Worst airport you have been in

[disappointed101]

Travelling through BHX this evening. Looks like a building site, no staff to be seen at check in, then a poor guy turns up apologising for lack of staff. Security an absolute mess, lots of staff having a lovely chat whilst the queue moves at a snails pace, nobody taking control. Awful. It’s got to be up with the worst experience I’ve had. Luckily our flight is delayed due to fog, else we wouldn’t have made it. What’s your worst experience in an airport?

Verona

Manchester T3. Far too small for the number of people using it. Dirty.

Tivat, Montenegro. Might be biased as it was the bit before the only flight I’ve ever been on that I genuinely thought was going to crash.

JFK. Security staff making kids cry, separating them from their parents to walk in pairs in front of security dog, forcing elderly people to wait for nearly an hour until security dog turned up to sniff their bags, then quite belligerent about it. It was enough to make me say ‘no more’ to future NY trips.

Bogota’s first class lounge was an eye opener. Just…..gold. Everything gold. Can’t remember the rest of the airport though 😂

it seems that some are replying to comment on airport structure and facilities and others comment on how staff deal with customers. Frankly, having experienced Manchesters couldn’t care less about customers, in fact would they all just piss off attitude several times, I would gladly wait in a cow byre of an airport if the staff were amenable, helpful and efficient. You will find none of these attributes at Manchester. But yes, I guess the shopping is ok

When you say landside, you mean actually entering the country and going through passport control/immigration? Unless you've purchased as two separate tickets, you should not have to do this. I've had connections of anywhere from 1 hour to 11 hours (on some of the longer ones, I've gone out of the airport but on others, I've had a room in the airside hotel and never went landside).

I've been 20 odd times in the last couple of years, so if your experiences are before that, perhaps that's way (and your comments and warnings are outdated).

Still doesn't explain the "warning" about needing to go landside - did a quick search in case I've just always had weird experiences, and everything says that transit stays airside.

Not a bad airport at all, but I don't get the love for Singapore Changi. Went through it for the first time recently and it was...fine? The big fancy place with the waterfall (the Jewel) that they always show is landside so you cannot really access it during a connection (unless you make one long enough to go through immigration and then back through exit passport control). The rest, while not bad, is really a pretty standardly nice airport (and I never love airports that do security close to the gates).

Try the little airports on Scottish islands and you’ll find well organised comfortable facilities with staff who go out of their way to be extra helpful and Kirkwall in Orkney is outstanding and only cost £3 a day to park next to the terminal

Another vote for Manchester. Awful. Def the worst.

Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Prestwick. One bar open and a WH Smith.

This is over a decade ago but - Santorini

We had checked in for our c. 8/9pm return flight which was delayed 3 hours ish. So they made us take our suitcases back and leave the airport. (I think there was a concern that the plane wouldn't be fixed that evening and we might be moved to the following day)

3 hours later it was only our flight yet to depart so they let us and our suitcases back into the airport without doing ANY of the checks (ie a random person off the street could have got through). When we go onto the easyjet flight the cabin crew discovered this and made all of us plus our suitcases go out of the airport and made the staff do all the proper checks as we went back in for the third time. Which was fair enough really.

Leeds-Bradford. Last time I flew through there the security staff were so rude they made me cry. Then, arriving back at gone midnight on our return journey, the car park barrier would not let us out unless we paid £80 even though we had prepaid. I refused to pay twice and with an ever-lengthening queue growing behind our car, standing in the pouring rain and speaking to someone via the barrier intercom, the staff finally found our prepayment. Never again.

Zante, or Sharm El Sheikh. Sharm was absolutely FILTHY. Also, the security staff were terrifying.

Heraklion and Bristol are both awful.

No landslide doesn’t mean leaving the airport. You’d need a visa for that
Just the usual stop over when you go landside but can’t leave the airport

I always purchase two separate flights if we re flying long haul. I don’t use an agent. We stop over where we want and for as long as we want depending on what flights I pick.
We don’t need visas as we’re enroute.
Landside in an airport doesn’t mean access to the country it just means we’re no longer stuck at the next gate to get on our forwarding flight. It’s quite normal.

The warning is quite simple
You can’t carry large quantities of liquid onto the plane that have been purchased landside. So don’t buy your duty frees when you arrive at Doha and then expect to take them onto the next plane. If you have a connecting flight it requires you to go landside.

Oslo airport is the same in this respect. ie you have to leave and come back again for some longhaul connecting flights.

Worst in recent memory was Barcelona. Purely for the fact that the bathrooms when we arrived were the most disgusting I have ever been anywhere near/seen. The smell when just walking into the bathroom area was appalling. Toilet bleach is obviously not a thing there 🤮

The best recently is a close tie between Vancouver and Singapore.

Luton, they burnt our car.

Dubai with Luton a close second.

Yugoslavia Airlines before the country split with Croatia

It was beyond horrendous. A 2 hour connecting flight turned into a 13 hour nightmare, diverted to Zagreb with another 12 hour nightmare.

Just an update.

Nope it was easy peasy landing there too. 10am landing and got through in less than 10 mins!!

@SavingTheBestTillLast

What you describe by way of a process might be normal at some airports and some countries but I think the terminology is causing confusion.

Landside in an airport doesn’t mean access to the country it just means we’re no longer stuck at the next gate to get on our forwarding flight. It’s quite normal.

That’s not really how landside is widely understood or defined, certainly within the industry.

It’s the largely lightly or uncontrolled part of the airport outside security (if outbound) or immigration and/or baggage claim (inbound).

That means it includes large parts of terminal building such as passenger check-in, right out as far as taxi ranks, maybe beyond.

Most airports I’ve ever been in once you’ve arrived, gone through any immigration processing and actually gone landside you can certainly can access the rest of the country…

I'm not a frequent flyer to the US but have been through LAX, Miami and Newark and have always had positive and friendly experiences of TSA.

I’ve been to probably 100+ airports across 70+ countries.

I’ve had to pay bribes in Bangkok, Hanoi, Kyiv and Cairo.

I’ve been detained in Bangkok, Bahrain and Paris.

I’ve had terribly depressing security/immigration experiences in Frankfurt, Geneva, Paris (again) Bergamo and Berlin. Obviously Brexit had aggravated this.

but the airports that are most depressing are the US ones, LAX, SFO, Miami, JFK. Limited shopping, dining and even seating opportunities. No air conditioning in immigration halls, aggressive questioning from TSA and immigration. Just all round miserable experiences. And absolutely no excuse.

Kos.

Are you accusing me of "lazy stereotyping?" Honestly that's what the customs official said. I am literally quoting him word for word. Perhaps he was just playing the "role" for my benefit ?

Oh, you were one of those unlucky people! Did Luton recompense you or did you have to claim through your own insurance?

Luton didn't give anyone a penny, we got a pay-out from our insurance.

Some people were unlucky and it affected their no claims, but some insurance companies (which ours was one of), were really good and we kept our no claims.