The worst that I’ve actually traveled in/out of would be CDG. First international flight, solo, or course, and taking a train to Basel, Switzerland. Didn’t work out the logistics of getting to Basel worked out, so I (hours too late) took a cab from CDG to the train station I really needed to be at, for the last train of the day leaving for Basel. And a really bad seat mate leaving me incredibly lagged. And still waited four hours… I had my plastic working, but I managed to forget my phone turned on. Ouch.Of course, this was the time when the US was talking about Freedom Fries, and shit, so I’m not too surprised that as an American I was treated poorly in Paris. Although, from what I’ve been told, it’s equal opportunity treatment in Paris. Getting back was much easier, with my wife, and we left from Zurich. Of which, we didn’t get to spend too much time looking around. Sometimes my wife, despite claims otherwise, has a real bad tendency to delay as long as possible.
As to an airport of which I’ve visited (turnover) where I never got off the plane (and in fact, it wasn’t allowed unless DKR was your endpoint…) that I’m not too sure that I would enjoy, that would be DKR. Delta ATL to JNB, with a stop over there. Between the security check and the bombing of the plane with insecticide… Oh, and the damn heat (and I’m from Florida!) from having the doors wide open (and why we needed the insecticide) and not being connected via jetway, and then waiting at JNB as the stewardesses go through the trash to find the insecticide can that they threw away when they knew they had to hold on to it to show the personnel there, before the doors could be opened. I don’t know what would have happened if they didn’t find it. Send us away, back to Dakar?? In fact, I don’t remember the insecticide on the return trips that I’ve made.
No good public transit access planned. You’d still have to lug your luggage up to the airtrain, ride it, and then lug it down to the railroad station. Now, Philadelphia airport has great access. There’s a train station in each terminal. Unfortunately, they don’t run that often.
Whaddaya mean no access to mass transit at LAX? I used mass transit to get from my downtown hotel to LAX once. All I had to do was drag my luggage to the station and get on the train, get off to change trains and search around for the elevator to the lower level, ride the other line to the airport, get off the train and search around for the elevator to the street level, and get on the bus to take me to the airport
Love Long Beach, but I think the city it’s making it harder and harder for Jet Blue to stay. (We live about 1.5 miles due east, just under the light aircraft and helicopter flight path.)
SFO, for having the worst, slowest, longest TSA lines I’ve ever encountered, even at 5:00 AM.
PHL, for having all regional flights arrive at and depart from a concourse that is physically separate from the rest of the airport, so that any layover of less than an hour is practically a promise that you’ll miss your connecting flight.
I’d say the problem here is terminal layouts that pre-date passenger security checks. Hard to believe now, but once upon anyone could just walk right up to the gate. Dulles and LAX make more sense when you remember that.
Dulles was also built before the jet-way was invented. The weird bus-things there were originally supposed to save passengers a long walk out to planes sitting out on the ramp.
I used to do a lot of business travel. I flew out of LGA a lot, back before a massive update and modernization (circa 1992?).
So, if you think it is bad now, imagine it with 1950s vintage design affordances.
Some of JFK’s many terminals were pretty bad. Flying out of the “futuristic” TWA manta-ray terminal was a god-awful experience after bag screening and passenger metal detectors were implemented (1995).
I am pathetically grateful for PDX, which I can ride to by light rail ($2.50 from a station a mile walk from the house) and has a POWELL’S OUTLET in the shopping concourse.
KCI is getting a major make over cause of that. I never flew in our out but did pick up and old girlfriend there once.
3 horseshoe shaped terminals where you could park inside the horseshoe and just walk right up to where you wanted to go.
I don’t understand any list that has LHR as one of the 20 best and Malpensa as one of the 20 worst. Of course, many people have bad flight experiences out of MPX because some of the regional airlines it serves have flight schedules that are pure fantasy, but that is hardly the airport’s fault, and as you wait you can have pretty fantastic food at a reasonable price.
The only real problem with Leeds-Bradford is that it is well outside of either city and there is no public transportation; it doesn’t belong adjacent in the list to CDG, which as others have noted is a province of hell.
[quote=“shaddack, post:51, topic:64810”] (quoting @joey_bladb)
Aren’t airports the places you go to when you wish to board an airplane and have magic super-awesome fun time in the skies? I love all airports.
What are you smoking? Can I have some too?
[/quote]
I must smoke the same stuff. I love airports. I didn’t get to fly much as a kid (I think my third flight ever happened after college), and I still get excited by the prospect. I actually really enjoy ferrying friends to and from the airport. I volunteer for the duty, in fact. Yeah, the traffic can be a pain, especially if you’re running late, and the security theater is a joke, but all my personal airport hassles have been minor. I remember back in 1999 when my family was returning from a weeklong trip to London, as we went through customs at LAX, I was the only one on the plane who was obliged to undergo a pretty thorough hand-search of my person and luggage, but in those innocent times I think it was largely due to my long hair.
I love the Burbank airport! What can have gone wrong for you? The shortest TSA delays of my life occur at BUR. There’s also a Wendy’s nearby. Bob Hope is my favorite airport experience, bar none. Smaller and friendlier than you’d expect, in my experience.
But again, I’m easy to please.
Makes sense to me. If you’re used to it, that bi-level horseshoe shape seems like the only sensible approach for a beachside airport at the end of a street. LAX has plenty of problems and it’s hella dated, but I’ve always enjoyed the place. I just wish it wasn’t on the opposite end of the county from where I live. Then again, with that much air traffic and smog, I guess I don’t really want it any closer. It’s just that there’s really no fast, convenient, even-slightly-straightforward route connecting Pasadena to the Westside. The 110 only connects to the bottom of Pasadena, and remains a 1940s-vintage toy freeway until you get downtown when the traffic gets even worse. The 105 helps by the time you get to it, but still, you really need to leave early and have an iPod full of good tunes to make the trip fun.
I don’t remember anything going wrong, per se. It just felt really old and run down (I had to fly back to Seattle via Vegas on Southwest, so it was a rubbishy route on top).
But then so does Long Beach, and I quite like that one. Even if it was a crappy choice of airport when I was heading to Victorville. Someone put LA in the way!
That’s got to be part of the reason it topped the list.
Arrivals are going to be pissed because they’re just getting there.
Departures are going to be pissed because all airports are too slow when you want to leave.
