Worst airport in the U.S.? The rest of the world?

In My Humble Opinion
81

It’s a wonder you weren’t on the failed takeoff attempt! Geez.

Because of an unpleasant flying experience in 1973, I didn’t fly for the next thirty years. But eventually I decided that I wanted to return to Europe. Nashville no longer has direct flights to Europe. So I booked a flight out of…

…Philadelphia, of course. So I don’t have a lot of recent airport experience. I came to this thread specifically to see if this cesspool of endless, wallboard corridors and sawdust is standard fare in American airports or if Philly really is as horrid as I think.

When I saw it last in 1972, the airport looked nothing like this – except for the molded plastic chairs that koeeoaddi has attested to. Now I walked for a couple of miles without seeing anyone other than my pack animal/granddaughter. Two or three times someone on a wonderful jeep-like thing with wheels came by and waved. I tried to call to them, but they were gone and we slouched on. At least we made it to our gate with lots of time to spare. Oh yes. Lots and lots of time.

Put when we finally landed in Europe, we had another surprise coming. Ah, Paris! Ah, CDG! Ah, where is the women’s restroom? This is not a good airport where an old woman has to use the bathroom in a room full of men.

Best airport? A memory from 1972: Schipol, Amsterdam. The people made such good use of the land that they planted crops between the runways. Do they still do that?

A good airport tip for private pilots: Bangor, Maine has a small airport with an especially long runway.

82

Pittsburgh has always been my favorite. The layout is nice. The city has a law against price gouging at the airport, so if you buy a meal, or a drink, you pay the same price as you do anywhere else in the city.

And there are endless selections of shops, bars, and restaurants on the secure side of the terminal. And, until THIS year, they allowed smoking sections in the bars and restaurants so I didn’t have to put up with my wigged out travelling companions either Jonesing for a smoke or having to walk 17 miles back through security to get their fix.

I understand that PIT is now completely smoke-free, but the whole world will be in 10 years, so that’s why my smoking friends need to start quitting now…

83

Heathrow sucks, IMO. Dingy, badly run, dirty, long lines for security. Just dreadful all round.

Don Muang, the old Bangkok airport in Thailand is a horrible place too - though the new one at Suvarnabhumi is amazing.

Worst US? I nominate O’Hare, mainly because I had to stand in line for three entire hours just to get through immigration. I didn’t have a cellphone, and I didn’t know the person waiting for me, and had no way to get her a message. Assholes.

84

Absolutely! I flew out to see a good friend of mine who lives in Colorado Springs last year and really liked the airport.

I also love the new Pgh Airport. I used to live about an hour from Pittsburgh and flew out of it a couple of times. Nicely done airport.

My vote for worst airport goes to Geo. Bush Int’l in Houston. No air conditioning or poor A/C, bathrooms are iffy and it just has this weird vibe about it that I didn’t like.

85

In the early 90s, I flew into and out of John Wayne airport in Orange County CA, quite a few times. The airport itself was lovely - small (only 14 gates IIRC), you never had very far to walk, and you didn’t have to take shuttles to the car rental places either (a niceness shared by the Providence RI airport, which I highly recommend as an alternative to Logan).

The landings were fine also.

However, takeoffs were… interesting.

See, there were “noise abatement procedures” in effect, which were (I think) designed to minimize the noise suffering by all the wealthy folks in the neighborhood. A plane would take off at full force. Then after a few seconds, it seemed like they SHUT THE ENGINES OFF. As in, you could no longer feel any thrust, and it was reasonably to look at the window to see if you were indeed plummeting from the skies. The second or third time I flew out of that airport, the pilot actually got on the speaker and explained what was going on (the engines were NOT being shut off, but the pilots did have to cut the power to the engines substantially. The pilot strongly encouraged us to write our congressbeings to get the regs changed, as they felt this was a safety hazard.

You know it’s bad when the pilots admit to a safety hazard :eek: .

86

Best: Portland, OR. Long Term parking a five minute walk to the terminals, a nice lounge with fireplaces and a Huston’s steakhouse and a sushi bar…all outside security so you can hang out if you’re picking up someone that was delayed. Not so far away as to be baffling, (c.f. Denver, DFW), friendly employees, quick security lines, easy access to public transportation (MAX line lets you out right there). It’s a pleasure.

