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Forums for airports UPDATE 24 Feb: Destination forums now show major airports

Forums for airports UPDATE 24 Feb: Destination forums now show major airports

Old Jan 16, 2017, 7:48 am
  #1  
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Forums for airports UPDATE 24 Feb: Destination forums now show major airports

I don't know if this has been suggested before, I didn't find it in the search, but why not create forums for airports in order to consolidate knowledge?

At the moment if people want information about an specific airport they will often ask in a forum associated with a major airline that operates there. This is often the case even when the subject does not involve that airline.

This means that information that could be useful to many travellers is scattered around. Sometimes in a specific airline forum, sometimes in a country specific forum. Often in both or multiple places.

It then leads to the question "where should I post my request?". For example, if I want information about connecting from Qatar to British Airways in Frankfurt should I post in the BA forum, the Qatar forum, or the Germany forum? The best might actually be the Lufthansa forum as they are more likely to have most experts about transferring in Frankfurt than others, but this would be considered out of place as it does not involve Lufthansa.


I believe that it would be useful to have a single forum for such discussions about specific airports.

A consolidate grouping by continent/country could be done to start with for most airports while the airports which generate more questions could have their own dedicated forums.


I believe that this could be of great value for flyertalk members. Both to gather and share knowledge.
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Old Jan 17, 2017, 5:55 am
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You do bring up a point that I've kinda thought for a while, which is that a lot of times questions about a specific airport or place end up in the respective Destination forum (which IMO should be where these discussions take place) and then sometimes they end up in a specific airline's forum, such as your example of questions about FRA ending up in the LH forum. I just poked my head into the LH forum and found a non-airline-specific question about traveling with two babies***, and a question about airport security at DUS. While I didn't look into any other airline forums, I bet there are other ones that experience non-airline-specific posts similar to these examples. ***<EDIT TO ADD: The question about traveling with two babies DOES pertain to LH, I was mistaken>

I guess my broad-based questions are - is it clear enough that there are other places one could post non-airline-specific questions on FT and what to do about situations such as the OP described where the question could overlap a couple of (or even several) different forums? I know once in the New England forum I did a mod alert on a post that inquired something about taking transport between JFK and Connecticut and I asked that the post be moved to the NYC forum with a redirect left behind in the New England forum so that visitors to both forums would be able to weigh in. This seemed like a logical solution, but I'm not sure how often this occurs in other places on FT. Food for thought, anyway.

Edit to add: Just realize I didn't really speak on the OP's initial suggestion of creating forums for airports themselves, which since we have "Destination" forums IMO is unnecessary, but just my opinion.

Last edited by lo2e; Jan 18, 2017 at 9:48 am
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Old Jan 17, 2017, 9:27 am
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This is just some gentle musing and not meant to take the conversation one way or another. Once upon a time we had forums for airports. Those forums were folded into the destination forums. I think but am not sure that must have been 15 years ago. And I'm not sure why it was done. Regardless, many years have gone by, and it's a good question for today. Is part of the problem that we don't make clear in destination descriptions that airport discussions can be held there?

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Old Jan 17, 2017, 12:50 pm
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Originally Posted by lo2e
Just realized I didn't really speak on the OP's initial suggestion of creating forums for airports themselves, which since we have "Destination" forums IMO is unnecessary, but just my opinion.
Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
Is part of the problem that we don't make clear in destination descriptions that airport discussions can be held there?

Carol Community Director
I never knew that so yes Carol IMHO the main problem.
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Old Jan 17, 2017, 3:59 pm
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Originally Posted by GRALISTAIR
I never knew that so yes Carol IMHO the main problem.
Agree that Airports should be included in the Destinations Forum Description. IIRC, may years ago there was an airports forum and it was closed due to lack of interest.
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Old Jan 17, 2017, 10:57 pm
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Questions about TLV are often posted in the El Al forum. I believe that there is a much better chance of getting an answer there than there would be in the Mid East destination forum.

You would be surprised at how many people in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, etc, have never visited Tel Aviv and would not be in a position to help,
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Old Jan 18, 2017, 2:23 am
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Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
This is just some gentle musing and not meant to take the conversation one way or another. Once upon a time we had forums for airports. Those forums were folded into the destination forums. I think but am not sure that must have been 15 years ago. And I'm not sure why it was done. Regardless, many years have gone by, and it's a good question for today. Is part of the problem that we don't make clear in destination descriptions that airport discussions can be held there?

Carol
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The airport discussion forums were ghost towns, more so than the broader destination forums that were meant to take over that stuff too and make them less like ghost towns. But even the destination forums on here have been relative ghost towns until a relatively more recent effort to move discussions there in ways that were not so common here before 2015 or 2016.

