North America’s only in-airport 7-Eleven store) at Vancouver International Airport.

It does.

And according to this story, to make sure there are no ifs, ands or, yes butts about it, this spring the DOT  will issue an official ban on the use of those electronic devices on airplanes.

The story reminded me of another alternative nicotine-delivery-system I saw in mass quantities at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport: snus.

In 2009, Arlanda opened a duty-and tax-free store featuring the world’s first “snusidor,” which stocks and displays dozens of different brands and flavors of snus, which is a traditional Swedish smokeless tobacco that, unlike American-style chewing tobacco, doesn’t involve a lot of spitting.

I can’t tell for sure if I’ve ever sat next to a snus user, but I do know that snus is a truly popular Swedish souvenir.

I’ll be writing a column for USA TODAY on some of the intriguing services and amenities on the horizon for travelers, but wanted to share a few tidbits from the day.

The folks from the upscale Graycliff Cigar Company have set up two cigar lounges at Nashville International Airport and are in talks to expand the idea to several other airports.  The company, which also markets gourmet coffee and fancy watches, has a cigar maker on duty here making cigars from several kinds of tobacco.

Graycliff cigar maker at ACI-NA

And here’s a factoid I learned today:

Airport shops run by the Hudson Group sell more than 100,000 rayon, Pashima-style scarves a year.

Laura Samuels of the Hudson Group with scarves

More tomorrow….

A few weeks ago, with photographer Jerome Tso in tow, I got to tour the 787 Dreamliner Gallery, which is where airlines go to shop for the specific components they’ll put in their planes.

My story about that visit (with Jerome’s great photos) will appear on USATODAY.com (and in the paper) next week, but I wanted to share a few of my favorites from that tour.

(Seat choices in the Dreamliner Gallery)

(The colors and materials gallery for the 787 Dreamliner)

Today, Wednesday, Feb. 3, on a tour of  Boeing’s third flight-test 787 Dreamliner, I had a chance to see how the components from the Dreamliner Gallery fit together.

There are six planes in the flight test program and this one – the interior test plane – is the first one to be equipped with seats, lavatories, overhead bins, galleys and some of the other components that passengers care about – like the shade-less windows that can be dimmed just by pushing a button.

It’s great to see just about everything on a brand new type of plane, but there were two items from today’s tour that I found especially intriguing.

The first was in the bathroom.  In addition to touch-less faucets, the lavatories on the 787 Dreamliners have an infrared feature on the toilet that not only flushes but closes the lid!

(Wouldn’t that be handy in your house?)

The other feature that caught my eye was a bit of a mystery.

It looks at first like one of those tiny coat hooks that will fold out from the wall but lie flat when not in use.

But this tiny panel has a cigarette butt symbol on it.

Well, according to the Boeing officials showing us the test plane, even though smoking is indeed not allowed on airplanes, the rules still require that there be ashtrays.

So Boeing set out to design the teeny-tiniest ashtray allowable and came up with this cute one-butt model.

So passengers have to go outside the terminals to light up. And when they’re done, many of those smokers throw their butts on the ground.

It’s not just airports: according to folks at the Surfrider Foundation,  cigarette butts are the most littered item around the world.

So in San Diego this Saturday, November 14th, 2009, from 10 am until noon, groups of people will show up at several busy San Diego intersections – and at the San Diego International Airport – to hand out ashtrays and ask people to clean up their butts.

It’s all part of “Hold Onto your Butt” Awareness Day.

Either way – you may be interested in my “At the Airport” column: Where to smoke at U.S. airports that posted on USATODAY.com today.

Here’s a sneak peek:

These days, you can shop, eat, drink, and get an internet connection at pretty much every U.S. airport. At many airports, you can also get a massage, a manicure, a haircut, a pint of micro-brewed beer or a glass of fine wine. But to the dismay of some, and the delight of others, there are fewer and fewer airports where you can smoke a cigarette without being forced to exit security and stand outside on the curb.

That’s as it should be, says Bronson Frick of the non-profit Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights group: “Smoke-free air is now the norm in most airports and people expect it.” But to frequent travelers like Rebecca Argenti, it’s a pain in the butt: “I respect non-smokers and I don’t think it’s right or fair for them to be subjected to my cigarette smoke. However, I do wish airports would designate an ‘outside’ smoking area, past security but near the departure gates, so that persons who wish to smoke don’t have to go all the way to the front of the terminal in order to go outside and smoke.”

Argenti would have appreciated the post-security outdoor patios that Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) used to have in two of its terminals. But an amendment to the anti-smoking laws in California a few years back forced the airport to close the patios and the enclosed smoking area at the Tom Bradley International Terminal. However, there are still more than a dozen U.S. airports that have post-security smoking spots. Argenti and others just need to sniff them out.

Airports with smoking lounges

The nation’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, has two smoking lounges on every concourse except Concourse E, where smoking is permitted in Sojourner’s Restaurant. Smoking is also permitted in the Budweiser Brewhouse on Concourse A and in the Georgia Juke Joint on Concourse D. As part of a recent $67 million airport renovation project, five of the six lounges have been upgraded with new ventilation systems, new seating, new windows and new flooring. Airport spokesperson Al Snedeker says the specially-ventilated lounges now even have doors.

