NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  3 July 2009 : by Dave Stone   (USA)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Experience at JFK will depend entirely on what terminal(s) you're using. If you're not flying Delta, you can disregard the gripes and complaints of reviewers talking about T3, etc. Terminal 1 international is good and relatively smooth, but almost no food/shopping before security. T2/T3 (Delta) is old and run-down in the extreme. Very sad since it started life as the jetsons-like Pan Am worldport in the 60's. On the other hand, I've always found T3 to be the fastest plane-to-gate trip for international travel - provided you know how to navigate the terminal and are a US citizen. T4 (International) is nice and modern, has a huge shopping area before security - but security and after is miserable and dull. T5 (JetBlue) is a long hike from the AirTrain to the gates, but has the smoothest security, great food options, and is very comfortable post-security. T7 (British Airways, United) is old and poorly maintained. Reasonably quick to get through, but hardly an impressive gateway terminal. T8 (American) is very airy and efficient, and makes one long that the Airline lived up to it! JFK is a huge airport and international gateway, and should be compared alongside Heathrow, DeGaulle, and the like. As such, it doesn't look too bad -- though that's not saying much! Customs and Immigration are definitely a bit closer to being pleasant!

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  27 June 2009 : by Bill Kavanagh   (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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I picked up my wife today from DL97 from Edinburgh at Delta's Terminal 3 International arrivals. The area can only be described as a "hell hole". Dirty, poorly lit, decrepit. Choose your adjective. This terminal would be right at home in some banana republic but what a horrific introduction to the USA.

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  9 June 2009 : by S Ashton  (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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My 19 year daughter who had travelled from the UK alone, arrived at JFK on 7th June 2009 at 2:20pm. As a worried parent I assured her that there would be people employed at the airport who would be happy to help her. How wrong could I have been! She was "greeted" by surly unhelpful staff that seemed to view visitors to your country as an inconvenience at best and a downright nuisance at worst. I assume these people do not have any form of customer service training. I suggest you rectify this and perhaps tell them they are supposed to welcome visitors to your country - and smile now and again, not snarl and growl.

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  6 June 2009 : by L Zijlstra  (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Last week I arrived at JFK T3 and was shocked to see the state it was in. It's disgusting, old and dirty, not what I expected from an airport of New York. I didn't feel safe in the arrival hall. We were approached by dodgy people and it felt like we were in a ghetto. There was also no clear information displayed how to get to the other terminals (we had to pick up my parents) On the way back, the departure lounge was even worse ancient looking, dirty carpets, rude people and security staff and duty free shopping was a joke. I think America should be really ashamed of the state of this airport, it's a disgrace.

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  4 June 2009 : by J Adamowicz  (USA)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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Used T8 for a recent trip to and from FCO on American. Found the terminal to be clean with a fair amount of service choices. The customs process on the way back was fairly smooth. All in all, not a bad experience despite all of the horror stories you hear about JFK.

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  3 June 2009 : by Peggy Marshall  (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Connected through JFK from Frankfurt (Delta). Customs was crowded, poorly staffed, and confusing - multiple international flights arriving, of course. After numerous announcements and signage about which carrel to wait by, our flight was sent to another carrel - by that time I was just thankful to see my luggage again. After finally passing through the zigzag line at Customs, those of us who were connecting through Delta were sent to a small elevator to ascend to the Delta counter (does this place not have escalators? A second elevator was apparently inoperable.) It probably held 5 people, with luggage, at one time. Of course, staff could bump ahead of you in line and take a spot in the elevator. Good luck if you are disabled. We met with some of the most rude and unprofessional staff that I've ever seen, in any airport - it was telling that they were even rude to fellow employees. Start to finish: two hours. Then another horrible stretch of hours until our flight finally took off (from a gate that apparently boards like 5 flights at once and makes you walk up the steps outside.) Did I mention that the bathroom made truck stop restrooms look like the Ritz? Can't imagine that travelers from other countries find it a positive experience! I will never again accept a flight that routes through JFK!

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  1 June 2009 : by Sandro Dessi

Customer Rating : 2/5

I flew to JFK with BAWand so arrived at T7 and departed from the same terminal on my way home. After getting out of the plane I noticed the dirt on the walls and around the air outlets on the ceiling of the corridors, not a nice way to great passengers at the "gate to the US". I had to wait for an hour and a half in that musty air to pass through passport control, not even half of the desks were occupied. The televisions right next to you don't make the situation more comfortable as they are set to high volume. The officer was unfriendly, never and recalled a trip I had made to Havana/Cuba.. On the day of departure I was surprised to stand in front of the gate within 15 minutes after arriving at the airport. BA staff was very friendly and helpful, security checks were very lax compared to LHR for example, which is kind of worrying. The departure level left a much better impression compared to the arrival level. It was clean, bright and the air was better, but why on earth do they set the ac to blizzard temperature at max flow? After getting on the plane I had headaches. The choice of food was bad. Fast food, fast food, fast food, and one restaurant with exaggerated prices. Staff at Balducci's where I finaly bought a tasteless sandwich for $9 was unfriendly and annoying as they were complaining to customers about their working conditions. Overall I was very disappointed and happy to get in the plane. That terminal can not be compared with standards I'm used to at European airports, even Havana was better!

