Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

National Opt-Out Day a dud

Air Travel, Security, , , ,

Sea-Tac security line

I spent Wednesday hanging around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) wandering from one security checkpoint to another in case there was any interesting mass opt-out action I could report on for a story being put together by msnbc.com.

But, as you can tell from the headline of the story – Planned airport protests fail to take off – there was no mass opt-out action.

In fact, on what is traditionally one of the busiest travel days of the year, Sea-Tac, like a lot of other airports around the country, was remarkably empty.  According to a police officer riding by on a Segway, the biggest problem at the airport was the 40-minute line at the Starbucks outlet just beyond security.

The checkpoint  lines I was monitoring were so empty that the TSA employees on duty had plenty of time to be jolly. They were showering travelers with courtesy (“Step right up. We’ve been waiting for you. What a nice jacket!”) and waving at folks passing by.

Even the planned opt-out demonstration was a fizzle. Less than a half dozen people showed up to hand out pamphlets (“What the Transportation Security Administration isn’t telling you…”) and there were few takers.

Opt-out a fizzle

Of course, not everyone flies somewhere for Thanksgiving. A lot of folks stay home and plenty of people take to the roads.

If you do drive somewhere this weekend, here’s a handy map with information about the state-by-state distracted driving laws.  The map was put together by the folks at iZUP using information published by the Governors Highway Safety Administration.

Museum Monday: Museum of Flight, Seattle

Airplanes, Aviation history, Exhibits, , , , , ,

It’s Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com, so time to take a look at one of the 694 aviation museums around the country.

This week: a quick look at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, which has just kicked off a new exhibit about women in the aerospace industry: Chasing Horizons: Women in Aerospace.

Associated Women Pilots of Boeing Field (1933-1946). Museum of Flight collection.

The exhibit starts off with pioneer French aeronaut Élisabeth Thible, who became the first woman to fly in a balloon in 1784, and continues through aviation’s Golden Age of the 1920s and 1930s, World War II, and to today’s fighter pilots, aerobatic pilots, engineers, and astronauts.

Of course, there are plenty of other things to see here. The Museum of Flight is home to a vast collection of more than 150 rare aircraft and space vehicles.

There’s a control tower overlooking the very active Boeing Field and, in the Personal Courage wing, a display of 28 fighter aircraft.  The major attraction, though, is the six-story Great Gallery where there are more than 20 full-size aircraft on display, including this Lockheed M-21 Blackbird.

Lockheed Blackbird at Museum of Flight

See that little red dot to the left of the Blackbird? That’s my favorite museum artifact – an early flying car known as the Taylor Aerocar III:

The museum also has a Concorde on loan from British Airways and the first presidential jet plane, a specially built Boeing 707-120, which had this ‘high-tech’ conference area.

First Air Force One Presidential plane

Seattle’s Museum of Flight is located just south of Seattle and not far from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. So it’s a good option for an activity during a long layover. See the Museum of Flight website for more information about exhibits, special events, hours and admission.

And let us know if you have a favorite aviation museum you’d like us to feature.

Lots of garbage at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Airlines, Airplanes, Art, Energy, , , ,

I prepared for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day by spending the afternoon with garbage at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).

First up:  an exhibit featuring  artwork by Dorothy Rissman made from trash she found on city streets, construction sites and beaches.

Dorothy Rissman - Snack Pack Dress

Dorothy Rissman - Reflector ball

Next: an introduction to the airport’s six pair of shiny new, computer-monitored trash compactors, set out for use by airlines.

(courtesy Sea-Tac Airport)

Sea-Tac Airport is incredibly enthusiastic about reducing waste and has won awards for the amount of trash it recycles and the wide range of things it recycles. For example, unsold food goes to food banks; spent cooking grease becomes bio-diesel fuel; and organic waste – including tons of coffee grounds, of course – gets composted.

Now the airport is turning its eco-eye on all the garbage that arrives on airplanes.

Instead of letting each airline take care of its own garbage, the airport bought a dozen computer-monitored giant compactors (six for trash; six for garbage) so that it can coordinate and monitor airplane trash.   Airlines that separate magazines, newspapers, soda cans and other recyclable items can get rid of that stuff for free.  And if they do a good job of helping the airport keep trash out of the landfills, airlines can get credit to help lower their annual bill.

