This is actually going to be tough for you because RIC is a nice little airport that most people never complain about. I suppose if anything's a bummer, at least in the circumstances of what you're writing, it's that there are limited food options available during off hours.

One time (before I lived in Richmond) I was flying from NYC to Raleigh and we almost ran out of fuel because of headwinds, so we had to make an emergency landing at RIC. It took so long to refuel the plane that we weren’t allowed to take off again because it was after midnight. Some people tried to rent cars to get home but it was so late none of the car rental places were open. Finally the airline chartered us a bus to get us to Raleigh. It was hilariously dumb.

Whenever I arrive at RIC, no matter the time of day, it rapidly turns into a ghost town after the bulk of passengers on my flight get their bags and get picked up. If it’s a late night arrival you can feel like you’re going to need to be the one who shuts off the lights and locks the door behind you when your ride shows up. It’s so quiet for a transportation hub. Also, speaking of hubs, we could have reliable, frequent, and easy public transportation between the airport and downtown, but nah…we aren’t gonna do that

the president's "air force one" comes here to practice takeoff and landing, once a year a big russian plane lands and fills up with cigarettes, it's a huge cargo port, but what you should write about is how the food selection is fucking terrible

Many have commented about the terrible food options, which is true, however RIC is not an airport where you’d generally have a layover. It’s either a beginning or final destination for most, so not a huge reason to hang around.

Plus, given that it’s small it takes less than 15 minutes to get from the parking deck to your gate, so there’s not a huge reason to arrive hours early.

The baggage issue is plausible. It’s small enough there aren’t usually a ton of Airline staff around. If the flight landed in the evening after 9 pm the chances of seeing any airline employee at baggage claim are basically nonexistent. I’m

RIC is a pretty damn good airport experience for the most parts but I have two gripes (that probably aren’t that interesting)

• the food options are terrible and it feels like Starbucks is the only option a lot of times. While that’s not the end of the world, they (apparently) don’t have the means to make half the normal menu, so you’ll order something and then they give you something else without mentioning it.
• the only bag issue I’ve had was one time we were stuck at the gate on the plane (IIRC), but the bags were taken off. Cause there’s so few baggage claims, our bags got taken to an AA office with glass full length windows. We could see our luggage in there, but there were no staff and basically all the American Airlines employees looked at each other for an hour until someone eventually opened the door. During that time there were about 12 of us waiting, and there was a solid variety of individuals - us (a younger couple), a young family trying to entertain their daughter by doing races up and down, a very angry white southern man who was cursing under his breath at everyone and slightly concerning, and then a business person who was having a very “business business business” conversation loudly on the phone. The most frustrating thing for us was that we were arriving home from our honeymoon, and had started our travel in Zimbabwe the day before. We were super happy to be home after 3 flights and 36 hours of flying, but looking through this window and seeing the only thing we needed to allow us to get home to bed and not being able to actually take it was like a massive welcome back to reality from the universe.

Anyways, not super interesting but seemed to fit what you were looking for

RIC is a nice little 2 terminal airport and all the employees are helpful and I have been using it for twenty years and have never had a gripe especially compared to BWI, IAD, etc. I guess you could complain about it being twenty minutes from downtown Richmond or not having a underground or tram to the downtown area?

The elevators in the parking deck are unreasonably warm. That’s about my only complaint I’ve ever had with the airport.

There is a great little 24 hour donut shop right down the road called Country Style Donuts, and if you have the time truly is a must. I used to work in music and anytime I picked up an artist I'd have a nice little assortment with me to welcome them.

RIC is probably the most stress-free airport in America. Might want to look for another source of conflict for your character.

If you’re going to write a book complaining about an airport, and you are passing through DFW, THAT is the airport you should be complaining about, not RIC.

The only thing that’s a drag about RIC airport is so few flights leave at the same time you often miss that big city airport stress of an hour plus queue at the security checkpoint.

Is his final stop Richmond?

A few notes of color:

-the food options suck. Outside the security it’s just like a Caribou Coffee and a Chili’s, I think.

