Sydney Airport

Not Verified | Upon my arrival at Sydney Airport, I found myself in a state of anxious anticipation, awaiting the arrival of my husband, I approached an airport staff member, politely requesting assistance in locating my husband’s arrival gate. Instead of receiving the empathetic aid I had hoped for, I was met with dismissive indifference. The worker seemed more preoccupied with their own tasks than with offering assistance, leaving me to navigate the labyrinthine corridors of the airport alone. As minutes stretched into what felt like hours, my anxiety mounted, my husband approached another airport staff member for assistance. Hopeful that they could help locate my husband’s JBL headphones, charger and ensure its safe arrival, he was met with a disheartening response. Not only did the worker fail to provide any meaningful assistance, but they also carelessly extracted his headphones. To add insult to injury, they later claimed that the headphones could not be located, leaving him with a sinking feeling of helplessness and frustration. Honestly to me that’s stealing and if you know you did wrong replace the items. The failure of airport workers to provide adequate support during a time of need not only detracts from the overall travel experience but also reflects poorly on the reputation of the airport itself.

Not Verified | The experience begins with the rude and arrogant security staff. The airport infrastructure is dated and there is a lack of gates. Inefficient bus system for remote gates.

✅ Trip Verified | Bustling as usual. Smoking area just outside near domestic departures drop off is quite annoying as we can inhale them as we make our way to the entrance.

Not Verified | The trolleys are free in all major airports around the world. The distance to/from domestic is crazy and expensive. The car rentals are at international terminal and you pay a fortune to go to domestic.

Not Verified | My day started off very well leaving Uluṟu on my break from work heading to the Gold Coast. My initial flight out of Uluṟu went superb. My day was briefly ruined when I realised I had missed my connecting flight to Gold Coast at gate 4. My day looked very dark afterwards. That’s until Nicole Harrington and Sharna Boston came to the rescue and secured my spot on the next flight out (to Brisbane) If it wasn’t for these heroic and legendary ladies, I’m not sure that I would’ve been able to get through my day. A massive THANK YOU to these wonderful women and their incredible customer service for making my experience at Sydney Airport as GREAT as it was! Not all heroes wear capes.

Not Verified | We returned to Tassie from Singapore (on QF2) via Sydney Terminal 1. We worked about 14 years at an international airport. We do not travel much, though over decades we've been at the following international airports: YCC Canada, LAX USA, DFW USA, HNL USA, NRT Japan, LHR UK, BKK Thailand, Changi Singapore, DXB Dubai, AUH Abu Dhabi, &, BNE, MEL, PER, Australia. Sydney T1 is by far the worst airport we've been through! Yes, Sydney is busy, though this was bedlam soon after leaving the plane. Some moron put Smart Gates in the corridor that feeds pax into the airport - this rapidly creates a bottleneck. One lonely/diminutive staff member was trying to marshal pax, however she was standing beyond the crush, largely unseen & unheard. Pax were going into the duty-free ‘arcade', then coming back against the flow, believing they'd missed passport control. There were no border force staff in the vicinity so when a machine failed, a pax (who had experienced this chaos) had to go & find a border force officer (who voiced he was annoyed after 2 years in the place). Many of the pax trying to use the smart gates were not familiar with them, &, with no help this was very confused & slow. Having to pass through the duty free ‘arcade’, rather than having the choice to bypass this area, the crowd found they were in another passport control area. This area had more allegedly smart gates, &, finally some human staff. Then it got worse. The baggage reclaim area was a mass confusion. QANTAS provided the wrong baggage belt number, the crowd was going every which way to find the correct belt amongst all the pax from other flights. After getting bags all these people had spontaneously formed a very long queue which snaked around the baggage reclaim area. There were very few Border Force, Airline or Airport staff apparently not doing anything in this area. This very long queue consisted of elderly people, confused non-English speaking people & various others – all very tired as these were overnight flights. Eventually the one very long queue broke up into two long green & red exits queues. The couple in front, either misdirected or confused, had gone down the wrong exit. This held up the queue, the couple were bewildered when told they had to complete incoming pax cards again (& check whether they had bypassed passport control). We got to the front of the red exit queue, knowing what we were declaring was okay. We were then able to leave this chaos after conversation with a border force officer. Then we had to check our bags in for the domestic leg, another long slow-moving queue in an understaffed QANTAS area. As we got to the front of the queue the baggage belt failed & check-in stopped. Twenty minutes later, it was decided to use the oversized baggage belt. We had arrived in with plenty of time, now we were being told our bags might not get onto our next flight. All around us people who were missing their connections. We eventually headed to T3 on a shuttle. My partner headed to toilets where she found that 4 of 7 taps were out of order, hence a queue of people inside the toilets attempting to wash their hands. I finally had a chance to sit down - on a broken seat. After Singapore this experience was third world. Sydney Airport's website has the words: " A little love goes a long way. Vote Sydney Airport #1 in the 2024 Skytrax World Airport Awards…" not likely.

✅ Trip Verified | Came through domestic security as usual, my husband has a metal rod in his knee from knee op so we are use to the security screens beeping, he walks with a disability (the security staff could see he had difficulty walking). Hubby walked through the screens and a male security staff pulled him aside and had an aggressive manner towards him, we advised security that he has metal rod, however staff continued to speak in an unprofessional and rude manner. Hubby followed airport processes and remained quiet, doubt as he was told. When staff finished their search (didn't find anything) I approached male security staff and said that my hubby has a disability and next time can he please not be so rude with folk who have disabilities, staff member argued with me and told me to "shut my mouth" in front of security staff and passengers. Absolutely inappropriate and insensitive to passengers who have disabilities.

Not Verified | Drove to the Domestic Terminal to pick up my wife who had arrived back from Coolangatta. Signage for drivers looking to park close to Terminal 3 was completely hopeless. My wife was unable to locate any directions to the pickup area. Very poor service.

Not Verified | What a dreadful mess the domestic airport is. Inside the airport its run down, grotty, and rather filthy all around. Outside the airport its even worse. Building works seem to have been going on non stop for 10+ years, with barriers left up long after work has been completed. People are funnelled down pathways that lead nowhere. Walking paths leading you right in front of traffic. Staff are rude. But worse is the simply lack of signage and confusing roads and directions. Tonight I was picking up passengers, going to Arrivals, and police were chasing off anyone picking people up? So where are you supposed to pick people up from? Doing the usual loop around, and get funnelled into one of the parking stations, where you can't get the boom gates open. Lived in Sydney for 50 years, and this airport just gets worse every year. How is it you can have an airport where you can't drop off or pick up passengers from???

✅ Trip Verified | Arrival at the airport from initial passport screening which caused endless blockages due to placement in narrow focal points, and lack of availability through to using limited baggage carousels which resulted in significant delays to retrieving baggage whilst empty carousels weren’t used at all. To finally the endless queue to exit through customs. It appears everyday is like a first time operation with staff having next to no idea what could or should be happening and what appears to be zero planning from the airport itself to reduce the mess that it seems to always be.