Hi! I’d like to contribute to this discussion by suggesting that you might be optimizing the wrong thing. In my experience, both airports and airplanes actively work against you having quality time with yourself. Let me explain, based on my Western European travel experience.
Airport seating is seldom comfortable: you typically get slightly reclined seats, and benches where you could lie down simply don’t exist. Try holding a laptop or book in a working position while reclining: it requires constant effort. These spaces aren’t designed as desks for intellectual work.
The acoustic environment is challenging too. You get essential boarding announcements mixed with routine safety reminders, and since they sound similar, you need to actively listen to each one to determine whether it means you’ll miss your flight or simply that you shouldn’t leave your bag unattended (which no one does anyway: theft is not unheard of).
The visual environment is equally overwhelming. The last airport I visited was dimly lit: just bright enough to read. It featured huge, blazing advertisement screens. The shop displays are also harshly lit, constantly pulling your attention away from any book or laptop.
If you survive this ordeal and board the plane, it’s more of the same. Modern seat pitch doesn’t allow you to unfold a laptop properly, and the tray table is so shallow that even a book barely fits at a comfortable reading angle. The seat width is such that an average-sized male shoulder width barely fits, leaving no space for adjacent passengers to place their arms. Someone inevitably has to keep their hands in their lap.
Then there’s airplane food: mostly expensive junk food that I wouldn’t recommend unless you have an iron stomach and very low standards.
Time isn’t really the issue here. The real question is how to reach your destination without being completely drained. There aren’t many solutions, but when available, I’d suggest using quiet airport areas and choosing flights with reasonable seating or selecting better seats. Both are increasingly rare these days. If you’re fortunate enough to find them, you might actually have a pleasant, slow journey. Otherwise, which is usually the case, no matter how you optimize your time, the travel experience will leave you drained and irritated.
The niceness of the environment depends on a lot on the airport. A lot of airports have added nicer seating recently. Denver actually has nicer (and quieter) seating in some sections of the normal airport than the lounges. Some other airports I’ve been to have designated quiet spaces with reclining seats (I can’t remember if this was Dublin or somewhere else).
Usually the area near where your flight is boarding will be very busy, but unless it’s absolute peak time, there will probably be unused gates that are nice and quiet. I usually rely on my phone to notify me of any important announcements and then move to the correct gate shortly before boarding. I usually can’t hear the overhead announcements clearly anyway.
Remote seating has its own problems. On my last flight to SF, I almost missed my late-night flight out because I had (very unusually for me) found a more pleasant, quieter, empty gate to make a phone call on, out of eyeshot; and then my flight was delayed twice so the original boarding time flew past; and eventually I got so wrapped up in the call that I let the time slip until a vague nagging anxiety and had to wrench myself out and run in a panic to my actual gate—where fortunately there was still <10 minutes of boarding left. While it took at least 3 problems and I didn’t actually miss my flight in the end, it would’ve been bad because it was probably the last one out that night to SF, and it’s the first time I have ever come anywhere close to missing my flight while having actually been sitting at the gate hours before… So it was a memorable and alarming near-miss for me.
Hi! I’d like to contribute to this discussion by suggesting that you
might be optimizing the wrong thing. In my experience, both airports
and airplanes actively work against you having quality time with yourself.
Let me explain, based on my Western European travel experience.
Airport seating is seldom comfortable: you typically get slightly reclined
seats, and benches where you could lie down simply don’t exist. Try
holding a laptop or book in a working position while reclining: it
requires constant effort. These spaces aren’t designed as desks for
intellectual work.
The acoustic environment is challenging too. You get essential boarding
announcements mixed with routine safety reminders, and since they sound
similar, you need to actively listen to each one to determine whether
it means you’ll miss your flight or simply that you shouldn’t leave
your bag unattended (which no one does anyway: theft is not unheard of).
The visual environment is equally overwhelming. The last airport I visited
was dimly lit: just bright enough to read. It featured huge, blazing
advertisement screens. The shop displays are also harshly lit, constantly
pulling your attention away from any book or laptop.
If you survive this ordeal and board the plane, it’s more of the same.
Modern seat pitch doesn’t allow you to unfold a laptop properly, and
the tray table is so shallow that even a book barely fits at a comfortable
reading angle. The seat width is such that an average-sized male shoulder
width barely fits, leaving no space for adjacent passengers to place
their arms. Someone inevitably has to keep their hands in their lap.
Then there’s airplane food: mostly expensive junk food that I wouldn’t
recommend unless you have an iron stomach and very low standards.
Time isn’t really the issue here. The real question is how to reach your
destination without being completely drained. There aren’t many solutions,
but when available, I’d suggest using quiet airport areas and choosing
flights with reasonable seating or selecting better seats. Both are
increasingly rare these days. If you’re fortunate enough to find them,
you might actually have a pleasant, slow journey. Otherwise, which is
usually the case, no matter how you optimize your time, the travel
experience will leave you drained and irritated.
The niceness of the environment depends on a lot on the airport. A lot of airports have added nicer seating recently. Denver actually has nicer (and quieter) seating in some sections of the normal airport than the lounges. Some other airports I’ve been to have designated quiet spaces with reclining seats (I can’t remember if this was Dublin or somewhere else).
Usually the area near where your flight is boarding will be very busy, but unless it’s absolute peak time, there will probably be unused gates that are nice and quiet. I usually rely on my phone to notify me of any important announcements and then move to the correct gate shortly before boarding. I usually can’t hear the overhead announcements clearly anyway.
I agree that planes are the worst though.
Remote seating has its own problems. On my last flight to SF, I almost missed my late-night flight out because I had (very unusually for me) found a more pleasant, quieter, empty gate to make a phone call on, out of eyeshot; and then my flight was delayed twice so the original boarding time flew past; and eventually I got so wrapped up in the call that I let the time slip until a vague nagging anxiety and had to wrench myself out and run in a panic to my actual gate—where fortunately there was still <10 minutes of boarding left. While it took at least 3 problems and I didn’t actually miss my flight in the end, it would’ve been bad because it was probably the last one out that night to SF, and it’s the first time I have ever come anywhere close to missing my flight while having actually been sitting at the gate hours before… So it was a memorable and alarming near-miss for me.