Worst airport you've been to

[Boobs]

Fort Lauderdale for me.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

O'Hare. Easy question.

[Donerail]

Depends on how you define "worst" — I fly through SFO a lot, which is a very nice airport but unfortunately almost always has severe delays because of the fog. O'Hare is nice but always very crowded; Norfolk is neither.

[Boobs]

Depends on how you define "worst"

Obviously you can define it as you wish, but generally I'd say the "worst" airport is the one you've had the word experience in.

[Santander]

I've been to a lot of horrible airports, including many tiny ones which don't receive scheduled passenger service. But small and lacking in services doesn't necessarily mean bad. I briefly started making a list, but I deleted it, because no place on Earth is more miserable than Tegel.

[Alcibiades]

I've been to a lot of horrible airports, including many tiny ones which don't receive scheduled passenger service. But small and lacking in services doesn't necessarily mean bad. I briefly started making a list, but I deleted it, because no place on Earth is more miserable than Tegel.

Came here to say Tegel as well. Although I suppose it had a certain charm of a bygone era to it.

[Green Line]

Brussels Airport - total hellhole.  Customs is a disaster.  Trump was right on.

Newark is the worst in the United States.  The United terminal was turned into a bougie overpriced money pit with nothing for the common man.  Employees are also rude as hell.

[Santander]

Newark is the worst in the United States.  The United terminal was turned into a bougie overpriced money pit with nothing for the common man.  Employees are also rude as hell.

We have our own private restaurant which you need an invitation to go to. Employees are nice there.

[Green Line]

Newark is the worst in the United States.  The United terminal was turned into a bougie overpriced money pit with nothing for the common man.  Employees are also rude as hell.

We have our own private restaurant which you need an invitation to go to. Employees are nice there.

Yeah.  They have the worst polaris lounge and United clubs in the system though

[The Dowager Mod]

LaGuardia.

[Former President tack50]

Worst experience: Tenerife North (TFN). It is actually a fairly ok airport. Not amazing by any means and I would place it well below average though not rock bottom (it seemed to be a bit lacking in amenities by an airport of this size). However the reason I put it here is because my worst airport experience ever was in here; when a flight I had to take was delayed by a whopping 7 hours. I also didn't have much to do there because of the lack of amenities and my iPod Touch's battery only lasted for so long.

I've also had 2 very pointless layovers here. They were short and perfectly fine but I still remember when we had a layover here for no reason lol (we didn't even disembark the plane in one of them!)

Runner up: Paris Orly (ORY). Only because it is the only airport in my life to have lost my bags

Worst impresson: Berlin Schönefeld (SXF)

When I went to Berlin I will always remember how, after landing, when we went to the baggage section, which was extremely ugly. No ceiling whatsoever and a building in general that looked like it was last renovated back in the days of communism.

Given how people here are describing Tegel as the worse of the 2 Berlin airports I am genuinely curious how bad could it get (my experience at Schönefeld was perfectly fine; it was just an incredibly ugly airport to me for some reason)

Runner up: Valencia Airport (VLC)

I still remember when I arrived at this airport (or perhaps it was when coming back home) how it was pretty dark, it almost felt like the airport had no lights installed; or as if I had arrived while the airport was closed, there was also nobody there other than my family and those who were travelling with us. It was also a surprisingly small airport given it serves what is basically Spain's 3rd or 4th largest metro area, though I suppose many locals might just use Alicante airport instead (which definitely has much more traffic)

[Santander]

Worst impresson: Berlin Schönefeld (SXF)

When I went to Berlin I will always remember how, after landing, when we went to the baggage section, which was extremely ugly. No ceiling whatsoever and a building in general that looked like it was last renovated back in the days of communism.

Given how people here are describing Tegel as the worse of the 2 Berlin airports I am genuinely curious how bad could it get (my experience at Schönefeld was perfectly fine; it was just an incredibly ugly airport to me for some reason)

Well, I'm not poor, so I never flew out of Schoenefeld. But Tegel was way overcrowded and had a horrible layout. Groundside, there wasn't much (although I did buy a suitcase at the Lufthansa shop once), and airside, you're basically crammed into a tiny and crowded holding pen with not enough seating and no real amenities. Since it was overcrowded and immigration/security queues were long, especially for non-Schengen flights, you were forced to spend a lot of time airside. Obviously, most people spend more time airside at most airports, but few airports of Tegel's size were as lacking in the most basic amenities (e.g. seating, food). Aesthetically, it wasn't exactly something to write home about either, being very dated and having low ceilings for an airport.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I don't fly much anymore (I developed a fear of flying after 9/11 when I flew to L.A. a couple days before for a technical conference, and two of my colleagues coming from Boston were on one of the WTC planes).  But during my frequent flying days it had to be Logan, simply because it was incredibly annoying to get in and out of by car.  I've heard that the Ted Williams Tunnel has improved the situation.