At Washington Dulles International Airport, smoking is permitted in four smoking lounges beyond the main terminal, including two lounges in Concourse B, one in Concourse C and one in Concourse D. For hungry smokers, Max & Erma’s Restaurant, by Gate B72, delivers food to a few tables in the adjacent airport smoking lounge.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport maintains smoking lounges in Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and in Concourses A and B. The airport also allows smoking inside four restaurants that have specially-ventilated smoking areas: Max & Erma’s, Wolfgang Puck, Outback and Sam Adams. According to airport spokesperson Barb Schempf, the airport has received both positive and negative comments from travelers about the smoking lounges, but there are currently no plans to make a change. “We feel it’s a customer service amenity, especially for passengers coming in on international flights.”

There are five post-security smoking lounges at Salt Lake City International Airport and, over at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, seven smoking lounges that airport spokesperson Jeff Lea says are all well used. “We’re offering a place where smokers can smoke and are making sure their smoke does not impact those that choose not to.”

In Florida, the bustling Miami International Airport has one outdoor smoking enclosure, located post-security on Concourse D, while Tampa International Airport has a series of caged outdoor patios (“Observation Decks”) at Airsides A, C, E and F complete with benches, ashtrays and electric lighters. At Orlando Sanford International Airport, there are two smoking areas, both in the international departure area. One is open to all departing passengers, while the other is available only to travelers with access to the Royal Palm Lounge. No smoking is allowed inside Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport, but there is an enclosed, vented smoking room in front of the terminal.

At Charlotte Douglas International Airport, no smoking is allowed anywhere inside the airport, but for some reason that doesn’t include the airline club rooms which, according to the airport website, “are considered non-public areas.” Similarly, Denver International Airport is technically a no-smoking airport, but there are four lounges were smoking is permitted with purchase: the Aviator’s Club (Jeppesen Terminal and Concourse B), Mesa Verde (Concourse A), and Smokin’ Bear (Concourse C).

“Prior to providing a place for smokers to go,” says Detroit Metropolitan Airport spokesperson Brian Lassaline, “our Public Safety Division was frequently responding to door alarms. Customers arriving on international flights connecting to domestic flights, many of whom cannot read English, would push the bars on emergency exit doors on the concourses, thinking they could go ‘outside’ for a smoke.” Lassaline says some desperate smokers would also light up in the family restrooms, but now that there are three airports bars where people can smoke, this is no longer a problem.

Memphis International Airport offers one post-security spot where passengers can smoke. For now. A law prohibiting smoking in enclosed public places in Tennessee went into effect October 1, 2007, but airport officials have been trying to get exemptions for two airport restaurants, the pre-security Maggie O’Shea’s and the post-security Blue Note Café. Maggie O’Shea’s went no-smoking on January 1, 2009, but Hugh Atkins, director of General Environmental Health for the Tennessee Department of Health says if the Blue Note Café doesn’t follow-suit, his agency will start levying daily fines.

No smoking: Good for health but bad for the bottom line

Until the passage of the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act in November 2006, McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas had smoking areas in many post-security bars and in a string of ventilated lounges outfitted with banks of slot machines. Now that the airport is entirely smoke-free, says Randall H. Walker, the Clark County Director of Aviation, “We’ve found that many travelers now try to sneak a smoke, often in companion care restrooms or other areas where smoking is off limits.” Walker says the smoking ban is also having a negative impact on the airport’s bottom line. The airport’s slot machine revenue, which can total more than $40 million a year, has decreased since the smoking ban took effect. Walker attributes that to the fact that “many smokers are now lingering outside prior to their flight rather than playing the slot machines in the former smoking lounges located near the gates.”

There are other problems caused when travelers to go outside to smoke. At Charleston International Airport (CHS), it’s dirt. Public affairs director Becky Beaman says “many smokers just don’t respect non-smokers’ rights. They will walk right up to the door and take that last drag. We provide ash cans and benches on the front curb in the smoking areas so that smokers can be comfortable, but many smokers just throw their butts down and stamp them out which creates a nasty, stinky mess!”

To smoke or not to smoke: you’ll need to do some homework

Smoking lounges exist at some other U.S. airports, including Gulfport Biloxi International Airport and Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad International Airport, and there other airports where smoking may be permitted in airline club lounges or other “non-public places,” so if you want to smoke when you touch down, it’s a good idea to check the website of any airport you intend to visit. Better yet, call ahead. In researching this column, I discovered several officially smoke-free airports that had an unofficial smoking area on-site. And because city and state laws are constantly changing, don’t assume an airport that once allowed smoking will continue to do so. Also, while the list of 100% Smokefree U.S. airports put together by Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights was recently updated, I could find no comprehensive online list of airports where smoking is allowed.

Then again, you could always follow the lead of Danny Tolentino, an operations coordinator from South Carolina. Tolentino has memorized the best spots to smoke at many of the country’s busiest airports and says that Atlanta is pretty good and “at DFW it’s pretty easy to run outside for a smoke. There are plenty of exits and entrances and it doesn’t take long to go through security.” Tolentino knows where to smoke, but no longer needs this information. “I am smoke-free (as of Jan. 1, 2009) so I won’t have to worry about it anymore (hopefully).”

Have I missed any places? Let me know.

Do you smoke or know someone who does?

I’m working on an article about smoking and air travel and wondering which airports are most ‘smoker-friendly.’

Denver? Atlanta? Miami?