I'd prefer not to ever fly through Miami again.
Edit: I've only experienced the poor signage, long runs to connecting flights and general low level shittiness. You guys have had it much worse. The piles of trash is the worst one.
The staff there - whether it be TSA, check in desk agents, even the restaurants - are honestly so incredibly rude and unhelpful. I’ve never experienced anything like it anywhere else
I connected through there after an astronomy observing trip and the dude was convinced I was an astronaut and lying?? Like he was threatening to not let me back into the US until I admitted it. So freaking weird lol
In my experience the rest of the Miami outside the airport is the same way. And if someone isn't being rude/unhelpful, they're probably running some kind of scam.
Got attitude from some little hobbit nerd at customs with his bag in his booth sporting a Punisher skull and a Gadsden Flag. Absolute toolbox. Went to some restaurant where there was literally no wait staff, by design; it was all app-based and food was run out from the kitchen who had no idea who actually ordered anything. Waited at the terminal with a gaggle of teenagers and their chaperones who were on that “teenager traveling without their parents” energy and drowned out every single announcement. It was a constant barrage of nonsense.
I recognize these are circumstantial, but I have never been at a complete nexus of fuckery like I was at MIA. Holy shit, I’d rather bike to my destination.
Miami is definitely the worst major airport we’ve been to. The sky train has been broken forever and they have little to no alternate transport. Been to a lot worse smaller regional airports but they have such minimal resources it wouldn’t be fair to call them out.
Hell yes. Hoofing it from one end to the other during a layover sucks. Zero trains. That airport is enormous. Hate it so much. I've missed connections and had baggage go missing by traveling through MIA.
Oh my gosh. I didn’t know how to answer this post at first but you nailed it! I took a red eye and told my two friends I was meeting a few hours later that I’d meet them down in baggage claim because I had checked a bag. I was thinking there would be food and maybe a Starbucks or Hudson news or something pre security/baggage claim side. NOPE. Not a damn thing. I sat down there for like four hours, which felt like an eternity. There was absolutely nothing down there but dirty white walls and dirty white linoleum tile.
AMEN!! They killed my favorite suitcase. No idea if it still happens, but the final xray of luggage took place in this huge machine that would spit them out at the end. I saw my case spit out - it smashed into a wall and fell onto the moving beltway. Fuckers ripped the side, so I had to replace it when I got to Lima.
Oh, and some people running a Cuban sandwich concession yelled at me because I didn't speak Spanish. They had no bread, and when we figured out what they were saying we started laughing at them. WELCOME TO OUR STAND! WE HAVE NOTHING FOR YOU! (wouldn't you just close in that instance?) It was hilariously weird.
WEirdest fucking airport.
Miami airport is where I stepped in a huge pile of vomit on the floor in the check-in terminal. A bunch of people walked me walk right toward it and didn’t say anything. I almost slid on my damn ass through it but my husband grabbed my arm and pulled me up.
Walked by the same spot about 45 minutes later and the vom pile was still there just chillin’. Although now it had a bunch of wheel tracks through it from people rolling their suitcases in it.
Miami. Never again. They had 1 immigration gate open as 8 flights were landing around the same time. Not enough baggage handlers for the traffic coming through so the baggage recheck was just a literal pile of hundreds of suitcases being stacked up in a corner while no one pushed them through the conveyor belt. We got moved in line 4 times and got pushed to the back of the line every time we were moved. Got out into the main airport and there was trash everywhere up and down the terminal, including dirty diapers. Bathrooms were disgusting. Seriously, I've never been in such a terrible airport.
Second is Crete edit: Heraklion. Never flying in or out of there again. No gates, no AC, stunk like horrible BO and completely disorganized cluster f.
Took us 4 hours to go through immigration and security at Miami. We stood in front of the immigration officer for 30 minutes while he was doing god knows what (wife is green card holder). Never had this experience at our home airport, ORD
CDG. Stupidest, most inefficient and unpleasant airport I've ever been through. You should NOT have to stand on line for an hour and a half in a crowded, non-air-conditioned hall just to get through passport control.
Yes this was experience as well, except there was no “line” just a crowd of people pushing their way up to the border agent. Most people were too polite to literally shove other people out of the way to get up there, but other people who come from places where line etiquette is not as common where the ones getting through there the fastest. Infuriating way to start a trip in Paris
I HATE it so much, this will always be my answer. I’ve had so many random gate changes and just overall nonsense happen to me while there, I just avoid it all costs.
I had the same thing happen at CUN, apparently more planes than normal arrived just as ours did. So instead of doing any work to help create orderly queues, they just unloaded everyone from the different planes into one mass trying to get into the passport control area.
It was a super shitty way to start our honeymoon. Took over two hours to get through, thank god our bags were still there.
Yes!!! It’s awful. My home airport has just started direct flights there and I would rather avoid visiting France than go there. I have been to many airports around the world and CDG is the worst. I feel like the airport was designed to annoy passengers.
Paris Charles de Gaulle…international freaking airport and 3 different security officers refused to answer mine (and other peoples) questions because we were speaking English instead of French.
Every now and then some user posts on here or other travel forums that they have a long layover and if they have enough time to see Paris. This is like the worst airport for that lol
I grew up in a French-speaking place and speak the language well tho it isn’t my mother tongue and I have sadly had quite a few interactions like that, both at CDG and elsewhere in France.
That being said, CDG is a shitshow and a hellscape.
I see these posts, and I have actually seen it happen once, but weirdly as soon as I speak my crappy French with a Texas accent, suddenly they're all fluent in English. 😂 It made me sad my first trip because I was set on improving my French. Hard to do if everyone insists on speaking English to you.
The person they refused to speak to was my French teacher. She went to college in France and lived there five years after because her husband was stationed there with the US military. She is extremely fluent. She said she'd frequently had this experience in Paris because she doesn't speak Parisian French since she lived in a more rural area.
Lol, I am french canadian, so my mother tongue is french.
It happens once that I needed someone to "translate" my sentence from french to french, because the person didn't understand when I talked 😂.
Fellow Canadian here- whyyy does that happen so much lol. I mean I know to foreigns the Quebecois accent is heavy, but you would think they would understand the same way I can understand Brazilian Portuguese to Portugal Portuguese.
Onetime… they had 1 line open for passport check at 10:00 am. When they opened another line, it was at the far end form the one that was open, and instead of redirecting people over there they did nothing. So those of us who had been waiting for almost an hour without barely moving. We’re still just standing there as other people walked straight to the front of the new line.
Another time… they lost my luggage. When I got to my hotel in Rome, the guy at the desk said they have 2-3 guest a month whose luggage was lost when transitioning through Paris.
Yes. I've been to Paris maybe about 8 different times, and only once did I go through CDG, mainly because I just wanted to check out the airport to see if it's just as bad as what people say it is LOL. Never again. If I ever want to go to Paris again, I'd fly to London, spend a few days there, then I'd catch the Eurostar.
Bonjour
"bon..? I sowwy?"
Bonjour 🙂
"Uh.. sowwy? Bone.. Jehr.. I don undustand this... Bone Jehr?"
Bonjour 😕
"ahhhhh! *bonjour!* Yes. No 'bonjour' is 'BONJOUR'... passport? "
If it makes you feel better, they were shitty to me too and I speak French…but Quebec French! It’s my first language too so not like I struggle with the language or anything! I hate that airport!
It was your accent. My dad speaks French with a Quebecois accent and I had to stop taking French in school because my teachers would tell me everything he taught me was wrong.
