For me it was while on an award flight TLV-LHR-JFK-PIT and back. Here in Israel there are flights out at all hours of the day and night so I was used to airports never actually closing their doors. LHR, at least in September 2002, closed down at night. I didn't realise this and my incoming flight landed at 10:30P or so and my flight to JFK took off at 7:30AM. I noticed some of the food vendors closing so quickly grabbed a bite. Then I figured I'd better find a place to rest for the night. I saw a sign for the quiet seating area and headed in that direction. It was on the second floor of the terminal and appeared to be either an airline lounge for a Middle Eastern or Asian airline that was no longer in use or perhaps a Muslim prayer chapel that fell into disuse.

There was nobody else there, a cleaning woman came in and ran the vacum cleaner under my feet, and left. Eventually I put my bag down on the carpeted floor between two rows of seats and went to sleep. Every now and then the loudspeaker would wake me up as they looked for this person or that but I wasn't disturbed.

At about 5:30AM I figured I'd wake up and call the family before they left for school. While I was at it I figured it'd be best to look for the transfer desk to get my boarding pass for the next legs of my flight. I wandered downstairs, noticed a bunch of people polishing the floors and some others touching up some paint here and there. I eventually found the transfer desk and strangely it was closed. I sat down in a seat next to it and waited.

Eventually someone came up to me and asked if I was a passenger. They asked for my ID and travel details. A brown uniformed guard was beckoned and he escorted me to the passport control area. Some poor sap was woken up to stamp my passport and I was told to walk 150 meters to the check-in counter. As I arrived, now about an hour and a half before my flight, I saw a huge snake of 150 or so people waiting to check-in. Luckily I was an AA PLT, converted over from TWA and extended becuase of 9/11. I hopped in the elite line with only 8 people ahead of me.

I was able to make it to the AA lounge, shower and shave, grab some coffee and a pastry before boarding.