USA Today

Next time you’re stuck at the airport, don’t get bored: get vaccinated.

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The vaccine for the H1N1 vaccine isn’t available quite yet, but there are plenty of regular, seasonal flu shots around. And this year there are also plenty of airports where you can get a flu shot on the fly.  I tracked down the details for my At the Airport column on USAToday.com: Airports ready for passengers seeking flu shots.

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Last year travelers could get flu shots at about two dozen airports, including San Francisco International Airport, Des Moines International Airport, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Denver International Airport, and others. This year, with so many people concerned about getting sick, more airports are making room for flu shot kiosks.

And because of the heightened awareness, several airport clinics, including the UIC Medical Center at O’Hare, Orlando International Airport’s Solantic clinic, and the AeroClinic at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, began offering flu shots to the public back around Labor Day, even though the official flu season doesn’t usually begin until October. And airports such as Tampa International, which in the past offered flu shot clinics for employees only, arranged to have flu shot kiosks available for the traveling public.

FLU SHOT POSTER 1960s

Over the next few weeks, flu shot programs will be rolling out at Louisville International Airport, Sacramento International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport and others. Harmony Pharmacy will offer flu shots at its year-round clinics and from temporary kiosks at New York JFK and Newark-Liberty airports.

A spokesperson from Airport MD said that company hopes to offer flu shots by October 1st in Miami, Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St. Paul airports. Several other airports, including San Diego International Airport and Oakland International Airport, are still working out their flu shot program details. And Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which for the past three years has been able to offer flu shots for free during a few days towards the end of the season, expects that this year it will be able to do the same.

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To find out if flu shots are being offered at an airport near you, please see the flu shot chart included with my USATODAY.com column: Airports are ready for passengers seeking flu shots.

See, smell, and listen to your airport

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A day after my story, “Smelled any great airports lately?, ” about airports choosing and creating scents for their terminals, posted on USATODAY.com, and a full year after my USATODAY.com story about airports creating their own theme songs, comes this great story from CNN.com about the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport doing both!

According to the article, the airport purchased rights to some R&B classics, including “Shake your Groove Thing,” by Peaches and Herb, and changed the words to the lyrics. Now the songs encourage travelers to help keep the airport neat and tidy.   And, much like the UK’s East Midlands Airport featured in my story, ATL is pumping a specially-mixed ‘airport aroma’ into parts of the terminal in an effort to enhance the “travel experience.”  East Midlands Airport is filling the air with a light suntan oil scent; ATL is spritzing “Breeze,” which includes vanilla and lavender.

I smell a trend.

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Greetings from: Puerto Vallarta airport

For some reason, I just discovered the newsy BootsnAll Today page over at the popular travel Web site BootsnAll.

Roger Wade was kind enough to add a link to my  “Airport Aromas” story that posted today on USA TODAY and he was kind enough to give me an off-the-cuff report on his recent trip through Mexico’s Puerto Vallarta Airport:

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“That airport is REALLY nice with great shopping and duty free stuff on both sides of security.  You don’t have to take your shoes off or your laptop out of its bag, but they do literally search every suitcase before it gets checked and every carry on just before you get on the plane. They do this by hand, and I’m told that’s the policy throughout Mexico.”

Smoking at airports. Good or bad?

If, like President Barack Obama, you haven’t quite kicked the smoking habit yet, you might be on the look-out for airports where you can grab a smoke indoors without having to trek out to the curb. Or perhaps you’d like to know where all the non-smoking airports are so that you can breathe free when you travel.

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:

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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.

More airport side trips: Tampa and Atlanta

Early this month I wrote a column for USATODAY.com about cheap, easy side-trips you can take from many U.S. airports. Since then, I’ve gotten email and tips on several more. Here are two of them:

Tampa resident Robert Danielson wrote with this tip:

“Adjacent to the south runway at Tampa International Airport (TPA) is “International Plaza,” Tampa’s premier shopping venue, with courtesy shuttles to the airport (about a five minute ride). Also, downtown’s Florida Aquarium is less than a 10-minute cab ride from the airport.”

And for folks with time to spare near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), there’s this story about the new airport-built 56.5 acre Sams Lake Bird Sanctuary park, a short ride from the airport.

The sanctuary has a reconstructed stream, bat houses, three observation decks, a half-mile walking trail, and three ponds that are now home to bass fish. Deer, turkey, nesting birds, and other wildlife have been seen on-site.

Why did the airport spend $5 million on the project?

“Federal law required the airport to complete the wetlands restoration project after constructing its fifth runway, which paved through 14 acres in the Flint Basin. The Clean Water Act Section 404 mandates the restoration for every acre of wetlands disturbed by infrastructure development. The Army Corps of Engineers gave the airport a permit to restore Sams Lake.”

Whatever it takes.