Slayarj

Mine would be Paris CDG, Maybe it was just the terminal I went through, but the whole airport felt really hard to navigate, signage poor and honestly I saw it as just plane ugly and outdated.

So FT'ers in your experience, what is the the worst airport you've flown into or through and why?

WeekendTraveler

CDG as well; it took forever to get through security and just seemed chaotic, even though I was flying business class and had status. With that kind of airport experience, I totally understand why trains are so popular.

EXP100

Back in 2008 to help keep American EXP status (back when miles counted towards status) I did a same day turn in LIR (Liberia Costa Rica). Although the terminal was new it was a hell whole. Little seating, few concessions and seemingly not air conditioned. Since i was doing a same turn I was told I wouldn't need to pay the $28 departure tax. The check in agent took me back into the Customs offices where I sat in a room for about 30 minutes wondering what they were going to do with me. Finally, the check in agent came back in, said follow us and I was dumped into the (crowded and hot) terminal through a side door.

Slayarj

International airport you'd expect it to be ir conditioned wow 😳 that sounds like a nightmare. Sounds like the start of a locked up abroad story being put in a back room!

twb3

LAX by a long chalk, more due to the <redacted by moderator> attitude of the staff but also crowded, dirty, and poorly laid out. It may have improved recently, but I plan my travels to avoid this pit of an airport.

rjburns

FRA. The Lufthansa agent tagged my bag for the wrong United flight to IAD. When I insisted they retag my bag for the flight I was actually flying on, I suddenly became a "security risk" and spent the next hour in a little room with two German policemen with automatic weapons asking me repeatedly "why do you want to travel on a different flight than your bags?" I got my bag back a week later, pretty much destroyed. It took me about 5 years before i booked another United flight.

boss315

EBB. Entebbe, Uganda…….horrid….just horrid. Filthy. Small, little to no air in departures and check in. Has an air to it that something terrible is about to happen. I think they built or are building a new terminal but the ghost of Idi Amin lurks everywhere! I’ll probably have nightmares for two week now that I have thought of it again.

Long Train Runnin

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ORJ for me. One small building that was the airport and the police station. Technically this airport receives regular commercial service. Although, I arrived on a charter flight. Former diamond mining site in Guyana.

Adelphos

I feel like people saying CDG, LAX, FRA, etc must not have flown through either tiny regional US airports or true third world airports. I am still thinking about my answer but I’ve had some bad experiences at US small airports with delayed flights, no food and beverage, no seating, etc. Baton Rouge comes to mind right now

beachmouse

The advantage of those kinds of airports is that in the absence of flight delays, they’re easy to navigate and if they’re your home airport you can figure out the timing so you don’t spend much time there. Yeah the old terminal at VPS had no airside restrooms and only perpetually broken vending machine as a food source but you were good showing up an hour before departure most of the year and the cops would let you get away with about an hour of free parking in the 15 minute loading zone directly adjacent to baggage claim…

I don’t think either of them are particularly horrible but I’d put down either SEA (overcrowded) or LHR (a duty free mall that just happens to offer plane trips) as my least favorite airports so far.

rufflesinc

It is really sad that two of the largest and most prominent US airports LAX and JFK are a hodgepodge of tiny terminals , instead of 1-2 massive terminals

hotelboy

EWR comes to mind…again and again. International (to me) PVR in Mexico was terrible.

IluvSQ

MNL without a doubt.

IJN Harekaze

I guess it would be a toss between WRY and SOF.

WRY for the fact there was no facilities at all (though not surprising) and SOF because my first time there it took five people to issue me a boarding pass at the gate itself. At one point, the woman that first dealt with me was confused as to why I was wanting to leave Bulgaria and why did I not have an entry stamp and then claimed my self service printed boarding pass did not work and called in what appeared to be either additional gate agents or the Bulgarian Secret Police - I honestly felt I had better service in and out of FNJ! The tall gentleman who seemed to be in charge of proceedings even asked me if I was actually British or just a Passport holder which really rather annoyed me.

And then there was the "facilities" at Sofia which seemed to require either several years of training as a Circus acrobat to use or perhaps mountain climbing equipment - thank heavens for the working heads on the return voyage

OskiBear

I'd echo FRA. I've managed to avoid it for the past decade after switching from *A to OW. However, a trip through last week reminded me of the challenges of this airport. As usual, arrived at a remote gate in the rain and waited an hour for stairs and buses to take us to the terminal. Once we were unceremoniously deposited, it was very difficult to figure out where to head to go through passport control and exit the airport. One the way back, we were leaving through Z gates but the escalator wasn't working so some airport guy was directing everyone to get in the very long A gates line. We just hoofed it up the stairs to the Z gates where security was empty and everyone was just standing around (probably wondering where the passengers were).