Best and Worst Airports
- Thread starter LiveForTheLaunch
- Start date
Considering I only started flying in 2010, I've been to a fair few airports.
Gatwick
Heathrow
Stansted
Luton
Birmingham
Gothenburg Landvetter
Geneva
Frankfurt Hahn
Eindhoven
Verona
Rome Ciampino
Barcelona El Prat
Hamburg
Paris Charles de Gaulle
Amsterdam Schipol
Billund
Madrid
Copenhagen
Helsinki
Boston Logan International
Richmond
Chicago
Toronto Pearson
I really like Heathrow out the UK airports. Although they do need to invest in some Weatherspoons and fast food outlets. But it's usually pain free. Quick security - really like T5s, how it doesn't feel like such an important part. Really good selection of shops too.
Luton really is the worst one in the UK I've flown from. Such a horrid tacky airport! Stansted and Birmingham get honourable mentions too. Stansted is crowded and Birmingham just awful. That's why I tend to fly from London lol!
Noteable others I like are Toronto, Amsterdam and Barcelona!
Rome Ciampino and Frankfurt Hahn are just as awful as Luton!!
Sent from my Sony Tablet S using Tapatalk 4
Gatwick
Heathrow
Stansted
Luton
Birmingham
Gothenburg Landvetter
Geneva
Frankfurt Hahn
Eindhoven
Verona
Rome Ciampino
Barcelona El Prat
Hamburg
Paris Charles de Gaulle
Amsterdam Schipol
Billund
Madrid
Copenhagen
Helsinki
Boston Logan International
Richmond
Chicago
Toronto Pearson
I really like Heathrow out the UK airports. Although they do need to invest in some Weatherspoons and fast food outlets. But it's usually pain free. Quick security - really like T5s, how it doesn't feel like such an important part. Really good selection of shops too.
Luton really is the worst one in the UK I've flown from. Such a horrid tacky airport! Stansted and Birmingham get honourable mentions too. Stansted is crowded and Birmingham just awful. That's why I tend to fly from London lol!
Noteable others I like are Toronto, Amsterdam and Barcelona!
Rome Ciampino and Frankfurt Hahn are just as awful as Luton!!
Sent from my Sony Tablet S using Tapatalk 4
Rach said:
It's not a case of the airports investing in them, but whether those companies want to pay the rent and other charges that the airport asks for.
Heathrow will charge a hell of a lot more than, say, Liverpool, which has plenty of cheap food and drink chains.
Places like Boots and WH Smith often make a loss with their airport branches, but see them as essential for brand recognition as everyone expects to see them.
Wetherspoons is still going to be more expensive at an airport than on the high street.
Besides i'd rather pay a bit more for Gordon Ramsey's Plane Food in T5 than sit in a manky pub setting with piss-soaked cushions. Genuinely don't know what people find so attractive about pubs where incontinent old alcoholics go and spend 12 hours of their day.
Besides i'd rather pay a bit more for Gordon Ramsey's Plane Food in T5 than sit in a manky pub setting with piss-soaked cushions. Genuinely don't know what people find so attractive about pubs where incontinent old alcoholics go and spend 12 hours of their day.
