MKE’s Coat Check service, holiday decor, & Santa sightings
Check your winter coat at MKE
One of the smartest, best, and most reasonably-priced seasonal airport amenities has returned for a third winter to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE): coat check service.
Offered in partnership with Paradies Lagardère inside the pre-security Summerfest Marketplace, the service allows travelers heading to warm clime the option of checking their winter coats for just $2/day or $10 a trip. The service is available 7 days a week and will be offering through at least the beginning of winter.
Santa, elves, and more holiday fun at airports
Like many other travelers, we had to cancel our holiday flights due to COVID-19 concerns. But we’re still keeping an eye on all the fun things airports are rolling out to celebrate the season.
Here are few things we spotted on Wednesday.
It’s the holiday season at PIT, and the airport terminals are decked out with decorations. Thanks for letting PIT be a part of your holiday travels!
We aren't extinguishing the fun yet for this mischievous duo! Amelia and Charlie discovered just how fun our Airport Rescue Fire Fighting team is. Like many of our dedicated teams, ARFF is here supporting the airport 24/7.#BearintheAir2021#Elfontheshelf2021#flyRNOpic.twitter.com/bFxpJoXsPO
And look at these snaps shared by Washington’s IAD & DCA Airports
Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) have done a great job of lighting and decorating the terminals. Thanks so much for sharing the slide show.
Holiday fliers, you'll find stocking stuffers and more to explore at the Holiday Marketplace at CLE. The festive pop-up event returns to @goingplacesCLE, Dec 22 & 23, with handmade offerings from five area merchants. #MadeInOhiopic.twitter.com/R3WMhCkWUs
Passengers can order items from the store and have one of the fully autonomous delivery robots from Ottonomy, called Ottobots, make the fully contactless delivery to their location in the airport.
Customers receive status updates on their phones and a unique QR code. They can then scan by the robot’s top camera to open the secure compartment and retrieve their food. No attendant travels with the robots, which can deliver two unique orders per trip.
SFO’s Holiday Giveaway Still Happening
Deck the halls! 🎄 Our shops and restaurants have decorated SFO in the holiday spirit and we're here for it! 🥰 To celebrate we're giving away some great prizes including a one-night stay at the #GrandHyattAtSFO, @SFBART tickets & swag, parking, or an SFO bag. #SFOHolidayGiveaway
— San Francisco International Airport (SFO) ✈️😷 (@flySFO) December 10, 2021
Delayed Xmas Flights? Vizzy Wants to Help
Airports and air travel are expected to be quite hectic this season so keep an eye out for brands promising to ease your journey with their promotions.
Hard seltzer Vizzy will be doing just that December 21 – 23 with a Vizzy on us promotion.
Vizzy will host a pop-up at Denver International Airport at Concourse C near Gate C29 to provide travelers with drinks and will be offering Vizzy samples at Midway Airport at Concourse A near Gate A7.
During those days, travelers 21+ can visit www.vizzyholidelaydrinks.com to enter for the chance to receive one of 5,000 instant $8 prepaid cards for Vizzy Hard Seltzer drinks.
The big, bright, open lobby has a cafe in the center with comfortable chairs and there’s artwork from the collection of the Phoenix Airport Museum all over the facility, including down the hallways that lead to the restrooms.
Here’s a link to a guided tour of the art on display at the PHX rental car center that’s yet to be updated with the newest and biggest installation: a three-panel mural by Paul Coze titled “The Phoenix” that is 75 feet wide and 16 feet high.
The mural was installed in PHX Terminal 2 back in the early 1960s. But when Terminal 2 was demolished, the mural was moved here. You can learn more about the artist, the images in the mural, and the heroic effort it took to safely remove the mural from Terminal 2 and reinstall it at the rental car center here and in our article for The Points Guy here.
But we want to take a few moments to talk about – and mourn – the amenities that were once in PHX Terminal 2.
What Once Was at PHX Terminal 2
When Terminal 2 opened at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in the 1960s it was one of the most modern airport terminals in the country.
PHX shared a list of the amenities at the new, modern, terminal.
In addition to a long concourse with 10 gates and an indoor (indoor!) baggage carousel, the terminal had a hotel reservation kiosk with individual phones connected directly to each hotel’s reservation desk.
Other amenities included a game room with pinball machines, a rooftop observation deck, shops, a bank, a barbershop, a flower cart, a cocktail lounge, a restaurant with a glass-enclosed terrace, and, up above, The Phoenix mural by Paul Coze.
