Airport Hookups
September 25, 2008 
14 Comments
I am sitting in the lounge at heathrow waiting to head home and I was thinking.
I have never written a blog about how to meet women in an airport? It’s very simple.
First of all, airports are places that women go to connect to other places, right? If you think about the psychology of the airport, about half the time you’re traveling for business, and the other half you’re traveling for pleasure. But 100% of the time you want it to be pleasure.
So if I see a woman standing in line at Starbucks – because there is basically a Starbucks in every single airport – I would just say to her, “so, where are you heading to?”
She might respond, “well, I’m heading to San Francisco.” I can ask, “really, do you live there?” She says, “no, I’m just going on business.”
Then you can say, “alright, so we’re in an airport. If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be?” If someone is just going for a business trip, it’s not that big of a deal. They might be going to a great city, but if they are there on business, they probably won’t be able to see much of it.
But if you can get someone to talk in fantasy-mode – if you can get them to talk about where they really want to go – then the conversation can be more fun.
For instance, if the woman says, “oh, I’d much rather go to Italy,” you can ask, “why Italy? What about Italy? Where in Italy?” If you’ve been to Italy, you can contribute something to the conversation and you can have a conversation about where you want to visit and where you’ve been.
It’s fun. You’re also getting someone out of that whole “oh my god, I can’t believe…” zone. “I can’t believe I have to go on this business trip.” You’re getting her to think about things and talk about things that are pleasurable. You’re talking about things that are fun.
If you’re looking up at the flight departures/arrivals board you can do the same thing. Look at her and say, “where are you heading to?” She answers, “oh, I’m heading to Iowa.” You ask, “okay, if you had to pick any place on this whole board, where would you go and why?” And you say it with a really big smile.
That’s how you start conversations in the airport. Make it fun, make it quick, and just be different! You can find out so much about someone when you do it in this way. Not only that, you’ll be able to find out where they live, where they are going – and who knows? Maybe they are from your hometown but are heading off for vacation, and you can have dinner with them when they return
Or maybe they are heading to the same place you are, and you have a date as soon as the plane touches down!
So what about on the plane? Particularly if you’re not sitting next to them?
It’s really the same thing on the plane. You take an inventory of where they are sitting, and then when you get up to use the restroom, you smile at them as you walk by. She’s probably totally bored on the plane, and she sees you smiling at her, and then the next time you pass by to go to the bathroom, just smile at her again and ask, “how’s the flight?” Or you could say, “oh man, you are so lucky you’re sitting back here right now, I’ve got the kid kickers behind me! You wanna switch?”
I’ve done that. Or sometimes I’ll walk over and I’ll look at her and say, “are the flight attendants treating you as well as they’re treating me? Because I’m sitting up front.” I’ll play around with it, and have a good time.
Those things work every single time on an airplane. You don’t need any more. Those are just simple ways to approach.
Now what if you see people in the concierge part of the airport – not near the gates, would you still just approach them and say, “where are you heading to?”
Why not? “Where are you heading to?” Let’s say you’re sitting in the lounge, waiting to take off and the woman in there is cute. You can stand next to her and say, “going home, or going on vacation?” If she’s on your flight, you’ve already made contact ahead of time. “Going home, or going on vacation?” That’s how you do that.
Let’s say you’re walking around, killing two hours in the airport between connecting flights. You see a woman sitting in an area that implies she’s going to San Francisco, and you’re going to Los Angeles. You go over there and sit down next to her and ask, “wait, is this the flight to LA?” She’ll say, “no, it’s to San Francisco,” and then you can say, “oh man, I am so tired from traveling,” and then share your story with her.
“Man, I’m so tired right now, I’ve been on business trips all week long, and you know what? San Francisco sounds much better than going to LA on business anyway! Are you from San Fran?” You have her laughing and you’ve shared a little bit of a story. What happens next? You start communicating with her.
If you’re in a bookstore – I’ve done this a lot as well – and you see a woman with magazines, you can say, “oh, People magazine – you must have a long flight! Where are you heading to?” That’s it. You don’t have to be so funny.
As I am writing this I am being chatted up by Alan a business traveler who has been making me read this whole thing to him and he has a question.
Go ahead Alan ask away.
Alan…… Right, you can get in a funny line a couple of minutes down the road, but I like to have a good, funny line to open, and that’s where I’m thinking and not acting. And it’s like the three-second rule – I’m sitting there waiting, and then it’s almost creepy when you wait too long!
David: Yeah, you’ve waited way too long and things are not going well. And the fact is, once again, this should all be based on observations. You’re not doing anything that is so earth shattering; you’re just getting inside her head. It goes to the whole theory of becoming a natural at doing this.
You’re not walking over there saying, “let me ask your opinion, do you like 747s better or 767s?” You’re not breaking her train of thought. The reason why so many guys mess up, when it comes down to it, is that you’re pulling her out of her train of thought. You don’t want to do this.
