sparkchaser

This is what I was going to say.

Man up and enjoy the crisp, cold air.

powerlifter

Back in the 90 I was working at YWG. There was a plane heading to Hawaii in Jan from YYZ. It stopped in YWG to pick up more passengers and take on catering for the trip. The passengers were all dressed in short sleeve shirts and shorts. They had three doors open to the plane. It was -40 with the wind blowing about 60 Km. The people were freezing on the plane. It was like that for at least 45 min. I thought to myself what a bunch of dummies knowing that they are stopping in one if not the coldest cities in North America with no coats. You just wondered what were they thinking.

tentseller

And to think it is the hogtowners in YYZ that nicknames YWG Winterpeg

DJ Bitterbarn

Too many people have said the same thing to quote everyone, but I need to say it as well.

Walking in the cold for five minutes is nothing. You will not die, you will not be injured, and you will NOT get sick. If you walk fast, you may even just generate some heat to offset the cold. Just suck it up and walk and (and this is very important) don't tell me that I need to put on a hat.

Sorry, I'm just having some unresolved issues with being in "cold" climates where everyone has unreal expectations of warmth yet insists that their hypersensitivity to temperature is the natural state, so assume that I am somehow trying to somehow show off or am unaware of how cold it is. When I get cold, I will let someone know, but until it gets to -30 or below, don't hold your breath on that.

Phew, that was cathartic.

AUS2008

LOL...hope you never get diverted.
Remember the Christmas snowstorm a few years ago that shut down SEA and PDX for several days? I was on the last flight that made it out of KTN (Alaska) before SEA got completely closed, and we almost didn't even go, but the pilot got word that SEA could take us. Turns out, we couldn't land in SEA, but got diverted to GEG, where there was a couple of feet of snow on the ground. Not only did we sit on the plane for several hours before deplaning, but it was a cargo combi, so we had to wait for stairs to deplane and walk outside in sub-freezing temps to the terminal. Then, pretty much anyone who was connecting through SEA or PDX was stuck for several days, unless they could re-route--last weekend before Christmas...airport was a zoo! (I was lucky in that I was going to Texas, so I booked a separate flight south on WN.)

anyway...there was a family on board who were going from Alaska to Hawaii for the holidays...dressed in shorts and tee shirts, with their little girls wearing dresses and tights, laughing as they boarded in KTN about not needing coats in Hawaii. No idea when they were going to make it out of snowy Spokane and actually get to Hawaii. I felt bad for those kids!

lovely15

As someone who hasn't experienced anything below 20F in years, that sounds physically painful.

But I always carry a small emergency mylar blanket in my carryon anyway. $5 and doesn't take up much space at all.

fairviewroad

Yeah, pretty unbelievable, especially since no one on this thread has actually said that. Even the OP, in posing the question, did not advocate for it.

Obviously people flying to Alaska in winter should be dressed accordingly, but this thread is about connecting in a cold weather location while flying between two warm weather destinations. A different kind of situation, really.

They were probably expecting to be reasonably comfortable while inside the aircraft. Why is that not a rationale expectation?

chimphappyhour

Going back to the OP, the only times I've ever had to walk out to a plane in the US that was using jets of any size like he might encounter were at Philadelhpia back in March and LaGuardia back in the 80s.

The only time I've had to actually go outside to get to or from a plane in the Midwest in my decades of flying to and from there was for a tiny puddle jumper that was way too small to even consider using a jetway back in the 80s. (Don't remember the actual plane. Just remember not being able to stand up in it and the pilot and co-pilot loaded the luggage themselves.)

gailwynand

ORD and MSP both make you go outside to board some RJ flights. (Maybe MSP doesn't anymore, I haven't been there in awhile.)

BigFlyer

I walked on the tarmac to board this summer going from MSP to YYZ on an RJ.

However, I suspect as others here have posted - the distance from MSP to warmer climes is such that the planes would be big enough to use jetways.

VA1379

Personally, I'm a polar bear, but I know a lot of people who aren't. I stopped in Berlin for a few days in November on my Star Alliance award ticket to HKG, and I was shocked at how much heat they had in the shopping centers, the underground gym at the Marriott Berlin and especially on LH's flights. I felt liked I was being roasted on the LH planes and broiled in the shopping centers (it had to be at least 75F/23.5C). I also had a layover in NRT for a day on this trip, and I stayed at the Sheraton Miyako in Tokyo. The hotel room was hot (23C is too hot for me). I turned on the A/C and found the button to turn off the heated toilet seat.

canadian_golf_guy

It isn't painful per se, as the heat from the walking/jogging/sprinting to the terminal helps keep you slightly warm. However, unpleasant? That's a different question haha

slawecki

we were on a full dc10(i think) going to iad from muc about 20 years ago. it was decided we did not have enuugfh fuel. we did a pit stop in KEF.i hAVE NO IDEA HOW COLD it was, but plenty cold. a gail was blowing. the plane parked in the middle of nowhere. we walked to the airport holding a rope over ice covered tarmac. was winter, and pitch black at mid-day.. the airline provided us all with blankets for the trip to the airport.

KenS

Unless you fly from a warm place (SAN) to an "insanely cold" place (SLC) in order to get on a flight to another "insanely cold" place (FCA), in which case you may need to walk on the tarmac twice, or if you are lucky, not at all.