Worst airport experience

[cirqueboy]

I got talking with some friends tonight about our worst ever airport experiences and it seems that what constitutes "worst" is a personal thing.

I am wondering what others have classed as their "worst" ever.

I have two:

LHR 16 December, 2010 - the infamous "we don't know how to deal with a bit of snow" experience.

GRU domestic gates 1-4 (bus to tarmac) in the middle of serious thunderstorms after 35 hours of travel.

 

[banger2]

What an interesting topic, cant wait to read some horror stories!

I don't really have a worst but....

I guess Jetstar loosing my luggage on arrival in Bangkok at 8pm (funny cirqueboy you mention thunderstorm as it was Jan 17 2012....that flight was delayed due to thunderstorm/hail over the airfield in MEL, we were on the aircraft at the gate for 30 mins waiting for it to pass so groundcrew could return....but it wasn't bad just a bit frustrating).... I'd been travelling for 15 hours...I then had no clean clothes...stinky! Worst was I was spending the following day in Pattaya (well that wasn't bad LOL), but the following morning 7 am was leaving for Hong Kong! Lucky, to Jetstar's credit, my luggage turned up in Pattaya 5 hours before (2am!) I left for Bkk-HKG! Flight memory tells me I've taken 144 flights (coz I'm a statistics nerd!), that's the only flight I've ever had delayed luggage (never lost either)...but Jetstar and BKK was an unsettling combination for it to happen first!

Not a worst, but the first time through Manila airport, and I was on my own, was nerve wracking.....and last week I used that new body scanner in Sydney. That caught me off guard as I didn't expect it!

 

[sergeyvzn]

Moscow Sheremetievo Airport terminal F in July 2011 - air temperature outside above +30C, inside seemed to be hotter as a/c was not working (renovations of the whole terminal). On top of the above - 'smoking stations' throughout the terminal, sponsored by Winston (I think). It's basically a huge table with the top filled with sand. People were standing around smoking and when finished, buried the cigarette butts in the sand. The smoke obviously was filling the non air-conditioned air in the whole terminal, pretty much. I thought I would die - had to wait for over 1.5 hr for my flight to HKG

 

[Awesom Andy]

Not my own experience, but I knew of someone who lost his passport, and travelled on a temporary one. It just so happens that a volcano was causing havoc with his flights, and he was stuck in DXB for days. Normally, he would be able to venture outside of the airport, but the immigration there didn't like his temporary passport, and would not allow him landside. He was trapped airside for almost a week, and was seriously considering making a movie of himself, calling it The Terminal 2.

 

[john_l]

Many delayed flights were pretty bad experiences... 7 hour delay after a sleepless night in Liverpool was probably one of the worse ones!

 

[dodgeyhack]

Being knocked back from the BA lounge as a QP member. Oh the shame.

 

[smit0847]

Da Nang airport, Vietnam in 2010 (the old airport). Flights board at the same time through the one gate (you can imagine the confusion). Boarding 'lounge' reminds me of a run-down old hospital. The lone food stall is staffed by locals who do not speak (at all). Flight delays not announced at all.

The only positive was that Vietnamese people get really dressed up when they go flying (even for a 1 hour JQ VN flight) - very impressed by their outfits!

LAX, ATH and CDG were also not enjoyable.

Best airport experiences - BKK (I know Im in the minority), HEL, BCN.

 

[freepyjamas]

CDG.

It's a magical kingdom where they take all that is bad about the Gallic attitude to life, extract all that is good about the Gallic attitude to life, and concentrate it all into a series of deliberately confusing terminals. Aside from developing-world hellholes, it is the worst airport experience in the world by a considerable margin.

 

[benlight]

SIN a few years back.

The shame of being escorted from (outbound) immigration by police/immigration officers, and then being detained for about an hour at Changi Airport all for the crime of being in possession of duplicate boarding passes for my flight. Supposedly it was a big no-no for the airline to have issued me with another boarding pass (I received the first at HKG) when I checked in my baggage at SIN.

 

[11sjw]

Arriving at PBO at 1830 for my 1930 flight home. Uh-oh technical problem and we need to get an engineer up from PER. Stuck there with no amenities until we finally departed at 0030.