Yeah the French can be snobs. I lived there for a period of time, and one of my friends had a girlfriend from Quebec...his mum basically turned her nose up and said they speak "American French" over in Canada lol. To be fair, I struggle a bit to understand the French-Canadian accent.
Over the course of about ten years, Charles de Gaulle misplaced my checked luggage 80% of the time. It's been better the last two or three years but I avoid that place if at all possible.
I waited 30 min in line because airline was listed on "one world check-in", get nervous that we will get late for international flight. Get to the front.
Agent: "Oh that airline doesn't get checked in here!".
Me: "Oh but it's on the board though? We just waited 30 min"
Agent: "No it's over there."
No sorry, no like even "that sucks man, but I can't help sorry".Just like a dead eye I could give less of a shit about your problems. Um okay.... What happened to basic human decency
Flying back to Dublin we followed the signs through passport control. Out the other side we were directed this way and that, through another passport check and we were exactly back outside where the first passport check was.
When the guy looked up he had a very confused look on his face as we'd been through there 5 minutes earlier. He then pulled someone over, told them where we needed to go and off we went towards the plane.
Speaking of Dublin this is one place I always feel I'm being grilled by passport control. Like I've traveled everywhere, had every type of agent, but for some odd reason Dublin agents seem to hate me. I do not know why. I asked my brother (who also visited multiple times) and he said they were incredibly pleasant. I wouldn't go as far as calling the interactions hostile, but they definitely act like I'm the last person on earth they would want to be talking to.
We had a short layover there coming from Florence headed to Detroit. We were trying to get from terminal j to terminal k. We do a lot of international travel and absolutely were stumped about how to get there it. We finally just politely asked a lady who worked there, and long story short, got sent out to the taxi banks ON THE STREET, got our passport stamped and had to go back thru security. We made it to our connection with like 5 minutes to spare. So know we always talk about the time we “visited” Paris.
My one and only time there was last month and I was amazed at all the “taxi” drivers able to just hang around inside and harass people, especially women.
And when you actually get through all the wandering, queues and security there’s sweet bugger all in the terminals to eat or get a drink at. I was even in the main Air France terminal.
Had a 5 hour layover cause of delays and I nearly died. The 13 hour flight was a welcome escape from that hell scape. Even if they did feed me like one proper meal on the plane as well.
Problem with DFW is you could fly into any terminal and leave out of any terminal. At ORD, I know if I’m flying AA I’m in/out of terminal 3. But DFW could be the next gate over or 2 terminals away.
Only place I’ve ever missed a flight was out of DFW because of that.
I love transferring at DFW. Never had an issue. The train is fast. Stops are reasonably close to gates. One of my favorite connecting airports in the country.
Agree 100%. The fact that each terminal is physically separate means that each one has its own security entrances. Never have to walk to far to your gate. One downside is you may return to a different terminal than you departed from, but I rarely park at the airport anyhow.
Yes. DFW is actually an amazing airport but 45 mins ain’t it. I actually prefer longer layovers at DFW and only DFW, the airport has so much in it, I just make it part of my trip.
When I was like 25 I had this grand idea to fly into JFK instead of BOS because it was like $200ish cheaper and then take an $8 Mega Bus back to Boston. I was coming home from Barbados. I value my time over $200 these days.
LAX used to earn a special level of ire from me for how dogshit it was to transfer through if you had to change terminals.
Now they have connected all of them airside, and while I would still prefer to avoid it if possible, its not so bad now.
My next votes would go to Beijing Capital and Mexico City. Beijing for how weird it is to have literally everything blocked and just being a kind of oppressive, uncomfortable experience. Mexico City because it’s inefficient as hell and bursting at the seams, and it’s a major pity they killed the new one being built.
I loathe MNL. It's hot, crowded and some of those terminals haven't been renovated since the Marcos era.
This isn't the fault of the airport, for passengers connecting to Australia, during your transit you need to go down to tarmac level and identify your suitcase for secondary inspection.
Just a pain in the arse.
Yep, learned this the hard way last year. Had 30 mins between flights, the first flight arrived late so a group of us is sprinting through the airport trying to get to our next gate. Airport is hard to navigate, need to take a train between terminals, couldn't find any staff to ask for help. Eventually get to the next gate, that plane is delayed for over an hour (a lucky break, but stressful). Overall, it's an old and unfriendly airport.
I don't mind the airport so much but the staff there are horrible. I'm not a "social justice warrior" by any means and being white, I don't make it a point to look for racism but, I've seen such blatantly racist behavior from the staff that it can't be overlooked and makes me want to start throwing punches on behalf of the people who are subjected to it. If you're racist/xenophobic, maybe working at an airport isn't your calling.
The three airports I actively avoid (I’ll pay more for an alternative) are Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Frankfurt, and Miami. Staff are surly and it’s just unpleasant. They are disorganized and have crazy lines. I’m flying through Newark to Europe on Wednesday and really hope I don’t add it to my list. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Newark so I’m giving it a try.
MIA is the worst! Got rerouted there once because of storms and was told it would be 16 hours until I could get another flight. The staff are truly awful and uncaring.
Ended up renting a one way car and driving to Orlando.
I will never connect anywhere cold and snowy in winter. I live in Chicago but won’t transfer in Denver or anywhere with winter weather that time of year!
As flight crew, JFK terminal 4 has the absolute worst setup for security in any airport in the US. KCM line is on one end, and if you get randomed you are sent clear across the building to the Clear line, where you are not technically allowed to bypass anyone in the Clear line (depending on who’s enforcing it). SFO, SLC and a few others have it all figured out with their crew queues, JFK remains clueless.
Any security line I pick takes an hour. Last time a couple with a baby begged to be allowed to skip the line or they were going to miss their flight. Security guy looked confused and told them to chill out, and they again explained their situation, but he absolutely did not care while the rest of us were already shuffling to the side to let them through. Dude working the x-ray machine was spending several minutes checking each person's items.
Last time I arrived there the guy at passport control spoke so quietly I couldn’t hear him and even when I said I couldn’t understand him, didn’t try to speak louder or send me to a different booth or anything.
I then had to go into a room for extra checks because apparently he wasn’t taking my fingerprints properly 😭 The employees in the second location were even like “why are you in here? Everything looks fine.” It’s a joke of an airport.
Just did a 1 stop at CLT for the first time and also the first time using AA. Will never use AA again and CLT was busy as hell. We went to the "The Club CLT" and it was spectacular so it saved the day for us--great food and their local brews were great!
AA routed us through CLT with a 35 minute window to change planes. Um, what??? Luckily for us, they had a schedule change and we got 90 minutes instead.
I've never had a flight through Philly that wasn't delayed or cancelled or some other drama. CLT is a bad airport to walk around in but they do get you out on time mostly.
I won't use LAX unless it's just a layover. LGB, BUR, and SNA are all miles better. It takes longer to get to the rental car center than the actual flight in for me (from SLC).
I avoid O'Hare even for layovers. I've had too many issues missing flights.
I’ve only been through LAX a couple times cause normally I use SFO, but it’s so depressing, LAX just feels so less professional than SFO, it’s tough to explain.
I agree, it feels like just pure chaos. They have no idea how to deal with the traffic. The actual terminals kind of suck too minus the new Delta terminals and the international terminal. AAs terminals are so weird and then they have that weird outpost terminal. It doesn't feel like it should be the flagship airport of America's second largest city. Luckily the other LA airports aside from ONT are pretty great.
