Rudest Airport Award goes to....
 

Any airports in particular you always feel the staff is rude at?

I don't fly often, but the 7 or so times I've been by MIA , the staff I talk to are ridiculous. Its not even a certain company or airline, just the staff there in general seem to have too much crap accumulated up their ***.

updated dec 3
LAX - 19
MIA - 13
PHL - 12
EWR - 11
FRA - 7
ATL - 5
JFK - 5
LHR - 4
SVO - 3

LAX wins hands down in my book. I will never fly through there again if I can help it.

MIA is #1 for me. PHL is #2 except for the Red Carpet and Admirals Clubs.

MIA is a zoo....only time in the last 7 years I've been there is when I HAVE to be there (like flying to ANU where AA is the only reasonable choice)

EWR comes 2nd but its NYC-area so I can handle it

MIA seems to be a different culture. I fly through there often and it seems Spanish is the dominant language. Many hide behind the language to not do the job right I guess. I recently had a 2 hour layover from mainline to Eagle become a dash for my flight (d16 to d60). Arrived at d60. Had no clue if they were boarding. Walked up to the GA and asked and got a blank stare like she did not understand me. Took my boarding pass from me, processesed it and waved me toward the door. Door was locked. She had to open it for me. The nex two people encountered getting to the gate spoke Spanish to me first seeming to be confused why I was where I was.

I had less troubles in Paris and speak less French.

But don't get me too started on CLT. Southern hospitality is nothing more than two words for lazy. Airline, restaurant, cleaning staff all seem to not understand they are there to serve. But this seems to be a problem with the customer service industries everywhere. Like many airlines, u just accept what you have to go through to get so where. Each one has it's flaws, hence Flyertalk.

Frankfurt. Or maybe just Germany.

EWR (Sewark)

My vote goes too EWR.

LAX without a doubt - in particular those TSA agents, parking attendants and janitors.

Transited in MIA twice in 08 and didn't find it too bad than what I had expected but with a sample size like that, I'm not in the best of position to fully judge.

SYD in my experience has some of the rudest & racist immigration staff I have experienced. But the security agents and other airport employees are mostly fine.

I think CAI takes the cake.

LAX is brutal..

Not that its rude.. but I don't think Customs and TSA really care much about the customer service aspect..

I've passed through SYD many, many times and have always found the immigration officials to be fine. I'd be interested in hearing what happened to make you feel differently.

The rudest that I've found is LHR. More than once I've found myself being interrogated by young women who appear to be around 16 years of age who do convincing Vicky Pollard impressions while spraying saliva at me and demanding "wotsa purpose of yer visit ta Brit'n ven, eh?". To be fair, it's not only at Thiefrow, but this person was also cloned at the Eurostar entry to London last time I visited.

I've been heavily questioned and sent to secondary there more often than I have in any other airports I have traveled through. And the encounters are not pleasant at all. Even after arriving on direct flights from NZ or the US I get asked questions like "Am I bringing fortune cookies?" and most of the people I see that are sent to secondaries are people of Asian/Middle Eastern/African descent. They once broke my luggage at secondary by slamming it to the ground after an early morning arrival back in 2006.

Unfortunately, CLT has been overrun with the old PIT/PHL attitude from Allegehny on the US side, and because US is the dominant carrier some of the employees think that they 'own' the airport. The assorted vendors (shops/food) are most likely covered by whatever level of employee that they can get at the wage offered.

Recently airport operations has started a program about customer service to try and get all the various employee groups at the airport to remember that they all represent CLT. Have to give it time to see if it will work as intended.

I think, to a certain degree, southern hospitality is fading away at least in some cities as new people move in from places outside the geographical south. Also possibly affected by what could be seen as a decline in overall civility/politeness in some of the younger generation as they go into various parts of the workforce.

I wouldn't say rude, I'm not sure of the correct way to describe it however. There is a valid reason behind their word choices and delivery.

Most are great people, depends which job function they are doing that day.