Airports that Suck !!

[bvanant 190]

I "forgot" to check in my dive knife at MIA 15 years ago..my how I laughed when they opened my bag and pulled out a solid 8 inches! Its still a miserable airport tho.

 

Least fave airports - Mumbai and Heathrow (yes..I put them in the same category, not least because whenever I'd transfer thru LHR they'd *always* lose the bag - I had a girlfriend who worked for BA in Asia and she swore that LHR was the worst baggage offender, corroborated by her friends who worked for TG, CX, etc).

 

We are spoiled here in Asia for good airports -KLIA, Changi (although its pretty old and 2nd division now compared with most others), Incheon, Chep Lap Kok, Subvarnabhumi.... Sydney is pretty poor though as the gateway to Oz...only place I've seen two unfortunate buggers die of heart attacks while waiting for their luggage after (presumably) long haul flights in economy - err correction - saw the same in Houston last year. Sad, but true.

LAX gets my vote, although I agree with Cor that Heathrow is up there. LAX might be a great place to connect from, good food in some terminals but if you live here and want to go to the Pacific it is a nightmare. Very long lines at the counter, then you turn around and get in an even longer line for baggage x-ray that is right out in the middle of the terminal. Usually only one x-ray line is open and the TSA guys really don't care about doing their job.

 

Bill

[SimonSpear 65]

I'll stick up for Heathrow - or at least I'll stick up for T5. I've been through there 7 or 8 times now since it opened and it has been a pleasant experience every time, even if you can't get into the BA lounges (which are very very nice if you can). I can't stick up for T1 or T2 though as they suck and deserve to be demolished, which is pretty much what's going to happen to anyway.

 

As for worst airports? MIA, JFK, CAI all spring to mind. I think MIA and JFK would be ok if they sacked everyone who worked there and replaced them with people who can actually talk to customers without resorting to snarls. CAI on the other hand is just downright nasty. In Europe Paris CDG is just an awful horrible place and to be avoided if at all possible. It amazes me that people slate Heathrow and never seem to mention CDG which is far worse.

 

Best airport ever? Koh Samui. Oh what a joy it would be if all airports were like that..

 

Cheers, Simon

[Drew 0]

So what criteria are we bitching about anyways?

Lost/stolen luggage? LAX is tops by miles. I've lost loads of stuff (housings, lenses, suits, shoes) over the years of flying out of there. I think it's still ranked as number 1 by TSA for most claims for lost/stolen/damaged luggage. It got seriously worse after 9/11.

[Giles 1]

There is no criteria Drew, It was just an idea to share your least liked airports and say why. Everyone travels differently so different things affect different people.

 

I can't say lost or stolen luggage has ever been an issue for me, touch wood, but some airports win just due to the way they were designed and the way they are used.

 

USA has a huge problem with security, it's just shockingly laborious, and that is highlighted in MIA for me as I use it the most, NYC in general is ok with it's security techniques. But JFK sucks as all the damn shops close at 5pm so you can't even get a drink if you are laid over for a few hours. Oh but there is a vending machine for ipods and PSP's .. oh so very usefull!

[biminitwist 3]

Living in Ft Lauderdale we have flown out of MIA a few times and it was always an adventure. Last time we were told they had to wrap our checked on bags in plastic wrap to ensure no one opened them and oh it was $5 a bag to do so, hand it over. Next week my wife and I are flying Continental to LAX (mercifully from Lauderdale). Because Air Pacific cancelled our original flight, Continental moved our flights up to the first flights of the day for the new date. This will give us an 11 hour layover in LAX prior to our AP flight to Nadi. That should be plenty of time to recover our luggage (God willing). We were thinking of paying to hang out at the American Lounge till we rechecked our bags with Air Pacific. Would welcome any advice. LAX sounds bad. Great thread. John

Edited June 1, 2009 by biminitwist

[AllisonFinch 7]

My airport from hell is Brisbane in Australia!! The building is beautiful, but the people who check you through to either PNG or Indonesia are like pitbulls with hemorrhoids!! EVERY, and I mean EVERY time I fly through there they give me problems with my baggage and photogear. The even confiscate questionable small photo tools.

[eyu 27]

I agree, traveling through Cairns and Brisbane, Australia SUCKS. The security personnel must be trained by the Gestapo. They tear your camera equipment apart and make you pay extra baggage charges if your carry-on is over 7 kg.

[RedSeaDiver 0]

MIA - never got to experience too much of it as immigration decided to arrest me the one time I was stupid enough to transit through there - eventually after five hours they put me on to my connecting flight.