 

[JohnK]

A few hair raising incidents over the years

- MIA where I caused an international incident from the domestic terminal. :shock: Waited an eternity for security and then off to immigration for an explanation or is that detention?
- CGK April 2005 for my first and only visit and no company rep to greet me and take me through immigration and on to my accommodation. Had no idea where I was going and slowly contacted people who contacted people and eventually got things sorted.

And the usual

- Delays, delays, delays

There are not too many airports I do not like....

 

[whatmeworry]

JohnK you recently visted MNL, what was that like?

 

[jetlagger]

A few hair raising incidents over the years

- MIA where I caused an international incident from the domestic terminal. :shock: Waited an eternity for security and then off to immigration for an explanation or is that detention?
- CGK April 2005 for my first and only visit and no company rep to greet me and take me through immigration and on to my accommodation. Had no idea where I was going and slowly contacted people who contacted people and eventually got things sorted.

And the usual

- Delays, delays, delays

There are not too many airports I do not like....

Been to VLI , POM ?
Please post your review thereafter..
How about.. Inclusive of a visit upcoming sans lounge Tiger Terminal ?
'Have you seen the types of people that travel" on that contraption?
Look forward to your Tiger experience TR JohnK

 

[Poisson]

Dili, back in the Indonesian days. Merpati flight was delayed about 4 hours before the announcement came over the PA that "the plane is broken". A lady fainted and was surrounded by a jostling crowd all taking photos. 24 hours delay - luckily I had a "minder" who fixed me up with a room at the Tourismo.

 

[JohnK]

JohnK you recently visted MNL, what was that like?

MNL airport is fine. I have been there many times.

It was the first time I ventured outside that was a little hair raising.

 

[jetlagger]

MNL airport is fine. I have been there many times.

It was the first time I ventured outside that was a little hair raising.

A differed experience with localised knowledge though.. Mirrored & shadowed with you in BKK

 

[JohnK]

How about.. Inclusive of a visit upcoming sans lounge Tiger Terminal ?
'Have you seen the types of people that travel" on that contraption?
Look forward to your Tiger experience TR JohnK

OOL and T2 SYD are not my cup of tea but I do not fear for my life.

I am a people watcher and can easily spend some time out in the terminal. Some of the dress styles, tattoos etc could keep me amused while I have a cold Pure Blonde or 2. May even meet the future mrs JohnK? You never know....

 

[jetlagger]

OOL and T2 SYD are not my cup of tea but I do not fear for my life.

I am a people watcher and can easily spend some time out in the terminal. Some of the dress styles, tattoos etc could keep me amused while I have a cold Pure Blonde or 2. May even meet the future mrs JohnK? You never know....

Somehow Agreed..
Though.. The warm pure blonde - in real life- is much more enchanting than the cold minimalist temporary one.
As for the dress styles, I'm certainly glad we are all different.. It makes the world interesting.

 

[Lizzi]

My worst was when leaving Amman, and after check-in and security (not fun either - I was pulled over to the tent where I was searched, plus had to go through the entire contents of my bags with them), the passport control decided that I and two of my companions didn't have the correct entry visas in our passports, so detained us for two hours while taking our passports away "to be checked". All the other members of our group who had the same visa (our tour company had bought them all on arrival!) had been waved through with no problems, strangely, but after two nail-biting hours of no information, they finally told us we needed to pay for a new visa in order to have our departure processed. Luckily our flight had been delayed due to some other reason, so we didn't miss it at least, but I sincerely hope I never have to go through that again!

14 hour layovers and 6 hour delays paled into insignificance after that!

 

[Poisson]

CDG.

It's a magical kingdom where they take all that is bad about the Gallic attitude to life, extract all that is good about the Gallic attitude to life, and concentrate it all into a series of deliberately confusing terminals. Aside from developing-world hellholes, it is the worst airport experience in the world by a considerable margin.

I'd heard bad things about CDG but when I went through there a couple of weeks ago I didn't find it so bad. It took a long time for the luggage to come up, due to the fact we landed in a snow storm, but otherwise it was no better or worse than a lot of other places I've been.