mdkowals

Luggage for sale in the airport never fully made sense to me, especially past security. I always picture someone clearing TSA with a few grocery bags full of clothes and then seeing a luggage shop thinking "Oh yeah, I could have put this stuff in a suitcase - good idea" before making the luggage purchase in the airport. I forgotten things while flying before, but forgetting the actual luggage (while remembering to bring the contents of the luggage) is just not one of them!

Now, say you didn't forget your luggage and just bought new luggage at the airport. Do you re-pack right then and there? Check the new luggage empty? If you repack and want to discard the old luggage, do you leave the old luggage laying around the airport until the bomb squad finds it? - You can't stuff it into one of those trash cans with the 8" opening.

Cloudship

Personally, I have had to do this when my bag broke, which I think would probably make up most of the sales. Maybe frequent travelers as well. But yes, find quiet corner in an unused gate and split some of your stuff up, then check the second bag at the gate. If it is completely no good then the luggage store would likely take the old one back if they made a nice sale.

Randomness

Speaking of interesting passengers: on a flight a while back I'd just gotten settled into my window seat and gotten a glass of water to take a pill when the woman in the aisle seat asked if I had some medication she could take to calm her nerves. I guess she saw the prescription bottle and thought she'd ask? Anyway, the bottle was just for my blood pressure meds and I told her that.

I was sympathetic as I had an ex- who always took anxiety meds for flights. Nonetheless I wouldn't feel comfortable handing medication to a stranger.

But yeah, Changi is a great airport. One of my Singaporean friends told me that local students even go there at exam time to study. There's a piece in the Straits Times which lists it as one of its six suggestions for study spaces.

GadgetFreak

travelinmanS

Many airlines block the windows on the 787 so you can't see outside for most of the flight. This happens in economy and business so I guess it doesn't matter what class you are in in that case. As far as airports, even in airports with the best lounges I prefer to walk around a bit and check out the planes/people before hitting the lounge. I generally find I have more interesting conversations with seatmates flying up front, rather than in the back although that is changing as more airlines go to single bed seats upfront.

kb9522

nrr

I fly out of JFK T8 (AA) a lot---there is nothing of interest pre or post TSA.
ZRH (Zurich) has lots of things pre security [shops, a supermarket, flight observation deck], except for duty free, not much after security.

1flyer

+1000

GadgetFreak

kb9522

darthbimmer

The context in the few articles before that was, "Who buys anything at shops in airports?" mdkowals wrote about how selling luggage seemed especially odd, GadgetFreak wrote about how a high-end pen shop caught his interest.

My $.02 is that airport shops are occasionally nice for a bit of window-shopping when I'm bored but I can only barely imagine myself buying anything bigger than a snack or small souvenir. Airport prices are so inflated. I figure anything I don't need in transit I can get much cheaper elsewhere.

Kagehitokiri

when premium includes pajamas sometimes you get passengers changing into them at their seat

CAWineNerd

I love to chat with folks in the lounge. Some of my favorite conversations have been at the lounge bar. At one lounge the airport was experiencing massive delays, so every time I received an automated call I said it was my girlfriend and everyone around me was howling in laughter. It is people that are interesting, not the lounge furniture.

GadgetFreak

KDS777

I agree. I've met some fascinating people in the lounges and had some very enjoyable conversations.