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Frommers' 10 worst and best airport terminals in the world
Fox News ^ | 2012

Posted on 11/09/2012 9:52:05 AM PST by SeekAndFind

If you've ever been stuck at New York's JFK airport or Newark International Airport you know all to well how depressing and inhospitable some of their terminals are.

If caught in weather delays, travelers can easily find themselves sitting on the floor for lack of seats, or tentatively using over-used bathrooms.

With that in mind, Frommers.com released to USA Today its choices of the 10 worst and best airport terminals. The travel guide site based its rankings on cleanliness, services, on-time departures, navigation, and ease of travel to and from a city's center.

New York JFK's terminal 3, used for Delta flights, was ranked as the worst layover location in the world. According to Frommers, it won its dubious distinction for its "endless immigration lines," bad food and shopping and gloomy environment. "There's also a sense that the cleaning crew gave up in despair a while ago," said Frommer's.com.

It's considered so bad that Nairobi's International airport, which Frommer's.com described as a "Third World construction site" and should be avoided, is ranked as a better layover choice.

The good news is that Delta is under going a $1.2 million renovation project to be completed by 2013.

In total, four of the 10 world's worst terminals are in the U.S.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: airports; best; frommers; worst
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To: SeekAndFind
Top 20 Airports In The World (2012)
21 posted on 11/09/2012 10:44:05 AM PST by tsowellfan (Allen West for Speaker!)
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To: Last Dakotan

I remember getting off a plane and RUNNING for 20 minutes, never getting out of the United gates.


22 posted on 11/09/2012 11:09:29 AM PST by wolfpat (Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. -- Cicero)
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To: SeekAndFind

For a major airport, I’d vote Fiumicino as the worst - crowded and very confusing. When they were doing construction on De Gaul it was pretty bad, too. Johannesburg is really nice. Hong Kong is cool cause you can get on a train without ever leaving the terminal and be in the heart of downtown in 20 minutes - Blade Runner meets Disneyland...


23 posted on 11/09/2012 11:11:38 AM PST by stormer
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To: cicero2k

PHX is bad. If you drive to the wrong terminal you have to get back on the freeway just to go to the right one. Sucks if you’ve forgotten your car rental agreement and almost get arrested for car theft trying to get from one end of the airport to the other - but that’s another story...


24 posted on 11/09/2012 11:15:28 AM PST by stormer
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To: colorado tanker
Midway is where I book when flying in and out of Chicago. When O'Hare is closed, Midway is still flying. Midway doesn't deserve being on this list.

New Orleans, however, absolutely belongs on the list of worst airports. It's dingy, dirty and offers the worst possible food by surly and uncaring people. It is the worst domestic airport I travel to, and I spend a lot of time in airports.

25 posted on 11/09/2012 11:21:54 AM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: SeekAndFind
It looks like I'm one of very few people who doesn't expect anything actually “enjoyable” at an airport terminal.I've seen a fair number of terminals in my day...US,Europe and elsewhere,including the Third World.The only ones that stand out in my mind as being particularly good or bad are Hong Kong (the new one,not Kai Tak which,IMO,was just OK) and Dubai.Both were good IMO,very possibly because both are relatively new.
26 posted on 11/09/2012 11:27:42 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Ambassador Stevens Is Dead And The Chevy Volt Is Alive)
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To: Mase
New Orleans, however, absolutely belongs on the list of worst airports. It's dingy, dirty and offers the worst possible food by surly and uncaring people. It is the worst domestic airport I travel to, and I spend a lot of time in airports.

Are you describing the airport,the city,or both? Although I've never been to NO everything I've read about the *city* contained the adjectives you've used to describe the airport.

27 posted on 11/09/2012 11:33:11 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Ambassador Stevens Is Dead And The Chevy Volt Is Alive)
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To: SeekAndFind
Geez I've been through all 10 of the worst and only 4 of the best.....
28 posted on 11/09/2012 11:42:27 AM PST by montanajoe
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To: stormer
Hong Kong is cool cause you can get on a train without ever leaving the terminal and be in the heart of downtown in 20 minutes - Blade Runner meets Disneyland...

One good thing about the *old* HK airport (Kai Tak) was that it was about a 5 minute cab ride from the Star Ferry terminal on Kowloon.The train to and from the city *is* pretty impressive though.And it's all courtesy of the Brits who got things underway just before they left.Of course the Chicoms won't tell you that.

29 posted on 11/09/2012 11:42:39 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Ambassador Stevens Is Dead And The Chevy Volt Is Alive)
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To: astounded

I’m with you on Midway. When I noticed that they were listed I couldn’t believe it. I have used that airport fifty times and I can’t think of anything bad about it.


30 posted on 11/09/2012 12:08:46 PM PST by Quigley
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To: Gay State Conservative

True that, but at the old airport they about had to fly sideways just to miss the buildings. Either way, it’s a great city. I’ve been a few times and would really like to spend a year.


31 posted on 11/09/2012 12:10:24 PM PST by stormer
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To: Gay State Conservative
I was referring to the airport, although the city isn't much better - save for the food. How the city can offer such awesome food, while the airport food sucks in epic fashion, is a mystery.

But then, the old saying about New Orleans is truer today than ever before: Show me someone going to New Orleans for vacation and I'll show you someone going there for the first time.

32 posted on 11/09/2012 12:12:24 PM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s an older airport, but MSP is a very nice place for a layover. Lots of decent restaurants and if you have to spend a night in an airport, you really can’t beat it.


33 posted on 11/09/2012 12:13:16 PM PST by SeaHawkFan
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To: SeekAndFind

The worst I’ve ever been to was Atlanta. Awful wait time and uglier than hell. Of course this was 5 years ago, they could have spiced it up since then.


34 posted on 11/09/2012 12:24:09 PM PST by skinndogNN
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To: SeekAndFind

I like my local airport, Kona International. Unless you try hard like going to the head, you are never indoors. No air conditioning, no luxury lounges, no jetways. They even make you walk up a ramp or steps to get in and out of planes! The horror of such a 3rd world airport.


35 posted on 11/09/2012 12:31:23 PM PST by doorgunner69
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To: skinndogNN

Don’t get me started on Atlanta....also Miami is terrible as well.


36 posted on 11/09/2012 12:34:27 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: stormer
True that, but at the old airport they about had to fly sideways just to miss the buildings. Either way, it’s a great city. I’ve been a few times and would really like to spend a year.

Yup,I did the Kai Tak Heart Attack twice.The first time I didn't have the faintest idea what it was about and as the 747 banked to about 70 degrees I truly thought I was gonna die.And then,when we leveled off,I was stunned to look out the window and realize that I could see what the people in the nearby apartments were watching on TV! As I left the terminal after getting through immigration I got a great shot of a bright orange Brannif 747 passing low enough so I could almost touch the landing gear.

And you're right...it's a truly amazing city.East meets West in its purest form.If you ever get a chance,check out Singapore.It's a much cleaner,much more orderly and much wealthier "spinoff" of HK.But the humidity will get ya...year round!

37 posted on 11/09/2012 1:55:24 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Ambassador Stevens Is Dead And The Chevy Volt Is Alive)
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To: SeekAndFind

My personal favorite is Munich. There’s a beer garden in the terminal! Bottom is Rome - chaotic, dirty, flights are never on-time, and half of the time your luggage gets lost.


38 posted on 04/24/2013 5:35:10 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq He could sure play that axe. RIP anymore, it's about the USA!)
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