rtotheizzo17
Hyper Poster
Good most of the time:
Tampa, FL
Orlando, FL
Sanford, FL
Huntsville, AL
OK most of the time:
Birmingham AL,
Nasvhille, TN
Hartford, CT
Burbank, CA
Richmond, VA
Norfolk, VA
Baltimore, MD
Chicago Midway, IL
Crap most of the time:
LAX, CA
Atlanta, GA
Clearwater/St. Pete, FL
Dallas/Ft Worth, TX
JFK, NY
Tampa, FL
Orlando, FL
Sanford, FL
Huntsville, AL
OK most of the time:
Birmingham AL,
Nasvhille, TN
Hartford, CT
Burbank, CA
Richmond, VA
Norfolk, VA
Baltimore, MD
Chicago Midway, IL
Crap most of the time:
LAX, CA
Atlanta, GA
Clearwater/St. Pete, FL
Dallas/Ft Worth, TX
JFK, NY
PeskyTrimBrake
Hyper Poster
Best:
EGLL London Heathrow
KSFO San Francisco
CYYZ Montreal
EGLL London Heathrow
KSFO San Francisco
CYYZ Montreal
PeskyTrimBrake
Hyper Poster
Re: RE: Best and Worst Airports
Denver airport's runways have a suspicious layout
Really Creepy
http://gizmodo.com/5807582/proof-that-denver-airport-is-one-of-the-most-evil-places-on-earth
tomahawKSU said:
Denver airport's runways have a suspicious layout
Really Creepy
http://gizmodo.com/5807582/proof-that-denver-airport-is-one-of-the-most-evil-places-on-earth
Mysterious Sue
Strata Poster
My favourite airports are those that are small and give you the least faff. Nice therefore wins (I just walked through an open passport control with no one around). Malta was also fairly hassle free. The worst was definitely Miami where I felt like I was being interrogated on a murder charge.
In terms of building, I think Bangkok's large airport wins. Beijing's is also quite epic. Milan's additional shed building is a definite worst.
In terms of building, I think Bangkok's large airport wins. Beijing's is also quite epic. Milan's additional shed building is a definite worst.
^ I despise Malta airport having spent every morning for nearly a week there due to the Icelandic volcano that went off a few years ago! :lol:
Today's experience has reminded me how crap Bangalore airport is too. As usual we were given landing cards on-board the aircraft to fill in before passport control. None of my group had a pen on us (Ok, our fault) and rather than bother other passengers/crew we knew they would have spare at passport control to fill the forms in then, simple and shouldn't delay too much.
Well it turns out they do have the facilities, however only 1 pen for people to use and no staff around to ask for extra! So we had to join a queue to share the use of this single pen, burdenous! Not ideal when you have a fully loaded Boeing 777 coming in. Passport control was pretty standard but long queues due to slow staff taking 2 mins+ to process each person, more if they had a complicated visa/passport arrangement!
Once through passport control, you had to queue again to show someone that you still had your passport, never seen that before, just more time wasted.
You then had to go through security again to get out of the airport! No staff gave a damn as everybody was setting the alarm off, but they only had 1 security gate open for the whole of arrivals so more precious time wasted as a few hundred people cram through a single security bag check.
By this point our hold baggage had been trundling around by itself for over an hour, so it was removed from the belt by staff and hidden on the other side of baggage reclaim without anyone to inform us! We then had to join the queue to prove the bags were ours before collection!
One final queue to get through customs and we were free! Horrendous arrival mixed with an airport that is mostly still a construction site is a pretty bad combination!
Today's experience has reminded me how crap Bangalore airport is too. As usual we were given landing cards on-board the aircraft to fill in before passport control. None of my group had a pen on us (Ok, our fault) and rather than bother other passengers/crew we knew they would have spare at passport control to fill the forms in then, simple and shouldn't delay too much.
Well it turns out they do have the facilities, however only 1 pen for people to use and no staff around to ask for extra! So we had to join a queue to share the use of this single pen, burdenous! Not ideal when you have a fully loaded Boeing 777 coming in. Passport control was pretty standard but long queues due to slow staff taking 2 mins+ to process each person, more if they had a complicated visa/passport arrangement!
Once through passport control, you had to queue again to show someone that you still had your passport, never seen that before, just more time wasted.
You then had to go through security again to get out of the airport! No staff gave a damn as everybody was setting the alarm off, but they only had 1 security gate open for the whole of arrivals so more precious time wasted as a few hundred people cram through a single security bag check.
By this point our hold baggage had been trundling around by itself for over an hour, so it was removed from the belt by staff and hidden on the other side of baggage reclaim without anyone to inform us! We then had to join the queue to prove the bags were ours before collection!