[Santander]

I don't fly much anymore (I developed a fear of flying after 9/11 when I flew to L.A. a couple days before for a technical conference, and two of my colleagues coming from Boston were on one of the WTC planes).  But during my frequent flying days it had to be Logan, simply because it was incredibly annoying to get in and out of by car.  I've heard that the Ted Williams Tunnel has improved the situation.

Logan is one of the best airports in America for getting into the city now.

[Mr. Smith]

LAX, no contest.

[junior chįmp]

Calcutta
Moscow

[John Dule]

Guadalajara at 3 AM is... something else.

[Drew]

I’ll say Denver.  I connected through there last year and was stuck in a holding pattern before landing due to air traffic congestion, and the captain explained that the runway configuration was a factor.  Once we got there, we had to go from one end of the terminal to the other for the connecting flight.  Their terminals are really long and they don’t have a semicircular design like a lot of other airports do, so it’s a long walk in a lot of cases.

[Boobs]

LaGuardia.

I want to hate LaGuardia but quite literally every time I've been there, the TSA agents have always been so radiantly cheerful. It's perplexing.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

I hate flying but love airports. Other than having to sleep on the floor due to bad layover times or cheaping out on a midnight bus ticket to get there, I can't say I've ever had an awful experience in any of them.

If you had asked me when I was a younger man I would have said DFW because one time I ended up on there on an AM layover there, with only the McDonalds open in the terminal. They were only serving their disgusting breakfast sausage. Not even french fries available for purchase. I said, no thank you! and went hungry instead. But I have since had good trips that have redeemed it in my eyes.

The terminals I end up in at LAX (never learned their names) are weird, crowded, and have limited seating (and zero power outlets) but I have fond memories of every trip I've ever done through there. But in my mind there is a euphoric charm to the place. Must have something to do with loving my return to, or savoring my final moments in, the greatest country on Earth.

For whatever reason I haven't enjoyed my trips to through Sydney. Something very sterile about the place. Also had my rudest interactions with airport staff there (likely assumed I was an illiterate American).

DCA is another weird one although it's hard to beat that Yellow Line Metro stop. I much prefer the interior of Dulles (or at least the Dulles of my youth) but the Orange Line (or Silver? who cares), which I still have never ridden, is much less convenient for the parts of Fairfax I fly to DC to visit.

[The Simpsons Cinematic Universe]

Xuzhou airport had some bad coffee. I dunno, airports are mostly the same. Experiences can differ.

[Gass3268]

Kansas City

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

I came here to say Schoenfeld but it looks like folks beat me to it. I actually agree that it's not that bad, it's just very small and feels provincial.

Of major airports I was underwhelmed by, I have to say Madrid is very underdeveloped for a major global city.

[Farmlands]

The ID machine in Kathmandu, Nepal, didn't recognize my citizen's card, but I can't really fault them for it, as they probably don't get many Portuguese visitors there. Just wish they could've got the questioning over with quicker.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Talking about airport layouts brought back a memory of my worst flying experience.  People who fly through Atlanta will appreciate this one.  It's a long story, so you might want to get a cup of coffee.

I’ve mentioned before that I spent the first part of my career as a defense contractor, and this happened while I was working at Eglin AFB near Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  I had occasion to make a day trip to the Boston area for a meeting.  This was pre-Internet, and things like Zoom were just a science fiction concept.  It was no big deal, I'd done similar trips before, but this one turned out a little differently. 

The Fort Walton civilian airport was quite small; it used the same runways as the Air Force base and was allowed a very limited number of flights per day.  You could fly to Atlanta on Delta’s regional affiliate Atlantic Southeast (ASA) or Eastern’s regional affiliate Eastern Metro, or to New Orleans or Memphis on a couple of other little airlines.  That was it.

