St. Louis (STL)

Growing up, I had a few layovers at STL, which was then a major hub for TWA.

By the time I started traveling for work in 2009, TWA had been acquired by American Airlines, who were still operating the airport as a small hub. As the hub still served DAY, St. Louis was the layover on the way to my very first work trip. I hadn’t specifically tried to get a job with frequent travel; at the time, I enjoyed travel, but it wasn’t a goal. So on the first Monday of February 2009, I started a position on a new program; that day, my boss asked me if I could travel to Dallas a week later for a program meeting. Of course I could, and with that, I picked the same flight itinerary as my coworkers—Dayton through St. Louis to Dallas/Fort Worth on American Airlines. I promptly managed to lose my second boarding pass somewhere in the St. Louis airport, proving my travel inexperience. (I’ve since gotten better!)

From then on, I had a few more trips through STL as a layover. I also had business in the St. Louis area, but at the time I usually drove, as the drive was an easy six hours on I-70 each way, unless I had to visit St. Louis as part of a multi-city itinerary.

Nowadays, even though there is no longer a direct flight, I usually fly—with a layover at Chicago O’Hare, it generally takes about six hours either way for me to get to St. Louis, but I can get work reading done on a plane, while there’s not much I can safely accomplish while driving.