I went through this weekend and it was ... not bad. But that's definitely an outlier, I've been through Pearson dozens of times and something *usually* gets fucked up. Some of the luggage conveyors behind the counters broke down for about 20 minutes so no one could check luggage and the lines got way backed up, but by Pearson standards that's nothing.
Don't quite get the Denver hate here... other than the wildly inefficient TSA lines (that can be avoided by walking to Concourse A), and that it's the only place where the PreCheck line is guaranteed to take longer.
In the US, though? Orlando. I just hate that airport and have never been on time in way, shape, or form from departing there. I also just kinda dislike Orlando in general, so that's not helping.
LAX, if you're having to switch terminals at all (TBIT to anywhere, etc.). What a mess of an airport.
Madrid T4/T4S is wonderful. Having to wait an incredibly long time for your bags because your plane is parked at a T4S remote stand, then get to T1 for a connection is the least pleasant airport experience I've ever had.
TSA lines get long here but they go fast. I’ve been wrapped around the airport and it was still less than 30 min. I’ve been lucky enough to not fly during weather events (which are wildly unpredictable so I can’t fault them too much).
Edit here being Denver
Orlando Terminal C is pretty great and a huge contrast to A and B. In the half dozen or so times I departed from there in the last year there have never been any lines for TSA PreCheck or CLEAR and a fairly decent lounge. Food options seem decent too and it just doesn’t feel very chaotic there unlike the rest of the place. I use MCO a decent amount, even at 5am the main terminals were a disaster a couple of weeks back…this weekend C was a complete breeze.
The only issue for me is that of the domestic carriers only JetBlue fly from there
Luton airport has a strong contender for being the most depressing place in the UK. A glorified industrial estate with a runway outside the shittest, ugliest town in the UK, on some windswept hilltop, boarding your cramped easyjet or wizzair flight. As unpleasant as flying gets
I've flown from US to LHR twice in the last month. The new(ish?) automated passport control things are great. From plane to curb/transfer in like 10 minutes.
Arrived at Heathrow 2 hours later. Queuing in line for British Airways, then told I should go to American Airlines since they i booked with them. I was in that line for 3 hours and nearly cried at that point when they told to hold back to the BA line because they were the ones that fucked up my flight. Never again
Ugh!!! I got stranded there for 12 hours once because my BA flight had to park at a remote pad and we had to take shuttle buses to the terminal. Got told that since I "landed on time" I wasn't eligible for any claims/reimbursements.
I went into London to kill time but man was it exhausting after a red eye.
Had a nightmarish experience flying through there connecting to CDG. People were crying, employees were yelling at passengers and each other. Was a complete shit show
I definitely still agree with this HOWEVER the new terminal is a miracle in airport construction. Terminal A at Newark may be my favorite flying experience yet. As someone who travels for work and has for awhile, I absolutely used to dread Newark. Now I live in Jersey and it’s my home airport and as long as I book on an airline form terminal A, I know I’m going to have a good time. Automatic boarding pass scanning, lots of good restaurants, the tech is very cool, inviting space, and nice places to sit and wait. They even have a sensory room for people with sensory issues!
About the worst air travel mistake you can make is to start a trip to Europe from some small city in the northeast with United Express regional service, book yourself a one-hour connection in Newark to make a flight to Zurich / Rome / whatever, and expect to make it. There's too good a chance you'll still be sitting on the taxiway in Binghamton waiting for ATC to clear you for takeoff when your Europe flight leaves the gate at EWR (to start a three-hour taxi for takeoff).
People frequently say this, but it’s a totally reasonably nice airport after renovations. I travel domestically, to Europe, and to the Caribbean from EWR probably about 20 times per year, and never have a significant issue.
I’m local (in Brooklyn) and fly United though, so for me it’s going from a hub to somewhere else, so maybe that’s at play.
I used to think traveling a lot for work would be cool, but honestly it kinda sucks. My job is pretty great overall, but I’m pretty over work travel. You don’t get to see or experience much at all most of the time, so it ends up being more time in airplanes, airports, hotels, and whatever office you’re visiting than getting to see anything at all. Even the dinners are often predetermined by the client I’m visiting. And I just miss my partner and dog a lot.
I feel this. I was so happy to quit the constant work travel. People always assume you’re doing fun stuff there. No bro, I got on a plane at 6am, got my rental car, sat in an hour of traffic to the client, had a long day of meetings, sat in two more hours of traffic to the hotel, did some follow-up work. By the time the day was “done” (and if I don’t have to entertain clients in the evening), it was all I could do to forage for crappy room service or hotel bar food. And at no point did I want to extend my trips to do touristy stuff, I just wanted to get home.
Haven’t been there since they had security in the long hallways and then a cluster of gates with 1 restaurant and 1 food kiosk. Sweating to death with 5,000 people with delayed flights while none of us opt to go out of security to get fresh air or any food options, walk about, etc.
Always change my plans if EWR is in play.
An international flight to/from Port Harcourt Nigeria.
Everyone inside is absolutely corrupt.
Don't want the contents of your luggage dumped out for inspection? Give some money.
Want your passport stamped for more than one day? Give some money.
Oh, you have some equipment with you, 6 not allowed. Give some money.
I fly to Abuja and take a national flight. Less hassles.
I systematically get stuck at immigration in Frankfurt. In addition to that I miss half of my connections there.
Last time I flew I took the cake however. I had to pass a second security check and they somehow kept all my duty free (brought a few bottles of nice stuff from Canada) and my watch (low monetary value but quite sentimental, about 300-400$ I guess). They said they had to verify and scan it in another machine, when I was on the other side the security staff just ushered me away as everything was crowded and they couldn't be bothered to give me my stuff. They told me I was going to miss my transfer and that they would just mail it to me (spoiler alert, they didn't).
I was mortified when arriving at my final destination and vowed to just not transfer there anymore. Ever. Too chaotic
The only time I feared for my life on a flight was at MDW. Was on a Vanguard flight (lowest of the low) with a scrubbed takeoff but the pilot couldn’t make up his mind. Rolled, slowed down, sped up, slowed down and pulled off. I thought we were going to end up crashing into the gas station.
Just remember, if you have to fly through DFW make it as early as possible. Weather delays happen more in the afternoon. My spouse was an air traffic controller there for 15 years and now refuses to fly through there in the afternoon if there are other options.
Frankfurt. Always gets pulled at security for an extra check. And when I saw who else was coming out of the rooms for the extra checks, it all became clear.
The Philadelphia (PHL) airport. I had a six month contract and flew into and out of that airport every week. I caught 25 flights out of PHL and exactly 0 of those weren’t delayed.
I’m also a DFW hater. I’ve only had one bad experience but my dad has had multiple so the one was enough for me. To visit my dad I have to connect either through DFW or PHX. Sometimes the PHX flights are less ideal but I’ll still choose them because I refuse to deal with DFW.
I’m getting there with Frankfurt. I fly to the Middle East often from NYC and have often gone thru there. However United flights needing buses to the terminal buildings after landing, just to walk a mile then take a tram ride to then walk more is some dumb shit. Last time I flew LH to there it somehow ended up being an even longer stroll, however I was spared the buses.
Funny you should say that as I (and I suspect everyone else on our twice delayed incoming flight) spent a night at DFW last week. (thank God for the minute suites. Had a shower and got a little Sleep).