It seems like FT is trying to migrate away from being what it used to be, and I'm not sure it is going to be as useful for as many when the strength of FT as shown in the travel loyalty program game is going to be harder to recreate in the marketplace when it comes to more general destination info (or other travel stuff) removed from the larger mass of loyalty program afficiandos and where they spend their time on FT.

If I want an answer about LHR, I would expect better and more answers/discussions in the BA forum than in the UK destinations forum. And if there is an effort to "drain the swamp", for example, by moving those LHR discussions from BA forum to the UK forum, I doubt either of those two forums is going to be as useful for me going forward as they have been. I'd say the same is true for LY forum and TLV discussions.

Last edited by GUWonder; Jan 18, 2017 at 2:32 am
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Old Jan 18, 2017, 5:19 am
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Originally Posted by lo2e
You do bring up a point that I've kinda thought for a while, which is that a lot of times questions about a specific airport or place end up in the respective Destination forum (which IMO should be where these discussions take place) and then sometimes they end up in a specific airline's forum, such as your example of questions about FRA ending up in the LH forum. I just poked my head into the LH forum and found a non-airline-specific question about traveling with two babies, and a question about airport security at DUS. While I didn't look into any other airline forums, I bet there are other ones that experience non-airline-specific posts similar to these examples.
Generic FRA questions are quickly moved to the Destinations-Germany forum by the LH M&M forum mods. In fact we have quite a few members who are quick to report 'not LH M&M related, remove it asap!!!'.

The baby question is very specific to LH, the DUS security situation maybe not so much.

My point is that the destinations forum is the right home for airport related topics. But if it has a airline (MCT, lounge access etc) or hotel (chain hotels next to LAX/FRA/etc) aspect, then it stays in the respective section.
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Old Jan 18, 2017, 6:03 am
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Originally Posted by oliver2002
Generic FRA questions are quickly moved to the Destinations-Germany forum by the LH M&M forum mods. In fact we have quite a few members who are quick to report 'not LH M&M related, remove it asap!!!'.

The baby question is very specific to LH, the DUS security situation maybe not so much.

My point is that the destinations forum is the right home for airport related topics. But if it has a airline (MCT, lounge access etc) or hotel (chain hotels next to LAX/FRA/etc) aspect, then it stays in the respective section.
It hasn't been that way always on FT. It seems like the effort to move stuff to the destinations forum has been kicked up big time in more recent years over what has been more typical for most of my time on FT.

The notion of what is the right home can be seen at in different ways. The response levels to a given subject are not equal across all of FT, and sometimes a discussion about a topic in the airline forums does provide a way better service to FTers than a discussion about the same topic in another forum that is a relative ghost town. Amusingly, the thread being moved may sometimes result in improved response levels if only because the moved thread indicator in the original forum used by a thread's OP ends up having more FTers clicking onto the thread. That makes the Destination forums a lot more active but it doesn't necessarily make them a good anchor forum to keep up or increase FTer participation levels when it comes to the topic.

Last edited by GUWonder; Jan 18, 2017 at 6:11 am
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Old Jan 18, 2017, 8:05 am
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Some destination forums such as Japan and Chicago already have airport connection threads which are stickies. One for Rome/FCO was recently created in the Italy forum by merging a number of existing threads. Questions about airports/terminals which are predominantly used by certain airlines/alliances such as LHR T5, LHR T2 and FRA T1 are mostly posted in the relevant airline/alliance forums rather than destination forums and the arrangement seems to work well.

Passengers connecting at certain airports don't enter (or can't enter) the country where the airport is located and it seems less likely that people who want to ask about connecting from United to Lufthansa in Frankfurt on the way to India and vice versa (as we often find in the LH forum) will do so in the Germany forum - unless questions are related to visa requirement during a layover.
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Old Jan 18, 2017, 9:47 am
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Originally Posted by oliver2002
Generic FRA questions are quickly moved to the Destinations-Germany forum by the LH M&M forum mods. In fact we have quite a few members who are quick to report 'not LH M&M related, remove it asap!!!'.

The baby question is very specific to LH, the DUS security situation maybe not so much.
My apologies, you're correct about the baby question, for some reason I missed that it was LH-specific. My bad!
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Old Jan 18, 2017, 11:25 am
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Similar to what oliver2002 shared about the LH forum, we try to do similar with the AA forum.

We do have specific threads for all of the AA hubs and focus cities, including some that aren't necessarily either but have a great interest (CDG comes to mind). Occasionally the conversation will stray beyond AA, and we allow that to some extent. But when it evolves in a totally separate direction (such as what type of jeep tour for Sedona that began in a thread about PHX), then I'll split it off and move to the appropriate forum.

Also as oliver2002 shared, we have some passionate users who report threads/posts that belong elsewhere. One of us will take a look and see which forum is the best place for the post.