 

The old Cairo terminal was right up there on the terrible list - I used to compare flying out of there to the fall of Saigon. Certainly you gave a big sigh of relief when your plane finally took off.

[oneyellowtang 95]

Flown through almost every airport in India multiple times (for work) - all have challenges for domestic, and international isn't much better - however, there is absolutely NOTHING in the world that compares to the experience of landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at 1AM and have the masses of humanity press in on you when you step outside. It's unmatched...

 

How about the airport that is never used?

 

Christmas Island (Kiribati) has two airports (airport is misleading - these are nothing but landing strips) - the one the US built is used for the weekly flights (when they fly), but the one w/the larger runway (on the other side of the island) built by the British is right in the migratory path of the Boobies - they nest, mate, and shit all over the runway... 0,000's of birds... all day long (the runway has been unused for decades).

 

I agree Changi in Singapore is great (how about for the fact they encourage that you venture out to shop or go eat black pepper crab on even a short stopover). KLIA is an empty husk - it's a Changi wanna-be... HK is nice, although the old airport had so much character... surprisingly disappointing - the airport in Dubai - they could have done so much better.

 

For kicks - who remembers the old Chuuk or Pohnpei airports? Buzzing the coral runway in a 727 to scare the animals off in Chuuk was always fun, and Pohnpei was just a shack (and no way of telling when the plane was coming... and sometimes it didn't... for days if the weather in Tokyo was bad).

[tdpriest 115]

LAX is definitely brutal on many fronts...

 

LAX gets my vote: what possible excuses can there be for an American airport to be so bad?

 

I had to sleep on a pavement outside Honolulu airport on the way back from Bikini, as the airport closed between one flight and the next...

 

Port Sudan is pretty fundamental, but the random timetable of Sudan Air makes it really special.

 

Tim

 

[tdpriest 115]

Hurghada is an interesting experience...

 

Hurghada is fantastic... you should have seen it in the old days, when it was a hot shed (the queues probably started in 1995, and haven't cleared yet) and the visa counter looked like a game of American football!

 

Tim

 

[Don in Colorado 2]

Although Grand Cayman is not a bad airport, I'll never understand why they have to set off a fog horn 10 times before they make any announcement on their PA system. I guess the airport manager must be deaf. ( He or she certainly must be by now )

[davehicks 99]

The toilets in the Manila airport don't have seats!

 

Need I say more?

 

Dave

[ErolE 3]

How many votes for Brisbane.

 

Your regular transfer from international to domestic terminal usually runs something like this

 

Exit international terminal air conditioning cool, calm and collected. Push your trolley the 200 or so meter until you get to the transfer train station. Except some bastard has lined the entry to the station with airport equivalent of the maginot linee. Pick up kits bag, judging by the weight, some kindly soul has deposited a corpse in one of them. Walk remaining 20m to pay booth. Begin to sweat. Pay the eye gouging 7 dollar fare for the 5 min ride to the domestic terminal. Continuing sweating begin cursing.

 

Drag corpse to platform. Look at schedule. Next train to arrives in......45 mins. Thank you God. Make quick mental calculations 3 hours for transfer. Subtract 30 mins to clear immigration, 20 mins to pick up bags, 1 hours to reassure dept of agriculture that boxer shorts weren t harbouring the elbola virus, 45 min for train.......I am going to miss my check in.

 

Swear and sweat some more. Decisive action needed. Pick up corpse. Drag through Maginot line and along walkway (all the trolleys gone). Sweat now running through arse checks and down leg. Get to taxi rank. Develop nervous tick.

 

Collar a cab. Get in tell cabbie destination. Be sure to buckle in first, so as to with stand the torrent of abuse you will soon experience. Nod and smile whilst digesting stories about mothers sexual proclivity. Gather that having waited in line for 1 hour cabbie is not overly impressed by 12 dollar fare.

 

Arrive at domestic terminal. Be sure to retrieve baggage before you pay, reducing possibility of cab departing in clud of burnt rubber complete with your bags and now dismembered right arm which was caught in boot.

 

Drag corpse into concourse. Wipe sweet out of eyes long enough focus on departure screen. Realize crappy Jetstar/Virgin Blue Flight delayed 2 hours. Develop hernia as you attempt to throw corpse across departure concourse.

[Deep6 7]

Wow! What a great chance to vent. I lived in Dallas for most of my life, so I flew out of DFW. Very nicely organized; almost like 5 small terminals. One can change terminals and still remain behind security. Now it is Ohare. Oy! Oy! Oy! Crowed with a miserably long queue to serve all terminals. Five years ago our flight from DFW to ORD was to begin early in the morning of the day before Thanksgiving. We landed at ORD at approximately 22:00 and stayed on the tarmac for 7 more hours. In any kind of heavy weather, ORD is at best delayed or sometimes shut down. To get to the air port it is best to hire a cabbie who is training for the joust at Medieval Times.

