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It seems this topic hasn't been discussed too recently, so what are the best and worst airports you've been to?
For me, the best has been DFW. I've been able to go from far-flung parking lot to gate during heavy travel days in about 30 minutes. I've had layovers of various lengths, and neither speedy transfers to different terminals nor several-hour layovers have ever been problematic in any way. Very friendly and efficient customs officers as well.
I've had the misfortune of transferring through Mexico City twice, though. Inefficient to the point that the baggage claim has been running several minutes before the passengers get to the belts, allowing thieves to rummage through your bags (happened to me or travel mates both times) despite the main hallways crawling with police. Officials have laughed at mine and my mother's Castilian Spanish. Dirty, and parts of it literally smell like feces. Long lines to the point that we barely made boarding both times despite the layovers being three or so hours long. Insufficient and confusing signage.
I haven't really had any horrible experiences, except for a couple of weather delays. That's just a predictable part of the travel experience. I would rather stay on the ground than to fly into weather that the pilot feels is unsafe.
The worst problems have been having flights changed to an earlier flight without much notice which results in a lot of frantic rushing.
Oh yeah. I was in Southern California for a dog show and went to go home and found out at that point that the entire route had been cancelled and the airline no longer flew to my area at all. They did find me another flight, that I had to run to catch, only to get there to find they did not allow dogs. For me, my dog had service dog identification so they had to grumpily allow me to take him. But I don't know what all the other people did, down there with their dogs and no flight.
Just generally, flying used to be fun, but now it is just misery to get through and done with. Crammed into steerage like a bunch of cattle, with your knees jammed up under your chin.
My trip in Honolulu ending about a month ago actually ended badly at their airport. I had an 11:50pm flight to Phoenix. Needless to say it was cancelled at 3:30am. The airport staff up until then and a little after was great with us doing what they could and were nice.
However, it went down hill after that. I rebooked a flight for 7:25am with United after that. Many on our flight got on this flight, some got on one to Los Angeles for 7am. At 4:30am, we went to the check-in line and it was packed. There was a flight to Tokyo leaving at 6:30am I believe. We waited in line for an hour with it barely moving because there were only a few agents there. All of a sudden 5:30am came, and a new supervisor came out (he must have just started work) and said that anybody who was on the cancelled flight would have to step out of line and form a new line. He then proceeded to tell us that we had to wait until every single person for all the other United Flights (including ours, mind you, even though we also had tickets just like anyone else) checked in, and THEN we could start to check in. Well, this was messed up since everyone had legitimate tickets now..legitimate record locators. We proceeded to wait for another hour before we were helped. Mind you this was 6:30am before they helped us and some people had to get on a 7am flight...I can understand him pulling people out so the Tokyo people could check in, but he didn't even single them out. Most people in line weren't even from the Tokyo flight anyway, they were from my cancelled flight going to either Phoenix or Los Angeles. Even when the line was 5 people, they still wouldn't let us check in.
Whoever the supervisor was from there was purposely trying to **** us over quite obviously. We all had record locators, and most peoples' new reservations were made correctly. My girlfriend actually went to the priority line and did a self check in to see if we could upgrade to first or business class. Everything was there for her ticket. We'd come to find out that I was on the ticket but my name was spelled incorrectly and wasn't showing up (thanks United). A guy behind me in line started talking to me and I told him about the self check in at priority line. He went there and we never saw him again. It's quite obvious that the people at Honolulu were trying to **** us over and NOBODY was happy. Even a pregnant woman was getting angry and of course, they threatened to call security on her because she swore.
Worst air experience I've had, and it's not because "oh, the flight is cancelled." It was because the supervisor from United at the airport was quite obviously trying to **** everyone over who was on the cancelled flight.
Dulles Airport.. No signs indicating what city the current flight was going to even though they were calling the flight over the intercom. So poorly organized and rude staff.
Best airport? Edinburgh Scotland. Small, friendly, easy to navigate. No problems at all. Even in the rain the surroundings are beautiful. Immigration/ customs were a breeze too.
Twelve-hour layover in New Delhi while recovering from bacterial pneumonia. No a/c and had to take anti-malarials just to be in the airport. Men in caftans glaring at me while I sat on the floor with my stuff.
When I got to the airport in Delhi I got dropped off early for my flight and the security guard or whoever he was stopped me to find out when my flight was and then said I couldn't go in!
I was like wtf I'm not going to wait outside, lol, I had to sneak around him and go through another door, what a nasty old mofo he was.
London Heathrow terminal 3 during the 2010 winter storms in January. Man that was horrible first my flight from Boston to London was delayed 5 hours. No big deal really. I got my bag re-tagged, got a free dinner and sat around Logan airport which was not that great but I was confirmed on a flight leaving LHR at 2:30 to my final destination Barcelona.