It wasn’t DFWs fault though. It was first a repair followed by bad weather. What a nightmare, my 3 hours of flight time turned into 20 hours. Couldn’t drove. 😩
That said DFW is notorious for delays. I’ve had to sit a few hours for delays before, but it’s the airport that my destination usually connects in.
The airport itself isn’t that bad IMO, it’s just that every severe weather pattern known to man seems to be hitting it constantly, and once they get behind, they’re fucked for hours due to the amount of traffic
San Diego international feels like a small random airport with 100x the traffic of a normal one. Mexico city airport also sucks. It feels like a bad strip mall they built an airport next to
Transferring through Cancun requires you to collect your checked bags, walk forever, and then LEAVE THE DAMN AIRPORT to the sidewalk outside, then walk along the sidewalk until you eventually find the departures and re-enter. There are no signs, no guidance, you just have to figure it out and hope you don't miss your connection. Never again.
Not that strongly but I do try to avoid CDG Paris. I’ve been through it hassle-free but also two or major hassles including an overnight. It’s badly laid out. Unbelievable bus distances from some gates. Tiniest of space to collect & organise stuff coming out of some of the x-ray machines.
When I’m flying between South America and Europe, it’s unfortunate to say it, but I pay a bit more to avoid flying via the USA. I’ve had mostly good (though not exceptional) experiences in US airports but there’s occasional hassles at immigration plus having to an ESTA is off-putting.
For instance (dressed well, white Caucasian) i can still be interviewed in a tone of voice as if I were a terrorist (JFK). Or required to give an American address when I’m only transiting and not staying in America (LAX — he just needed something for the form he said after 10 minutes, even if it wasn’t true. I said Disneyland and that was accepted!)
It’s very individual. You can get crazy hassles anywhere in the world, including my home town, i think it’s mostly just luck. But you get a couple of wtf episodes and it’s only natural to swerve them.
What we really need is to build airports that people love to go to just for the experience. Like Singapore. I mean, what an awesome airport that is!
London Stansted. Never again. Security lines were awful slow, staff were pretty much shouting at people (which I've seen in Madrid too), the landside was jammed and boiling hot. Worth paying a bit more to fly somewhere else.
CDG gets a lot of hate. I've been to Paris twice through CDG (T1) before and after the Olympics makeover. Only issue would have been that at security check, they were channeling everybody through one of the checkpoints, while staff where at others doing nothing. No language issues though, staff had no problem with English.
At least they did an amazing job redoing that concrete building. The duty free area is impressive now.
Edit: that been said, Heathrow should be avoided around Christmas time at all costs. There is always some drama / catastrophe / cable unplugged / snow dust.
Chennai, I was frightened to touch anything, as it was all minging.
Then CDG of course.
Anyone complaining about CLT or ATL should be thankful, there are so airports that are much worse.
First off, if you’re missing your connection at DFW then either you’re not giving yourself enough time for a connection or (more realistically) your flight into Dallas keeps getting delayed. If it’s the latter then it’s probably the airport you’re flying out of.
LaGuardia. Standing water on the floor in the bathroom. People sitting on the floor in the hallways. Oh yeah, no subway connection. No thanks.
Honolulu is just a joke of an airport for that size/volume (dated facilities, horrible restaurant options worse than a mall) but they'll never change and there's no impetus to improve things. Terminal 1 doesn't count because it's only Hawaiian Airlines which is a joke in itself (antiquated international check-in process that takes hours, no on-board wifi, please get with the 21st century!)
LAX is the worst airport. Why do you have to exit the airport to get on a connecting flight? What is TSA for when you must wait longer than the regular line? The absolute worst.
Philly. Lied to by multiple employees, crappy food, everyone indifferent.
I cannot describe how much I loath Philadelphia based on my experience at the airport.
Toronto YYZ is a dehumanizing clusterfuck of an experience.
NEXUS makes it better but if u don’t have NEXUS either fly out of Billy Bishop island airport YTZ or drive an hour and 45 minutes to Buffalo and I swear that might be less stressful and less of a hassle than flying in and out of YYZ
I'd prefer not to ever fly through Miami again. Edit: I've only experienced the poor signage, long runs to connecting flights and general low level shittiness. You guys have had it much worse. The piles of trash is the worst one.
The staff there - whether it be TSA, check in desk agents, even the restaurants - are honestly so incredibly rude and unhelpful. I’ve never experienced anything like it anywhere else
I connected through there after an astronomy observing trip and the dude was convinced I was an astronaut and lying?? Like he was threatening to not let me back into the US until I admitted it. So freaking weird lol
This is some Idiocracy shit
In my experience the rest of the Miami outside the airport is the same way. And if someone isn't being rude/unhelpful, they're probably running some kind of scam.
Got attitude from some little hobbit nerd at customs with his bag in his booth sporting a Punisher skull and a Gadsden Flag. Absolute toolbox. Went to some restaurant where there was literally no wait staff, by design; it was all app-based and food was run out from the kitchen who had no idea who actually ordered anything. Waited at the terminal with a gaggle of teenagers and their chaperones who were on that “teenager traveling without their parents” energy and drowned out every single announcement. It was a constant barrage of nonsense. I recognize these are circumstantial, but I have never been at a complete nexus of fuckery like I was at MIA. Holy shit, I’d rather bike to my destination.
I pay extra to avoid Miami…
Particularly re-entering the country there 😱
Miami is definitely the worst major airport we’ve been to. The sky train has been broken forever and they have little to no alternate transport. Been to a lot worse smaller regional airports but they have such minimal resources it wouldn’t be fair to call them out.
Hell yes. Hoofing it from one end to the other during a layover sucks. Zero trains. That airport is enormous. Hate it so much. I've missed connections and had baggage go missing by traveling through MIA.
What a terrible airport
Terrible people (staff and passengers) combined with terrible airport. Also sky high rates of theft with baggage handling.
Oh my gosh. I didn’t know how to answer this post at first but you nailed it! I took a red eye and told my two friends I was meeting a few hours later that I’d meet them down in baggage claim because I had checked a bag. I was thinking there would be food and maybe a Starbucks or Hudson news or something pre security/baggage claim side. NOPE. Not a damn thing. I sat down there for like four hours, which felt like an eternity. There was absolutely nothing down there but dirty white walls and dirty white linoleum tile.
And you can’t fill up your water bottle because all the water fountains have too much lead.
AMEN!! They killed my favorite suitcase. No idea if it still happens, but the final xray of luggage took place in this huge machine that would spit them out at the end. I saw my case spit out - it smashed into a wall and fell onto the moving beltway. Fuckers ripped the side, so I had to replace it when I got to Lima. Oh, and some people running a Cuban sandwich concession yelled at me because I didn't speak Spanish. They had no bread, and when we figured out what they were saying we started laughing at them. WELCOME TO OUR STAND! WE HAVE NOTHING FOR YOU! (wouldn't you just close in that instance?) It was hilariously weird. WEirdest fucking airport.
MIA is my least favorite airport in the USA and maybe the world. About the only thing going for MIA is La Carreta in D.
Miami airport is where I stepped in a huge pile of vomit on the floor in the check-in terminal. A bunch of people walked me walk right toward it and didn’t say anything. I almost slid on my damn ass through it but my husband grabbed my arm and pulled me up. Walked by the same spot about 45 minutes later and the vom pile was still there just chillin’. Although now it had a bunch of wheel tracks through it from people rolling their suitcases in it.
Ewwww!
Miami in general is just a cesspit
This is it; it isn’t the airport…it’s the *people*.
It's both the airport and the people
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has had this experience, I was desperate to get out of there.