 

T5 at Heathrow seems to be quarantined from the rest of the airport. One lands at one terminal and has to be bused to the next and reenter security. LAX has the same rechecking through security when changing terminals. Also, it is very ratty compared to HKG, SIN, or NRT. What must our visitors from the east think? Thankfully, I have been spared MIA for many years now.

 

I can not really knock smaller airports like Barbados which is more causally run. Show up and hour and a half before an early morning flight to St. Vic. and there is no one there until about 30 minutes before departure. No worries!

 

Bob

[secretsea18 0]

The toilets in the Manila airport don't have seats!

 

Need I say more?

 

Dave

 

There are no toilet seats on any of the toilets in most of the Philippines, nor is there much in the way of TP in the stalls either. Bring either a seat cover, or lots of tissues.

[Natalie_S 1]

I must say that the ladies' room toilets in the arrivals area of the Sorong airport were the worst I've ever seen. Shades of the 'worst toilet in the world' scene in Trainspotting. I took one look and walked right back out!

[scubamarli 5]

How many votes for Brisbane.

I'm sure that I $%ched about Brisbane before. If not, the accusation that (loudly) and to my horror, that if I was overweight with my carry on (by 2 pounds) that I would, if my luggage fell out of the overhead, (this was the loud part to all in a mile vicinity) "You are going to kill a BABY!!", made Brisie, a lovely city, decline in my opinion. I really liked it there, save for the airport Nazis. The looks I got were, let's just say it might have been better if I was a convicted axe murderer. Rather intimidating. I admire Sir Branson. This time legs and blond hair obviously superceded intellect. I hope that she's not working on the space flight. He may have to issue refunds, if she is not tossed out of an airlock.

Cheers, all,

You just need to take up cold water...our airport is pretty great. Not quite as good as Singapore, but close.

Cheers,

Marli..the almost baby killer!!!! Arrgghh!

Edited December 11, 2009 by scubamarli

[BigJeff 11]

Ah, none of you have experienced the joys of Pointe Noire Airport (Republic of the Congo) in the 90's.

 

On arrival your passport containing perfectly valid visa is confiscated, to be collected the following day "for a fee".

If you don't have a Yellow Fever Certificate they have a well used needle filled with something, unless you buy a certificate "for a fee".

 

On departure you need a bulldozer to get through the huge crowd all trying to get into the airport without tickets, and once inside the nice customs man will demand you give him something (in my case he wanted my belt) in exchange for being allowed to leave the country.

 

As for facilities, some things are best not mentioned.

 

Some people wonder why it's not on the tourist map!

[Mike L 0]

Mexico City has my vote. Ive been through it too many times, and every time is a hassle with cameras! They wanted to confiscate my regular AA batteries the last time!

[Simon Rogerson 0]

Miami for the killer combination of stupidity and unpleasantness.

 

LAX for the complete lack of taxis.

 

Port Sudan for making life as difficult as possible, plus the stifling heat, physical bullying and racism.

 

My current bugbear is airports that offer a costly porter service and don't let you touch the trolleys! Grrrr!

[Will_Clark 0]

LAX - treated like cattle in an abattoir

[wthurman 0]

I travel a lot, and find myself in the most avoidable of places.

 

Baghdad (BIAP) was the absolute worst in 2004. No electricity, no running water, shot to pieces, no immigration or customs to speak of, just a bunch of heavily armed people and bomb dogs. It's actually somewhat normal these days. Kabul has a new terminal and the Afghans are making a go of it- the walk out of the airport to the car is still horrific at a kilometer of hectoring baggage handlers and money dealers, but it is improved.

 

CDG in Paris I avoid like the plague. O'Hare is not one whit better unless one enjoys sitting on the tarmac for endless hours. Heathrow I can actually live with, but I've only done it in a transit status.

 

Avoid Dubai during the Hajj. Otherwise it's a great place, particularly if flying Emirates Business or First, as you get your own terminal. THAT is service!

 

Queen Aliyah Airport in Jordan- it's nearly 30km outside of Amman. Regardless of how the taxi drivers wail, do not pay them over 20 dinars for the trip into Amman (they are not metered).

 

Wendy

[scubaseven 1]

Sydney

 

You have to pay to get from INT terminal to DOM

Takes too long to get between terminals, people are always pushing it to make flights

People seem unhappy and rude

No free WIFI

 

Was happy with SAN, LAX, SFO, BKK, CPT and others.

Edited December 26, 2009 by scubaseven