HOUSTON AIRPORT  Passenger Reviews and Traveller Reports

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review :  6 February 2010 by Steven Koenig   (Brazil)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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Cleanliness

Facilities

A big, relatively modern airport. Facilities seem best in the terminals used by Continental, which dominates the airport. We arrived from Brazil and transited to a domestic flight (reverse on our return). Immigration and Customs were quick. This was before 6 am, and crowds were not big, but desks seem well-staffed. We spent most of our time in Continental's President's Club, and only a short time in the regular part of the terminal. Area for disembarking was quite crowded. Insufficient seating, though this was exacerbated by people taking up multiple seats with bags, by stretching out, etc. My wife returned to Brazil before me, and her flight was canceled so the airline gave her a room in the hotel inside the airport. Very luxurious, but very expensive (she was glad she wasn't paying), she said.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review :  1 February 2010 by Chris Allsup   (USA)

Customer Rating :  4/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

A wonderful airport, but with 5 terminals split among 18 airlines, including Continental, which uses 2 whole terminals for its flights alone (A & C), it can get a little hectic and is not what I would've expected. With Houston, I would've expected something better.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review :  23 January 2010 by T Neyrinckx   (Belgium)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Flew BA into Terminal D on a Sunday afternoon. My experience with Immigration was shameful after a 10.5hrs flight : took about 90min to clear and reach the luggage pick-up. And after collecting my luggage, another queue to check the customs form! Check-in for the return flight was a breeze. But seldom been in an intercontinental terminal with fewer choices of eating places : only one! And the "Lone Star Grille" served food one wouldn't even feed to his dog.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review :  20 January 2010 by Byron Scott   (USA)

Customer Rating :  5/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

ORD-IAH-BJX January 2010. Easy connection outbound. Although it's not clear from the airport web-site, the airport people-mover is inside security and the trains (at least in mid- afternoon) run frequently. It's not that easy to find, but once you do, it's quick to get to Terminal B. There's not a lot of seating there, but a decent mix of places to eat. Returning from Mexico, we landed at gate D-1 (regional jet gate). This was a very, very long walk to immigration. Fortunately, we landed just before the KL, LH, AF and BA, so lines weren't long. Then you go downstairs to customs and back upstairs to go through security again for connections. Surprisingly, TSA opened an additional line. I can imagine that line can get long, so it's possible it could be faster to exit customs and just re-enter security along with passengers boarding in Houston. It took about 30 minutes from arrival gate to departure gate, much of it walking. Overall, a good return to the US.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review :  17 December 2009 by J Lemon   (USA)

Customer Rating :  4/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

IAH is a major hub for Continental and therein lies a problem. CO still seems to think that a 30 minute domestic to domestic flight connecting time is acceptable. However, if one has to connect from the far reaches of Terminal E to Terminal A, 30 minutes is simply not enough time - especially if one is deplaning from the back section of coach in a full 767-400 or 757-300 in Terminal E. There is an above ground people mover (the "Terminal Link") which works quite well; however, it has not been extended yet all the way to Terminal A from the other terminals, although this section is currently under construction. Other than that, IAH is a large, modern facility that works failrly well and now offers improved shopping and restaurants. Pappadeaux's restaurant in Terminal E is probably the best and there is also an elegant new wine bar in Terminal C that serves food as well. If you are flying into IAH on an international flight, try to avoid arriving in the mid afternoon as most of the flights from Europe arrive at this time, which can lead to huge crowds and long wait times when clearing U.S. Customs.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review : 13 December 2009 by Cristiano Miro

Customer Rating : 5/5

Flew from Rio de Janeiro to IAH, on Continental's new nonstop on this route. I did connect to my final destination. I must say that, Houston's Intercontinental airport is a very large, impressive facility. High-ceilings with glass windows and plenty of natural light, giving the terminal an airy, spacious feeling. The airport is, indeed, a modern, functional structure, with courteous and professional immigration staff that seems to know what customer-service mean. I was in line for about 25 minutes, which is not bad for an airport this size. The layout is practical, the airport is clean, and with plenty of good choices for dining.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review : 16 October 2009 by R Pym

Customer Rating : 3/5

Flew KLM from terminal D. check in and security were first class very speedy with no queues at all. However have never been in a terminal with fewer choices of eating places. Went to Lone Star Grille only to find that the bar tender was unable to mix a margarita.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review : 13 October 2009 by Joyce Pieper

Customer Rating : 1/5

My experience at IAH Customs was deplorable. Took over 1½ hours to clear customs because not enough staff on duty. The “helpful information” TV screen is in English Language only. Many traveling foreigners who do not speak English received no help filling out forms. One Asian couple tried to fill out forms correctly but to no avail and was repeatedly told to “try again” without any help. Shameful experience. And this all happened between the hours of 12:30am to 2:00am. We were the only flight in at that time. I can’t imagine what the Customs process is during the busy daytime hours.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review : 9 September 2009 by S Perry

