To be quite honest I haven't noticed where the smokers go to smoke in airports. I agree that there should be areas where smokers can smoke away from others. I have a problem with smokers getting a non-smoking room and then smoke in it. As stated by several others they do not like the smell in a smoking room or on planes in the smoking areas when smoking was allowed.

From watching my parents and others certain things seemed to trigger their need to smoke: 1. Knowing you can not smoke made it worse. 2. Needing to smoke after a meal even on a plane. 3. Waking up from a nap or long period of rest. 4. The smell of smoke. 5. A type A personality. These are just some of the things my parents and friends have said triggers their need to smoke.

Each to their own.

A properly designed smoking area should be unnoticeable in that no smoke should leak out into the non-smoking area.

An example from many years ago: I was on a flight transiting NRT to PEK. NRT was, for the most part, a very clean and nice airport. PEK was the old airport, and it obviously looked old and shabby (the new one was being built).

However, NRT had smoking areas that were open to surrounding area where smoking was not allowed, which meant that non-smokers had to walk through the smoke escaping from the smoking areas whenever they passed by the smoking areas. PEK, on the other hand, had enclosed smoking rooms with the ventilation set up so that the air would always blow into the smoking rooms if the door was opened.

Unfortunately, most smoking areas within restaurants and other buildings when smoking was allowed were more like NRT back then in that if you were in the non-smoking area near the smoking area, you were effectively in the smoking area, except that you couldn't smoke. Meaning the worst situation for both non-smokers (who would be annoyed by the smoke drifting over from the smoking area) and smokers (who were not allowed to smoke there).

I remember well the 'good old days' when smoking was allowed on airplanes. I say good old days because the cigarettes I smoked on planes were among the most enjoyable I've ever had. Concentrations of second hand smoke rarely ever bother me. I grew up in a smoky house, and I enjoy smoky bars(when I can still find one). I fully understand why smoking was banned on planes, but I still seriously miss it. I fly 6-8 transpacs per year, and I've learned to cope, but there is not one flight I don't reminisce about the 80s and 90s.

I can recall some miserable TATLs on Alitalia and Malev back in the smoking allowed days. Non-smoking sections on planes didn't work too well.

I wouldn't fly if smoking was still allowed on planes. The air onboard is already bad enough.

What astoishes me most about this thread is how many people still smoke...

Roughly 33% of adults world-wide, 23% in the US, 22% in Canada.

Older table: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/he...-adult-smokers ;the 0 numbers are a "unkown" indicator, I can attest that there are indeed smokers in Honduras.

You probably don't notice smokers in the US because they have been hounded out of the places you go. They can be found lurking in dark alleys along with the child molesters .

Ok, usually don't get involved in Smoke vs Non Smoke issues but this thread seems rather civil.
I've smoked since my teen years, I have covered A/Pac since 1991 and travel 10-11 x a year trans Pac. In the early to mid 90's you could still smoke on Trans/Pac flights, I was a 1K on United so flew a lot of SFO-HK, NRT, TPE etc.. in F, I felt bad to light up, was always in 4A and the guys in row 3 would occasionally wave their hands in the air as to wave the smoke away from row 4. But for me this was a bad combination, a boring 14 hr flight + wine/alcohol made for more smoking!
When the american carriers went non-smoking I actually switched my alliance to NH so I could keep smoking. I think the asian carriers went non-smoking 2 years later and then I went back to UA.
Whats funny is I really don't miss smoking that much on the flights and to be honest I don't go running out at LAX or SFO when I arrive to light one up, I know one of these days I will arrive and hopefully not light up again.
But having said that the hardest is planning before the trip, I go TATL once a year and do plan somewhat according to smoking. Going next May to TLV and picked LH out of ORD because not only is the service good but they fly out of gates B16 or B17 which means I can easily go outside to smoke before the flight, instead of flights out of C gates. Same thing last year to VCE.
I usually use a patch or Nicotrol Inhaler which works great, the inhaler is almost like smoking the real thing.
I made 1MM on UA years ago so now I am back with NH for 2 reasons, the service is better and I connect in NRT, yep it's a mental thing I hope I can overcome one day.
Sorry for the long rant.

they should bring back smoking on planes. Only certain sections though.

I'm a smoker but have never had a problem on planes. It seems that there is a switch that just clicks into no smoking mode. For those that are curious, I travel a lot TATL.

Only if they could figure out a way to really keep the smoke in that area and that area alone and find a way to protect the health of the FAs.
A smoking booth with an advanced ventilation system might be a possibility, but a seating area allowing smoking would be horrible. Been there. Done that.

If you're a journalism student, you need to know that it's incorrect to use an apostrophe in "smoker's" here!
Good luck.

As a pack a day smoker.. NO..

Agree, I can smoke a lot but flying needs to be non-smoking, however if some airports would give us a enclosed smoking room during transit!!!

Exactly, put me in a dirty room down a hall way with negative pressure ventilation and I am all good. Make me go outside, I am grumpy.

There's a reason why disabling the smoke detector is a federal offense. After the smoking rules came in on planes there were a few fires that happened due to people disabling the fire detector and throwing butts in the garbage. I haven't heard of anyone encountering this anymore. Most people realize that causing fires anywhere gets you in a LOT of trouble.