Over the past 6 months I have spent a great deal of time in and around airports and sitting in their departure lounges. While I have been fortunate to have a Red Carpet membership that I pay for, and membership privileges in other Airline lounges through my AMEX Business Platinum what I have found in small airports that don’t have such clubs is pretty interesting.
I guess we all measure our pain level by the time it takes to get checked in and through security and while Portland has a reputation for being very slow at getting through security my experience mid-day today was fine.
As a traveler that relies on electronics to keep the business moving, one always works towards being able to plug the laptop in, versus going on battery. As I looked for a power plug today I spied a couple and thought eureka a open power plug.
To my amazement though the airport authority had inserted a plug like device into the outlet to prevent people like me from plugging in. Having been spoiled in airports like Ohare, Albuquerque and a host of other airports which have dedicated charging, and work areas for business travelers I found this simple act to be almost like the city of Portland Maine holding up their hand and saying go away business traveler.
You would think that cities across the country would get their airport departures areas hooked up so that business people would enjoy traveling through their fair cities. While portland has quaint rocking chairs from L.L. Bean for people to sit in they definitely have issues with people plugging in their laptops. The question Portland should ask is why?