Worst: Logan. It’s really a no-brainer.

Best Int’l: New Zealand.

Worst Int’l. Puerto Rico.

87

And parking is pretty convenient. I love this airport. Too bad the flights tend to be pricey.

88

Definitely a matter of taste. I’ve always liked Don Muang. The new Suvarnabhumi is riddled with problems, including large cracks in the runway that appeared before and after opening on September 28 of last year. Lots of other problems. The prime minister who was ousted in last year’s military coup saw the coup coming and applied much pressure to have it opened on his watch. Didn’t work, as the army kicked him out nine days before it opened, but in adition to corruption, the rush resulted in even more slipshod work. The usual corruption you find here meant a large portion of the money – maybe most – meant for construction went into private pockets, and so now besides the cracks that periodically shut down some of the runways, you have inadequate numbers of toilets, the ones they do have are often out of order, inadequate security has resulted in a number of late-night rapes and at least one death of a pregnant duty-free-shop worker who was hospitalized after being gang-raped there late at night by construction workers. The list goes on.

They reopened the old Don Muang Airport in March to handle the overflow, because the new airport could not handle both international and domestic flights like it had been designed to do, once again because of the money that had been diverted.

The new Suvarnabhumi is much farther from the city, too, and it’s more difficult to get a taxi to take you all the way out there.

89

I’ve gotta nominate Columbia, South Carolina for the best small airport. It’s a small airport and designed as such. They eliminated a lot of little frustrations. It has only one concourse and, what, 6 or 7 jetways on the upper level for jets and a few doors on the ground level for small planes. These are arranged in a circle. On the upper level in the center of the circle are a few eateries so you’re not far from food and drink. On the outer wall is a set of large, comfortable, well-marked bathrooms. No squeezing by everyone to get to a stall or urinal. There are a number of desks big enough to open up the laptop, legal pad, and other stuff right there in the concourse. The desks have electrical outlets and, if I remember correctly, WiFi. The desk, electricity, and WiFi are free. In the observation area, there are large rocking chairs perfect for watching the planes.

Between the terminal and concourses is the predictable hallway. The surprises are the people movers installed between them and the reflecting ponds just outside the windows. Pass through security and you pass yet another set of bathrooms in the wide atrium containing more rocking chairs, palmetto trees, and skylights. Not all that depressing institutional blah like so many other airports. There is more shopping out there, too. Down the short escalators to the luggage carousel you’ll find the rental car desks. Yesss! Stand in line for the car and watch for luggage at the same time. I don’t have to waste time shuttling back and forth between them. Between the building and the car lot is a large reflecting pond with waterfall. It’s very relaxing after the stresses of air travel.

The security agents seem to have the southern charm down. They’re pretty relaxed in general and fairly efficient, too.

Rochester, NY, is also a good small airport. I don’t remember many specifics about it, but it left a great impression.

Both major airports in Alaska are pretty bad, but the one in Fairbanks should be used for target practice by the local Air Force base. It’s the antithesis of Columbia. It’s a small airport that’s built to be a big airport. It’s an extremely long but narrow building. That means a long walk from the rental car lot to the ticketing counters, then up the escalator to security, unless it’s backed up and the line’s turned into a throbbing mass of people. There’s one gift shop and a restaurant behind security, both of which seem to be closed during one of the most popular flight times (the 1:30 am flight). The bathrooms are small and ugly. Larry Craig wouldn’t need to claim a wide stance to accidentally tap someone else’s foot. The concourse probably was pretty 30 or 40 years ago, but is now tired and dirty. I’m stopping now because I could go on and on. That place is seriously yucko.

I must praise the security staff, though. Numerous times I’d been “chosen” for extra scrutiny and they were always professional yet friendly.

90

I am surprised more people haven’t mentioned LAX as the worst airport evah. That place is a nightmare. I had a delayed flight there coming back from Tokyo on my way to Denver, and it was abso-frickin-lutely awful. The place is dirty, stuffy, cramped, poor layout, etc. etc. Maybe there are parts of the airport that are nice, but what I saw sucked donkey balls.

Detroit is ugly, although I havent had too many issues there in the way of delays. It is definitely a ghetto airport though with the exception of the NWA terminal which is actually the complete opposite. And really, if I had to spend a few hours in a terminal waiting on a flight, there arent too many places I would rather be than the NWA terminal in Detroit. Lots of restaurants and stores. Very open and bright.

