A different winter coat question

Well, I have done both the leave them in the car thing and the take them with thing.

The last time I took my coat with me it was flying from Idaho to AZ in the winter. On the way back it was hot as heck in Tucson so I packed my coat and checked my bag. Unfortunately my home airport was fogged in for 3 days with all flights in/out cancelled so I wound up spending 2 nights in Salt Lake City, coatless because it was in my checked bag which was not available. I bought a coat at the airport.

Well, one can always use another Columbia fleece, can't they?

Lesson learned. In winter I will always carry my coat even when going to a warm climate.

How often are you moving on your tour? I MIGHT consider leaving a heavy coat in the trunk of the car (stashed before you get to the airport parking area) and just taking something like a packable puffy to have something when you get back.

editing to add: In winter I always keep an old coat and a blanket in the trunk anyway. Years ago on the way to work a friend came across a woman who had slid off an icy highway. She was unhurt but was standing on the side of the road in the snow without a jacket waiting for her husband. The person was "just running an errand", was not planning to get out of the car and had left her coat at home. My friend gave her her jacket (which the lady returned a few days later) and from that time on we both have added jackets and blankets that can be given away to our winter "kit". And that has reminded me to dig my "giveaway" jacket out of the closet and put it in the back of the car!

Minnesotan, here. Even when we go to a warm/hot destination during MN winter, we still will bring a raincoat and a lightweight fleece pullover. Often, I'll also have a long sleeved performance type fabric top. So, if we do not have a ride to the airport, we will wear all our layers and stash in our luggage when we arrive to the airport. I usually will also have a lightweight pair of pants for hiking, and leggings, so I suppose if necessary, I could slip on the leggings and the pants.

If we happen to have a ride to the airport, we'll leave the winter coats with our driver.

My daughter goes to grad school in Honolulu. She does not keep a winter coat there. We will typically bring a coat with us to the airport when we pick her up. There have been a couple times when the weather was brutal and just getting from the airport door to the car was painful.

I would think the airport parking would be fairly secure and if hidden in the trunk, probably not worth a thief's time to break in when they have no idea what they'd find. Park under a light in a more central location.

If you really think trunk theft is a possibility, you could store at the airport in a locker maybe? I’d go the trunk route.

I wouldn't think twice about leaving a coat in a car. If somebody was desperate enough to steal a coat they are welcome to take it.

I once forgot to take off my maxi wool coat before I jumped on the airport shuttle and ended up taking it on vacation to Puerto Vallarta. On the other hand, my husband has left home without his winter jacket. Of course that was the time our battery was dead when we got back to the hotel park and fly lot, and he was a bit cold while shoveling out the car and getting the car jumped.

If we remember, we leave them in the car. We live 180 miles from the airport, and we always travel with a few blankets, gloves, and hats in the storage area of the car. Our friends did have their car stolen while parked at the Toronto airport, but we've never had our car even broken into in Minnesota.

< DH suggested leaving them in the trunk of the car once we get to the airport parking lot, but I'm concerned about possible theft.

If they are in a trunk out of sight, why would someone break in on the off chance of finding something? If that is your concern, I would be more worried about the car being stolen or vandalized than a missing coat.

From the replies it seems that I'm just over thinking things. Which is par for the course when I'm trip planning. We will plan on just leaving our coats ( and boots, gloves and hats) in the trunk of the car. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Who doesn't overthink on occasion? 😁

We leave them in the car, too.

It's kind of a ritual now to strip down in the car and do the mad dash from the garage to the terminal, which is an outside run across the street. The moment we arrive in the warm, heated terminal, vacation has started!

On the other hand, we are always very, very sad on the way home when we leave the warm terminal and do the mad dash back to the freezing cold car.... vacation definitely over.

The airport in my city offers a coat check service during the winter for exactly this kind of scenario. Check with your airport information staff for something similar.

That is fascinating, Brenda ! Who knew !! Great piece of advice.

Brenda, Toronto YYZ, offered that service at one time. I even used it one year. But it's gone. Too bad, because it was really convenient.

I have been known to take a heavy pillowcase and stuff it with my heavy coat and use it as a neck pillow attached to the outside of my suitcase while traveling. But I’d be more likely to leave it in the trunk…..

Another Minnesotan here. I usually take the airport shuttle to the airport as I live around 170 miles away, so I don't have a trunk to leave my coat in. What I do when I go to Florida every winter to visit my brother is to just bring along a lighter weight coat that I can wear to the airport and then shove it in a pouch someplace in my bag and forget about it. The 32-Degree lightweight down jackets are good for that. They keep me pretty warm short of 20 degrees below zero. In that case, I would probably get a locker at the airport and leave it there.

Pam, that’s a wonderful story! I usually have jackets in my trunk mainly because I’m too lazy to bring them in and hang them up, but now I will think of them as potential jackets for stranded motorists. Thank you!

When we went to Hawaii in the winter, we wore our coats until we arrived at airport parking. When we flew back home, we had that initial cold adjustment racing from the airport to our car parked and warming up again with the heat on. And a coat left in a cold car takes a while to warm up again!

And a coat left in a cold car takes a while to warm up again.

A way to a quicker warm up is to leave the car with the heated seats at the airport.

I live in NYC and don't have a car. (I know this is pretty uncommon in most of the rest of the country, but if you take a cab / shuttle / rideshare to the airport you'll be in the same situation as me.)

So that's to say there's no "leave in the car" option for me! Either I take it with me all the way or I don't take it at all.

I used to just risk it and travel without it (i.e. just suck it up as I run to/from the subway, since NYC by northern US/Canadian standards is not that cold, bar unusual cold spells). But then I had a bad experience where I got caught by flight delays in my cold-weather layover city with no coat -- I would have left the airport to do something, but it didn't feel safe because I literally just had a sweatshirt. So I always travel with one now.

What I do is always take a down jacket, the kind that can be compressed into a small amount of space. I try not to keep it compressed for the whole trip, but I find this to be an acceptable compromise space-wise and a safety backup in case I end up being rerouted or delayed.

And a coat left in a cold car takes a while to warm up again!

Isn't that the truth! DH says he found a great discount with CAA, so we now have a space at the valet parking lot at the airport. They will clear the snow and scrape the frost off the windows and bring the car to the pick up area. And our seat warmers come on automatically when it's cold enough. So, fingers crossed, it should be easy.