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.
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.