-there’s a long wide hallway connecting the terminal to baggage claim. It’s very sterile and there’s not much decoration. You’ll see a few poster board advertisements along the wall but that’s about it

-it is not a big airport. Once the rest of your flight’s passengers clear out, it will feel very, very empty

Why RIC? Where is the character going?

fwiw, with the given story points, his baggage being lost is more on DFW airport than RIC, which absolutely tracks

they once misplaced my child when he was an unaccompanied minor

Really really easy airport. The only thing is a lack of food/bars. Which makes sense, because it's such an easy airport, you are either showing up and leaving, or landing and leaving

Its a really great regional airport. The only complication other than food availability is if your flight gets in super late it could be problematic. Once I picked up a friend. Flight was supposed to come in at 10:20 pm. Delays leaving the prior airport and they got in at 2 am. They got locked in. All of the picker uppers arrived to the exit gates shut and locked. Airport was empty. Several of us ran around until we found a janitor who had to make a call to TSA. The plane of very weary travellers had to stand at the gate waiting for them. They had to call the baggage handlers back in from home to unload the plane. After so many delays it was salt in the wound

If your character had to set off on foot things could get quite interesting on Williamsburg Road.

Flying in bad weather always made her nervous. Each bump was coupled with distant lightning strikes. Turbulence made her desperately fight by the urge to grab the hand of the passenger in the next seat. Little did she know that her plane was part of several holding outside of the airport waiting for a chance to land. When the sky cleared each one would touch down unleashing a torrent of checked bags on the two men responsible for unloading the planes. Perhaps if she flew another airline the nightmare would be over sooner, but in the confines of this banana bus the real storm was about to begin. The two men barely knew each other, but knew enough that liking each other was out of the question. Hours passed as they crawled on their knees into the bellies of the planes pulling bags, dropping them on a cart, and then undoing it a few feet later onto the conveyors. When the carousel finally stopped and the attendant pulled the last unclaimed bag for storage she took one last walk and knew… just knew… she would have to file a claim form.

When I land in RIC after 11PM there’s a 50/50 chance the ground crew /jet bridge will actually be ready for our arrival, I’ve sat on the tarmac for 30+ minutes after landing in an empty airport

If you really want to put someone in airport hell, I recommend EWR.

There is an Applebees that, when open (rare) has a great view of the runway. But it’s outside security, never open, and it’s a fucking Applebees.

One time I arrived a half hour before my flight was supposed to leave and the one woman in front of me in the security line proceeded to take out the most random things from her carry on bag… boxes of pancake mix. A large tub of Quaker Oats. Don’t worry - I still made it to my plane on time.

If your departing flight is delayed, you still need to show up at the regular time in the evening. Once I found my flight was delayed until after 9 pm, I arrived at 830 to find TSA security was already closed down. So I had to rebook for the next morning.

My favorite story from RIC: I stopped by the Chilis to kill an hour and have some food before a flight to Denver. I ordered some tacos, and asked the clearly bored bartender for some hot sauce. She hands over what I discovered to be a bottle of bitters after liberally shaking it on my food. Free drink with food, apparently!

The problem here is that every experience at RIC I have is pretty low stress compared to larger airports. I can usually get from parking to gates in 30 minutes. And we are starting to get more long direct routes like a direct Richmond to Denver flight that saves hours compared to a layover in DC or charlotte or just driving directly to DC and start from there.

Don’t mess with RIC. I get up at 9 for my my 10:30 am flight and I still have time for a coffee. They are doing their best. The airlines are the ones to blame.

Honestly getting to Richmond sucks but it has never been the airports fault. I might use the fact that everything just shuts off at a certain time. Not sure exactly but if planes are delayed coming in nothing is open from what I understand.

The player piano in the hallway to baggage claim is a bit creepy late at night.

I just think it's weird that the cheapest flights out of Richmond are to Boston.

Also for the longest time, there was no place to charge your phone near the baggage claim. I remember needing to get picked up and having my cell phone be totally dead.. so I had to sit on the floor over by the rental car areas so that I could charge my phone. It wasn't a charge zone for airport patrons.. it was like a place to plug in a vacuum cleaner or a floor polisher. it was very awkward.

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RIC is the best airport I’ve ever been to…

The folks running Caribou Coffee were super friendly and that was great - but I can never seem to find a newspaper for sale in the terminal. Plenty of bestsellers and even a Bluey coloring book, but no Richmond Times Dispatch. Best to hit a Wawa in town.

Honestly, RIC is a lovely local airport. Parking is cheap/efficient, and it’s pretty easy to fly in/out of. I don’t love that they don’t have a ton of convenient direct options, but that’s a personal issue.

Also as another user pointed out, there’s no food or retail after a certain point which can be frustrating when arriving or departing late at night.

-There" nothing"INTERNATIONAL" about it. Connections are a must for international travel -Seems like Chee Burger Chee Burger and Caribou Coffee have a 200 year lease with a no compete thus terrible choices for food etc -Bags take a long time

Nice thing about RIC is the TSA team. I accidentally dropped my ID at the TSA check point and didnt realize till I was checking in at my conference. I called RIC and talked to a TSA agent directly. He found my ID and fedex’d it to me next day (I paid for the shipping but he did the rest when he didnt have to). I will always be grateful for that.

