I finally got a chance to fly out of BER today! Here are a few impressions.
The airport has good train connections, but it took me an hour to get there using the S-Bahn from Prenzlauer Berg. It would never have taken that long to get to TXL
From the train station you walk through a "marketplace" (shopping centre) to get to the check-in hall. The terminal itself looks new, has lots of space and seems quite modern (as you would expect). The flying red carpet is still above the check-in area.
I discovered after checking in for my easyJet flight that there is a viewing terrace accessible for €3. I got a ticket and checked it out - there was a nice view over the airport etc. You can use this even if not flying as the entry point is landside.
There are several security checkpoints and being a quiet Tuesday afternoon, only a couple were open. There wasn't much of a queue but the security staff were quite rude. My tray somehow came out of the x-ray machine with somebody else's wallet in it (along with the rest of my stuff), and the security staff yelled at me when I tried telling them it wasn't mine. That was a weird experience.
All of the security points spit you out inside a large duty-free area. From there, you have to walk through another shopping area and a food court to get to the gates.
Flying easyJet, I didn't get lounge access. But there are two LH lounges and I found third-party/Priority Pass lounges at both ends of the Schengen terminal. I didn't bother paying to use any of them so can't comment further.
Frustratingly, there is nowhere to fill up a water bottle in the airside area. I would normally fill my bottle in the bathroom, but I remembered the news reports of the BER tap water not being safe to drink. The cheapest bottle of water I could find was €3.50 for 500mL, which works out to be over AUD10/litre for drinkable water. Ridiculous.
There were plenty of charging stations though.
The easyjet gates were a good 15 minute walk from the central security checkpoint.
This afternoon’s departures:
Overall, a modern and functional airport. As much as I hate to admit it, it is way nicer than TXL and SXF. (Schönefeld Airport has been rebranded as BER Terminal 5, but is not currently operational.)