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Best and Worst Airports

LiveForTheLaunch

LiveForTheLaunch

CF Legend
After reading an article about the worst airports in the world, and since CF is such a well traveled group of people, I was wondering what your favourite and least favourite airports are (and you can include a list of ones you've been to as well if you want).

My favourite two airports are Detroit Metropolitan because it's never that crowded, it has a decent selection of shops and food, and the tram is cool. Stansted is also up there because it's pretty small and I've NEVER had more than a five minute wait there. Plus, Wetherspoons <3

Least favourite is EASILY LAX. Way overcrowded, long lines, and the terminal I was in had two choices of food places, only one of which was a normal sit down restaurant, resulting in a stupidly long wait for a burger.

I've been to:

- Detroit Metro
- Toronto Pearson (which I also really like)
- Orlando
- Punta Cana International
- Vegas McCarran
- Boston Logan
- London Heathrow
- LAX
- Stansted
- Schiphol (Amsterdam)
- Berlin
- Rome
- Atlanta
- Philidelphia (was a tad confusing)

I think that's it.
 
The best airport is blatantly Heathrow, so fab and massive I love it <3 I haven't been to any of the big Asian airports but I hear they're pretty special.

LAX was vile, just a bland, grey room with a few poncy shops. Absolute crap.
 
I was just thinking about this very thing on Friday as I moved (slowly, painfully) through Washington Dulles.... I was trying to work out whether I detested it as much as I detest Paris (CDG).... and I think I did!

They (Dulles) have this absolutely awful people transit system that they call a "mobile lounge" - it was laughable.

3462369_cc3be93e85.jpg
 
I haven't been to many...

American airports are all kinda ****. Heathrow is cool, dispite not being the end of the line for me. I don't feel like foreigner there dispite being surrounded by everything other than brits and just one more stop before newcastle.
 
david morton said:
I was just thinking about this very thing on Friday as I moved (slowly, painfully) through Washington Dulles.... I was trying to work out whether I detested it as much as I detest Paris (CDG).... and I think I did!

They (Dulles) have this absolutely awful people transit system that they call a "mobile lounge" - it was laughable.

3462369_cc3be93e85.jpg
Click to expand...

That actually looks amazing haha.

Um. Not flown many.

UK;
East Midlands
Luton
Gatwick

Cyprus (Larnaca?)

Spain (Reus)

Ibiza

Palma

Fueteventura

Cyprus

Favourite UK one is Luton, easily. East Midlands is too small and dingy, Gatwick was a **** monstrosity, Luton is easy to get to, easy to park and transfer, and easy to navigate.

Larnaca was dull as ****, didn't help we had a 6 hour delay but there was literally nothing there.

Reus was god-awful but to be expected for an airport that only carried Ryan Air flights.

Ibiza was pretty good. Clean, modern, wouldn't like to be waiting at the gate if it was busy though.

Palma is my favourite though, beautiful airport, huge but not daunting.

Can't even remember fueteventura airport, just remember approaching it and doing a swift 180 before landing and worrying about how close we were to the ocean because I was like 10.
 
Smithy said:
Favourite UK one is Luton, easily. East Midlands is too small and dingy, Gatwick was a **** monstrosity, Luton is easy to get to, easy to park and transfer, and easy to navigate.
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I hate Luton! It's horrible, the car parks are terrible; the long stay is a ridiculous bus ride away!

I did a few trips from Luton and then one from Liverpool which was really mega. The cheapest of the car parks is still only a five minute walk away, and the entire place is so much easier to drive into than Luton. Proximity helps me too, Luton is a two hour drive away (at least) and Liverpool is only one, so that obviously helps me.

But yeah, having a delayed flight back from Milan, to arrive in Luton at about 1am, and having to get on a crappy bus to the crappy car park in the middle of knowhere, with the promise of a long drive home when all I want to do is go to bed really ruined Luton airport for me.

Favourite? I don't know, they're all pretty depressing places aren't they?
 
As I've only ever been on one flying trip in my life, I've not really flown or landed at many airports and visited only one other.

- London Gatwick
- Toronto Pearson
- Detroit Metro

To me, they were all pretty much the same. I know there are many differences between them, but I didn't spend near enough time at any of them aside from Gatwick to make any distinguished observations. Gatwick seemed to have a nice enough duty-free area and took less than 5 minutes from check-in to end of security checks which was nice.
 
I've been to:

Heathrow
Gatwick
Stansted
Luton
Ibiza
Palma
Mahon
Alicante
Reus
Barcelona
Hamburg
Milan
Rhodes
Crete
Sofia
Paphos
Bangkok
Singapore
Melbourne
Sydney
Orlando
Vegas

The worst by an absolute MILE is Sofia airport in Bulgaria. There's only 1 shop, no food outlets and just a general feeling that you can't trust the security there.

The best Singapores was pretty cool, absolutely huge airport. I like Stansted as well seems to be really efficiently run in terms of checking-in and heading through security. Hamburgs had a really cool pub right on our gate when I flew from there which was really good.
 
