More help for the English gal!

[suki_blue]

Okay, American airports.

How far can you go without a ticket?

In England you check your luggage in, show your passport and get your boarding pass at the check-in desk, then you have to show your passport and b-pass as you go through into the Duty Free area. This is where there are more shops and restaraunts and it also has access to all the gates and lounges. If you have no ticket, then you cannot get into this area.

So, how does it work in america? For international flights?

I have been to America, but it was a couple of years ago and the whole thing is a bit of a blur. Can't remember.

So, just to ramble on a bit more, if you were not the one flying, but you were there to hang out and say goodbye, could you go right up to the gate? Or just the check in desk? Or the duty free? Lounge?

Detail would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Comments

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Well, usually the only things in the lobby are restrooms, vending machines, seating, and the places where you buy your tickets from the different airlines and customer service. All the shops and stuff are usually behind the gate now.

We do have boxes of matches, but those are usually big. Books of matches are smaller and portable. Like what you'd bring home from a restaurant or a bar with the fold-over flap. I also saw today that you can't even pack a lighter into your checked luggage anymore. WTF?

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Hm, I'm starting to think that it depends where you fly from. Washington has a Starbucks, which is great, so now I just need confirmation of somewhere that has a Macdonalds or similar. I just wish I could remember the layout of San Diego Airport. I remember cueing, but that's it!

No lights? I hope that isn't the case here! I need my lighters!!

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. Nobody's gonna think twice about whether or not there might be a coffeeshop before the gate. So I say go for it.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetie!

Oooh, another qestion. Do your airports ever have malls or mini-malls attached or very near? Here at Gartwick airport we have two terminals and one of them has a kind of shopping centre attached between the airport and Gatwick train station.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think so. I'm not really all that much of a flier, and I am also the most unobservant human ever born, so I can't say for sure. But I can say that if you told me there was one, I would totally believe you. LOL

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

But I can say that if you told me there was one, I would totally believe you. LOL

LOL! That's okay, then! hee!

[phendog.livejournal.com]

The no more lighter in checked luggage thing is because some of the plastic ones have been breaking open lately and spreading their fluid in the luggage making it a firehazard.

For suki, this is a matchbook (http://www.evnn.com/matchbook.jpg). It's maybe 6 cm (guessing) tall and has a striker strip on the back.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. I guess that makes sense. I wouldn't want my things covered in lighter fluid even if they didn't go up in flames. LOL

[phendog.livejournal.com]

*L* Yeah. I've had shampoo bottle explode in my luggage more than once and anything like that is far from pleasant!

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

That is why anal-retentive!Lorraine always packs her toiletries in Ziplocs. *g* *hates it that her mother was always right*

[phendog.livejournal.com]

*L* Actually I DID have my shampoo in the Ziploc. Of course I apparently didn't close the ziploc well enough...