Regarding windows, it depends how you define them. What the T1 *A lounge had was opaque glass with artificial daylighting behind, similar to what you get in the tunnel between concourses B and C at ORD. Not real windows, and no view of the outside world.
I haven't been in the T1 *A lounge for some time but there were definitely real windows at one end of the lounge. As you will see below the ceiling of the section with the windows was much higher than the rest of the lounge and the light behind the glass was not artificial.
Here's
another photo.
I wouldn't be surprised they blocked off the windows in recent years since they were very close to the construction site of T2. (See the map below. The grey area at the bottom is the check-in hall of T2.)
When I say 3rd World, I mean much longer hikes without aids like travelators than any American airport I can think of. The walk in T1 was three times as long as that in T3, and now we hear (both in this thread and the other that is currently discussing T2) that it will be even worse in T2. That is not traveller-friendly. I have hated the hike to the gates from the lounge in T1 (in comparison with the easy stroll that T3 used to be, and the equally unpleasant hike from the gates to passport control on the way in. There is absolutely no excuse for building a terminal these days where that is the case.
Yes, the connecting tunnel is rather long but there are travelators. Since there are separate departure and arrival tunnels, travelators only go in one direction. There is a plan to build a transit system connecting T2A, T2B and T2C when the latter is eventually built. A tunnel for the transit system must already exist under the walkways connecting T2A and T2B since there is a blank panel in the elevator below Level -3, which is the walkway tunnel level, suggesting there is a level below.
I'll be interested to see the baggage hall in T2 when I fly into it. T3 was reasonably well organized. In T1, there was no display as you entered the hall to tell you which carousel you needed to go to. That infornation was located on a small board halfway into the hall: to get to it, you had to pass two of the carousels — often including the one you wanted, when it would be necessary to go back.
There is a display panel as you enter the baggage hall. This one is on your left but there may be another one on the right that I didn't notice.
The great thing about the baggage hall is if you don't have any checked baggage you can just walk straight towards the customs and exit. You don't have to walk around baggage carousels. Check page 6 of
this map.
From what I've seen as a trial volunteer 2.5 weeks before the terminal opened, T2 is far better than T1 or T3 and of course the old T2.