Airport sleeping taking off

Travelers sleeping in airports is taking off, mainly because the planes aren't. As delays become more common, and airlines cut expenses, they are giving fewer hotel or meal vouchers to travelers waiting for a rescheduled flight.

Sleeping at an airport overnight, once almost a sport for the young and short of cash, has become a lot more common lately, affecting even older and professional travelers. And a big reason is that many airlines are no longer as generous with hotel vouchers as they once were. ...

And there is even a Web site, the Budget Traveler's Guide to Sleeping in Airports at www.sleepinginairports.com, which lists the best and worst airports to spend the night.

Gives a new meaning to the term, "tent city." I spent the night in the Philadelphia airport in 1989, after flying from Soto Cano Air base, Honduras, to McGuire AFB, NJ, aboard a USAF C-5 Galaxy cargo plane. I was ending my tour of duty at JTF-Bravo in Honduras, and the Air Force legally could fly us back to the States, but not within the US, since law forbade the USAF from "competing" with American airlines. By the time our shuttle got to the Philly airport well after midnight, the place had practically shut down. So my small group plopped into some seats and dozed off at our boarding gate. Believe me, once you've soldiered around the world, sleeping in a heated airport lounge in a padded chair isn't so hard to take. (Not that I'd want to make a habit of it, though.)