One final queue to get through customs and we were free! Horrendous arrival mixed with an airport that is mostly still a construction site is a pretty bad combination!
Mysterious Sue
Strata Poster
Indian airports SUCK!
At Delhi they didn't hand out immigration cards until you were off the plane and in a huge room with hundreds of other people, all fighting for pens and space! They were also giving people mouth swabs in case they had swine flu! Security also asked me why I wasn't married. Charming!
Mumbai was by far the worst though. Such a tiny airport considering the size of the city. I decided to leave our bags there for the day, and did so with the official baggage people at the airport to be safe.
The only baggage drop in the while place was coming out of arrivals. When we went to pick our bags up, they wouldn't let us back in again. We were told very aggressively that we could only enter through departures. The baggage drop was literally opposite the door, but I wasn't arguing with the man with a machine gun! In the end, we hailed someone from the bag drop who wheeled our bags out to us past the armed guard. STUPID MUMBAI!!
At Delhi they didn't hand out immigration cards until you were off the plane and in a huge room with hundreds of other people, all fighting for pens and space! They were also giving people mouth swabs in case they had swine flu! Security also asked me why I wasn't married. Charming!
Mumbai was by far the worst though. Such a tiny airport considering the size of the city. I decided to leave our bags there for the day, and did so with the official baggage people at the airport to be safe.
The only baggage drop in the while place was coming out of arrivals. When we went to pick our bags up, they wouldn't let us back in again. We were told very aggressively that we could only enter through departures. The baggage drop was literally opposite the door, but I wasn't arguing with the man with a machine gun! In the end, we hailed someone from the bag drop who wheeled our bags out to us past the armed guard. STUPID MUMBAI!!
insanecoastervids
Hyper Poster
The only airports I have been in in the last 5 years, are my home airport Portland and the Hawaii airports, and Portland is way better. But we finally get to fly to Wisconsin after so many years of driving.
Jordanovichy
Credit Whore 2016
You can't moan about Malta's airport in the volcanic ash crisis 
It's a lovely airport, last few times I was there (2008 to 2011) they were doing a load of maintenance work. I can't remember before that (went 1998 then every year between 2003 and 2011). I love the blue scaffolding which is basically just there for looking good.
I quite liked Krakow airport too, simple, small and full of polish bread, just great. Geneva airport I was delayed in and there was nothing to do apart from dribble over overpriced watches and chocolate. Think that sums up international airports, also been to the 4 major London airports but they're all much of a muchness. Only been to Heathrow Terminal 4 which was rather modern, I've heard Terminals 1-3 are filthy and not great so yeah
It's a lovely airport, last few times I was there (2008 to 2011) they were doing a load of maintenance work. I can't remember before that
(went 1998 then every year between 2003 and 2011). I love the blue scaffolding which is basically just there for looking good.I quite liked Krakow airport too, simple, small and full of polish bread, just great. Geneva airport I was delayed in and there was nothing to do apart from dribble over overpriced watches and chocolate. Think that sums up international airports, also been to the 4 major London airports but they're all much of a muchness. Only been to Heathrow Terminal 4 which was rather modern, I've heard Terminals 1-3 are filthy and not great so yeah
Mysterious Sue
Strata Poster
The worst airport in terms of location is the one Ryanair uses for Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. What I didn't realise is that the airport is so far out of town, it's actually in another country. Austria to be exact.
I flew out to meet some friends there who were driving to pick me up. My friends were late. Something to do with the police and speeding and a lack of road tax. Anyway, I was sat at this airport for a while and I began to realise something was amiss when people were speaking something more like German and I was wandering around wondering where the hell the plane had landed me and trying to decipher signs to guess the country I was in!
I flew out to meet some friends there who were driving to pick me up. My friends were late. Something to do with the police and speeding and a lack of road tax. Anyway, I was sat at this airport for a while and I began to realise something was amiss when people were speaking something more like German and I was wandering around wondering where the hell the plane had landed me and trying to decipher signs to guess the country I was in!