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  28 April 2009 : by Dave Darcy

Customer Rating : 1/5

Possibly the worst airport in the world. Terminal 7 is dirty, staff are rude, there is nowhere to sit. Then when you fancy a beer or a glass of wine, the tariff isn't on display the staff encourage you to leave a tab open and when you have had two beers and your wife has had two glasses of wine, they hit you with a bill of almost 50 dollars. Gate way to the US, country of customer service excellence - rubbish, dreadful never again!

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  23 April 2009 : by Richard Vrolijk

Customer Rating : 4/5

JFK Airport T4. For departing flights it's really a nice terminal with quite a bit of choice on stores and 2 or 3 places to eat. Getting through check-in isn't a big problem and rarely takes long. On the times I've had to go through, it took about 15 min on average. Arriving at T4 is a different story though. I forgot the exact number customs counters they have, think it's about 22, they rarely are all open. Most times there were only 4 or 5 open at a time. Bare in mind that it takes roughly between 5 and 10 minutes at the counter itself to go through and that there's usually 3 or 4 flights coming in at the sametime, it builds up a line of roughly 600 to 800 passenger. sometimes more, sometimes a bit less. So you do the math of how long you'll have to wait in line. For me it was an avarage of 2 hour waiting whereas 30 minutes of them there was no movement at all. My advice to everyone traveling to JFK and arriving at Terminal 4, get a front row seat in the plane or as closest to the front as possible and when you're allowed to get off the plane, hurry to the line as the difference between a front row seat and a rear row seat can easily add a few hours to your waiting time. Other than that, JFK is a nice airport and the clerks are usually friendly at T4. Even though a lot of them seem to be really bored at doing their jobs.

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  10 March 2009 : by Adam Rappaport

Customer Rating : 4/5

Terminal 5 - Jetblue Terminal. Best selection of restaurants in a US terminal. Free Wi-Fi. Great take-out food, with the opportunity to have food to go delivered to you at the gate! Easy to navigate! Architecturally, ok!

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  28 October 2008 : by John Oram

Customer Rating : 3/5

JFK probably is not significantly different to other US aiRports but I am going to keep on posting similar comments until something filters through to the ghastly DHS. So much of what is done at security where there were avoidable delays again today is cosmetic, futile and politically motivated. It has very little to do with keeping people safe and everything to do with what looks good even it does keep people waiting around in stockinged feet. There has never been a convincing argument for removing shoes and the DHS/TSA are clearly oblivious to the physical effort this requires for some. Laptops no longer need to be removed from bags at LHR but JFK clings on to another pointless process. At least we left at a good time of the day and, after the delays inflicted on us by Delta, were quickly airborneL.

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review :  7 October 2008 : by Davron Mirsagatov

Customer Rating : 3/5

I had an early flight from JFK to Houston at 6:00 am from terminal 7, and I am a tourist so when I bought ticket we were told that we should arrive two and haul hours before flight. So I arrived at 4am to JFK to terminal 7 and it was closed! We were told to wait in terminal 4, because it was chilly outside. When they opened terminal we had to wait another 20-25 minutes when counter agents arrived, overall security checking process was smooth. Overall terminal 7 was clean and nice with few options to do within terminal.

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review : 2 September 2008 : by Gary Marsh

Customer Rating : 2/5

What a nasty airport to arrive in. T7. The immigration officer was rud, enjoying letting you know she had the power to deny you entry. Its incomprehensible that there is such a delay in the immigration process bearing in mind all personal information is provided by you to the airline for the immigration service and also having completed the new Travel Authorisation to the United States online with the US department of Homeland security. Why is it still taking so long to get through this ghastly airport. A bit of a humdrum typical boring airport certainly nothing outstanding to comment on.

NEW YORK JFK AIRPORT review : 27 August 2008 : by Brian Smith

Customer Rating : 3/5

Connected from Terminal 1 to 8 and back again this past trip. That is from an international terminal to the American terminal. Easy enough to do and there were clear signs. American's terminal is huge and has a lot to offer. Basically I felt it was an OK experience and better than what I had to endure at ORD, but not as easy as IAD (as IAD is smaller). The only complaint would be the distance to walk between these terminals and the security situation. TSA in the American terminal was really frustrating as there was only one ID checker and a queue for the x-ray and the actual screening. I counted 10 people and FA cutting in front of me with their staff ID. When the line is as slow as it is, it was really annoying, especially after a long flight. It made my wait really long. I finally told them to cut behind me as I'd had 10 in front already and they just reminded me they were staff. I reminded them that, "Oh, I guess you're more important, though I'm the one paying the bills." If they could make a line just for staff and crew, that would be the best solution to this problem.