I can’t believe Miami isn’t on the list. Depart plane, go though baggage claim, drag all your luggage clear across airport to customs where lines are extraordinary and everyone reeks of coconut/bananna oil, convince them there’s nothing hidden in your butt, tote luggage clear back across airport to check in, wait, then board connecting flight. MIA is a PITA.
Agreed. Whoever designed that airport probably never actually flew internationally.
The worst one I’ve been to is San Jose, California. It’s a big airport with all the amenities of an airport in a podunk town. Good luck finding anything to eat once you’re past security.
I haven’t been in most of those airports. But I’ve been in a few.
Heathrow? Haven’t been in years. I don’t remember it being so much worse than anywhere else.
Charles de Gaulle? Awful, but it’s been a while. Maybe they’ve improved.
Dubai isn’t an airport, it’s a shopping mall that allows planes to park there. Maybe that’s why some people like it, I don’t know.
Suvarnabhumi is pretty good. I’ve been there quite recently, and aside from the long, long walk from passport control to the gate, nothing really struck me as bad. Not too crowded, everything worked as it should.
LAX struck me as OK. Nothing special either way.
Let me put in a vote for JFK as a clusterfuck. It’s impossible to get to from the city without spending tons of money and/or time. Nothing works. Recently I returned from an overseas trip. I needed to make a phone call. My cell phone had been in my suitcase for a week, and the battery was dead. No problem, this is an airport. I can use a pay phone. Yeah, right. And the concessions there are run by thieves. Everything, from a candy bar to a meal, costs at least twice as much as it would outside the airport.
That’s not the first I’ve read about Philly on the SDMB. I’ve also hear that the ambient air temperature is balmy, the water coming out of the bathroom taps is scalding, and there are mice running around.
My experience there was rather pleasant, with the exception that the only restaurant was in an adjoining hotel. And the service there was so slow that I almost missed my connecting flight.
O’Hare. It’s a horrible airport. I’m shocked that you haven’t had any delays out of O’Hare, as it is consistently ranked at one of the airports with the most serious delay problems. More than one-third of flights out of O’Hare were delayed in 2008.
Yeah, but honestly, I have to judge airports in less developed countries by a slightly different standard. I mean, the Lamu Airport in Kenya features two grass huts, a meat scale to weigh you and your bags, no electricity, and a brick shithouse that masquerades as a “Duty Free Store.”
By the same means, I had to cut Nairobi’s airport some slack. Just because it takes 3 hours to drive 5 miles in the traffic to and from the airport, well, I’m a little more tolerant of that than Charles de Gaulle’s stupid bus system linking the terminals.
I know, I keep hearing that and seeing stats so it has to be true, but the only delays I’ve ever experienced there have been weather-related. And not the “oh, the plane is delayed by weather, yeah, that’s it…” placating lies, but the “I’m sitting in the terminal at O’Hare watching lightning hit the tarmac/seeing hugely gusting winds” type of weather delay. Or the type where the piped-in TV shows weather maps with big-ass ugly storms over the area that the incoming plane should be going through.
Well, OK, at the end of the “lightning hitting the tarmac” one, we did all (hours later) pile onto the plane, new flight crew and pilots included - they’d all been sitting with us waiting for that plane to get through/around the inclement weather - and after boarding we got another delay. The pilot (with obvious frustration in his voice) announced that he’d been assured the plane had no issues when it was handed off, but there was some moisture discovered between a couple windows, and it had to be checked to see if it was OK to fly. (It was.) Added maybe 15 minutes on top of the hours we had to wait.
I like how Heathrow and Frankfurt Intl. managed to make both lists. Appearently they suck, but we love them!
Hm, I’ve only been to a few of those airports. My least favorites are:
JFK - worst designed airport…ever.
London Gatwick - based on a single terrible incident that made me want to punch a lot of people in the face.
Mumbai Int’l Airport (Chhatrapati Shivaji) - makes passengers go through security TWICE, not enough seats for waiting passengers, overall a miserable, loathsome place.
I know where to get those things and it still sucks. Their lounges are okay, but they don’t seem to understand central heating or cooling. It is hot in the summer and cold in the winter and you sweat all the time due to the humidity.
Random security checks even within the same wing of the airport. The worst buses on the planet if you happen to get stuck without a gate. Yes, people can sit down in them assuming you don’t have carry-on then it is a pain in the neck.