We land in Heathrow on a stand so I have to take a bus to terminal 5 then transfer on another bus to terminal 3 go through security again and I am thinking I won't make my 2:30pm flight now because of lines.
I get into the terminal. People everywhere and the departure board says for my flight to Barcelona "please wait" it will say this for the next 6 hours. The lines to ask a question were huge I had no idea if my plane was going to be ready in 10mins or 10 hours. I walked around terminal 3 a bunch and found some places to sit. Plenty of shops at least and tvs around with coverage of the snow.
Finally get a gate so I head over. The gate area is just seats and a person who takes your ticket of you leave the small area to go to the bathroom. Almost no windows and we were there for two hours. We then sit on the 757 for another 2 hours waiting to be de-iced. Finally we takeoff and I arrive in Barcelona 14 hours late at 3am. Man does London not know how to handle the snow and the gate process makes no sense.
Those months when I was in europe I was also delayed due to a French ATC strike. I also ended up taking an 18 hour bus ride from Munich to Barcelona after getting on one of the last flights to arrive into Munich during the Iceland Volcano air stoppage. I was part of every major aviation situation in Europe those 5 months. But Heathrow terminal 3 takes the cake. Hated that terminal and the way they select gates. T5 is much much nicer.
Besides for that I have never really had a huge problem at any airport. I have had my share of delays here and there but nothing horrible. Never had a canceled flight before besides for the volcano flight.
My trip in Honolulu ending about a month ago actually ended badly at their airport. I had an 11:50pm flight to Phoenix. Needless to say it was cancelled at 3:30am. The airport staff up until then and a little after was great with us doing what they could and were nice.
However, it went down hill after that. I rebooked a flight for 7:25am with United after that. Many on our flight got on this flight, some got on one to Los Angeles for 7am. At 4:30am, we went to the check-in line and it was packed. There was a flight to Tokyo leaving at 6:30am I believe. We waited in line for an hour with it barely moving because there were only a few agents there. All of a sudden 5:30am came, and a new supervisor came out (he must have just started work) and said that anybody who was on the cancelled flight would have to step out of line and form a new line. He then proceeded to tell us that we had to wait until every single person for all the other United Flights (including ours, mind you, even though we also had tickets just like anyone else) checked in, and THEN we could start to check in. Well, this was messed up since everyone had legitimate tickets now..legitimate record locators. We proceeded to wait for another hour before we were helped. Mind you this was 6:30am before they helped us and some people had to get on a 7am flight...I can understand him pulling people out so the Tokyo people could check in, but he didn't even single them out. Most people in line weren't even from the Tokyo flight anyway, they were from my cancelled flight going to either Phoenix or Los Angeles. Even when the line was 5 people, they still wouldn't let us check in.
Whoever the supervisor was from there was purposely trying to **** us over quite obviously. We all had record locators, and most peoples' new reservations were made correctly. My girlfriend actually went to the priority line and did a self check in to see if we could upgrade to first or business class. Everything was there for her ticket. We'd come to find out that I was on the ticket but my name was spelled incorrectly and wasn't showing up (thanks United). A guy behind me in line started talking to me and I told him about the self check in at priority line. He went there and we never saw him again. It's quite obvious that the people at Honolulu were trying to **** us over and NOBODY was happy. Even a pregnant woman was getting angry and of course, they threatened to call security on her because she swore.
Worst air experience I've had, and it's not because "oh, the flight is cancelled." It was because the supervisor from United at the airport was quite obviously trying to **** everyone over who was on the cancelled flight.
I hope you got his name and wrote a letter to United. Bottom line, did you get on the flight you had been rebooked on? If not, you might be entitled to compensation.
I hope you got his name and wrote a letter to United. Bottom line, did you get on the flight you had been rebooked on? If not, you might be entitled to compensation.
I didn't. It was a long day. It was our last day in Hawaii and since it was an 11:50pm flight, we were like "oh, we'll just stay up all day and sleep on the plane." We actually did a tour of Pearl Harbor and other sites starting at 6am, so we'd been up for over 24 straight hours at this point. By the way, my ticket didn't show up in the reservation system when I checked in. I had to call them back (the ticket agent refused to do it because I did it through US Air, who then called United) and get a number and give it to them. It took about 15 minutes to change my name in the system...15 minutes.
We did get on the flight in the last half of boarding. The flight attendants were really cool and really nice (all witty gay guys). I told them about what happened to some of the people on the flight and one guy even was able to get me and my girlfriend to sit together on the flight and everything. Very cool guys. What sucks is that due to the flight cancellation, we got 2 free nights at a nice Waikiki Beach hotel, but thanks to work..I had to get back home... ugh.
A guy I work with actually used to work for United in the corporate office and said the customer service is pretty atrocious. When i told him I was going to complain he basically told me to not even do it because they probably won't even listen.
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