Love -- or at least free chocolate -- at the airport
Airlines are doing their part to make travel sweet this Valentine's Day weekend, but airports around the country are rolling out lots of love as well.
An 8-foot heart is set up in the atrium at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for fun photo ops and selfies that the airport is encouraging you share with the hashtag #ATLlovesU. ATL also plans to hand out 23,000 pieces of candy by the time Valentine's Day is over.
Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) in northeast Ohio, which rightly boasts that it is the only airport in the U.S. with a chocolate factory on its campus (Harry London's/Fannie May), is having a Facebook contest on Friday, Feb. 13 with prizes of locally made chocolate for fans.
Through 8 p.m. on Valentine's Day, chocolate-covered strawberries made by Amy's Ice Creams, a local favorite, are for sale in the baggage claim of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and post-security at Amy's concourse location. Last year 138 dozen (1,656 individual) chocolate-covered strawberries left the airport as last-minute Valentine's Day gifts.
At Dallas Love Field, the Gyros String Quartet will be playing love songs, post-security, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday and heart-shaped chocolates with the Love Field logo will be distributed throughout the day. Photos ops and selfies can be snapped at the big red heart that sits between the giant letters B and G installed at the airport as part of the city's "Big Things Happen Here" campaign.
On Saturday, volunteer ambassadors at Florida's Jacksonville International Airport will hand out 10,000 carnations to travelers in the terminal. They've been doing this every Valentine's Day (and Mother's Day) since 2009.
LaGuardia Airport's Food & Shops, Terminal B will distribute free milk chocolate hearts Feb. 13, 14 and 15 (while supplies last). A roaming Cupid will be on-site Friday afternoon between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and there's a Twitter contest underway for a box of Godiva chocolates and an "I Love NY" heart necklace.
At Miami International Airport, which year-round handles more than 90% of all flowers imported to the U.S. and 22 million flowers a day in the week leading up to Valentine's Day, there will fun events in the terminals for travelers on Feb. 13 and 14. In addition to a kissing booth for keepsake photos, there will be chocolate roses, a DJ spinning heartfelt tunes and coupons for store discounts distributed by Cupid.
Staff at Philadelphia International Airport will be handing out pink and red carnations to travelers between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Friday and distributing candy throughout the day at the information counters.
And on Sunday, Feb. 15, between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., there will be a performance of romantic and passionate Argentine Tango in the Tom Bradley International Terminal and in Terminal 6 at Los Angeles International Airport.
Even ACI-NA, the organization that represents North American airports, is getting in on the Valentine's Day action with a contest on Twitter and Instagram.
Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and Paste BN Travel's "At the Airport" columnist. She occasionally contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.