I fly Auckland NZ to Houston to Richmond a lot & have never had any drama, Richmond Airport has never let me down! Infact once had my connecting flight out of Richmond canceled & the staff went above & beyond to find me another flight that would get me back to Houston in time to catch my NZ flight.

One gripe that could help your story is the time my bag got lost coming back from a trip.

Recently, it feels like all connecting flights into RIC arrive at midnight.

Due to the late arrival time, it was nearly impossible to track down an airline agent to help me with my list baggage.

I had to go upstairs to the departure desks and knock on a door behind the desks.

The 1am frustration was real.

Basically, the RIC airport is a bit of a ghost town after midnight.

As someone who travels a lot, Richmond is actually a nice and clean regional airport. Most people that fly into Richmond are just going to the Richmond area, or maybe Charlottesville.

I haven't flown into Norfolk, but maybe ask some people about that airport, maybe that's shittier so would lend better to the story of it being a bad experience?

Alternatively, the airports in DC are terrible IMO. Parking is expensive, takes forever to get through security, bags take forever. So I might use one of those airports instead of RIC as the location. Washington DC is about 90 minutes to Richmond and Norfolk is about the same so if I can't get a good flight out of Richmond (often when I fly to the west Coast, it's cheaper overall to fly out of one of the DC airports) and they have nonstop flights. 🤷

Good luck on the book, would love to read it when it's completed.

Sorry, only good experiences here. As a child I met a question writer from Jeopardy! at baggage claim and she took time to talk with us and answer questions about the show. Now I imagine I'll see her and her custom Jeopardy! luggage everytime I go to baggage claim

Also assuming your book is in modern day, the airline apps tend to have tracking on luggage. Your protagonist would know about the baggage much sooner than an hour, maybe before they even arrived in RIC.

idk RIC is fine. My only gripe is that it doesnt have all the direct flights I want.

Its a small airport so its not a headache to get through security and get to your gate. There's also no traffic coming from or to the airport.

eta: mostly I fly out of DCA or IAD or BWI instead because of the lack of direct flights + RIC costs more to fly out of

This is exceptionally minor, but at RIC the baggage claim belt runs from left to right. At pretty much every other airport in the US the belt run from right to left. I think it's to let locals get prime spots to get their bags as soon as they are offloaded, since most people unfamiliar with the airport will go stand on the right side. Perhaps you could have your character stand on the right side of the belt expecting to get his bags first, only to discover that he's in fact at the very end of the belt?

Yeah, RIC is honestly fine, and better than it use to be.

Spot on about the wait at the baggage - the plot twist of it being on the wrong flight got me! I have definitely waited 40 minutes to an hour for baggage at RIC on multiple occasions.

Commenting because I had this happen recently, but AA sent me an email and a text as soon as my plane got to the gate, telling me my bag wasn't going to arrive with me. In the end it did arrive in my flight, which makes it funnier, but I don't know if it's just for international flights that this alert system is in place. If it's for every flight, I don't see how one would be waiting for their bag while it's not there. Also, no complaints about RIC really. It's pretty nice. Long taxiing after landing, maybe?

I like leaving from RIC because of the lack of crowds.

Other than closing times, I have no complaints

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Try LaGuardia Airport, its well know for issues. I think JFK is the next closest large airport. A small airport like RIC just doesn't have many issues, won't be believable imo.

You didn't specify airport-related gripes. I've got a lot I could share!

Parking is easy. Food is terrible.

I've never had baggage lost at RIC but I worked at the Hudson News location in that airport for a while and spent quite a few 'lunch' breaks eating Fritos Honey BBQ Twists from the vending machine way down past all of the baggage claims. Sometimes with a Starbucks mocha energy drink, depending on the time of day and how many quarters I had in my pocket. The office where they deal with baggage issues is very small and sometimes, when lots of lost bags are being dealt with at once, they spill out of the office and the employees place stanchions around the pile of suitcases to corral them 'in'.

Actually, RIC is an excellent airport. The only thing I can complain about is it doesn’t have restaurants and shops like busier airports. The restaurants don’t stay open. It is very clean and one of the nicest for disabled as far as assistance. I prefer Richmond over Dulles any day. If you want a bad airport, write about Dulles.

I’d ask people on the internet bad things about DFW. RIC is a fairly good airport from what I’ve heard.

