PHL - Terminal D. Nasty, dirty, loud barkers at the Entrance to the maze. . . and all the way through the checkpoint. This has to be what Dante had in mind . . .

Just to clarify, the "plexi doors" you are referring to is actually just one door, and at that its a barrier-like construction (akin to European supermarkets), and its not a Customes officer (customs are before check-in), but a Passport control officer scrutinizing your papers.

You don't always have to walk 3/4 of the building to the gate, it depends where your flight departs from, and which side of the Departure Hall you entered in the first place (there are 4 options).

I don't think its such a bad procedure, actually, but overall, SVO sucks, I agree (waiting anxiously until SVO 3 Terminal opens, its supposed to be very nice).

For US airports, I vote for PHL (NW Gates), very claustraphobic entrance, and you have to find it first!

Agreed. Totally :D

LAX American Terminal

LAX in general. They ought to demolish that thing and start over.

DSM - The line backs up so you reach the top of the escalator with nowhere to go.

ICT - Could they make the right lane any narrower?

Manila - Philippine Airlines International terminal takes the prize for me.

- Car gets checked to get into the airport (well, they look in the trunk)
- Line up and show your booking/ticket and passport to the man with the gun to get through the building doors
- Security check number 1 - full screen of bags and body, including pat-down
- line up for check-in (after finding which desk to use)
- line up to pay for Aiport Tax
- line up for immigration control in a little corner of the terminal, then when stamped, turn back from where you came and go through to
- final immigration control and security number 2

While I have been through some US airports and it has taken a long time to be processed (Orlando comes to mind), Manila is ... well.... different.

Narita rescreens transiting passengers. I was appalled. The only thing that made it better was that the Japanese screeners looked truly apologetic about inconveniencing the passengers, which we all know TSA is only happy to do.

How in the name of all that is holy do they think I'll obtain something dangerous? I just got off the plane. And yes, people who were getting off in Tokyo had to get screened too. I think.

This airport was built for the modern communist citizen and not for capitalists like us. ;)

Chertoff and Hawley would love it there.

PHL Term E aint much better. Crammed into a smelly sloping downward cattle chute, 4 ft long dirty tables, totally filthy frigid floors and the loudest mouth barkers outside of the South Philly Italian Market.

MisterNice

NRT re-screening
 

The reason NRT re-screens you is so that they can take away the items you have with you that are permitted by the TSA but not in Japan. For instance, let's assume your four-year-old daughter has a new pair of two-inch, blunt Hello Kitty scissors given to her the week before by her grandmother. The Japanese security will need to take them away lest you suddenly decide to pose a threat on an ex-NRT flight and ensure that your daughter will spend the entire nine-hour flight to BKK weeping softly and moaning, "They took away my Hello Kitty scissors that Grammy gave me!"

Now you know.

The other thing to understand about SVO is that Russia actually has a real domestic terrorist problem, hence the X-ray upon entry to the terminal.