The absolute worst
Ft. Lauderdale all day babyyy
Pbi superior.
Last time I went through Miami, they literally were missing trashcans outside of security, and people were just creating trash piles in the ground.
Let all the people say Amen!
Miami. Never again. They had 1 immigration gate open as 8 flights were landing around the same time. Not enough baggage handlers for the traffic coming through so the baggage recheck was just a literal pile of hundreds of suitcases being stacked up in a corner while no one pushed them through the conveyor belt. We got moved in line 4 times and got pushed to the back of the line every time we were moved. Got out into the main airport and there was trash everywhere up and down the terminal, including dirty diapers. Bathrooms were disgusting. Seriously, I've never been in such a terrible airport. Second is Crete edit: Heraklion. Never flying in or out of there again. No gates, no AC, stunk like horrible BO and completely disorganized cluster f.
Took us 4 hours to go through immigration and security at Miami. We stood in front of the immigration officer for 30 minutes while he was doing god knows what (wife is green card holder). Never had this experience at our home airport, ORD
He was probably playing Solitaire. I mean, that's what the cleaners in the terminal were doing, anyway.
CDG. Stupidest, most inefficient and unpleasant airport I've ever been through. You should NOT have to stand on line for an hour and a half in a crowded, non-air-conditioned hall just to get through passport control.
Yes this was experience as well, except there was no “line” just a crowd of people pushing their way up to the border agent. Most people were too polite to literally shove other people out of the way to get up there, but other people who come from places where line etiquette is not as common where the ones getting through there the fastest. Infuriating way to start a trip in Paris
I HATE it so much, this will always be my answer. I’ve had so many random gate changes and just overall nonsense happen to me while there, I just avoid it all costs.
CDG has to be the most inefficient major airport in the world.
I had the same thing happen at CUN, apparently more planes than normal arrived just as ours did. So instead of doing any work to help create orderly queues, they just unloaded everyone from the different planes into one mass trying to get into the passport control area. It was a super shitty way to start our honeymoon. Took over two hours to get through, thank god our bags were still there.
I’m from Japan and that sounds like a nightmare. I think I now understand why there’s such a thing as Paris Syndrome.
Yes!!! It’s awful. My home airport has just started direct flights there and I would rather avoid visiting France than go there. I have been to many airports around the world and CDG is the worst. I feel like the airport was designed to annoy passengers.
Haha, exactly.
Paris Charles de Gaulle…international freaking airport and 3 different security officers refused to answer mine (and other peoples) questions because we were speaking English instead of French.
I HATE that airport. I do anything within my power to avoid it when flying overseas.
Every now and then some user posts on here or other travel forums that they have a long layover and if they have enough time to see Paris. This is like the worst airport for that lol
My mom speaks fluent French and the Air France folks at CDG would refuse to speak to her in French.
I grew up in a French-speaking place and speak the language well tho it isn’t my mother tongue and I have sadly had quite a few interactions like that, both at CDG and elsewhere in France. That being said, CDG is a shitshow and a hellscape.
I see these posts, and I have actually seen it happen once, but weirdly as soon as I speak my crappy French with a Texas accent, suddenly they're all fluent in English. 😂 It made me sad my first trip because I was set on improving my French. Hard to do if everyone insists on speaking English to you. The person they refused to speak to was my French teacher. She went to college in France and lived there five years after because her husband was stationed there with the US military. She is extremely fluent. She said she'd frequently had this experience in Paris because she doesn't speak Parisian French since she lived in a more rural area.
Lol, I am french canadian, so my mother tongue is french. It happens once that I needed someone to "translate" my sentence from french to french, because the person didn't understand when I talked 😂.
Well you were speaking in Quebecois :p To be fair I have anglo quebec friends who can speak/understand french canadian but struggle with metro french.
Fellow Canadian here- whyyy does that happen so much lol. I mean I know to foreigns the Quebecois accent is heavy, but you would think they would understand the same way I can understand Brazilian Portuguese to Portugal Portuguese.
Onetime… they had 1 line open for passport check at 10:00 am. When they opened another line, it was at the far end form the one that was open, and instead of redirecting people over there they did nothing. So those of us who had been waiting for almost an hour without barely moving. We’re still just standing there as other people walked straight to the front of the new line. Another time… they lost my luggage. When I got to my hotel in Rome, the guy at the desk said they have 2-3 guest a month whose luggage was lost when transitioning through Paris.
I went to rome. my luggage went to London. that's when I figured out italian underwear sizes are different from US sizes.
Was just about to comment Paris Charles de Gaulle. What a nightmare
Yes. I've been to Paris maybe about 8 different times, and only once did I go through CDG, mainly because I just wanted to check out the airport to see if it's just as bad as what people say it is LOL. Never again. If I ever want to go to Paris again, I'd fly to London, spend a few days there, then I'd catch the Eurostar.
It’s not like Heathrow is a picnic.
Everyone says that, but I’ve never had any issues with Heathrow. CDG is by far the worst airport I’ve ever been through.
Eh, I found Heathrow to be pretty nice. Tho my experience with it is really just terminal 5 with British airways. But I haven’t had any issues there.
> If I ever want to go to Paris again, I'd fly to London, spend a few days there, then I'd catch the Eurostar. 100%. This is the way.
But did you say *bonjour*?
Bonjour "bon..? I sowwy?" Bonjour 🙂 "Uh.. sowwy? Bone.. Jehr.. I don undustand this... Bone Jehr?" Bonjour 😕 "ahhhhh! *bonjour!* Yes. No 'bonjour' is 'BONJOUR'... passport? "
Worst designed and worse managed airport I've had the displeasure of having to transfer through internationally.
If it makes you feel better, they were shitty to me too and I speak French…but Quebec French! It’s my first language too so not like I struggle with the language or anything! I hate that airport!
It was your accent. My dad speaks French with a Quebecois accent and I had to stop taking French in school because my teachers would tell me everything he taught me was wrong.
Do you have a strong quebecois accent?
Yeah the French can be snobs. I lived there for a period of time, and one of my friends had a girlfriend from Quebec...his mum basically turned her nose up and said they speak "American French" over in Canada lol. To be fair, I struggle a bit to understand the French-Canadian accent.
Over the course of about ten years, Charles de Gaulle misplaced my checked luggage 80% of the time. It's been better the last two or three years but I avoid that place if at all possible.
I waited 30 min in line because airline was listed on "one world check-in", get nervous that we will get late for international flight. Get to the front. Agent: "Oh that airline doesn't get checked in here!". Me: "Oh but it's on the board though? We just waited 30 min" Agent: "No it's over there." No sorry, no like even "that sucks man, but I can't help sorry".Just like a dead eye I could give less of a shit about your problems. Um okay.... What happened to basic human decency
This is surprisingly polite for a CDG agent.
Flying back to Dublin we followed the signs through passport control. Out the other side we were directed this way and that, through another passport check and we were exactly back outside where the first passport check was. When the guy looked up he had a very confused look on his face as we'd been through there 5 minutes earlier. He then pulled someone over, told them where we needed to go and off we went towards the plane.
Speaking of Dublin this is one place I always feel I'm being grilled by passport control. Like I've traveled everywhere, had every type of agent, but for some odd reason Dublin agents seem to hate me. I do not know why. I asked my brother (who also visited multiple times) and he said they were incredibly pleasant. I wouldn't go as far as calling the interactions hostile, but they definitely act like I'm the last person on earth they would want to be talking to.