Jordanovichy
Credit Whore 2016
That must have been quite scary actually :/ I wouldn't like to imagine what was running through your mind, not the greatest situation to be in!
andrus
Giga Poster
For best I would definitely say Keflavik/Reykjavik! Nice, classy and no faffing around. But my home airport of Kastrup/Copenhagen is pretty nice too I think. Worst I've been to has to be the one in Rhodes!! Can't remember it's name, but it was run down, had long queues and no organization what so ever...
Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
First off, I have a phobia of flying (two of my biggest fears are heights and tightly enclosed spaces) so being at an airport is never a "happy" thing for me but I do have certain feelings towards some airports, both good and bad.
Been to:
*Dayton (live really close to it)
*Cincinnati
*Columbus (wasn't flying but I picked someone up)
*Philadelphia
*Paris
*Tampa
*Cancun
*Charlotte
*Orlando
*San Francisco
*Minnesota
*Detroit
I was too young to remember Paris or Cincinatti so I didn't consider them, if one is really good or really bad that's why I didn't list it.
WORST: Philadelphia
This airport is horrible! It looks like a prison, you can see the air pollution smogging up the view of the city, and everybody there is so rude! For anybody that followed my YouTube videos from our Cancun trip, there was a vlog I shot there when we had to hub there. The service at the place where we got our (cold and nasty) food was horrible and they were out of just about everything. Avoid traveling here if possible!
Not-So Honorable Mentions:
Charlotte- I love all the food options but it's hard to navigate and I found their security personnel rude. Cancun- I had wanted to put on some deodorant before getting on the plane for three hours since I had been on a hot island all morning and I was really sweaty. I go into the bathroom. The guy wearing the, "ONLY 3 OUNCES OF LIQUID" giant bottle mascot costume saw me walking with it, says, "Oh, amigo, let me see, let me see!" I give it to him, thinking he knows I can't bring it on the flight. No, he puts some on himself and just says, "Gracias, amigo, muy caliente, muy caleinte!" I gave it back to my dad (who I had borrowed it from) and told him what happened and we were dying because it was funny, but did I REALLY want some guy who had been out in the hot Cancun sun wearing a giant mascot costume taking my deodorant? There was that, and I would prefer Charlotte's rude security over Cancun's NO security! It was just a metal detector and nobody had to take their shoes off, I'm sure if you really wanted something you weren't supposed to have past there you could get it past there. That, and I couldn't find an outlet anywhere in that giant airport to plug in my phone to charge it as I tried to plan a trip to Gatlinburg with my friend over text and it had to wait until we got back to Ohio hours later. And the SECOND you get off the plane you're visually attacked with advertisements...INCLUDING in the slow-moving line at passport control full of dumb tourists that obviously don't know or care about what they're doing. The only REALLY good thing I have to say about it is that once you get off the plane, there's a guy on the other side of customs that gives you a map he draws on so you know where everything is in relation to your hotel; handy information to have if you stayed somewhere only accessible by ferry boat like we did. However, it's still hard to FIND that guy considering how you get attacked by people trying to sell you stuff as soon as you leave customs. And my last complaint is that it's nowhere NEAR the hotel zone/zona hotela/hotel belt where most if not all of the people who get off the plane are going and you get stuck going through some really sketchy areas on your way there.