A great example is transiting between NYC airports, for between them and town. I just noticed a thread with someone asking questions about getting between airports last week. I found the appropriate threads in the NYC forum, and referred the user there.

I'd be happy to discuss anything specific to the AA forum, and I'm certain my co-moderators would also.
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Old Jan 19, 2017, 4:30 am
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Originally Posted by oliver2002
Generic FRA questions are quickly moved to the Destinations-Germany forum by the LH M&M forum mods. In fact we have quite a few members who are quick to report 'not LH M&M related, remove it asap!!!'.
.....

The LH forum is stricter about such things compared to other forums, which means that the experience is very mixed and it does not help if you want information on airport xxx.


Originally Posted by NewbieRunner
... One for Rome/FCO was recently created in the Italy forum by merging a number of existing threads. ....

Sorry to say but I find mega threads to be more difficult. Unless you take to time to read every page, then you can never find what you are looking for.

And while it does mean that all knowledge about a topic might be in a single thread, you tend to get people asking the same questions over and over because they can't find what they want (and a search does not help in many cases).

Plus, often there are times when the thread goes off topic which just adds to the noise and hinders you even more.

This is why I think that a more dedicated forum for specific airports would be better.
Want to know how bad immigration is on a Monday morning at LHR T2 when arriving with airline yyy, then you know which forum to look in or ask your question.
A thread which might have you information in it but which also includes customs, security, interlining, travelling with babies, wheelchairs, left luggage, picking up Amazon parcels (yes I saw such a question in the BA forum!) will make it difficult to find what you want.
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Old Jan 19, 2017, 11:38 am
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Originally Posted by oliver2002
Generic FRA questions are quickly moved to the Destinations-Germany forum by the LH M&M forum mods. In fact we have quite a few members who are quick to report 'not LH M&M related, remove it asap!!!'.

The baby question is very specific to LH, the DUS security situation maybe not so much.

My point is that the destinations forum is the right home for airport related topics. But if it has a airline (MCT, lounge access etc) or hotel (chain hotels next to LAX/FRA/etc) aspect, then it stays in the respective section.
Originally Posted by aztimm
Similar to what oliver2002 shared about the LH forum, we try to do similar with the AA forum.

We do have specific threads for all of the AA hubs and focus cities, including some that aren't necessarily either but have a great interest (CDG comes to mind). Occasionally the conversation will stray beyond AA, and we allow that to some extent. But when it evolves in a totally separate direction (such as what type of jeep tour for Sedona that began in a thread about PHX), then I'll split it off and move to the appropriate forum.

Also as oliver2002 shared, we have some passionate users who report threads/posts that belong elsewhere. One of us will take a look and see which forum is the best place for the post.

A great example is transiting between NYC airports, for between them and town. I just noticed a thread with someone asking questions about getting between airports last week. I found the appropriate threads in the NYC forum, and referred the user there.

I'd be happy to discuss anything specific to the AA forum, and I'm certain my co-moderators would also.
I do think there's some inconsistency in how this is handled from forum to forum. For example, I think the Southwest forum sees a lot of Midway-specific questions that remain there by virtue of the fact that WN is the predominant carrier there. But that doesn't particularly help someone flying in or out of Midway on Porter, for example, who may not realize that the WN board might be better place to pose MDW questions than the Chicago board.

All of that said, I do not think we need airport-specific boards and would encourage people to post their airport questions in the destination forums.
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Old Jan 19, 2017, 7:57 pm
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Originally Posted by dj_jay_smith
....

Sorry to say but I find mega threads to be more difficult. Unless you take to time to read every page, then you can never find what you are looking for.

And while it does mean that all knowledge about a topic might be in a single thread, you tend to get people asking the same questions over and over because they can't find what they want (and a search does not help in many cases).

Plus, often there are times when the thread goes off topic which just adds to the noise and hinders you even more.

This is why I think that a more dedicated forum for specific airports would be better.
Want to know how bad immigration is on a Monday morning at LHR T2 when arriving with airline yyy, then you know which forum to look in or ask your question.
A thread which might have you information in it but which also includes customs, security, interlining, travelling with babies, wheelchairs, left luggage, picking up Amazon parcels (yes I saw such a question in the BA forum!) will make it difficult to find what you want.
One answer that works well (AA forum hub airport GUIDE threads, the aforementioned FCO thread in the Italy forum) is the Wikipost. A summary of important information, links, etc. then appear at the top of every rendered page, providing reference.

FlyerTalk Forums Thread Wiki: FCO Rome Fiumicino Airport [Merged thread]
Please read: This is a community-maintained wiki post containing the most important information from this thread. You may edit the Wiki once you have been on FT for 90 days and have made 90 posts.
The Wikiposts also "spreads the labor" out, as any signed in member with 90 days of FT tenure and 90 posts can edit and update the Wikipost, which is "community property" (as are practically all Wiki products).
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