I tried to use the web terminals they have everywhere in the airport. Other than the cost (I assume they think only millionaires come through their airport) I wanted to do a simple thing like send an email. So, I type friends address eg. xxx_xxxx@xxx.com. Or I at least try to type it in except I can’t find the damn @ key. Is there some weird German equivalent? Never could find it, but luckily I was able to reply to the person from an email I received earlier. I managed to hit send just as my time ran out. International airport? Hardly.
It was the best of airports, it was the worst of airports…
I don’t understand how Prague’s Franz Kafka International Airport is not on the list. I mean, gate B27 is in the F terminal!
Wouldn’t those be Heathrow and Charles de Gaule?
I wasn’t terribly impressed with SFO. That shuttle train thingy is confusing as hell, and it took me forever to get through security. I almost missed my flight.
Dubai airport has highs and lows.
Usually getting through there is a breeze, but the people working there can be rude or just plain stupid.
Passport control people, all local Emiraties, are the single rudest people on the planet. I have an e-gate card that needs renewing on a relatively regular basis due to their crappy computer system. Can the guy at the e-gate desk do it? Nope, he doesn’t even tell you why it doesn’t work let alone do anything to fix it. He just waves at you to get lost!
So, you go up to the e-gate office. The women working there are the most slothful people you’re likely to meet. I don’t mind rude and efficient. I hate rude and lazy. It takes them hours sometimes to get a few people processed. I’ve watched them. It isn’t because the job is hard or requires a whole bunch of work to do. They are just slow.
Otherwise, you can scream through customs. Get what you want to buy quickly and they have good restaurants that take credit cards (which is hit and miss in Frankfurt)
I’ve flown in and out of O’Hare at least a hundred and fifty times and I don’t understand why people complain about it so much. It doesn’t seem to me to have any more delays than any other big airport. As has already been suggested; it’s likely just that lots of people fly through it and don’t see a lot of other airports. It’s telling that the OP’s list cites Heathrow as being both liked and hated; that’s just a product of familiarity.
The worst big city airports I’ve ever been to are Logan and JFK. I can’t believe that anyone who says O’Hare is the worst has ever been to Logan. I can name ten big airports that are way worse than O’Hare without even thinking very hard about it: JFK, La Guardia, Philly, Reagan National, LAX, SFO (why is the rental car place seven hundred miles from the terminals?), Houston Intercontinental, Honolulu, Phoenix Sky Harbor, and BWI. Dulles was bad to the point of being malicious, though allegedly it’s been fixed since I was there last.
Heathrow T5 is pretty slick apart from the rude security.
LAX I agree is a total hole however I have also been in an lot worse - Hassi Messaoud Algeria, Soyo Angola, Pointe Noire Congo…plus many many others but I had my worst experience in O’Hare trying to catch a connection where there were no signs for how to get to the terminal or any food/drinks after security etc
I fly in and out of Paris CDG all the time for work right now and it is tolerable only if you are flying Air France out of 2F…anything else forget it ugly, disorganised, badly signposted, poor amenities, long security lines, baggage taking over an hour to come out, long passport control lines when 17 flights land and only 1 person is checking passports I could go on and one…Only good thing is the attached train (SNCF & RER) station so you can get cheaply into Paris in 45 mins
Logan is indeed bad. I guess I’m just used to it. But I think how bad depends on which terminal.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who detests Logan. I have a friend who lives maybe 15 minutes from Logan (if traffic is kind), and a number of times, my husband and I booked into Manchester NH and went for the 45 minute drive (in good traffic) in preference to dealing with Logan again. I gather the Delta (?) terminal is all right at Logan but apparently United gets the “we don’t care if you fly through here” treatment along with whatever other airlines share that terminal. Plus last I recall, they took the Sam Adams bar out of that terminal. 
One of the few decent things about being there.
Manchester NH’s airport is awesome. It’s this tiny little airport, less than 20 gates. Not only do they have free WiFi, but after you go to the car rental desks inside the airport, you just walk across a crosswalk to a parking garage and pick up your car right there.
He lives 500 feet from Logan? That must suck!
Ah, Logan. Someone once described it as “a landfill wrapped around an enigma.”
I’ve only been to a handful but Laguardia is easily the worst. Seriously reminded me of when I took Greyhound regularly.
I just flew in and out of Burbank a couple weeks ago. Very enjoyable, but I could see that place being awful during special events or holidays.