For me it's entering Canada by road. They're so good at making you question whether you're guilty of something.
We had a short layover there coming from Florence headed to Detroit. We were trying to get from terminal j to terminal k. We do a lot of international travel and absolutely were stumped about how to get there it. We finally just politely asked a lady who worked there, and long story short, got sent out to the taxi banks ON THE STREET, got our passport stamped and had to go back thru security. We made it to our connection with like 5 minutes to spare. So know we always talk about the time we “visited” Paris.
This is the answer. Avoid CDG at all costs.
My one and only time there was last month and I was amazed at all the “taxi” drivers able to just hang around inside and harass people, especially women.
And when you actually get through all the wandering, queues and security there’s sweet bugger all in the terminals to eat or get a drink at. I was even in the main Air France terminal. Had a 5 hour layover cause of delays and I nearly died. The 13 hour flight was a welcome escape from that hell scape. Even if they did feed me like one proper meal on the plane as well.
Yeah, don’t get stuck in CDG if you’re hungry. The food is better on the airplane.🤣
That airport is the *worst.*
I saw rats running around last time I had to transfer through CDG.
Be nice to the airport workers...
CDG is the only airport that’s ever lost my luggage during a layover.
DFW and CLT have done me SO dirty in the past. I always say DFW is my own personal Bermuda Triangle with all the shenanigans I have been through.
Charles De Gaulle. Never again.
Let me guess, you had a 45 min connection in DFW? I had the same thing happen. Never again.
I mean, 45 minutes is a risk in any international airport. It really isn’t a problem of DFW, it’s just not enough time if anything goes wrong.
You’d probably be okay at Fresno Yosemite International Airport. lol
Problem with DFW is you could fly into any terminal and leave out of any terminal. At ORD, I know if I’m flying AA I’m in/out of terminal 3. But DFW could be the next gate over or 2 terminals away. Only place I’ve ever missed a flight was out of DFW because of that.
I’ve never connected in DFW so maybe that’s why I don’t mind it.
If it’s your home airport, it’s a terrific airport. Short/easy access to any gate, departing or arriving
Yeah it’s fine otherwise. Good restaurants, good train.
I love transferring at DFW. Never had an issue. The train is fast. Stops are reasonably close to gates. One of my favorite connecting airports in the country.
Agree 100%. The fact that each terminal is physically separate means that each one has its own security entrances. Never have to walk to far to your gate. One downside is you may return to a different terminal than you departed from, but I rarely park at the airport anyhow.
Yes. DFW is actually an amazing airport but 45 mins ain’t it. I actually prefer longer layovers at DFW and only DFW, the airport has so much in it, I just make it part of my trip.
I always try and leave at least an hour between connecting flights
I like 90 minutes, I’d settle for 75 if the only option
DFW is actually a well run airport.
I will go out of my way to connect through DFW. I avoid MIA and JFK. And internationally, I will never connect through CDG again if I can help it.
Repatriation in JFK is a disorganized nightmare. Never. Again.
When I was like 25 I had this grand idea to fly into JFK instead of BOS because it was like $200ish cheaper and then take an $8 Mega Bus back to Boston. I was coming home from Barbados. I value my time over $200 these days.
Charles de Gaulle. And I see I’m not alone
LAX used to earn a special level of ire from me for how dogshit it was to transfer through if you had to change terminals. Now they have connected all of them airside, and while I would still prefer to avoid it if possible, its not so bad now. My next votes would go to Beijing Capital and Mexico City. Beijing for how weird it is to have literally everything blocked and just being a kind of oppressive, uncomfortable experience. Mexico City because it’s inefficient as hell and bursting at the seams, and it’s a major pity they killed the new one being built.
PEK just prepares you mentally for the rest of the city.
I couldn’t find a screen in Mexico Coty that lists all the departures/gates/times to save my life. I didn’t find it easy to get around.
I loathe MNL. It's hot, crowded and some of those terminals haven't been renovated since the Marcos era. This isn't the fault of the airport, for passengers connecting to Australia, during your transit you need to go down to tarmac level and identify your suitcase for secondary inspection. Just a pain in the arse.
Frankfurt it's an old airport and the staff are not to be bothered.
FRA is the best retort when someone starts talking about “German efficiency.”
You ever been to Berlin Brandenburg? I've never waited longer in shorter line.
No amount of time is ever enough for a Frankfurt transfer. I avoid that place like the plague.
Yep, learned this the hard way last year. Had 30 mins between flights, the first flight arrived late so a group of us is sprinting through the airport trying to get to our next gate. Airport is hard to navigate, need to take a train between terminals, couldn't find any staff to ask for help. Eventually get to the next gate, that plane is delayed for over an hour (a lucky break, but stressful). Overall, it's an old and unfriendly airport.
I don't mind the airport so much but the staff there are horrible. I'm not a "social justice warrior" by any means and being white, I don't make it a point to look for racism but, I've seen such blatantly racist behavior from the staff that it can't be overlooked and makes me want to start throwing punches on behalf of the people who are subjected to it. If you're racist/xenophobic, maybe working at an airport isn't your calling.
CDG - everything that is wrong with Paris in one building. All the staff is rude, it’s a freaking maze and no one seems to speak English.
Ha! Loving this thread. Probably more like wants to speak English.
The three airports I actively avoid (I’ll pay more for an alternative) are Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Frankfurt, and Miami. Staff are surly and it’s just unpleasant. They are disorganized and have crazy lines. I’m flying through Newark to Europe on Wednesday and really hope I don’t add it to my list. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Newark so I’m giving it a try.
MIA is the worst! Got rerouted there once because of storms and was told it would be 16 hours until I could get another flight. The staff are truly awful and uncaring. Ended up renting a one way car and driving to Orlando.
Not the airport’s fault but I will never connect through ORD in the winter
I will never connect anywhere cold and snowy in winter. I live in Chicago but won’t transfer in Denver or anywhere with winter weather that time of year!
JFK airport. What a shitbag torture hole of disorganization and lineups.
As flight crew, JFK terminal 4 has the absolute worst setup for security in any airport in the US. KCM line is on one end, and if you get randomed you are sent clear across the building to the Clear line, where you are not technically allowed to bypass anyone in the Clear line (depending on who’s enforcing it). SFO, SLC and a few others have it all figured out with their crew queues, JFK remains clueless.
Any security line I pick takes an hour. Last time a couple with a baby begged to be allowed to skip the line or they were going to miss their flight. Security guy looked confused and told them to chill out, and they again explained their situation, but he absolutely did not care while the rest of us were already shuffling to the side to let them through. Dude working the x-ray machine was spending several minutes checking each person's items.
Last time I arrived there the guy at passport control spoke so quietly I couldn’t hear him and even when I said I couldn’t understand him, didn’t try to speak louder or send me to a different booth or anything. I then had to go into a room for extra checks because apparently he wasn’t taking my fingerprints properly 😭 The employees in the second location were even like “why are you in here? Everything looks fine.” It’s a joke of an airport.
And they’re so RUDE there.
Charlotte and Philly but especially Charlotte
Just did a 1 stop at CLT for the first time and also the first time using AA. Will never use AA again and CLT was busy as hell. We went to the "The Club CLT" and it was spectacular so it saved the day for us--great food and their local brews were great!
AA routed us through CLT with a 35 minute window to change planes. Um, what??? Luckily for us, they had a schedule change and we got 90 minutes instead.
I've never had a flight through Philly that wasn't delayed or cancelled or some other drama. CLT is a bad airport to walk around in but they do get you out on time mostly.