Customer Rating : 3/5

Arrived and departed from IAH Terminal A. Pretty basic terminal, nothing remarkable. On departure, check-in was fast and TSA line was non-existent. Limited services, especially at night. The off-terminal Car Rental Center is an idea more airports need to emulate.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review : 31 August 2009 : by Kevin Phillips

Customer Rating : 1/5

Once again had the misfortune of traveling though Terminal D. Total disgrace 5 or 6 large aircraft landing at the same time. Immigration line not that bad, but still took over an hour to clear, I was off plane first and ran to immigration. This is the same every time, only half the desks open. Went for bag, all Priority bags not on belt and the belt shut off, no more bags was the reply. After 80 people complaining somebody went down to see what was going on. Another 15 mins passed and then the bags appeared. All in all a horrible experience. Avoid IAF Term D at all costs, a very bad example of the USA.

HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT customer review : 5 June 2009 : by S Koenig

Customer Rating : 3/5

IAH seems a basically usable airport, though it is considerably further from downtown Houston than is the smaller, and more easily traversed, Houston Hobby Airport (HOU). The secton of IAH reserved for non-Continental carriers, such as Air Canada/Jazz is considerably smaller, and more basic, than the rest of the airport. We recently arrived at Hobby and departed from Bush (IAH, and would always try to use Hobby in the future (unfortunately, international departures are all from Bush).

Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport review by Ronald DePass

26 November 2008   Customer Rating :

Traveled through IAH to LAX 2 weeks ago and IAH to PTY last week. The first time was the worst. I have travelled through IAH before and never experienced what happened to me this time before. So first, customers had a large queue waiting, second and all of a sudden on baggage claim I'm stopped by a cop, then I'm sent to security control room to check on my bags and to be questioned every type of questions I've never been asked before. I felt mistreated and would not take any flights connecting in Houston unless I had no other chance. Not to say I had to run to have lunch and catch my next flight. Disliked it very much, do not fly through IAH unless it's necessary.

Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport review by O Alexandre

24 June 2008   Customer Rating :

Having to wait 2 hours to go thru customs in not funny as not enough booths opened at 11h40! Still after a nice lunch around the airport, my evening flight with AF was fantastic. IAH no thank you, I will avoid it at any cost because of organised chaos!

Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport review by E Fehim

22 March 2008   Customer Rating :

We're due to be flying from San Diego to Houston and then Houston to Gatwick. However, we have only a 50 minute connection time. Is this long enough for us to make that flight? On the way in, we were stuck in immigration at Houston in queue's for over an hour, and as I've never done the return before, I don't hold much hope for catching flight to London. Anyone had any experiences at Houston like this?

Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport review by P Chandler

11 October 2007   Customer Rating :

Flew into Houston from London on Continental a couple of weeks ago. Met with a reasonable number of people in the immigration queue and had documents checked whilst waiting. Got to end of this queue and selected a short queue for one of the booths. It went downhill from here as neither of the 2 families in front had filled in their forms correctly and had to redo them at the desk. 2 points here - how come they got to the desk without having had documents looked at (or did official not want to deal with it) and why were they not taken aside to fill in the forms allowing others to be processed. Bag was either inspected or broken into between Houston and final destination but no TSA notice inside and nothing missing. How do ii know this - I placed duty free cigarettes bought in London into my case before handing it back to the airline and outer wrapping had been torn off when I opened my case later on.

Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport review by John Victery

11 September 2007   Customer Rating :

In just a few words, I always have the feeling that, in general, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. The best reception area I have found is that of Air France. One is greeted cordially, assisted courteously, departures and arrivals are timely - in a word, a highly professional way to be of service to its customers in and out of Intercontinental Airport Houston.

Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport review by Peter Jordan

5 February 2007   Customer Rating : n/a

Houston can be very good and can be awful. Immigration into the US can be hit and miss, but IAH vies with EWR at having the shortest queues on average. (There will always be the odd bad day, but I've had 6 / 7 with a wait of less than 5 minutes in the last few months). Check in, security and baggage reclaim can be quick unless flying CO from Terminal C which is simply awful. If flying domestically I use AA because I know I can breeze through the airport in less than half the time it takes with CO. The international terminal (D) is similarly swift. However whilst BA and AA bags arrive quickly, it can take an hour to get bags to the CO domestic carousels.

Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport review by Diego Muller
22 October 2006

What a nice airport! Immigration took me about only 20 minutes. Very friendly staff. The airport is beautiful and clean. Unlike someone has said, I caught a connection flight which had only 1h and 20 minutes between arrival and departure!

Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport review by Cyn Matranga
22 September 2006

Houston George Bush Airport is a delight. I always use this route when flying to So. California, so the layover/connection is at Houston Airport. The airport is laid out for the comfort of the traveler. It reminds me of a friendly shopping mall. Many and varied restaurants offer all types of food and prices. The shuttle monorails are very efficient, and when one tram had a mechanical glitch, causing it to stop on the tracks, it was dealt with within 5 minutes, and very efficiently. The airport employees are friendly and helpful. I wish all airports were this nice. I highly recommend it!