I wasn't going to bother with a list, but then actually got a bit curious as to how many I've been to, so here goes:

Manchester
Liverpool
Birmingham
Stansted
Gatwick
Heathrow
Luton
Edinburgh
Ibiza
Lanzarote
Paris CDG
Paris Beauvais
Toulouse
Reus
Girona
Madrid
Faro
Gibraltar
Venice
Rimini
Geneva
Schipol
Frankfurt
Lubeck
Memmingen
Gothenburg (City or Landvetter?)
Stockholm Skavsta
Tampere
Helsinki
Athens
Budapest
Krakow
Amman
Ben Gurion
Ljubljana
Dubrovnik
Moscow Domodedovo
Moscow Vnukovo
Saint Petersburg Pulkovo
Marakesh
Orlando
Nassau
New York JFK
New York La Guardia
San Diego
Toronto Pearson
Seoul Gimpo
Seoul Incheon
Yecheon
Osaka
Fukuoka
Tokyo Narita
Tokyo Haneda
Taipei Taoyuan
Taipei Songshan
Shanghai Pudong
Beijing
Hong Kong
Singapore
Kuala Lumpur
Kota Kinabalu
Johor Bahru
Bangkok Don Mueang
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi
Chiangmai
Surat Thani
Ko Samui
Phuket
Ho Chi Minh City
Siem Reap
Vientiane
Luang Prabang
Hanoi
Manila
Caticlan

Most of them tend to blur into one to be honest, in that I hate the vast majority of them. I love being in a new place, but I despise the process of actually getting there. A few of those are obviously just tiny, **** local airports, but to fair, while they're not great as far as the facilities go, they're usually really quick to get through. I'm not going to include the little **** ty ones in the worst list, just more major ones.

Some that stand out in a good way:

Singapore - Huge, yet incredibly efficient and actually a pleasant place to have to hang around for a couple of hours.

Hong Kong - Similar to Singapore really. Had a 5 hour delay and didn't mind. Free computer terminals (before the days of ubiquitous WiFi, which I'm sure it probably has for free now. Any airport that charges for WiFi is a **** ing disgrace btw)

Seoul Incheon - Probably been through here more than any other. It's huge, but always get through the faff within a few minutes

Liverpool - Favourite in the UK and not just because it's the closest to me. It's small, but has everything the bigger airports have and some that they don't, including fast food and coffee chains. Always get through really quickly as well. Could do with a rail link though.

Worst:

Luton - Disgusting, vile place. Feels like an overcrowded bus station from the '60s.

Moscow Domodedovo - Poorly planned and laid out. Stupidly inefficient.

Ben Gurion - Actually a nice airport (FAB central fountain thing), but ridiculous security. I was questioned by 4 different people and had everything in my bag swabbed. Apparently, this is normal, and this was leaving the country.

Paris CDG - Honestly, fly to Beauvais and take the bus into the city. CDG is a horrible introduction to Paris, and the train ride into the city, through the gratified slums, is disgusting.
 
Good:
"London" Stansted
Madrid Barajas T4.
Chicago Midway.

Bad:
ANY airport that makes you go through security again whilst in transit. Schipol/Bangkok Suvarnabhumi...
 
tks said:
Bad:
ANY airport that makes you go through security again whilst in transit. Schipol/Bangkok Suvarnabhumi...
Click to expand...

We had to do that at Bangkok actually, it was vile. And then at Shanghai when already late urghhhh <//3

The ultimate worst are LAX, Luton and ones like Reus <//3 Actually, any US airport I've used has been gross. Orlando's VILE too. I don't really remember Philadelphia though.

The best are obviously the Asian ones. Hong Kong's fab, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi's fab, um... Like people have said, Heathrow's miles and above the best UK one.

I don't know, there really aren't that many that stand out to me. I couldn't even start to count which ones I've been to <//3
 
I rather liked London recently, but my favorite is Sydney. Atlanta is pretty good too with so much Delta, my airline. I always go to the sky club so Atlanta is probably my favorite in the US is. I also like Chicago and San Francisco. My local airport is Memphis. It is small and very nice for the size. The memorials to Elvis are pretty nice plus the BBQ is delicious. However, Delta is cutting us off so Southwest is probably going to be my new airline.

The worst is LAX!!! Vile! It is just terrible and is far too big. I also hate the NYC airports.
 
^^It's not being a snob when mummy and daddy are paying for it, or, let's face it, probably using air miles - no doubt garnered through astronomical credit card debt - for the upgrade to pretend they're not Cattle Class.
 
Speaking of security while still in transit, another reason I hate Philadelphia airport so much is because I had gone through security in Heathrow, only to have to go through it again and wait an HOUR during my hour and fifteen minute long layover. Meaning, I almost missed my flight after I was already in a state of distress about leaving England </3
 
So I'm like the only person who likes Luton then :p Idk I found Gatwick too daunting in size (was very young though).

Thoughts on Barcelona? Flying there for PA later this year with Easyjet so only using Terminals 2B/C, seems simple enough.
 
^ Airports ARE simple enough. It's the same system and routine, with a few tiny variations, at every one of them. They seem to turn people into utter **** ing morons though for some reason.
 
gavin said:
^ Airports ARE simple enough. It's the same system and routine, with a few tiny variations, at every one of them. They seem to turn people into utter **** ing morons though for some reason.
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Oh tell me about it! I have had to wait for some people faff about getting their laptops etc. out of their bags, as they were not prepared. If I see a queue and people faffing about, I am not a happy bunny. Happens on a daily basis too -_-

posting from somewhere in the world...
 
gavin said:
^ Airports ARE simple enough. It's the same system and routine, with a few tiny variations, at every one of them. They seem to turn people into utter **** ing morons though for some reason.
Click to expand...

Aye if you plan ahead which now I travel on my own (well, without parents taking care of everything) it's easy enough, I just don't like huge airports with multiple terminals but they're all adjoined rather than a bus-ride away so it's simple.
 
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