Happy Earth Day!

Tidbits for travelers: cool contest, cheap airport food, free Wi-Fi finder

Contests, Food, Wi-Fi, , , ,

Some news you can use today.

The folks at BoardingArea.com, a bundled collection of business travel and frequent flyer blogs (StuckatTheAirport.com actually started there) is running a contest with a really great prize: a trip for two to the Gold Coast of Australia. Deadline is March 28th.  I’m definitely entering.

JiWire rolled out a new free Wi-Fi Finder app that will allow you to search for free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots offline. Very helpful.

And if you’re out and about today, keep in mind that it’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream shops and free pastry day (actually sort-of free pastry morning; you’ll  need to buy a drink) at Starbucks.  It’s a fair bet that few airport branches of these outfits will be honoring the promotions, but if you find yourself at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport you can definitely take advantage of the “Flounder’s Day” special being offered at Ivar’s Seafood restaurants throughout Puget Sound.  Today would have been “flounder” Ivar Haglund’s 105th birthdays, so if you buy one entrée, you’ll get a second one for $1.05 by saying “Happy Birthday, Ivar” at check-out.  Even at the airport.

For National Clam Chowder Day: free chowder at SEA

Food, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Restaurants, , , ,

Today, Thursday, February 25th, 2010, Ivar’s Seafood outlets in Washington and California are celebrating National Clam Chowder Day by offering a 2-for-1 deal on cups of chowder.   Happily, the deal extends to the Ivar’s Seafood Bar at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).  “The airport Ivar’s is open way longer than the Ivar’s in town,” an enthusiastic employee at the airport Ivar’s told me on the telephone on Wednesday, “So you can get that deal starting at 4:30 in the morning.”

You’d think they’d also be celebrating National Clam Chowder Day over in Boston, where the Legal Sea Foods chain is well represented at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS).  But no.  Via Twitter, the folks at Logan Airport told me,that there was “nothing planned. But we can tell you clam chowder is an airport favorite…and available in every terminal at BOS!”

When will all airports have free Wi-Fi?

Airports, Free Stuff, free Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, , , , , , , , ,

This month, my “At the Airport” column in USATODAY.com is all about airport Wi-Fi.

And all about why more and more airports, including those in Denver, Pittsburgh, Orlando and, just recently, Seattle and Boston, offer this welcome amenity for free – and why some don’t.

Here’s an edited version of that column:

Free Wi-Fi was on Sea-Tac’s to do list for years, but the airport had to wait until its contract with AT&T ran out before making the service free. “It’s almost become a required amenity,” says Sea-Tac airport spokesperson Perry Cooper, “Passengers expect it now. Especially in places like Seattle where folks are very tech-savvy. In fact, it’s been our number one customer service request for years.”

Silicon Valley’s Mineta San José International Airport started offering the service back in May 2008, says airport spokesperson David Vossbrink, because “we serve a high proportion of business travelers and road warriors who have laptops and mobile devices surgically implanted and [they] expect to be able to always be connected.”

It’s pretty much the same story across the country. Everyone wants to stay connected and everyone wants the Wi-Fi at the airport to be free. But how can airports afford to make it free?

Advertising and sponsorship may be the way to go.

At Denver International Airport, which began offering free Wi-Fi in November 2007, between 6,000 and 8,000 travelers now sign on to the system each day and revenue from advertisers help offset the cost of the service. Sea-Tac Airport has asked Clear Channel, which already sells advertising space throughout the airport, to find additional ads to support the new, free Wi-Fi service as well. And at San Francisco International Airport, advertising is being considered as negotiations get underway to figure out how to support a free Wi-Fi program as well. If they can figure out how to fund it, representatives from Nashville International and many other airports say they’d offer travelers free Wi-Fi as well.

Like LAX and the airports in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport still charges passengers for Wi-Fi access. “We know many travelers would love to see free Wi-Fi,” says airport spokesperson Patrick Hogan, “The bottom line is that airports like MSP must generate the funds to cover all airport operating costs…There is no such thing as free airport Wi-Fi. It’s really just a question of who pays to cover the cost of providing the service.”