When you pull someone out of their train of thought, you’re inevitably going to crash and burn. She’s not going to be thinking about what you just said. You’re trying to make her think on an entirely different wavelength.
By opening her with observations, you’re getting her to think on the same wavelength of what she’s already thinking about.
So there you have it in airports!
And Alan as you asked me what I was working on to strike up this last part of my blog, you can do the same with women!!
Wow David You did it again!!
You just want to make it easy for me to see it. It is just so simple! Just go and observe and talk about what I am observing in the here and now. I must break out of my shell and just do it. Damn that Nike cliche. I agree with what you say but I must make a LARGE EFFORT to think out of the BOX. It all starts w/ me. I must stop being such a wussy and talk to more ladies. Must stop the excuses and the Monkey Chatter in the brain.
Thanks again!!! For showing me the incredably obvious way to be.
I used to do a lot of business travel and missed many opportunities at airports. My excuse was “well she’s going somewhere else and I’ll never have a chance to see her again, so why bother”. That’s some BS and is just and excuse. I’ve fundamentally changed the way I look at things and now see it as an opportunity. If she’s going to the same place I’m going then maybe there is a chance for a date, if she’s going somewhere else maybe I can make a friend in a place I don’t have any friends yet. Maybe it will give me an excuse to travel to that place, or maybe I’ll be going there for some other reason coincidentally and it will give me someone to show me around. The worst case scenario is that she’s jet lagged and doesn’t feel like talking, that’s cool I’ll respect that and move on. Nothing lost nothing gained.
I guess that’s my long winded way of saying right on David! We need to look for reasons to act and make things happen, rather than excuses to not act and let life pass us by.
Great advice as always…
I do have an issue with this one:
“are the flight attendants treating you as well as they’re treating me? Because I’m sitting up front.”
As a person who usually gets upgraded to first class I would not try that to a person sitting in coach. Why? You either get someone who is really pissed off at these elite flyers who get the cushy seats with the free food and drinks and pampering (even the little that is left nowadays) and who may take this the wrong way OR you happen to talk to an elite flyer who just missed on the upgrade and thinks that you are the asshole who stole it from her! Besides, why are you going back over there, don’t you use the first class bathroom?
Great advice once again David! I’m going to refer to this blog the next time I get the opportunity to travel.
Dan
You are over thinking.
I do not think about what others think and how they will react. I smile stay open and never once have engaged the asshole who is all pissed off that I bumped them out of first.
As always stop thinking and worrying about what others may or may not be thinking here.
Plus when i am in first i will never go back to coach..i am too busy sleeping.
I will venture back when i get the first row of exits in coach.
I just got home and i must say the 11 hours in business is far more fun.
Ok who is pissed off now:)
And you are right that coach bathroom is nasty!!!!
ya, you can really get into a vacation-mentality at the airport. You will never see the people again, so why not just be fun? its really so easy.
I’ve had some great moments in airports. This stuff really works. People are friendly if you are friendly yourself.
Great long blog david.
Glad to see you made it home safely David. Mus’a be a herra good time in Eengrand.
David:
Ok, I thought you were in first and then you were coming out and walking back to coach and messed with people…Don’t rub it in.
Once you go first/business, you never go back:-)
Good observation on the overthinking part!
This was an excellent blog for me since my hobby is flying around on a moment’s notice just for the fun of it and the ….miles of course:-)
Dan
I always try to read between the lines!!!
That was great advice even for women to try too! I love how you always say to just talk, it doesn’t have to be funny! I have definitely been applying this lately…I opened the hottie UPS guy the other day & we shared some small talk – it was great! Hope we’ll have some more packages soon
See, this is really good. Unfortunately, I haven’t been in a plane in years.
BUT, this is just one of the many examples that can be used when at a specific venue.
And this is why David is the man. Like me, he loves to generate conversation based on the obviousness of the situation. I mean, there’s nothing better than stating something obvious. It’s a sure thing, every time. And in the airport, I can see how the mind can get lost. What a way to make someone’s day than to strike up a conversation that can make them smile and think about their fantasies.
Great stuff.
I do plan on traveling more in the future, though.
This is brilliant ! It’s no wonder I have not heard success stories on airport-hookups. When you account for the amount of people bustling and meshed together in one location, your chances of success are increased exponentially. I believe that where women are ,that’s where we as men need to be! And of course the more of them the more incentive there ought to be for us as men to move our asses. There is no place on earth that a man cannot capture his damsel, but there are, however spots that are more logical to do so. Internet-dating and night-clubs ,you as the single are are really playing “the numbers” largely because of the context of the location. Women are expecting to be picked-up that would not be the conscious state of mind in a congested-melting pot of flesh that is LAX. I think Friday I may just park my car at my local airport ,grab a starbucks and see what takes off for me!
Kyle
Sooo many hours spent in airports and so many missed opportunities to strike up a conversation. Now I’m depressed!
Oh well, got a trip to Vegas coming up in a month. I’ll be putting this advice to work!
David, I actually met my wife doing this. Just proof that it works.