Another vote for MCI. From curb to seat on plane...maybe 200 ft. at most. Now overall location and rental car to terminal, that one leaves a bit to be desired. However, if its from airplane to curb, MCI is fantastic!

SAN's another good one.. gates are right there, usually no obesenly long walks and no more than a 10 min ride downtown to the hotels/gaslamp district downtown.

As far as small and medium size airports are concerned, my votes are for DCA and SAN. Among the majors, I like SFO, AMS, OSL, SIN, and ZRH.

It's one of the reasons why I fly CX. If you present a coupon along with your CX boarding pass, you pay only HKD 90, round trip for Airport Express. Only 23 minutes into HK island. At least I think it's a good deal.

Agreed 100% ^ If you live here, you gotta love having about a hundred yards from your car to your plane.

And I love the fact that nobody hubs here. I've lived in Denver and Dallas where those citizens are held hostage by one oppressive regime. Ask people in Colorado what they think about United. Most of them like the Oakland Raiders more than they like United. The downside is that we have no European or Asian nonstops out of MCI. The upside is that we get great fares both domestically and internationally, and all airlines play relatively nice with us. And I can still get nonstop to most major U.S. cities on either coast.

As an arrival airport, I like TPA and DCA. Anyplace I can walk to my rental car is a good place.

From among the mega-hubs, I like the ORD AA terminal the best. Never too long of a walk and never a train/tram needed to connect. Among the next tier down (big hubs but not top-five in the world), I like PIT. Pleasant airport, and I've always had seamless connections through there, in stark contrast to Philly.

In returning from International flights, I've flown into LAX, SEA, JFK, EWR, MCO and MIA.

Miami blows everyone else away. Both times at Miami (most recent being last Sunday) were on Sunday late afternoons - very busy times.

I made it from seat 1B on a COPA flight through immigration AND customs through the front door to the cab stand in 9 minutes!

What's AMAZING about that is I lost my passport 6 years ago. So the new one has a notation to verify identity. Pre 9/11 this meant asking my mothers maiden name. Now it means almost every time they refer me to the "little room" filled with all people needing to prove their identity.

As an American citizen, I'm moved to the front of the line, but this process still takes 10 - 30 minutes.

At MIA, the immigration officer said he needed to verify my identity, so I resigned myself to going to the little room. Lo and behold he pressed a button and a supervisor came over TO US within 30 seconds and verified me on the spot!

Talk about efficient!

I'm doing the same routing on 9/18 and actually looking forward to it.

MIA? I've heard nothing but horror stories about MIA. Especially arriving in the morning when every flight from S. America and the Caribbean all converge on immigration. I hear its a nightmare zoo.

I vote for the the major Nordic airports:OSL/CPH/ARN/HEL

CPH is the 18th busiest airport in the world for international travel and has about the same number or a slightly higher number of international passengers than JFK airport in NYC. That said, CPH is far more efficient and passenger-friendly airport to fly to/from/via than most all international airports in the US, including the headache that is generally JFK. (CPH is the only Nordic airport in the top 30 by international passenger numbers and handles more such pax than LAX, Toronto or Zurich.)

For the opposite of "efficient", Miami often takes the cake as one of the most disliked major airports for international passengers in the US.

When things go wrong -- and at MIA they often do -- MIA is certainly a nightmare zoo. When things don't go wrong at MIA, it's still no fine example of efficiency.

[QUOTE=Wallstreet10006]In returning from International flights, I've flown into LAX, SEA, JFK, EWR, MCO and MIA.

Miami blows everyone else away. Both times at Miami (most recent being last Sunday) were on Sunday late afternoons - very busy times.

I made it from seat 1B on a COPA flight through immigration AND customs through the front door to the cab stand in 9 minutes!

QUOTE]

Yes, but did you check baggage? As a US citizen I can usually clear immigration and customs in about 15 mins total; and this is during peak times. Now the wait for baggage can easily add 30 mins on top of that time. :mad:

I have to echo those words and totally agree! Evidence and reviews have constantly pin pointed MIA as the worst port of entry into the country.

I've never flown through MIA internationally.

Domestically, it's a disaster. Easily the worst airport experience I have ever had anywhere in the world. Easily.

BUR (burbank, ca ) rocks !
 

I love being able to walk only a few hundred feet to my rental car !

espescially good for Southwest travel (short jaunts to Vegas or Oakland, CA)

I still like LAX though ,cause of all the airline $$$ choices..

ellen

Sin
 

For all of the reasons mentioned above, SIN! Terminal 2 at SIN, that is.

The only reason it's not my favorite in the world is that its architecture leaves just a bit to be desired. It's strongly driven by function with a low wow-factor. It's simply not as awe-inspiring as ICN or HKG. But, as mentioned above, HKG has the problem of the gates being quite far apart and the train being several storeys below the concourse level. Incheon itself is beautiful, but I got gummed up in immigration there once inbound and the lower floors aren't all that to look at, plus it has inconvenient connections to Seoul (at least while the train remains under construction).

So SIN has the best overall product. Perhaps when Terminal 3 opens in the near future, its architecture score will improve.