Mailboxes inside the airport
 

A friend of mine wanted to mail a US-stamped letter before leaving the US. He assumed he could find a mailbox at the airport, but had no luck.

We are wondering if there is some security regulation prohibiting mailboxes in an airport, or if he just did not know where to look.

Anyone know?

FRA and MUC have them landside (an entire post office at MUC actually, although they did downsize recently) I can think of several international airports with post offices landside around the world.

I have been told before that it was due to security regulations not to have one airside.

I do believe however that I have seen courier boxes at ORD airside.

From what I recall seeing: there is a mail slot at LGA ground side main terminal that I think is part of an actual post office. I also remember seeing mailboxes at SFO outside the front doors at the terminal that UA uses. I don't remember seeing any mailboxes airside though.

FWIW I was able to mail an AMEX bill once by asking a favor of the matron at the UA International First class lounge at SFO - I showed my 1P card to show that I wasn't totally unwashed though.

There are post boxes land side and air side at Heathrow.

Every now and then I see them at airports, but they are usually a slot in the wall that unless you happened to look that way, you would not see it. About half of them have blue tape over them with a note saying due to security dot dot dot

And of course, there's a website that may help a bit for that:

http://airportmailboxes.com/

There is also a mail slot right outside of the main Sky Club in DTW. Mailed a letter from there last week.

I'm pretty sure DFW has them and I think they're in Terminal D. Of course I'm sure you could ask the staff at an airline lounge if they'd add your letter to their outgoing mail, they've done it before with my Netflix DVDs.

PIT has a post office airside (concourse D).

The nice lady at the KOA gift shop mailed our postcard for us.

SIN and HKG both have airside mail boxes. SIN also landside. TXL has landside. DUB landside. AKL I believe has airside but don't recall for sure (although I suspect the Koru club would handle it for you if you asked).

The LGA post office referenced above still exists downstairs outside security in the Central Terminal though it is being shut down as a full service station soon. No idea if it will remain as a drop box.

MSP has a mailbox by the F/G SkyClub IIRC.

TUN has one inside the international terminal by the back door of the Tunis Air lounge. It took our postcards 8-12 weeks to arrive from dropping them in there though, in their defense, there was a coup d'etat in the middle of that period.

A number of airports have mail slots near the TSA checkpoints to handle stuff that folks cannot bring through but do not want to surrender.

I've mailed things at IAD, DCA, and MSP. Don't remember exactly where but all were inside security. I have gotten a few puzzled looks from GAs when asking where the nearest mailbox is located, so it's probably not too common.

I've mailed items from LAX (used to be a store near 83, I think its closed now) and HNL (drop box near 13) before.

I don't remember seeing any mailboxes at LAX (at least not in TBIT or T1); probably removed for "security reasons." I did look at the LAX terminal maps and no mail drops are shown.

If something really needs to get mailed out, your friend might try looking for a street box just outside LAX or maybe a local (walking distance) hotel, which should have a mail drop. I always do my out-of-town business at the American Express desk of whatever Grand Hotel I'm staying at. Oh wait, I forget that this isn't the 1930's anymore. ;)

My friend had a birthday card for me and wanted it to be a surprise. He took it to the airport, then looked for a mailbox within T5 at LAX. Nothing. He ended up back in Germany with the card, stuck a German stamp on it next to the US "Forever" stamp and mailed it from there.

He mailed it on Tuesday and I received it Friday!