Fly BWI But Don't Buy (Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI))

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
Date:	14/07/04 (310 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to get to and around

Disadvantages: Not a shopping mall in disguise as Ringway is

Baltimore Washington International is one of several airports near me now I'm living in the US. The name could be confusing because the two named cities are just over an hour apart and not directly next to each other, meaning the airport, unless exceedingly large, could not be situated in both places at once. As is often the case with airports these days, it's not really in either as it turns out, but is accessible by both, hence the name.

Getting to the airport from the surrounding states (Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia) is not hard, as it is actually served by frequent, reliable public transport, something which cannot be said for the rest of the area I'm based in. From Washington D.C. it takes about an hour, and busses make this trip from outside the terminal every 45 minutes. Amtrak, the main train operator here, also have a BWI station from where, after changing a handful of times, you can get almost anywhere on this continent. For Baltimore, the airport has a light rail (= tram / metro) stop which is convenient when it's in service which it isn't at the moment. They're adding an extra line down that way at the moment, so services are suspended between certain stops, but shuttle busses make the trip from the last working stop every 10 - 15 minutes (they coincide with the light rail trains to and from downtown). To get from downtown Baltimore to the airport takes about 45 minutes and costs $1.60. Amtrak is quicker, getting you there in 15 mins, but costs more - around $4. For Baltimore city and Baltimore county schedules you can find out costs and stop details in advance at www.mtamaryland.com

The airport is international as the name would suggest, but destinations for non-stop flights are limited to London and Shannon, and a handful of places in Canada, Jamaica, Mexico and, interestingly, Iceland. The majority of the flights are domestic ones, serving almost every major city in the USA. Perhaps unusual
ly for an airport, they fly to multiple destinations in several cities - all the NYC airports, for example, and both the Chicago ones. Due to the lack of a suitable north of England gateway, I flew into Dulles instead when I arrived in the US, but all my (domestic) travel since then has been out of BWI.

Arriving at the airport, car parks are clearly signed for those driving, and drop off points for the various airlines are marked to relieve my lovely American friends of the need to walk more than 30 m to check-in. If you end up at the wrong bit, however, signage inside is good and you can generally find your way to where you need to check in. International and domestic departures are separated, but generally you can check in at any desk for your airline. If they exist, they're very well hidden, because thus far I have not managed to locate any monitors listing desk numbers, so heading for your airline's sign is really your best bet.

Once checked in, you can explore landside, but there's very little there of interest, and queues can be long so you're best off heading immediately for passport control. They like you to take off your shoes as you and your bags pass through the scanners. This is true of some other airports in the states too at the moment, but BWI was the first place I encountered this bizarre ritual. It is, I suppose, to try and deter shoebombers, but I still find it rather strange. Airside the gates are clearly signed and located down several corridors which from the end all look similar. I've not been down them all yet, but the ones I have experienced are yet to impress me. I generally fly between 10am and 11am on weekday mornings when the airport is busy but not unbearably so. Gates can be located a long way down a corridor, and it's hard to tell how long it will take you to get there, so I head over in that direction as soon as I get the chance, stopping off at anywhere interesting on the way. Unfortunately,
there's not much that falls into these categories at that time of the morning: several food courts each with only one station open (invariably serving breakfast bagels and muffins and not much else) and newsstands selling the usual fixed price publications and over priced drinks and snacks. Once I think I caught a glance of a Visit Maryland cart full of toy crabs and chocolate crabs and crab bedecked t-shirts and aprons, but it might have been a mirage. Unless they're hiding all the good stuff in the international section, there's really not much to see or do here.

Landing back you usually end up at the gate you left from hours or days earlier, as these are assigned by airline and destination rather than anything else. So if you had a long walk going, you'll probably end up with a long walk back to. For domestic flights there are of course no immigration controls, but unusually you also just go through to arrivals before baggage claim. By the time you get to the carousels and work out where your luggage will be circling round, it's there waiting for you, if not already dumped on the floor beside the belt "for your convenience". From there it's just a short walk to the outside world - train and bus links, car parks, tourist information stands and so on.

Despite the appalling lack of shops (is such a limited choice legal? Is that something John Kerry should be looking into changing?) I'm growing quite fond of this airport, if only because once you're inside everything is handed to you on a platter. You're repeatedly told where to go, when to arrive, how to get there. Signs and people are on hand at every turn to point you in the right direction. Numerous in quantity the toilets are also clean and the sink areas dry (*not* the norm for public restrooms round here). The selection of destinations is great for a non-major airport, and several local budget airlines fly out of here, meaning I can get flights to
nice sounding places like the Bahamas for less than 100 GBP. With stuff like this it seems that shops would just be the chocolate sauce on top of the frozen yogurt sundae hey, a little bit of dieting never hurt anyone.

Limited information is also available at www.bwiairport.com

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