Seattle Airport

Not Verified | "Welcome to the United States." (Message to international visitors and returning residents at Seattle/Tacoma International Airport). A connecting flight in Amsterdam with a 90-minute window turned into a sprint for the gate after a backlog at Passport Control. The employees there worked hard to continue monitoring the flight departures of those waiting. The backlog was, apparently due to current U.S. mandates about rechecking all passports at certain airports, including Schiphol/Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Perhaps some European airports are more experienced in handling security and passport control. They were, after all, screening passengers more closely for nearly a half-century before American airports did more than x-ray bags and ask international passengers to declare duty items purchased overseas. We Americans did not appear very popular in the overseas airport on that day. A kind Croatian friend gave me fruit for the journey. She has never had means to travel or the luxury of wasting food, so can't comprehend the immediate confiscation of food products upon arrival in U.S. She also speaks better English than the male Passport Control official at Window 13, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, whose questions consisted of the following: (missing verbs are his, not my transcribing) "Why you in Amsterdam? Why you in Vienna? Why you bring fruit?" I had to repeat myself twice and raise my voice several volumes for his comprehension. He then had me escorted to the empty Agricultural Products area, where the two personnel at X-ray aisle 15 threw the produce away. When I asked if I could eat my two apples and a tangerine in their view, one said: "This isn't a dining area." The other said that fruits and vegetables couldn't enter the country. "Regulations". I believe she meant unpackaged. And, of course, they were already IN the country. And, of course, the regulations quoted state that these foods must be declared. No displayed regulation states that they must be confiscated without chance of consumption, thereby raising the chances of unpackaged food going unreported and actually moving through the country. When I retrieved some of my belongings, I told the personnel that I would know how to handle any produce in future. Both told me that my "threat was recorded on security cameras." Note: I had forgotten to remove the paring knife provided by my Croatian hostess, which was in my carry-on bag. It traveled through all security without incident, including the rechecks in Seattle/Tacoma International Airport. I still have it. My duty-free bag didn't exit with my other luggage. I went back for it. Two security guards' escorted me back to Agricultural Products, one checking the bag (which had already been through Passport Control with the aforementioned official at Window 13), checking receipts, asking to verify the credit card used for purchase, then escorting me out. Apparently security doubles for Agricultural Produce employees? Security guards now assume the duties of Customs officials? No one else seems to be carrying them out. What is that costing the U.S. in Customs duties? Everyone was busy with a tangerine and two apples and a duty-free bag. I sincerely thank all of the flight and gate personnel at Seattle/Tacoma International. The less said about certain Ag Produce and Passport Control personnel, the better.

Not Verified | Worst airport ever. Confusing. Seattle airport changes gates two or three times. I'm handicapped. One of The w/c helpers dropped me off at my gate, I didn't know where to go, I'm not able to walk well. How is an elderly person supposed to navigate on their own? When I asked for help finding my new gate, I was ignored, they are too busy to help. Why aren't people notified when gates are changed.? Their must be a better way. I hope I never have to go there again.

Not Verified | This is the airport where I have had my worst experience. It took three hours to make it to my connecting flight after flying in internationally. TSA was horrible. It was a single lane for the majority of the passengers and TSA agents could care less. They couldn’t have been less empathetic. I had a three hour layover and barely made my flight. Lots of others missed their flights.

✅ Trip Verified | A lack of leadership from top down creates an inefficient frustrating slow process for travelers, consistently, no matter the day or time of year, that is made worse by an arrogant, snarky, reactive, other-blaming attitudes throughout the departure process, and there is an effort made to communicate that everyone is doing the best they can and nothing is their fault and that it is just a hard day. These lies could not be believed by even the one saying them. There is no effort to improve conditions. Driving through arrivals/departures there is no order or enforcement and it is like the wild Wild West. I don’t want to make friends with a representative or customer agent, I want to get where I am going. There is no good reason that anyone needs to arrive 3 hours before and miss a flight. The bandaid relative solution of a spot saver is the worst idea ever. 5 lines of paid or tech-savvy people all flowing through a slow process of TSA who just won’t be told what to do and won’t change because they think what they are doing is working. It isn’t. Ask anyone who has ever traveled through any other airport. Hire an outside leadership group to identify the problems, or anyone who works and lives outside of the Portland/Seattle area, get rid of the people who won’t change, and then start to get to normal. Then once it becomes mediocre you will have a different perspective on where is possible to go from there.

✅ Trip Verified | It took me roughly an hour to find vehicle help. I got back to my car after my trip and found out my car battery was dead. I went back inside the airport to find help. After like 30 minutes I found someone who was directing people to the different airlines front desks. I asked him if I could get help getting my vehicle jumped. He said no, I would have to call a tow company or AAA. That made sense because I didn't see any signs for this around. I looked in the second and 4th floors of the parking garage. My wife finally texts me and says I can go to 3rd floor of the parking garage and trade my driver's license for a jump starter. I was baffled because no where in the entire airport does it say this, not even asking an airport employee. Please make signs.