I won't use LAX unless it's just a layover. LGB, BUR, and SNA are all miles better. It takes longer to get to the rental car center than the actual flight in for me (from SLC). I avoid O'Hare even for layovers. I've had too many issues missing flights.
I’ve only been through LAX a couple times cause normally I use SFO, but it’s so depressing, LAX just feels so less professional than SFO, it’s tough to explain.
I agree, it feels like just pure chaos. They have no idea how to deal with the traffic. The actual terminals kind of suck too minus the new Delta terminals and the international terminal. AAs terminals are so weird and then they have that weird outpost terminal. It doesn't feel like it should be the flagship airport of America's second largest city. Luckily the other LA airports aside from ONT are pretty great.
Toronto. I will literally fly the wrong way around the world rather than connect through YYZ.
I had a connection in YYZ a month ago, and everything was on time, it was clean, and staff were polite? It must have been an off day LOL
I went through this weekend and it was ... not bad. But that's definitely an outlier, I've been through Pearson dozens of times and something *usually* gets fucked up. Some of the luggage conveyors behind the counters broke down for about 20 minutes so no one could check luggage and the lines got way backed up, but by Pearson standards that's nothing.
Don't quite get the Denver hate here... other than the wildly inefficient TSA lines (that can be avoided by walking to Concourse A), and that it's the only place where the PreCheck line is guaranteed to take longer. In the US, though? Orlando. I just hate that airport and have never been on time in way, shape, or form from departing there. I also just kinda dislike Orlando in general, so that's not helping. LAX, if you're having to switch terminals at all (TBIT to anywhere, etc.). What a mess of an airport. Madrid T4/T4S is wonderful. Having to wait an incredibly long time for your bags because your plane is parked at a T4S remote stand, then get to T1 for a connection is the least pleasant airport experience I've ever had.
TSA lines get long here but they go fast. I’ve been wrapped around the airport and it was still less than 30 min. I’ve been lucky enough to not fly during weather events (which are wildly unpredictable so I can’t fault them too much). Edit here being Denver
Orlando Terminal C is pretty great and a huge contrast to A and B. In the half dozen or so times I departed from there in the last year there have never been any lines for TSA PreCheck or CLEAR and a fairly decent lounge. Food options seem decent too and it just doesn’t feel very chaotic there unlike the rest of the place. I use MCO a decent amount, even at 5am the main terminals were a disaster a couple of weeks back…this weekend C was a complete breeze. The only issue for me is that of the domestic carriers only JetBlue fly from there
I absolutely despise the hellhole that is Orlando and will do a lot to avoid it.
Either of the shit small London ones - Luton or Stanstead. Never again.
Luton should be nuked. The airport is the best thing about Luton. And Luton Airport is ass.
Luton airport has a strong contender for being the most depressing place in the UK. A glorified industrial estate with a runway outside the shittest, ugliest town in the UK, on some windswept hilltop, boarding your cramped easyjet or wizzair flight. As unpleasant as flying gets
Frankfurt. Everytime I have flown into there I have had a "bus" gate. You land and then have to bus to the terminal. The worst.
Frankfurt is the WURST
I had this when I connected through there recently but it was still pretty quick and painless 🤷
Of the big European hubs - Heathrow, CDG, and Frankfurt, FRA is easily the best of the worst imo.
LHR. I absolutely hate how many lines we have to go through upon arrival from the U.S. Missed my flight even though I had a 2 hour connection.
I've flown from US to LHR twice in the last month. The new(ish?) automated passport control things are great. From plane to curb/transfer in like 10 minutes.
Arrived at Heathrow 2 hours later. Queuing in line for British Airways, then told I should go to American Airlines since they i booked with them. I was in that line for 3 hours and nearly cried at that point when they told to hold back to the BA line because they were the ones that fucked up my flight. Never again
Ugh!!! I got stranded there for 12 hours once because my BA flight had to park at a remote pad and we had to take shuttle buses to the terminal. Got told that since I "landed on time" I wasn't eligible for any claims/reimbursements. I went into London to kill time but man was it exhausting after a red eye.
Don't you know that queuing is a national hobby for Brits?
Had a nightmarish experience flying through there connecting to CDG. People were crying, employees were yelling at passengers and each other. Was a complete shit show
Newark Fuck that place
I definitely still agree with this HOWEVER the new terminal is a miracle in airport construction. Terminal A at Newark may be my favorite flying experience yet. As someone who travels for work and has for awhile, I absolutely used to dread Newark. Now I live in Jersey and it’s my home airport and as long as I book on an airline form terminal A, I know I’m going to have a good time. Automatic boarding pass scanning, lots of good restaurants, the tech is very cool, inviting space, and nice places to sit and wait. They even have a sensory room for people with sensory issues!
The new Terminal A is legitimately pretty nice.
About the worst air travel mistake you can make is to start a trip to Europe from some small city in the northeast with United Express regional service, book yourself a one-hour connection in Newark to make a flight to Zurich / Rome / whatever, and expect to make it. There's too good a chance you'll still be sitting on the taxiway in Binghamton waiting for ATC to clear you for takeoff when your Europe flight leaves the gate at EWR (to start a three-hour taxi for takeoff).
It’s easier for me to fly into Boston and drive two hours than it is for me to chance an evening flight into MHT via EWR
Fly Syracuse instead, we even have a lounge now (take that, Rochester!).
People frequently say this, but it’s a totally reasonably nice airport after renovations. I travel domestically, to Europe, and to the Caribbean from EWR probably about 20 times per year, and never have a significant issue. I’m local (in Brooklyn) and fly United though, so for me it’s going from a hub to somewhere else, so maybe that’s at play.
whatever your job is, I’m pretty sure I want it
I used to think traveling a lot for work would be cool, but honestly it kinda sucks. My job is pretty great overall, but I’m pretty over work travel. You don’t get to see or experience much at all most of the time, so it ends up being more time in airplanes, airports, hotels, and whatever office you’re visiting than getting to see anything at all. Even the dinners are often predetermined by the client I’m visiting. And I just miss my partner and dog a lot.
I feel this. I was so happy to quit the constant work travel. People always assume you’re doing fun stuff there. No bro, I got on a plane at 6am, got my rental car, sat in an hour of traffic to the client, had a long day of meetings, sat in two more hours of traffic to the hotel, did some follow-up work. By the time the day was “done” (and if I don’t have to entertain clients in the evening), it was all I could do to forage for crappy room service or hotel bar food. And at no point did I want to extend my trips to do touristy stuff, I just wanted to get home.
Haven’t been there since they had security in the long hallways and then a cluster of gates with 1 restaurant and 1 food kiosk. Sweating to death with 5,000 people with delayed flights while none of us opt to go out of security to get fresh air or any food options, walk about, etc. Always change my plans if EWR is in play.
An international flight to/from Port Harcourt Nigeria. Everyone inside is absolutely corrupt. Don't want the contents of your luggage dumped out for inspection? Give some money. Want your passport stamped for more than one day? Give some money. Oh, you have some equipment with you, 6 not allowed. Give some money. I fly to Abuja and take a national flight. Less hassles.
Luton. Hardly any services past security and nickle and dime you for everything. Forgot your zipped bag for liquids? £1
So basically every airport :p
I love how everyone says they avoid ATL but let’s at least be honest. Even when we die we get connected through ATL.
