Ack! This is the "list" article that won't go away! The one that, as a freelance writer, you pitch when the frozen pizzas get too expensive and you don't want to spend the rest of the month eating ramen noodles.

I love LAX. I am 5 minutes away and I can get in and out of there in no time. I noticed that the ORD people didn't mention ORD but they never have to do layovers there where you are racing across the terminal and on a train to catch your next flight. I think that your home airport will usually be your favorite because you don't do layovers there and you know all the ways to get around traffic and parking. I take auh2o to LAX all the time and can leave my house and be back home in 20 minutes even with heavy traffic but I have ways to beat the people who have no clue. I would tell you how but then EVERYONE would know my secret and then my life WOULD be a living hell. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif

It is run down though but I would prefer a run down airport than an airport under construction for remodeling. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/eek.gif

I hate SJC. When they modernized it, they ruined it, and they continue to make it worse. Even without the TSA, when the new terminal went in, your gate was often a mile or two walk from the only single place you could walk into the terminal, and the new terminal is so narrow, there's not enough room to accomodate the people waiting at gates and the people walking one way or the other. It's just a horrible design. And the new traffic patterns are not going to fix anything there. It's just one big complete mess that really can't ever be fixed.

JFK is interesting. As a young boy, I grew up in the five towns area, about 20 minutes from JFK, and I can't remember a time in my life when JFK has not been under construction. So, sure, maybe it will be better when the construction to modernize it is finished, but the joke here is that the construction at JFK will never ever be finished. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

-David

Original poster truncated the text of the 5 bad airports right above my blurb. Bummer, but great post anyway. Yep, I was quoted in the #5 one about Baassshton, MASS and though some things have since improved, it is still pretty bad in there.

check it out at this link or the text I pasted in below. I have had problems in my home airport--and so have friends from all over--more than anywhere else in the entire world. This has to change and it aint just because of the Big Dig.

http://www.bcentral.com/articles/elliott/114.asp


"Don't go there: 5 airports to avoid if you can" -by Christopher Elliott

#5 Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). The usual complaints here: big crowds, long lines, never-ending construction. Sound familiar? The on-time numbers at BOS are better than its competitors in this category (the most recent numbers say only 15% of its flights left late) and that kept the airport from being ranked higher. I generally prefer one of Boston's alternate airports — Providence, R.I., or even Hartford, Conn. When I think back on all the times I've flown into BOS, I would compare each one to the trash compactor scene in "Star Wars", where I had this overwhelming urge to get out as quickly as possible. "It's the worst airport ever," agrees Jeffrey Filipov, a consultant who lives in Boston. "It's old, squeaky, dirty, small, cramped, has no facilities or shops."

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gifMM (JF)

To answer the points about LAX, or at least the Bradley terminal. As a non-US citizen the immigration queues are legendary, as is the rudeness. The WORST seat of airport lounges I have seen anywhere. Prison like gate areas - with next to no facilities. There's even a song that's been released in the UK 'celebrating' LAX in a very ironic sense.

I admit that Bradley is horrible but I usually fly UA and they don't use Bradley and now I have a Port Pass that allows me to go to a machine with my palm print read and bypass all the lines in Bradley.

LAX Bradley terminal, like GRU and others, is great outside the gate areas. Just don't go to your gate until you need to. Lots of really cool airports have crappy gate areas.

DEN: There seems to be no traffic on the tollway going south from DEN. Pena blvd is also fairly empty. (This driving at morning and evening rush hour.) However, just because you get to the airport doesn't mean you are there. At MDW you can return your rental car and be at the security checkpoint in a minute, and at your gate a minute after clearing security. At DEN, you return the car, then 15 minutes later you finally make it to the terminal (wishing you would have said you were flying Fronteir so he would have stopped at the first terminal...) and the checkpoint. Then you ride a train and walk to your gate. Even being close, it is far away. Even behemouths like ATL and ORD are faster in the 'airport arrival to boarding gate time.' And once Denver starts to develop out towards the airport, disaster is just waiting to happen... And ORD and ATL both have trains going right to the airport. Even DFW, LAX, and SJC have some form of train service.

OAKLAND--one of the worst. Lots of low-cost flights and, unfortunately, low-class service. OAK is the armpit of Bay Area airports. I can recount three unpleasant experiences:

1) AWA flight pulls up. No gate agent to open the gangway entrance. Passengers just kept pushing the door open and setting off the security warning. "Stop! You are entering a secured area..." But, no airline employee or TSA showed up.

2) Twice I was waiting at the SWA terminal when I heard burping sounds on the overhead. Some employees thought it was funny to make gastric noises for the public enjoyment. Very unprofessional. Someone needs to tell them they're no longer in high school.

3) Recently, I was waiting in the security line when an airport manager cuts in front of everybody, saying loudly, "Excuse me, excuse me!" Plunks down her stuff on the x-ray belt. Gets into an argument with a businessman, whom she cut in front of. Ends up setting off the metal detector anyway. Granted there was a sign that stated flight crew and airport employees could step to the front of the line. However, she could have been more gracious. I spotted her five minutes later waiting for her food at the Pizza Hut.

I don't know why people are harping on my beloved LAX. Granted, I haven't flown out of Bradley since '96, but I love my redeyes out of Terminal 2. I can leave home (Santa Monica) at midnight, get to parking (www.theparkingspot.com), check in, and be at the gate for a 12:45 AM flight. How's that for convenience! Okay, granted, traffic at any other time of the day is horrible, but it's not that bad -- really. It isn't. At least there isn't horrible elevator music like the stuff they have in MSN. It doesn't give me the willies like LEX. It doesn't smell like CLE.

IAH is absolutely horrid.

Yes it is a dirty,disgusting airport.
I saw a "cleaner" talk to WC assists and miss most of the garbage on the floor. If they got rid of the Popcorn machines half the garbage on the floor would be gone.