BEST: Dayton
Not sure if it's because it's the only one on this list where I could just get in the car and drive there if I wanted to or the fact that throughout my childhood, going there always meant either, "you're going somewhere" or "one of your parents is coming home from a business trip," but this is one of the things I like about living here. There's plenty of food options and it's very easy to get around. The Wright Brothers who invented powered flying are from Dayton and there are a lot of tributes to them all over the airport, which makes it really cool. Plus, they play 80's music in the terminals! How can that airport be bad? Only things I don't like about it are A. it's a little old and some of the seats and furniture in the terminals has obviously seen better days and B. It's fall. My dad and I had JUST gotten back from Busch Gardens Tampa and were anxious to get home and order a pizza. The plane lands on the tarmac, we get to the jetway, they have some lady who didn't know what she was doing driving the jetway and taking WAY too long to line it up with the plane door. It was below freezing and both of us were close to the front of the line and we were BOTH wearing shorts. I even made the joke, "we aren't de-planing, we're COMplaining." Ten minutes later some other lady took over and got it all lined up and we manages to get off. But just the one incident and the old furniture are well worth the other stuff you can get at this nice airport. It's unfortunate that it's so small, I'd love to see such a nice airport on a larger scale. But my home airport is my favorite, and if anybody else has been there I'd love to hear if you agreed.
Very Honorable Mentions:
Detroit- Connected here on my trip to San Francisco in 2002 with my dad to see the show TV show Battlebots live from the stands. This trip was one of many events in my life that got me hooked on engineering. That people mover in the tunnel with all the lights and music, to an easily distracted second-grader, is AMAZING!!!
Tampa- Best airport for food out there in my opinion. There's a Carrabba's Italian Grill AND a T.G.I. Friday's (possibly my favorite chain restaurant) where we received amazing service. Security was great and made me feel really safe (AND it was my first time going through alone!) and I now feel comfortable enough to do it like I do it every week. I loved the little el train connecting the parking garage to the terminal (Orlando has one too and little 8-year old Jarrett LOVED it) and it really adds to the excitement of being somewhere you want to be. Okay...AND this advertisement on the escalator!
I'm a goon! Don't judge!
I also talked to my mom (who travels almost weekly for her job) and she said that her favorite is Dallas-Fort Worth, and her least favorite is also Phili.
I will soon add Las Vegas-McCarren to that list, along with maybe...
Cleveland- I was born in Cleveland!
O'Hare- I'm excited because I just finished the Divergent trilogy and Allegiant, the third book, was set here...AND it has a fab tunnel like Detroit!
Denver- I don't BELIEVE any of the conspiracy theories I read, but I do find them interesting. Plenty of conspiracy theories about the Denver airport exist due to some of the things there, and considering how I'm writing a fictional story about the Illuminati, I'd like to see it in person. My novels don't include anything happening there but that could very well change if I see something I like.
Been to:
*Dayton (live really close to it)
*Cincinnati
*Columbus (wasn't flying but I picked someone up)
*Philadelphia
*Paris
*Tampa
*Cancun
*Charlotte
*Orlando
*San Francisco
*Minnesota
*Detroit
I was too young to remember Paris or Cincinatti so I didn't consider them, if one is really good or really bad that's why I didn't list it.
WORST: Philadelphia
This airport is horrible! It looks like a prison, you can see the air pollution smogging up the view of the city, and everybody there is so rude! For anybody that followed my YouTube videos from our Cancun trip, there was a vlog I shot there when we had to hub there. The service at the place where we got our (cold and nasty) food was horrible and they were out of just about everything. Avoid traveling here if possible!