All those terminal features were certainly swanky for the time. But what really caught our attention was the nursery where passengers and airport visitors could leave their kids while they enjoyed all the amenities in the terminal.
Over the years, many (OK, most) of those amenities were set aside.
And over time the terminal was remodeled in such a way that “The Phoenix” mural was no longer easy to see or fully appreciate.
According to Gary Martelli, Phoenix Airport Museum manager & curator, during the first remodel, in the 1980s, parts of the mural became obscured when the terminal ceiling was lowered, and the columns were rounded. In the 1990s, a new restaurant was built with a vent hood in front of the mural. Then, in the early 2000s, security enhancements created a long wall bisecting the Terminal 2 lobby and further obscuring views of the mural.
Now, in its new home in the southwest corner of the central escalator lobby in the PHX Rental Car Center, “The Phoenix” is easy to see and impossible to miss. Nearby are exhibit cases with information about Terminal 2 and artist Paul Coze, along with photos from the initial installation of the mural. As a nice touch, there are also viewing telescopes (at two heights) to allow visitors to take a closer look at the details and embellishments in the mural.
An old, stale sandwich locked away in a Washington state museum is drawing fresh attention to an aviation daredevil and the 90th anniversary of a record-setting flight.
The sandwich is said to have traveled with Clyde “Upside-Down” Pangborn. But when? It could have been in 1926, when he was wowing spectators as a stuntman in a flying circus, doing aerial stunts such as loops, flying upside down, changing planes in midair, and completing auto-to-airplane transfers. Or it could have been in October 1931, when Pangborn and co-pilot Hugh Herndon, Jr. set a transpacific record by flying nonstop from Misawa, Japan, to East Wenatchee, Washington, in 41 hours and 13 minutes (some say 15 minutes).
(Photos courtesy of the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center).
Alaska Airlines unleashes the Kraken plane
In Seattle, the home base of Stuck at The Airport, we have a new hockey professional ice hockey team, called the Kraken.
The city is pretty darn excited. And so is Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, which is the Kraken’s official airline.
To celebrate, the airline is flying a custom Kraken-themed plane on routes to the team’s away games in cities Alaska Airline serves.
And here’s a nice perk: now through the end of the hockey season, Kraken fans who wear the teams’ jersey can board early on all Alaska flights departing from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and Paine Field (PAE).
Phoenix Sky Harbor Int’l Airport Moves a Mural
A large 3-part mural by Paul Coze that has been greeting travelers inside Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for decades has a new home in the airport’s Rental Car Center.
Here’s a time-lapse video of the move.
“The Phoenix,” is a triptych 75 feet wide and 16 feet high and is believed to be the first piece of public art commissioned by the city that was chosen through a public process. The mural debuted when Terminal 2 opened in 1962.
The imagery in the mural includes depictions and symbols that relate to the area’s first inhabitants, the Hohokam, as well as modern tribes and Latino heritage. Also represented are wagon trains, railroads, cattle ranching, mining, and technology. Besides paint media, 52 different materials, including glass and ceramic mosaic tiles, soil and sand from around the state, plastics, aluminum, and gemstones, are used in the mural construction.
So you can imagine that moving this mural was a delicate undertaking. But it looks like it worked out just fine.
Minute Suites -which rents short-stay napping and workspaces in airports around the country – has opened a new location in Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the McNamara Terminal. This new location features five suites and has an on-site bathroom with a shower. This brings the number of airports with Minute Suites locations to 8: ATLANTA (ATL), Baltimore/Washington (BWI), Charlotte Douglas (CLT), Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), New York LaGuardia (LGA), Nashville (BNA), Philadelphia (PHL), and Detroit (DTW). More are on the way.
The suites include an AppleTV, Netflix , and Wi-Fi, plus a daybed with a pull-out trundle that can sleep two. Up to four people can relax in a room. Pricing starts at $45 for the first hour (the minimum). The company has adopted the slogan “Clean and Serene” and these suites have become quite popular during the pandemic with travelers who really want to avoid the crowds during a layover.
Dallas Love Field celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
Dallas Love Field has partnered with the Latino Cultural Center to celebrate #HispanicHeritageMonth!
📅 art exhibit on display through Oct. 15 📍 near the car rental counters
Marco Albarran’s fine art print series “Alt-Face” is inspired by icons of ancient civilizations who lived in present-day Mexico. His artworks are featured in the “Myth, Legend and Lore” exhibition in the Terminal 3, Level 4 Terminal 4, Level 3 galleries. #HispanicHeritageMonthpic.twitter.com/jS9KDE0jGW
