Beijing Capital Airport

Unhelpful and rude staff, horrible restaurants at Beijing Capital Airport. Long and inefficient lines for security checks. The airport could be cleaner too. Overall experience quite negative, especially considering that we are talking of the airport of the capital city of the country that wants to be the global power.

Beijing Capital is probably the worst airport I've been to. The flights never leave on time, and the staff never tell you the reason for the delay, or when the flights are likely to leave. On the most recent occasion, I waited for over 7 hours before I gave up. Every time I asked staff when the plane would arrive, they told me to "come back in half an hour". In the end, they encouraged me to come back tomorrow. The terminal signs are a joke. My flight didn't appear on the main departures board until 5 hours after it was originally scheduled to depart. None of the check-in queues display which flights they are checking in, and there are so few staff around that you are left to guess which queue you should be in.

Check-in at Beijing Terminal 3 was fast and not too chaotic. The exit for customs and security is what takes the longest when departing from this airport. It was also very hot inside and there was no air conditioning. The security lines aren't too bad, but what I really don't understand is when I set off the metal detector. I have no idea what I did or what I was wearing that did that. The lounge in the gate area is easy to find and they have a good selection of food and drinks. For an airport that is considered to have some of the worst delays, I didn't notice it. Every flight was on time that day. More employees at this airport speak English than you would expect.

Transit procedures chaotic at best. Hundreds of passengers going through a very narrow set of corridors. Only one desk to process all passengers before being scanned. Scanners not working. Staff rude and impatient giving incomprehensible instructions in Chinese, no English spoken at all despite being an international hub. Worst airport and airport staff I had to deal with. Never again.

At first sight Beijing Capital airport interior is beautiful. Upon arriving one must go through an immigration line and the directions are very difficult and confusing to follow. The immigration officers were polite but unsmiling and slow. I had to go through 3 security checkpoints on the way to the gate for my flight to Taiwan. The security officers were rude, undecipherable. Sometimes going through this airport they confiscate my lighters, other times not. I now avoid any flight that connects in Beijing.

I have traveled through Beijing airport T3 30+ times and each time it has been as disappointing. For departures, I have to arrive 2h+ early because of the long internal routes and sluggish queues for security check and custom. For arrivals, it takes more than 1h for me to grab my checked baggage and go home. This airport does take a huge responsibility to support the busy aircraft movements in Beijing, but it has certain design flaws which makes it very inefficient. Most other airline hubs I have been to are made much more compact and convenient. There are some pros about this airport, including the abundant shopping places and a variety of dining to kill the time. Yet I think an airport's convenience should outweigh its entertainment.

Three security checkpoints at Beijing airport, all with grim-faced unpleasant security officers, barking orders in poor English. They were confiscating batteries from carry-ons from many people. Intrusive body searches, while being barked at. Poor signage to tell us where to go for our next flight. When we finally got to the terminal to wait for our flight to the US, there was no place we could get anything to eat or drink, as no shop and no vending machine accepted either US credit cards or US or Japanese currency. Not enough seats in the waiting area, and it was none too clean. There was no order to boarding, people just milled around and shoved. Will avoid in the future.

Beijing Capital is a horrible airport, like a city. Completely uninteresting. Unbelievably, at the information desks in the international area nobody speaks English. If you want to connect to the WiFi, they ask you for a local phone number. Finally I got connected through some other connection with a weak lonely line of signal. At the airline counters, they speak a few words in English but absolutely no interest on helping you.

This is China's busiest airport, and the second busiest airport in the world. Unfortunately, that means there is a high probability you may experience flight delays and potentially very long waits. However, this airport is typically your only option when you fly into or out of Beijing. Given that this is such a major airport, I expected more. Somehow, in terminal 2 at least, they blocked off the domestic departures section from the international departures section in the same terminal, thus passengers taking a domestic flight cannot enter the section where the international gates were and vice versa. This is the first time I have seen an airport do this, and this really limited my options for restaurants and shops when I was hungry or bored.

Flying out of Beijing Capital Terminal 3 is many times a nightmare because of the immigration and security. On this occasion it took me 45 minutes to get through the long queue, in apparent rush hour time (at 7am, should it be rush hour?). This is the trouble with Terminal 3 only, but it is here that most international flights depart. Cannot avoid it as T1 and T2 are mainly domestic. The airport is modern but too large. It takes some 15 minutes' walk from the Dragonair lounge to Gate 16. It is bad that as a frequent flyer I had to suffer this time and again. There simply should be more security counters. Also, to use wifi, you need to get a code via your mobile phone. Do not really recommend this T3 but no choice.