Do Most Airports Have Lockers?
 

Do most airports have lockers? I don't remember ever seeing them. I'll be doing a lot of one day trips to SFO + BWI and it would be really awesome if there are lockers I can put some of my things I like to take on the plane with me without having to take with me on my day trips.

After September 2001, seems few, if any, do.

A few airports have an attended left luggage facility (they x-ray the items that are left). SFO is one of the few airports in the US which does offer this service, cost varies by size of item but is about USD 10 per piece per day. No airports in the US are allowed to have unattended lockers, they have all been closed.

I lost a small backpack at AMS a few days ago; left it under a table in a lounge hurrying to a flight. They have a left luggage facility at €5/day. (Think it's less for smaller items in the lockers.) The lost item recovery fee is €5. They fortunately found my backpack, and I picked it up 4 days later for €5. Apparently you get quite a discount if you lose your stuff there rather than leave it with them purposefully. :)

But yeah, most storage facilities seemed to close after 9/11... some have reopened, some have not.

It goes back further than 9/11 -- the IRA, among others, was fond of using station lockers for bombings. Coin lockers started disappearing in the 1970's because of that practice, though it took a bit longer for US airports to catch on that it was a danger. I don't think I've seen working self-service lockers in an airport in at least 20 years.

Again, AMS has them. I used one about 6 months ago on an 8 hour layover (purposefully long layover, so I could visit the city.) Think it cost me something like €3 or €4 to leave a carry on-sized rollaboard for the day... again it's €5/day to leave any item at the counter. Pretty good deal if you have a long layover in AMS, especially with the 15 minute train ride to the city costing all of €3.60 (and I think there's a same day return ticket available for something like 1.25x - 1.5x a one-way.) That annoys me when I take something like the Heathrow Express or Narita Express or Arlanda Express. :) (Yeah yeah, those airports are a bit further out and the trains go much faster...)

I've seen them in some other airports, but I can't recall the last time I saw one in the US.

I haven't checked every square inch of BWI. I fly out of there every other week or so. I don't believe there are lockers anywhere.

Many US airports had working lockers right up to 9/11. Many of them still have those lockers, but with an "out of service" sign.

PDX is an example of one of these airports that I can think of off the top of my head.

Mike

The SFO service is very good to know! Thanks! I need to figure out what I'm going to do at BWI

How about calling nearby Starwood properties (is there one at the airport?) and asking if you can store your bag without a reservation as a Platinum?

I've stored my bag before check-in at various properties just fine, so if you have some property you've been to in the past or will be staying at in the future they'd probably be more than happy to oblige... Of course, not as convenient as stashing your bag at the airport.

(And one could just make a fake reservation anywhere and store a bag, pick it up, then cancel, but that's a bit too much for my taste.)

Info about SFO left luggage:

http://www.flysfo.com/guide_nonflash...nfo/faq.htm#11

MSP has them. They use a fingerprint as the "password" so "theoretically" only the depositor could retrieve the items.

ATL has an attended place outside security, near the airport post office.

The same company that does SmarteCartes does/did lockers in many U.S. airports and was converting banks from coins to credit-card systems (and hiking the prices quite a bit) around the time of 9/11. I'm sure they've been pressing for a system that'll let them reopen, even if it comes with requirements that will cost more. They've never been shy about passing on costs.

Basically they've tried to "solve" the problem of no lockers by pretending there's no demand for them anymore. Rubbish...the take is good wherever I see them. I'm no security expert, but I'd figure the sensible thing to do might be to put any locker banks outside the secured area. It's a morbid way of looking at things, but the logical side of the brain says that if a bomb can't get through to a plane, then bombing the airport is not much different than bombing any other building except with a much greater likelihood of getting caught. Which is probably why Timothy McVeigh didn't go that route.

I thought all lockers were banned forever after 9/11