I got up very early to catch the first ASA flight to Atlanta, and then Delta to Boston.  Attended the meeting and taxied back to Logan for my late afternoon flight.  It was Delta back to Atlanta with a stop at Washington National, then an hour layover before the ASA flight back to Atlanta.  The flight from Boston left on time, and we had a pleasant flight down to Washington.  It was a beautiful clear day, and there was a stunning view of NYC from my window as we passed by.  We landed at National to drop off and pick up some passengers.  So far so good, but then things went downhill…

The plane taxied out and began its takeoff run for Atlanta.  It was rolling at a pretty good clip when all of a sudden I was thrown forward against the seat belt, there was a shrieking sound from beneath the plane (the tires) and the plane was skidding down the runway and slewing back and forth.  I don’t know whether it was an ATC mix-up or pilot error, but another plane landed right in front of our takeoff run, and our pilot had to hit the brakes as hard as possible.  We were in an L-1011, a very large plane, and probably going over 100 mph at the time.  It took a LONG time to slow down.  I kept expecting to see part of another plane come through the cabin wall, but a collision was avoided and eventually we shuddered to a stop.

The pilot taxied back to the terminal so they could check the wheels and tires for any damage.  Everything checked out OK, and after a delay we rolled out to try again.  The cabin was completely silent as every eye was glued to the windows looking for stray aircraft, but the takeoff was smooth.  Once we reached cruising altitude, the flight attendant announced that Delta would be offering free drinks for the flight. 

I got a drink and started thinking about the situation.  I had an hour layover scheduled in Atlanta, but the incident in Washington put us just about an hour behind schedule.   Maybe I could run for it and make the connection?  I had no luggage to worry about, just a briefcase.  The flights were in different concourses, which was bad, but maybe if the specific gates (which I didn’t know yet) were near the middle of each concourse, it would be a relatively short run.  Delta used concourses A and B, while ASA used D.  You can see a map here; at the time of this event, concourses E and F had not yet been built.  And ASA didn’t have a sterling on-time record, so it might be doable.

We landed at gate A28 (at one of the extreme ends of concourse A) and I got off quickly and checked a nearby monitor.  My ASA flight was leaving in 7 minutes from D36 – pretty much a worst case scenario.  Nevertheless, I took off sprinting down to the middle of A, wearing my business suit and carrying a briefcase.  Ran down the stairs to wait for the train, which fortunately showed up right away.  Took the train to D.  Ran up the stairs and down the length of concourse D, arriving at D36 three minutes after the scheduled departure time.  The door was closed and the gate agent was wrapping things up.  It figured they picked that night to be on time.

I asked if they had already left, and the agent said yes; I asked if there was anything else to Fort Walton tonight and she said that was the last ASA flight, but Eastern Metro had one…leaving in one minute…from C1, at the extreme end of C.  Ran back down D, down the stairs, through the tunnel to C (skipping the train), up the stairs, and down the length of C.  Got to C1 and found another closed door with the agent closing up. 

I went up to the desk, puffing and sweating, and had this conversation:

ME: Have you left yet?
AGENT: Yes, just pushed back.
ME: (expletive deleted) Is there anything else to Fort Walton tonight?
AGENT: No, that was the last flight.
ME: (more expletives deleted) How about Pensacola?
AGENT: There’s an Eastern flight leaving in 5 minutes, but I don’t think they’ll honor your ticket.
ME: Let me worry about that.  Where is it?
AGENT: C7

Thankfully, C7 was only three gates away.  I staggered down to it and found the flight boarding, but still there!  I went up to the agent, showed him my ticket, and said, as pitifully as possible, “Please take me to Pensacola”.  He just waved me aboard (things were a lot looser in those days) and I fell into an open seat next to a little old lady.  She looked me over and said, “My goodness, you look like you’ve had a terrible time.”  I replied, “Yeah, I really have.”  She said, “Please don’t tell me about it.  This is the first time I’ve flown.”

So I was now on the way to Pensacola, but with a small problem: my car was at the Fort Walton airport.  I’d have to call my wife to pick me up.  This was before the days of cell phones or airplane phones, and I hadn’t had time to call from a pay phone during the mad scramble in Atlanta.  Well, at least I could have a few drinks to pass the time while she drove the hour to Pensacola.

We landed and I found a pay phone to call home.  When she answered I just said “This is a long story, and I’ll tell you about it on the way home.  But I’m at the Pensacola airport, so please come get me.”  We hung up and I went looking for the bar.

I found it, and encountered the final cruel twist of fate: a sign reading CLOSED FOR INVENTORY.