Airport - Slash - Hotel

I'm sure there are a lot of road warriors who sleep at airports all the time. Despite my economical travel-methods, I've only slept at 3 airports overnight. Twice because my flight the next day is at an early hour and I (1) don't want to miss the flight and (2) don't want to spend that much on hotel just to leave at 4 AM and (3) don't want to pay super-high charges for taxi at off-hours to the airport.

It's economical to sleep at the airport.

It's also quite uncomfortable.

I've yet to master the art of sleeping at airports without waking up every 20 minutes and I'm convinced that airport designers make the chairs outside of the security areas extra hard as to discourage people from sleeping there. Plan - foiled!

Here they are, the list of the three slept-at airports:

• London Luton (June 2005) - I caught a Ryan Air flight from Venice and got in at around 2AM or so (I pretty much passed out on the plane and only woke briefly due to bounce-out-of-your-seat turbulence). A group of us ended up sleeping on the floor (yes, the floor) with our luggage. Thank goodness the floors were clean at least. The next morning, I had to haul-butt to catch a bus to Heathrow to catch my flight home.
• Singapore Changi (August 2009) - My flight to Hong Kong was at 7AM and, let's face it, I didn't want to risk not waking up at 4AM and missing my flight or having to catch a relatively pricey taxi to the airport when the train was so cheap and fast. The sad thing is, the accommodations on the other side of security was so awesome, plus, they had wifi. I managed to catch up on sleep on the flight, though. Not even sure if I was awake for any of it....
• Finally, El Dorado International in Bogota, Colombia (October 2009) - I killed many hours in the domestic terminal before they kicked me out. Then I tried at least 5 different chair/luggage combination - all to no avail. I did, however, catch Moulin Rouge in Spanish (it still sucks - sorry). The thing that really struck me about this airport was its insane (INSANE!) security measures once you try to board your plane. Security is fine enough. Customs was pretty chill. But then they rummage through all of your carry-on personal items and even smell it all. I'm hoping they're looking for cocaine, otherwise the sniff-test would just be weird, right? It's a pain for me because I checked no luggage. I only had a backpack with all my belongings and the thing had 6 zipper compartments. (Yes, I'm the one who held up the line. Sorry!) But I got through and on the plane. So horray for that!

I think after these experiences, I'll learn to book my flights at better, more considerate times so that I don't have to feel like sleeping at an airport is a viable option. Although, if I had to sleep at an airport in the near future, I'd definitely pick Terminal 5 at JFK. JetBlue for the win!