Like any time-contentious traveler, I have at least an hour of downtime before my flight begins boarding. When I’m traveling with my family, waiting time seems to go by even more slowly. On my last vacation with my family, we had a two hour layover. Normally we play a card game, but unfortunately, we (cough, cough—my dad) had forgotten to bring a deck of cards. Luckily, my sister came up with some gate games to keep us busy. Try one of these simple games I’ve Southwest-ified the next time you’re waiting to board.
I Find, I Fly
Airports are extremely busy places, especially during the summer. You will see varieties of travelers, suitcases, Employees… the list goes on! See how many of these things you can find before you fly!
- Brightly colored suitcase
- Passenger with a pet
- Pilot
- Southwest airplane with a wifi dome
- Passenger with a flip phone
- Southwest Employee badge
- Musical instrument or instrument case
- Southwest airplane with Split Scimitar winglets
- Re-usable water bottle
- Passenger using a blanket
- Restroom sign
- Southwest Flight Attendant
- Passenger using two kinds of electronic devices
- Weather status monitor
- Passenger sleeping
- The number four
- Orange Safety vest
AIR / FARE
I may not be a math genius, but this counting game is a ton of FUN! Start by creating some sort of order with Fellow Passengers—who will go first? Second? The person starting the game starts by saying, “One.” The second person says, “Two,” and so on in the set order. On multiples of five (five, ten, 15, 20, etc.) the player must say “Air” instead of the number, and on multiples of seven (seven, 14, 21, etc.), the player must say “Fare.” When this happens, the rotation switches directions. If someone incorrectly says “Air” or “Fare,” doesn’t switch directions, or says the wrong number, you must start counting from the beginning. Give it a try! You’ll be surprised on how quickly Air and Fare become a little tricky to keep straight.
Example: One, Two, Three, Four, AIR, Six, FARE, Eight, Nine, AIR…
Airport Ticket Takeoff
As I’ve mentioned, there are a variety of things to be seen at the airport. So much goes into the aviation industry; you could never know all of it. This game will make you search high and low for airline related words! To play, one player starts by naming an airline-related word, like Airport. Then since the word ends in a T, the second player must say an airline-related word beginning with T, like Ticket. Similar to Air / Fare, the players take turns in a specific order adding words to the list. The goal is to keep the list going as long as possible without repeating answers. Good luck!
Example: Airport, Ticket, Time, Employee…
Fuselage
Speaking of airplane words, fuselage is a funky word that average travelers may not hear so often. This game is simple. Players aren’t allowed to show their teeth, and each player takes a turn saying, “Fuselage.” It’s harder than it seems. The longer you concentrate on not showing your teeth the funnier the word fuselage seems. If a player shows their teeth, he or she is then disqualified from the round. The goal is to be the last Passenger to show his or her teeth. Want to know a tip? Become more and more animated as the round goes on, and it’ll be harder for other players to stay focused on not showing their teeth!
We’re always looking to share some LUV with our Customers. Check out our post on
Games of LUV! Have some gate games of you own? Share them with us by commenting below!