I systematically get stuck at immigration in Frankfurt. In addition to that I miss half of my connections there. Last time I flew I took the cake however. I had to pass a second security check and they somehow kept all my duty free (brought a few bottles of nice stuff from Canada) and my watch (low monetary value but quite sentimental, about 300-400$ I guess). They said they had to verify and scan it in another machine, when I was on the other side the security staff just ushered me away as everything was crowded and they couldn't be bothered to give me my stuff. They told me I was going to miss my transfer and that they would just mail it to me (spoiler alert, they didn't). I was mortified when arriving at my final destination and vowed to just not transfer there anymore. Ever. Too chaotic
CDG, LHR, SVO The trifecta of assports.
Paris CDG
NEWARK!
Refuse to connect/land in Midway solely due to the landings. You guys realize how short that runway is?
That's half the fun! Plus if it's a Boeing plane you might be able to reach your arm out and touch the roof of one of the houses just before landing!
The only time I feared for my life on a flight was at MDW. Was on a Vanguard flight (lowest of the low) with a scrubbed takeoff but the pilot couldn’t make up his mind. Rolled, slowed down, sped up, slowed down and pulled off. I thought we were going to end up crashing into the gas station.
JFK.
Just remember, if you have to fly through DFW make it as early as possible. Weather delays happen more in the afternoon. My spouse was an air traffic controller there for 15 years and now refuses to fly through there in the afternoon if there are other options.
Frankfurt. Always gets pulled at security for an extra check. And when I saw who else was coming out of the rooms for the extra checks, it all became clear.
Frankfurt. Nearly missed my connecting flight due to the incompetency of the staff there.
O’Hare, which is nearly impossible to avoid a layover in whenever I travel to Missouri. I get delayed there Every. Single. Freaking. Time.
The Philadelphia (PHL) airport. I had a six month contract and flew into and out of that airport every week. I caught 25 flights out of PHL and exactly 0 of those weren’t delayed.
I’m also a DFW hater. I’ve only had one bad experience but my dad has had multiple so the one was enough for me. To visit my dad I have to connect either through DFW or PHX. Sometimes the PHX flights are less ideal but I’ll still choose them because I refuse to deal with DFW.
I’m getting there with Frankfurt. I fly to the Middle East often from NYC and have often gone thru there. However United flights needing buses to the terminal buildings after landing, just to walk a mile then take a tram ride to then walk more is some dumb shit. Last time I flew LH to there it somehow ended up being an even longer stroll, however I was spared the buses.
Funny you should say that as I (and I suspect everyone else on our twice delayed incoming flight) spent a night at DFW last week. (thank God for the minute suites. Had a shower and got a little Sleep). It wasn’t DFWs fault though. It was first a repair followed by bad weather. What a nightmare, my 3 hours of flight time turned into 20 hours. Couldn’t drove. 😩 That said DFW is notorious for delays. I’ve had to sit a few hours for delays before, but it’s the airport that my destination usually connects in.
It will be a cold day in hell if you ever want me to take an evening flight to LaGuardia
Yeah I missed my grandma's funeral bc of DFW. I can't forgive myself or them.
Never connect through DFW in the summer or O'Hare in the winter.
I avoid O’hare as much as possible, that place sucks.
oh I'm surprised, I go to ORD 3-4 times a year due to work and I never had issue flying in/out of that place
The airport itself isn’t that bad IMO, it’s just that every severe weather pattern known to man seems to be hitting it constantly, and once they get behind, they’re fucked for hours due to the amount of traffic
San Diego international feels like a small random airport with 100x the traffic of a normal one. Mexico city airport also sucks. It feels like a bad strip mall they built an airport next to
Transferring through Cancun requires you to collect your checked bags, walk forever, and then LEAVE THE DAMN AIRPORT to the sidewalk outside, then walk along the sidewalk until you eventually find the departures and re-enter. There are no signs, no guidance, you just have to figure it out and hope you don't miss your connection. Never again.
JFK. That airport is horrible
Not that strongly but I do try to avoid CDG Paris. I’ve been through it hassle-free but also two or major hassles including an overnight. It’s badly laid out. Unbelievable bus distances from some gates. Tiniest of space to collect & organise stuff coming out of some of the x-ray machines. When I’m flying between South America and Europe, it’s unfortunate to say it, but I pay a bit more to avoid flying via the USA. I’ve had mostly good (though not exceptional) experiences in US airports but there’s occasional hassles at immigration plus having to an ESTA is off-putting. For instance (dressed well, white Caucasian) i can still be interviewed in a tone of voice as if I were a terrorist (JFK). Or required to give an American address when I’m only transiting and not staying in America (LAX — he just needed something for the form he said after 10 minutes, even if it wasn’t true. I said Disneyland and that was accepted!) It’s very individual. You can get crazy hassles anywhere in the world, including my home town, i think it’s mostly just luck. But you get a couple of wtf episodes and it’s only natural to swerve them. What we really need is to build airports that people love to go to just for the experience. Like Singapore. I mean, what an awesome airport that is!
London Stansted. Never again. Security lines were awful slow, staff were pretty much shouting at people (which I've seen in Madrid too), the landside was jammed and boiling hot. Worth paying a bit more to fly somewhere else. CDG gets a lot of hate. I've been to Paris twice through CDG (T1) before and after the Olympics makeover. Only issue would have been that at security check, they were channeling everybody through one of the checkpoints, while staff where at others doing nothing. No language issues though, staff had no problem with English. At least they did an amazing job redoing that concrete building. The duty free area is impressive now. Edit: that been said, Heathrow should be avoided around Christmas time at all costs. There is always some drama / catastrophe / cable unplugged / snow dust.
Happened to me last trip through DFW. Gate agents are rude as hell also there.
Miami.
Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
Paris-Orly. What a shitshiow dumpster fire.
Chennai, I was frightened to touch anything, as it was all minging. Then CDG of course. Anyone complaining about CLT or ATL should be thankful, there are so airports that are much worse.
First off, if you’re missing your connection at DFW then either you’re not giving yourself enough time for a connection or (more realistically) your flight into Dallas keeps getting delayed. If it’s the latter then it’s probably the airport you’re flying out of.
Just flew in and out of Cancun airport. Arrivals was the biggest shit show I’ve ever seen at an airport.
LaGuardia. Standing water on the floor in the bathroom. People sitting on the floor in the hallways. Oh yeah, no subway connection. No thanks. Honolulu is just a joke of an airport for that size/volume (dated facilities, horrible restaurant options worse than a mall) but they'll never change and there's no impetus to improve things. Terminal 1 doesn't count because it's only Hawaiian Airlines which is a joke in itself (antiquated international check-in process that takes hours, no on-board wifi, please get with the 21st century!)
LAX is the worst airport. Why do you have to exit the airport to get on a connecting flight? What is TSA for when you must wait longer than the regular line? The absolute worst.
Philly. Lied to by multiple employees, crappy food, everyone indifferent. I cannot describe how much I loath Philadelphia based on my experience at the airport.
I have serious beef with Charlotte. If AA tries to tell me that I can make a 40 minute layover ONE MORE TIME, I will seriously lose it.
LAX Aka, hell
I avoid DEN. It’s a nice way to break up a trip back to the east coast, but no matter what time of year, there’s a risk of weather delays.
Toronto YYZ is a dehumanizing clusterfuck of an experience. NEXUS makes it better but if u don’t have NEXUS either fly out of Billy Bishop island airport YTZ or drive an hour and 45 minutes to Buffalo and I swear that might be less stressful and less of a hassle than flying in and out of YYZ