Not-So Honorable Mentions:
Charlotte- I love all the food options but it's hard to navigate and I found their security personnel rude. Cancun- I had wanted to put on some deodorant before getting on the plane for three hours since I had been on a hot island all morning and I was really sweaty. I go into the bathroom. The guy wearing the, "ONLY 3 OUNCES OF LIQUID" giant bottle mascot costume saw me walking with it, says, "Oh, amigo, let me see, let me see!" I give it to him, thinking he knows I can't bring it on the flight. No, he puts some on himself and just says, "Gracias, amigo, muy caliente, muy caleinte!" I gave it back to my dad (who I had borrowed it from) and told him what happened and we were dying because it was funny, but did I REALLY want some guy who had been out in the hot Cancun sun wearing a giant mascot costume taking my deodorant? There was that, and I would prefer Charlotte's rude security over Cancun's NO security! It was just a metal detector and nobody had to take their shoes off, I'm sure if you really wanted something you weren't supposed to have past there you could get it past there. That, and I couldn't find an outlet anywhere in that giant airport to plug in my phone to charge it as I tried to plan a trip to Gatlinburg with my friend over text and it had to wait until we got back to Ohio hours later. And the SECOND you get off the plane you're visually attacked with advertisements...INCLUDING in the slow-moving line at passport control full of dumb tourists that obviously don't know or care about what they're doing. The only REALLY good thing I have to say about it is that once you get off the plane, there's a guy on the other side of customs that gives you a map he draws on so you know where everything is in relation to your hotel; handy information to have if you stayed somewhere only accessible by ferry boat like we did. However, it's still hard to FIND that guy considering how you get attacked by people trying to sell you stuff as soon as you leave customs. And my last complaint is that it's nowhere NEAR the hotel zone/zona hotela/hotel belt where most if not all of the people who get off the plane are going and you get stuck going through some really sketchy areas on your way there.
BEST: Dayton
Not sure if it's because it's the only one on this list where I could just get in the car and drive there if I wanted to or the fact that throughout my childhood, going there always meant either, "you're going somewhere" or "one of your parents is coming home from a business trip," but this is one of the things I like about living here. There's plenty of food options and it's very easy to get around. The Wright Brothers who invented powered flying are from Dayton and there are a lot of tributes to them all over the airport, which makes it really cool. Plus, they play 80's music in the terminals! How can that airport be bad? Only things I don't like about it are A. it's a little old and some of the seats and furniture in the terminals has obviously seen better days and B. It's fall. My dad and I had JUST gotten back from Busch Gardens Tampa and were anxious to get home and order a pizza. The plane lands on the tarmac, we get to the jetway, they have some lady who didn't know what she was doing driving the jetway and taking WAY too long to line it up with the plane door. It was below freezing and both of us were close to the front of the line and we were BOTH wearing shorts. I even made the joke, "we aren't de-planing, we're COMplaining." Ten minutes later some other lady took over and got it all lined up and we manages to get off. But just the one incident and the old furniture are well worth the other stuff you can get at this nice airport. It's unfortunate that it's so small, I'd love to see such a nice airport on a larger scale. But my home airport is my favorite, and if anybody else has been there I'd love to hear if you agreed.
Very Honorable Mentions:
Detroit- Connected here on my trip to San Francisco in 2002 with my dad to see the show TV show Battlebots live from the stands. This trip was one of many events in my life that got me hooked on engineering. That people mover in the tunnel with all the lights and music, to an easily distracted second-grader, is AMAZING!!!
Tampa- Best airport for food out there in my opinion. There's a Carrabba's Italian Grill AND a T.G.I. Friday's (possibly my favorite chain restaurant) where we received amazing service. Security was great and made me feel really safe (AND it was my first time going through alone!) and I now feel comfortable enough to do it like I do it every week. I loved the little el train connecting the parking garage to the terminal (Orlando has one too and little 8-year old Jarrett LOVED it) and it really adds to the excitement of being somewhere you want to be. Okay...AND this advertisement on the escalator!
I'm a goon! Don't judge!
I also talked to my mom (who travels almost weekly for her job) and she said that her favorite is Dallas-Fort Worth, and her least favorite is also Phili.
I will soon add Las Vegas-McCarren to that list, along with maybe...
Cleveland- I was born in Cleveland!
O'Hare- I'm excited because I just finished the Divergent trilogy and Allegiant, the third book, was set here...AND it has a fab tunnel like Detroit!
Denver- I don't BELIEVE any of the conspiracy theories I read, but I do find them interesting. Plenty of conspiracy theories about the Denver airport exist due to some of the things there, and considering how I'm writing a fictional story about the Illuminati, I'd like to see it in person. My novels don't include anything happening there but that could very well change if I see something I like.