Which is the worst international airport in the U.S. and why?

I can't answer for them all, but Detroit's Wayne County has a rather cumbersome customs process and I can't imagine it ranks very high. Happily, they are also completing their new mid-field terminal and I would imagine things will be looking up in the Motor City very soon.

Hello Laurel,

for me it`s Washington Dulles. Took me
3 hours to retrieve my surfboard and had
to go to another terminal to check it in
again..Missed the connecting flight and
nobody was able to give me directions. Not a lot to do in the terminals if you have to kill time..
Although I like that Samuel Adams Bar in
the departure area where you can smoke
and have a beer...

Miriam

Hello Laurel,

for me it`s Washington Dulles. Took me
3 hours to retrieve my surfboard and had
to go to another terminal to check it in
again..Missed the connecting flight and
nobody was able to give me directions. Not a lot to do in the terminals if you have to kill time..
Although I like that Samuel Adams Bar in
the departure area where you can smoke
and have a beer...

Miriam

Sorry,

I don`t know why it`s posted twice...

Miriam

I like _flying_ into Boston's Logan because sometimes the approach is a nice long glide down the coast from Newfoundland -- but I HATE HATE HATE dealing with the construction and lousy traffic engineering around the airport. It's never the same route two days in a row, it's poorly marked, a wrong turn gets you almost into the bay, and even if you negotiate getting to and from your terminal and/or parking, you still have to deal with the tunnel situation and the Big Dig.

Boston's INS/Customs people don't seem much better than others, but I've heard that Detroit's INS people are nasty.

Subjective question and answer, I suppose, but my vote is for Atlanta. I've never felt so "processed" along with thousands of other overheated, rummy travelers. I don't remember the INS or customs people as being unwelcoming (in fact, kudos to the INS and USCS for generally having great people in important positions) but the airport was unpleasant to the max, especially making inter-line connections - ugh!

What else? JFK! Confusing layout, almost impossible to get from the international terminal to any domestic terminal, completely unfriendly staff (that is, if you can FIND any staff lurking about).

Let's face it - airports are just not fun places to "hang". But JFK is a nighmare of it's own special kind.

Miami...sprawling, confusing, old and tired with some pretty bad attitudes for icing on the cake.

I know you asked for US airports - but last year I found the airport in Toronto to be unfriendly and hard to figure out where to go after clearing customs from Europe. One guy (an airline employee) actually just turned around and walked away when I asked him to direct me to US customs. It took forever to get my bags and even though we had 2 hours between flights, we just made our connection, we were the last ones to board. I'll think twice before routing through Toronto again...

Well, I have to say in the times I have flown INTO Newark from an intl trip, I have never had any problems. Luggage wait not that long, and have breezed thru immigrations and customs!!

What's the point of this question? Is there a prize for one that gets the most votes?

Miami...hands down. when I die and go to hell I will be forced to wander Miami airport for all eternity.

I third Miami. Convoluted, unclearly labelled...to get from an AA Washington-Miami to a Miami-Nassau, Bahamas flight, we had to do no less than the following: walk a normal distance to a shuttle train to get us to another terminal (the shuttle train was not clearly marked), get out of the train, go through another X-ray machine, walk at least 0.5km on moving walkways to get to the labelled gate. And THEN from the gate, take a bus (the first bus was full so we had to take the second bus ten minutes) for about 5 minutes to the terminal for Bahamas-bound flights. It took us no less than 50 minutes to get from one gate to another. Luckily our flight from DC was not delayed. (American Airlines had overbooked the flight to Nassau; luckily we were OK, but a lot of people were really pi**ed. But that's another story.) If we had been elderly, I don't think we would have made it.

Atlanta really sucks.

Always seem to get stuck behind an Airtran plane deboarding. Those people really smell.

Laurel:
The New York Daily News stated in yesterday's edition that JFK is the worst and I certainly agree!

Another vote for JFK (actually, all of the NYC airports are lousy!).

Came back from Europe last September, and I couldn't have been treated any worse by U.S. Customs if I'd been smuggling heroin or a bomb! They're rude and slow.

I'd vote for Detroit as a runner-up.

I'll second Daniel's nomination of Miami. Hubby and I live in Dallas, and we're pros at navigating DFW International. But Miami TOTALLY threw us for a loop!

I can't imagine any airport presenting a worst first-impression of the United States than JFK. Despite billions of dollars in "improvements," New York's three airports still have a long way to go.

I agree with bucky--Logan boston is the pits--and I live there!! It has been a nightmare for years, and doesn't show signs of improving