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masonbrit t1_j9yc4dw wrote

RIC is a pretty damn good airport experience for the most parts but I have two gripes (that probably aren’t that interesting)

  • the food options are terrible and it feels like Starbucks is the only option a lot of times. While that’s not the end of the world, they (apparently) don’t have the means to make half the normal menu, so you’ll order something and then they give you something else without mentioning it.
  • the only bag issue I’ve had was one time we were stuck at the gate on the plane (IIRC), but the bags were taken off. Cause there’s so few baggage claims, our bags got taken to an AA office with glass full length windows. We could see our luggage in there, but there were no staff and basically all the American Airlines employees looked at each other for an hour until someone eventually opened the door. During that time there were about 12 of us waiting, and there was a solid variety of individuals - us (a younger couple), a young family trying to entertain their daughter by doing races up and down, a very angry white southern man who was cursing under his breath at everyone and slightly concerning, and then a business person who was having a very “business business business” conversation loudly on the phone. The most frustrating thing for us was that we were arriving home from our honeymoon, and had started our travel in Zimbabwe the day before. We were super happy to be home after 3 flights and 36 hours of flying, but looking through this window and seeing the only thing we needed to allow us to get home to bed and not being able to actually take it was like a massive welcome back to reality from the universe.

Anyways, not super interesting but seemed to fit what you were looking for

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3FoxInATrenchcoat t1_j9yeg28 wrote

Your description of the experience really put me in the moment and I felt your mild desperation after you spent so many hours traveling. It’s like the perfect balance of mild annoyance that is amplified as a result of needless protocol (whatever prevented AA staff from just processing the bags right away).

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masonbrit t1_j9z2wj4 wrote

Right and I think it actually highlights how good the airport experience usually is. I can get from my door to the gate in 20 minutes usually, so knowing that’s the norm (which is an exception for most airports) was what made it frustrating.

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coconut_sorbet t1_j9yhpxp wrote

Whoa, when did they get a Starbucks???

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masonbrit t1_j9z2jly wrote

That would probably be why they can’t make the Starbucks menu then lol

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