One other thing we’ve discovered on our last couple of trips through airports with smoking lounges….
While lighters are contraband and supposed to be confiscated, we’ve actually carried a lighter through security the last five times we’ve tried (and we’ve probably now jinxed that, having mentioned it) just by tucking it into the pocket of our laptop case.
The reason that’s worth mentioning here, is because a lighter is a “welcome novelty” to lots of folks in a smoking lounge – including the cute women, who (if they see it) almost invariably come over to ask for a light, and ask “how did you get to keep that?”
A nice conversation starter, if you get our drift……

Ah yes, the St. Louis Airport.
We really didn’t expect to see glass-enclosed smoking lounges there, but were pleasantly surprised.
The traffic through the lounges wasn’t as heavy as we’ve seen at some other places, perhaps because it’s primarily a hub, and most stop-overs there are pretty short.
But since we were stuck there while the Northeast was closed down for a number of hours, we saw more than the number of “New York” types than we’d expect.
Among the best…
A tall, well-dressed, mid 20s blonde who we could only describe as a “society type,” who reached into what we think was a Gucci purse and actually pulled out a pack of Virginia Slims 120s, lit up with a match (which looked a bit incongruous, but those who like to see match light-ups should definitely spend some time in airport smoking lounges now that lighters are supposed contraband ) and took very deep yet delicate-looking inhales, followed by exaggerated cones above her head – exactly what we would have expected, given her looks.
Two college girls (not gorgeous, but cute in a scruffy way) in jeans, t-shirts and parkas, who settled in and had three cigarettes each over the course of 30 minutes; one smoked Marlboros (in a hard pack) and the other, who after bumming a couple of Marlboros said “I need one of my own” and pulled out a packet of Drum and rolled her own. Decent inhales, but lots of talking exhales and nice smoke rings from each of the girls a few times.
And a tiny black girl in fatigues who had just finished basic training, who took huge drags from Newport shorts (she had two of them), half the time with really nice snaps.
All in all, not a bad few hours