Minneapolis St Paul Airport

MSP Airport is truly a modern airport and one of the best to visit. However this is not an airport that is favorable to those who seek low fares or affordable travel. Northwest strives and vigilently fights to keep the airfares at this airport excessively high. The competition is uneager to fight high fares (even the low fare airlines that serve this airport). Without new airlines (Southwest or the like) this airport is only going to be affordable to those business travelers. Also why does the connection train at the airport operates but has nobody riding it? This would make the airport less of a pain to walk through and provide relief to those that have to navigate the long journey to concourse B. The airport has severe problems that need to be corrected sometime in the near future however the amenities at this airport are some of the best.

MSP is generally a great airport as either a destination or a connecting spot. It's too bad that it's a fortress hub for Northwest and flying there costs an arm and a leg. I like the availability of shops and the generally well-lighted interior. There are lots of pleasant distractions for long layovers. And the barber shop is great - if you know where to find it! My one complaint about MSP however is the sheer enormity of it made worse by the lack of speedier ways to get around. The airport needs a functioning tram system to zip around the concourses (apparently there is a tram that goes from the A-B gates to the D gates but it has never worked). Connecting from a NW commuter flight in the A concourse to a flight out of the F concourse is nearly impossible without at least 30 minutes of breathless scurrying along moving sidewalks and muscling through flight-bank throngs. This is the one thing that keeps MSP from being a truly world-class airport.

St. Pauls airport gives me a feeling that I'm at a enormous airport. Allhough it's quite easy to navigate it's clean and friendly staff. For aviation fanatics there's a nice small "room" where you have a nice overview of the platform full with Northwest aircrafts. As a KLM platinum card holder we share the lounge with partner Northwest. The lounge was quite crowded compared the size of the lounge. I prefer more spacious lounges with less noise. The service and drinks are ok and there's also a small separated area for smokers which I did appreciate.

I found MSP to be a bright clean airport with good shopping facilities airside. The check in area is also very good with great overhead signage. My only complaint with the airport is that if you are not flying Northwest then the information screens for other airlines are almost non existent making you feel slightly unwanted. The foot of snow which fell while I was in Minneapolis had no adverse effect on the operations.