Worst thing about the airport is the tiny flimsy paper towels in the restrooms. Other than that as other have said it's the lack of food options, especially in the early morning and evenings. Otherwise it's one of my favorites, and I fly 60+ times a year so I know a thing or two about awful airports (looking at you O'Hare and JFK)

2 years ago the bar had a sign advertising a flaming hot cheetos bloody mary, with a crushed cheeto encrusted rim

I mean that is actually on AA not Richmond international. they don't hire the people dealing with your baggage, AA does.

Take what you will from this: I just landed at RIC at around 11:30 PM EST last night. It also happened to be an American Airlines flight.

The arrival was actually 30 minutes ahead of schedule which was nice. I didn’t know that was possible. Tail wind? Who knows.

I was just glad to be off the plane with 2 crying babies and the air pressure making my ears feel like an ice pick was being slowly inserted into my brain.

For what it’s worth, we flew from a 3 hour layover in Miami. Miami of course was big, busy and crowded. Getting off the plane in RIC was a major contrast.

Walking into RIC from a crowded plane late at night (or any time in the evening) can be eerie. Everything is closed and it’s just the small quiet crowd from one plane.

It’s a short walk down the hall, around the corner and down the escalator to baggage claim. You always beat the bags. It’s so odd that luggage takes so long to get from the plane to baggage claim.

There are 6 baggage claim areas. 3 to the left of the escalator and 3 to the right. AA from Miami was on the sign for bay 2, on the right.

Last night, the conveyor belt finally started rolling but after about 20 bags slowly came into view, the belt stops and everyone glances around at each other questioning yet not questioning.

If you’ve ever flown into Richmond you kind of know the bags take their time-if they arrive at all. Finally another belt starts up but it’s belt 1. The sign over number 1 changes to AA from Miami. Someone over the load speaker announces the change. I was exhausted but I’m pretty sure he said Miami baggage is now at claim 3? But only #1 is running and the sign clearly says Miami.

A few people grab their bags and walk away. Most of the crowd remains. Someone in a neon yellow vest with a “Piedmont” logo starts pulling bags off the belt and putting them on the floor. Nobody questions it. Instead, people slowly stagger like zombies closer to the bags being lined up near the conveyor belt.

It’s a bit of a mess. It’s hard to see the bags since everyone is clustered together near the slowly growing line of bags. It’s hard to tell how much time has passed but it feels like an eternity. After the crowd thins a bit I spot the neon green tag I put on my bag.

Finally time to head to the parking deck where I left my car. It’s on the second floor of the deck… or maybe it was the third? Eventually I’m on the road again. About $100 lighter from the week of parking fees. It’s now about 1:30 AM. 2 hours. Ironically, about the length of my flight from Miami.

It’s the most relaxed airport I’ve ever been in. Limited food options but I’ve never seen anyone in a rush there before

Last time I flew into RIC they started loading the next flight's checked bags onto the plane before they took our flight's bags off. Had to wait over an hour to get the bags because they had to take the next flight's bags back off first so they could get to ours.

It’s not 24hrs. The last flight in is between 11p and midnight. Nothing else arrives or leaves till like 5a.

Flying back to Richmond from the west coast, I have to catch a flight before 1p pst or I’ll never arrive same day. Fingers crossed there is no delay at the layover or just go ahead and get a hotel

Don’t fly out of RIC in icy weather. It has one de-icing machine. Worst part: They won’t delay your flight. You’ll board, back away from the gate and sit and sit and sit. Once I spent half a day waiting for our turn to get de-iced. We’re not much of a cold-weather city, and I’m certain the ground crew had very little practice de-icing planes.

Took an international flight into dc where my bags never made it to the connecting flight to RIC. The one thing that stood out to me was the small little office space the airline had for bag issues and the pile of unclaimed luggage that had accumulated just sitting in front of the office unsupervised and not secured. Any rando could have had their pick of free luggage that day.

I’ve never had too many problems with RIC. I will say that the airport is so small that TSA is sometimes straight up closed before really early morning flights. Or they’ll only have one line open, so it gets backed up VERY easily.

RIC is pretty nice as far as airports go. I’d never been on a plane or traveled anywhere alone before in my life, but I had to go on a work trip to SMF with a layover at DFW. Everyone at RIC was super helpful and understanding that I had no clue what I was doing. One of the employees explained everything to me and showed me on the map where to go. DFW was a nightmare, I got lost, and almost missed my connecting flight.

I had a brand new suitcase that was absolutely torn to shreds by AA though, that was pretty annoying. My main gripe-luggage wise was I had an AirTag in my checked bag that didn’t seem to work at RIC, but I was able to track it’s exact location at both DFW and SMF. It was odd.