For the full posted version of this column, read Free airport Wi-Fi takes off in USATODAY.com. And if you’re want to know which airports currently offer free Wi-Fi, the folks at Jaunted.com have been keeping a good tally on their free airport Wi-Fi map.

And if you do use a free Wi-Fi service at an airport, a hotel, a coffee shop or somewhere else, the Wi-Fi Alliance encourages you to use a personal firewall, make sure you have anti-virus software, and keep these other safety tips in mind:

  • Make sure that you are connecting to a legitimate hotspot – those that require a password have more protection than those that do not.
  • Use a virtual private network or VPN, which establishes a private connection across the public network. This may be supplied by your employer, or you can purchase one.
  • Surfing the web and sending e-mail is fine, but doing your banking for example in a public hotspot is not advised.
  • Configure for approved connections: Many devices sense and automatically connect to any available wireless signal. To regain control, simply configure your device to not automatically connect to an open network without your approval.
  • Disable sharing: Your Wi-Fi enabled devices may automatically open themselves to sharing / connecting with other devices. File and printer sharing may be common in business and home networks, but you can avoid this in public networks.

Got that?

13 million cranberries, Dusseldorf Airport’s Ski jump, and Amelia Earhart

Air Travel, Airplanes, Art, Exhibits, Fun Stuff, Getting around, , , , , , , ,

This weekend would be a good time to have as my superpower the ability to travel anywhere in the world and be in several places at once.

If I could, I’d stop first in Richmond, British Columbia, a short SkyTrain ride away from the Vancouver International Airport to watch 13 million (!!) locally-grown cranberries get dumped into the Fraser River in front of the Richmond Olympic Oval to form a  giant floating version of the maple leaf, rings and flame that make up the Canadian Olympic Committee logo.

Then I’d head over to the Dusseldorf International Airport to see if they finished trucking in enough snow (and turned the temperature down low enough) to make the world’s first indoor ski jump in an airport.   When they sent this photo, they were just waiting for the snow to arrive.

It would be fun, too, to stop at New York’s Albany International Airport (ALB), where the newest art show, Material Witness, is now underway.

And it might be interesting to touch down in Wichita, Kansas.  The Wichita Art Museum is one of the 100 or so museums around the country where Bank of America account holders can get free admission this weekend as part of the Museums on Us program.  And look what the Wichita Art Museum is using to promote an exhibition of works of paper.


(Robert Cottingham, Wichita (1985)

But, alas, the ability to be everywhere at once is not my super power.

So instead, I’ll stick close to home this weekend and pay a visit to the Museum of Flight, just up the road from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where there’s an exhibit titled  In Search of Amelia Earhart.

This exhibit includes many of Earhart’s personal artifacts,  including a suede jacket she wore on her 1932 solo transatlantic flight, two flight suits, a helmet,  a scarf,  newsreel footage and photos.

Amelia Earhart and her Lockheed L-10E Electra NR 16020 c. 1937. | The Museum of Flight


Fun free stuff you’ll find at airports

Air Travel, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, , , , , , ,

Google’s “Free WiFi for the Holidays” program – the one that made wireless Internet access free at a boatload of airports – ends on January 15th.

But don’t fret. Too much.

Plenty of airports had free Wi-Fi before the promotion and continue to offer it.  And once the Google airport promotion ends, you’ll find a few airports that once offered fee-based Wi-Fi continuing to offer it for free.  Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is one of them.

I’m working on a list of others.

I’m all for free Wi-Fi at all airports. It will happen. In the meantime, I’m keeping tabs on some of the other airport freebies that are out there. I’ve included some of them – including free cookies at Fort Wayne International Airport(FWA) and free toothbrushes at Wisconsin’s Outagamie County Regional Airport (ATW)  – in a column that will post on USAToday.com tomorrow.

But here are few others I didn’t have room for.

For the past year, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (STL) has been giving away luggage tags. Thousands of ‘em.

At Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) they (still) hand out plastic wings (pins); mostly to kids.

Just about every terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) offers complimentary shoe shines (tips are encouraged).

And in at least one small airport in Minnesota, early risers get coffee for free.