I am originally from Denver, so DIA is still probably my favorite airport. Yes, it is a bit of a drive from downtown. But it is big and sprawling and there always seems to be no one there, even in the middle of the holidays. I have flown there many times on so-called worst travelling days of the year and have never had any problems at all. And as far as snow goes, yes if it snows 3 feet there are going to be problems. But I flew from Denver to Houston on business during a normal snowstorm, and the delays caused by de-icing the plane were minimal.

I have heard DFW mentioned as a bad airport, but I have really grown to love it. I live in Dallas now, and the fact that I can walk about 100 feet from my car to my GATE is pretty amazing. It does take some getting used to, because all the signs for exit ramps are pretty abrupt. You really need to be paying close attention to keep from getting lost. But once you have it figured out, you really begin to appreciate the way they designed everything. As far as dirty bathrooms are concerned, which someone mentioned, I have not ever seen that. Perhaps it was previously an issue that has since been corrected.

91

I know the OP didn’t ask for best airports, but several posters have nominated faves anyway. So I just thought I’d add a mention for Singapore airport. I would quite happily vacation for a few days right there, in the airport itself. It has everything you want, nothing you don’t, it’s all pleasant and parts of it are actually beautiful (they have small oases and landscaped ponds and stuff). Plus it’s one very well-run airport that has been very well thought out and designed from the passenger’s point of view.

Worst? Well, Bali in Indonesia has an international airport and also a smaller one for domestic/internal flights. The smaller one is not a particularly pleasant experience. There’s nothing there except a room, a guy at a desk and a few armed guards wandering around smoking cigarettes. It’s hot, stuff and uncomfortable, with no facilities at all to speak of. And the planes they use are all ancient old bone shakers nearing the end of their viable life.

I see at least one poster has nominated London Stansted, and it does come in for more than its fair share of moans and complaints. I think the airport itself isn’t so bad, there are decent facilties and so forth. However, it does seem to have appalling problems in terms of passenger processing. The lines to check in seem to move agonisingly slowly, which can really stress you out and make you think you’re going to miss your flight. The security / X-ray zap process is also maddeningly slow and erratic. And when you have got through all that, their announcements are weirdly prone to going from ‘Await instructions / No information’ to ‘Final Boarding Call!!!’ without any intervening stages.

Copenhagen airport is a successful, busy, thriving airport that is in all respects perfectly pleasant and enjoyable to use. They just have one nasty trick: no tannoy announcements. You have to check the written board info or else you haven’t a clue what’s going on.

92

They all suck.

93

Sometimes? SFO has about the third worst on-time record, while Oakland across the Bay has one of the best. Luckily Oakland is easier for me to get to. SFO is nicer inside, though. They both are better than San Jose, which is too small and too crowded. Not to mention the gate for the long term parking is about a mile from the parking, and it all is way far from the airport or anything else for that matter.

I used to live half way between Newark and Philly,. and preferred Philly since it was easier for me to get to - especially since long term parking was on my side of the airport. Inside is a mess.

I like Reagan, since I can always use the Metro to get to and from it, and since it has some nice stores and food. Exciting landings are a plus in my book. Not as exciting as San Diego, though. My father’s lawyers office was about at eye level with the pilots of planes coming in.

But I’ll go with the Logan haters. Luckily when I used to go there I could take 1, but it’s bad to get to, hard to get out from, cramped and dirty. When I was in college, and took the T to the Eastern shuttle, it was okay, but they haven’t seemed to have vacuumed it since then.

As for the new Denver - they seem to have neglected food I want to eat. Pittsburg is far better.

94

It would be OK for locals, for for those of us who rent cars there it’s a nightmare. Two reasons: the distance from the terminals to the rental center, and the fact that the signage around DFW for rental cars / returns, etc. SUCKS. You would NEVER know, driving west on the 635, that easily the best way to return a rental car is to head SW on the George Bush and get off on (IIRC) Northgate.

95

Yeah, the new Northwest terminal at DTW is really nice. Nobody around here uses any other terminal if they can help it.

You might be interested to learn that DTW is building a new terminal to replace the dingy old Smith and Berry Terminals.

96

Any airport that’s so shitty that they had to send in commandos to attack it must really suck.