I was wrong again - you CAN sleep at Ontario Airport

I get a perverse pleasure out of revisiting my many Jim Bakker moments, in which I said something that turned out to be completely and totally wrong.

About three years ago, I wrote a post on the adventures of one Glenn Campbell, who arrived at Ontario Airport late at night, with no flight out until the next morning.

He had only been to Ontario Airport once before, but he surmised (correctly) that he wouldn't be able to sleep at the airport itself.

This is how Campbell put it:

I had been to the Ontario airport only once before, when I flew in three days earlier. (I was heading to Vegas but chose Ontario for a cheaper rental car.) Ontario is a small airport where the secure area probably closes at night. If the baggage claim area remained open and I was allowed to stay there, I would be sleeping on relatively hard seats with fixed armrests, giving me no opportunity to lie down. Even if the floor was carpeted (which I can't recall), I knew from experience that it would be too hard to sleep on. I could “survive” in the baggage claim area if I had to, but I wouldn’t get a good night's sleep there.

So what did Campbell do? He spent $15 on a sleeping bag and slept out in a field near the airport.

According to the people at "The Guide to Sleeping in Airports," he spent $15 too much. According to reports, you CAN sleep at Ontario Airport.

Or at least you could when Mahari wrote this in December 2005:

Was redirected to Ontario from a late flight leaving from Atlanta going into San Diego because of a thick fog that rolled and planes couldn't land there....Get to the terminal shortly after 11pm and all the stores were closed, amongst all the confusion, everyone was directed to report to the check-in counters for statuses about leaving the next morning. After receiving my information, I got comfortable in a set of chairs with arm rests and set my laptop up. Got bored with the laptop after 2 hours and tried to get some sleep. This at first was nearly impossible because of all the commotion of disgruntled passengers, but by four in the morning, I was able to fall asleep with my bags snug between my legs, laptop in my lap. The only background noise you really had to worry about were the constant security announcements, but other than that it was straight!

I can't tell if Mahari stayed on the lower level after receiving the information, or if Mahari went through security and slept upstairs. However, it sounds like it can be done.

Another reviewer, Lydia, stated that "the seats have armrests, but the airline employees are generally very nice, and the security will ignore you totally."

So if you ever need to try this out...it's better than a field. I guess.

(Of course, now I expect to hear from the hotel folks.)