Better food, design and more iPads coming to PHL’s Terminal B and elsewhere (Image: OTG)
I remember when Delta dolled up its food and beverage offerings at New York LaGuardia, adding a host of nice new restaurants and bars. In addition to the good grub was a new addition: hundreds of Apple iPads at nearly every table or bar in the airport to be used to order food or browse the web. It was quite a spectacle. Delta expanded the high-tech offering when it took over US Airways gates there at LGA last year.
Now the invasion of the iPad is spreading to other key airports.
Have you been through United’s newly Terminal C at Newark? The iPads are ubiquitous, as is the plethora of new dining and drinking options popping up in restaurant spaces and new cafe-style options smack in the middle of corridors, taking over areas once occupied by moving sidewalks. (see below)
United adding new dining options in Newark Airport corridors (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Healthier food, better shopping, and of course, more iPads, will soon pop up near United gates Houston Intercontinental, and near American gates at Philadelphia International’s Terminal B. The company behind all these improvements is OTG, an award-winning restaurateur with 250 restaurants in 11 airports under its belt.
In Houston, OTG will oversee all food, beverage and retail operations in United’s Terminal B South, Terminal C (including the new C North Concourse coming in 2017) and Terminal E. OTG says that it plans to install a whopping 8,000 (!) iPads throughout the airport, from which customers will find news and info and be able to order food and drink. At some outlets they will have the option of paying for it with MileagePlus points.
Big, bright dining and iPad ordering coming to Houston IAH (Image: OTG)
At American’s gate areas at Philadelphia’s Terminal B, OTG will phase in a few temporary “pop up” dining options to offer a taste of what’s to come as it builds out the full experience over the next two years. OTG will also introduce iPads at gate areas where passengers can order food and drink to be delivered from nearby airport restaurants. When complete, passengers will be able to use more than 1,000 iPads located at restaurants, lounges or gate areas. In addition, OTG says that it will install about 1,000 sorely needed power outlets in gate areas.
Ipads are cool, but some travelers may miss the human touch. Scott Mackenzie over at TravelCodex told TravelSkills: “I hate that I can’t do something simple, like order a beer, without using a tablet. Last time it took 20 minutes for a server to receive my order and then tell me it was unavailable.”
Have you used an iPad to order food or drink at the airport recently? What did you think? Please leave your comments below.
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Interesting! Thanks for sharing your observations… maybe those iPads will be donated when they’ve exhausted their useful life at the airport. That would be a nice gesture!
I’m at IAH right now and I’m not a fan of these iPads. First of all, where did the funding for this unnecessary luxury come from? Wouldn’t some local schools benefit more from 8000 iPads? They are also quite obtrusive and in the way; when I tried to look across the table at my traveling companion’s Asian Cajun lunch, I managed to knock one of the iPads right into her gumbo. The minimal human service we received at this restaurant was mediocre at best, and I think we had to commit to a tip amount before we even got it?
Meh!
At least when people yacked on the phone there were cell phone jammers that would shut them up
I am not aware of an iphone jammer but if someone invented one they would become rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
I dislike ordering on iPads. It is ridiculous at a bar, when the bartender is right in front of you, to place an order on a device. We lose the human interaction and it takes longer! They charge an obscenely high number of miles for items, so be careful if you are considering paying this way.
Seems like just about the most unsanitary thing you could hope for in a high traffic area like an airport location
They’ve had these for quite a while in the philly commuter terminal. I make the waitress punch in the order or I just get a drink
Absolutely horrible. Does anyone actually think this is a good idea? I have enough glowing screens in my life. When is this fad going to end?
The very first thing I did after sitting down was take my laptop case, unzip it, and slip it over the iPad. I really did not want to stare at it for the entire time I was at my seat.
I would rather just talk with someone live and order a beer or what have you. And almost everyone has their own iPad or phone to browse the Internet without using a tablet used by hundreds before them.
When I was in the Minneapolis Airport I noticed booths and bars with charging stations and iPads located in/on them. I looked at one and thought one could order from them, or also rent them to use for the time you were there. Great idea