“We fire up the coffee pots on our cafe counter in the terminal and give away free coffee to passengers for the first flight out (07:10) each day,” says Shaun Germolus, the Executive Director of the Range Regional Airport (HIB)in Hibbing, MN.  “We try to do the same thing whenever we are aware of flight delays as well.”

Have you found a great freebie at an airport? Let us know!

Tidbits for travelers: holiday news from airports around the country

Air Travel, Airport shops, Contests, Deals, Entertainment, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Getting around, Holidays, Kids, Music, Transportation, , , , , , ,

Christmas week is always a big deal for airports and air travel.

This year, as usual, lines are long, people are cranky, and there’s a storm wreaking havoc with schedules and everyone’s best laid plans.

So, it’s a good bet that if you’re traveling by air this week, you’re going to spend some time being stuck at an airport. Remember to bring supplies such as books, snacks, a charged cell phone, and some extra cash to buy a few last minute gifts.

And remember to look around: some airports are hosting complimentary gift wrapping stations and many airports have scheduled holiday events and entertainment.

Here are just a few examples:

The Chicago Airport System’s schedule of “Holiday Delights” continues at both O’Hare Airport and Midway through Wednesday, December 23rd with performances by local blues, jazz, international, R&B performers, barbershop quartets and carolers. There will also be children’s workshops and a visit from Santa Claus.

Both airports are also offering free gift wrapping, past security, on December 21 and 23 with wrapping paper and gift bags created by students from the After School Matters program.

On Monday December 21st, Southwest Airlines and The Container Store join forces to offer free gift wrapping at Dallas Love Field, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Denver International, Saint Louis Lambert International, and Baltimore-Washington International airports. Here are some details about locations and times.

Free gift wrapping continues in various spots around Phoenix Sky Harbor airport through December 24th and through Wednesday at San Diego International Airport. Check your airport’s Web site to see if free gift wrapping is being offer there as well. Keep in mind that many airport shops also offer fee gift wrapping and many will have piles of pre-wrapped items ready to grab-n’- go.

If you find yourself hanging around Detroit Metroplitan Airport (DTW) Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday (Dec 21 – 23rd), head on over to the stage next the water feature in the center of Concourse A (near Gate A40). The airport is partnering with local Delta Air Lines folks to host a holiday karaoke event called “Sing Because you Care” between 11 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. each day.

Anyone, or any group, that sings is being asked to donate $5 to support the local Salvation Army.

And here’s a great gift for anyone flying to or from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA): the airport light rail station opened, as promised, on Saturday, December 19th. Just in time to save a lot of holiday travelers a lot of hassle and money.

It’s now possible to ride between the airport and downtown Seattle for $2.50.

Thanks, Santa!


Souvenir Sunday: Olympics souvenirs at Seattle-Tacoma Int’l Airport (SEA)

Airport shops, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs, ,

Happy Souvenir Sunday!

Each Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com we take a look at some of the fun things you can buy at airports for under $10.

This week we picked up a few souvenirs from the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics that will be taking place in February.

Vancouver Olympics passport

Olympics souvenirs will be sold at the games of course, but they’re already for sale on-line and at the Vancouver International Airport.

Turns out you can also buy Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics souvenirs in Seattle, at a pop-up shop in the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) that will stay open through March 7th, 2010.

Vancouver Olympics pillow

But what to buy?  A good choice would be something that bears the image of Quatchi, the Sasquatch-like creature chosen to be the mascot of this winter’s games.  Or of Sumi, Miga, or one of the other sidekick creatures.

SEA - Olympics - pink purse

But while the USA Store on Sea-Tac’s Concourse C sells t-shirts, sweatshirts and other Olympics souvenirs, there’s not much you can buy here for under $10.

So for Souvenir Sunday we considered making an exception and raising our shopping limit above $10.

Instead, we settled for that old stand-by – chocolates – from this small section of  stickers and other small – very small – under $10 items.

SEA - Olympics - DREAM USA CANDY AT A GLANCE

Have you found a great souvenir while you were stuck at the airport?  If it’s under $10, “of” the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along.  It may show up as next week’s pick for Souvenir Sunday.