Air-Port-CodesAn airport can be a challenging and even boring place to spend your day. And while there may be shops to spend money in, restaurants to eat in and line-ups to complain in, is there more to life in the airport?
Here are seven things you can do to spend your time, and save your money…
Meet new people
At the last UN count, there were 197 different countries in the world. All of these countries are full of incredible people from astronauts to zookeepers and everything in between. And the one place we all come together? Airports.
So next time you are in an airport, turn down your music and close your book. Lift up your eyes and open them to a whirlwind of possibility. Someone amazing might be sitting beside you, waiting for you to say hello.
Learn about airport codes!
Take out your boarding card, and have a look at the airport code on it. I wonder if you know why the code appears the way it does? If not, read this article, and find out! There are some pretty fun facts about how they got started and what they all mean... if anything. Some don't really. Most do.
Plan a new travel route
The writer Kurt Vonnegut once said that ‘peculiar travel suggestions are like dancing lessons from God’. So take some dancing lessons in the airport. Put your bag down for a second, and look up at the board for your flight code. Don’t look for your flight code, or your gate.
Instead, pick an airport code entirely at random and plan a holiday there. Denver? Sounds great. Let’s tango.
Send a ‘personal’ letter
An airport floor is like the largest post office sorting room in the world. Make use of this. Have a look at the destination board and think if you know anyone that lives at any of those airport codes.
Finally, in your busy life, you have an hour to connect with friends. Write a postcard to that friend from San Francisco you never speak with. Then go to gate 38 and ask someone if they’ll take it from you, and send your airport postcard, with a very personal touch!
Chances are, all three of you will make a new friend.
Become a writer, an architect or an artist
Quit your job for a couple of hours in the airport. Unless you are an artist, a journalist or a writer, in which case, pick another way to spend your airport time!
Once you’ve quit your job, take a new one. Write about the hustle and the bustle around you. Draw that unusual hairstyle. Admire all of the unique architecture you find at the airport, a lot of airports have the most creative architecture in the world. You get the idea.
Call your grandmother
Everyone has that grandmother or distant relative they've been meaning to contact for so long but keep putting it off. So now we have an agreed airport schedule. Every time that I am waiting for a plane, you can call them. If you travel regularly, it can be difficult to stay in touch with people. So start a routine, one that will make the airport lounge feel like an armchair by the fire.
Take it all in
The airport is a battlefield for hurt and loss, longing and hope. Bask in its raw emotion for a moment and feel the force of a thousand dreams. Be silent in the bustle and remind yourself why you are going wherever you are going. Not for that business conference, or to see that concert. Instead, remember the people you’re doing it for, and the arms you will rush into at the other end. Nothing will make time fly faster.