Not Verified | The worst airport ever. I arrived to the airport 2,5 hours in advance. The waiting time in the line was 90 mins. Never had experience like this before. Plus 15 min for luggage checking, 10 min to get from the car to the airport - 30 min left. I needed to use a train to get my gate - by jogging, it took about 20 min. I arrived to my gate 15 min before departure ... the gate was still open. When I got to the plaane, it was almost empty, really (a busy evening flight Seattle-Atlanta) - many people, who arrived 2 hours in advance, just missed this flight. Alaska Airlines made comments that "today we have very light flight", and took off exactly on time, not waiting anybody. The worst airport ever.

Not Verified | TSA lines were horribly inefficient and staff were incredibly rude and inhospitable. Treating all customers so rudely does nothing but add stress. The airport is a total disaster.

Not Verified | Such a dreadful experience. Long story short: DO NOT TRANSIT THROUGH THIS AIRPORT. Want details? Read on: I often travel in Africa, Europe and the USA, and I have transited through the USA- been through Denver, through JFK, through San Francisco, even Washington DC. In my 7 years of travelling across the US, never in my life have I ever faced an airport with such stupid processes, such laziness, such disorganization in my life! I booked a premium Virgin Atlantic flight to San Jose which had me transiting for the first time through Seattle. Layover time: 70 minutes on the ticket. At Heathrow, the check-in desk informed me I would need to pick up my bags then drop them off again. I thought nothing of it, thinking it would be a transit as usual. Now Virgin Atlantic even landed 25 minutes earlier, giving me 95 minutes to transit. Who created the baggage claim before passport control system? That team or person must be inhumane or just plain dumb. What happens to people who have connecting flights? It makes no sense. Took me 20 minutes to get to and claim my baggage (excellent job on Virgin Atlantic and the ground crew!) another 40 minutes through passport control, and 60 minutes through TSA. They had just one lane for hundreds of people transiting. Then after about 20 minutes someone with an iota of common sense opened another lane. Then the TSA agent opened my sealed Duty Free bag of champagne to test it, saying it flagged up on the system. After testing the glass bottle she then offered I check it in or abandon it because it could not go with me. I told her my flight left 5 minutes ago - she then had a physical malfunction. You could see it in her face. She did not know what to say. Then she had to pat me down, running through their bloody speech as you do. I was clear & vocal about my thoughts, my irritations, and my impressions of Seattle airport to any staff within earshot. That TSA agent was a robot. On the one side I felt for her, on the other I decided to put myself first too. Other passengers near me and even a couple of her colleagues were sympathetic and wondered why it needed checking when it was sealed. I should have gotten her name, but I was in a rush to get the next flight. I was not about to be stuck in this city for another moment more than necessary. My bag left with Virgin Atlantic. I missed my flight by 15 minutes. Got booked for the next flight which would have me landing in San Jose 90 minutes later than planned, and in economy. So now I have to call Virgin Atlantic for a refund of some sort and see if I can get my bottle of champagne refunded too. Now, my mind was rapidly sensitised to the mediocrity around me in that airport. When I got the boarding pass for the next flight, the agent told me to head to the gate. Finding the gate was a maze of a walk and a transit train too. When I got to the gate- I noticed the boarding pass did not have a seat number. Yeah, I had to think fast and speak to the air hostess at the counter; they had to reprint a new boarding pass! The agent did not even tell me about this. Jeez- the staff are so laid back it’s borderline unprofessional and quite frankly incompetent and inconsiderate at the barest minimum. In conclusion, if you must go through Seattle, have a layover of 4 hours at least- otherwise avoid it like the plague. This experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth. First world country my third world behind.

✅ Trip Verified | While waiting for our flight we noticed a bag that was by a table across from us that had been left unattended for about 40 minutes. Both my husband and I reported the unattended bag to four different United staff employees and even alerted a restaurant employee, all showed no concerns and not one person called a security person to check on the unattended bag. For all I know the bag is still sitting at gate A11. Just glad that nothing bad happened this time because as we all know TSA never misses anything in there screening process.

Not Verified | The change to a ‘Bags first’ airport is a disaster for any non-US citizen arriving on an international flight who hasn’t the benefit of pre-clearance at their point of departure. I arrived on the 22nd December and it took me over 2 hours from disembarking to getting outside to where a friend was collecting me. There was no obvious help for the elderly- it’s quite a trek to the escalator where you descend into the baggage hall. There was no help for anyone trying to make a connecting flight- I would never recommend that you book a connecting flight within 4 hours of arriving, and would suggest leaving it until the following day to be on the safe side. And you would have thought that at Christmas where there is a known spike in the number of people travelling that there would be more booths manned by Immigration Officials- but no that was not the case. And to have to listen to the never-ending message over the tannoy welcoming us to Seattle, was like adding insult to injury. I flew with Icelandair which I would thoroughly recommend, but for the future I’ll be flying Aer Lingus as I can pre-clear in Dublin, as I simply will not put myself through that endurance test again. It was shocking. In this day and age there must surely be a better and quicker way to screen international arrivals at SeaTac. If I had the chance I would award the Airport a Zero.