Birmingham Airport

✅ Trip Verified | What a poor excuse for an airport, on the approach to departure gate/lounge 59 the smell was terrible, I would say there was probably a rat or two dead and decaying in the air vent system. When mentioned to the checking staff they just shrugged their shoulders and said it’s like that. All this after a two day camel ride from the free drop off point ! And don’t get me started on the security check queuing and vetting.

✅ Trip Verified | Airport is good and fairly easy to travel through. But signage to return car hire is appalling. Totally frustrating, so many roundabouts and no signs to say where to go to return car. 30mins to find a petrol station to fill up and another 20 and 3 car parks later to find the way to return hire cars. Come on Birmingham, it’s not rocket science, get some signs for those of us who are not familiar with the area. Apparently the hire car companies have been asking for this for years! It’s a customer service.

✅ Trip Verified | One of the worst airport experiences ever, and we thought Gatwick was bad! We arrived for night before check in and found only an empty desk. After waiting 5 minutes or so someone asked ‘have you rung the number?’. There was nothing there or on our pre flight information to say you’d have to ring and no information on the desk, believe me we looked. So having been told the number we used the phone and eventually got a dozy, bored ‘hello’. We then waited another 5 minutes for someone to appear, then he lazily plonked himself down and shuffled papers around, barely acknowledging us. Then they didn’t know if skis could be checked in and we had to wait again to have that ok’ed (the website had said this was possible otherwise we wouldn’t have tried). The attitude was of complete disinterest, we were asked no security questions, it was like a third world airport. Security the next morning took an age, even at 4.30 am. On return from our holiday we landed around midday and didn’t get out of the airport for nearly 2 hours. Passport control was a complete joke. Constant queuing passing signs stating the wait would be 35 to 45 minutes and so on. Non-EU passport holders simply strolled past to the manned desks and had no wait at all. A number of officials watched the increasingly disgruntled queues but did or could do nothing whatsoever to help. What was the point of them? This is an absolute embarrassment to the UK. I don’t think we will use this airport again, time is too precious.

✅ Trip Verified | I arrived on Emirates flight 039 on 24 December 2017. The problem is that it is the front half of the A380 upper deck that has been given over to economy resulting in Business passengers having to wait until they have disembarked before they can get off. Since lower deck passengers are also disembarking earlier, a quick exit to Immigration is now out of the question. Unlike at Heathrow, where there is a separate Immigration queue for First or Business class passengers, Birmingham only has one queue for non EU passport holders. This is totally ludicrous and is exacerbated by the fact that not all Immigration desks were open. The use of cellphones is not permitted, so how does one inform waiting transport of the inordinate delay?

❎ Not Verified | Birmingham airport charges you to drop passengers off. There are no clear instructions about how this system works when you approach, and from an arrivals point of view it only appears that you would be able to drop someone off at a substantial distance from the airport. Otherwise, you have to pay a fee. If you have mobility issues, you will not be able to be dropped off at Birmingham Airport without paying a fee.

✅ Trip Verified | I was a little apprehensive arriving to this airport, especially given that it was the lead up to Christmas. Having read the comments prior to the flight I was not expecting a good experience. The first impression was a little poor walking off the aircraft to some metal stairs that leads you into a building felt very 1980s and not what you expect of an International airport, however once inside all proceeded very smoothly no queues at all, went through passport control no issues, luggage was despatched very quickly, the whole process must have taken no more than 20mins, both my wife and I were pleased and nothing like what I had read, perhaps we were lucky.

✅ Trip Verified | Having had a good experience 3 weeks prior on arrival, I thought that maybe this would be a one off, we arrived later than anticipated due to an accident on the M1 which meant we had to divert and arrived only 1 hour before scheduled flight departure not ideal. Check in was a breeze, self service with staff on hand to assist, I paid for fast track and this was money well spent as we went through very quickly and as I paid for priority we were able to get close to the front of queue, so what could have been a problem with our late arrival, turned out fine in the end.

✅ Trip Verified | Arrived at 22.00 hours on time on a return flight from Berlin 14/01/2018. I was hoping to get home after 4 days away on business. Then we had passport control and a delay of 45 minutes, nowhere to sit, hot, sticky, tired and stifling heat queueing in a staircase. Finally reaching the two operatives, they were quite deliberately dragging their feet and seemed to be enjoying torturing all the Sunday night arrivals that were clearly just on their way home. There was an obstructive jobs worth attitude that I had not seen since the 1970s. I would avoid this airport like the plague in future and go to Manchester or Liverpool where machines are available to read your passports instantly and deal with much larger flights full of passengers easily within a few minutes. The place was also dirty and smelt of stale tobacco and urine. The only good point was the number one lounge my priority pass allowed me in to on the way out.

❎ Not Verified | What a big scam is Birmingham airport. I followed the sign to the drop off point. Found myself in a parking with the most obvious writing as first 30 min free. Didn't read the smaller writing. I thought 30 min may be enough for seeing off my parents. Realised that the parking itself was 10 to 15 minutes from actual departure point. After seeing off my parents I came straight to my car to find out I have to pay £15. And then I looked at the smaller writing where it charges £5 for every 5 minutes. So for my 45 minutes I had to pay £15 pounds. The other parking areas close to the departure are much less. I followed the drop off point signs only because it seemed the right thing to do without making congestion. I called the assistant who said I should hurry in paying because another 5 minutes may pass and I will have to pay for talking to them. Hated the dishonest signage. It's no less than a scam.

❎ Not Verified | This has to be the worst airport I have had the misfortunate of landing at. Where to start? The fact that you need a pound for a luggage trolley even though you have arrived from an International location and have no local currency of that exact amount? The fact that even though an A380 flight had arrived they had only had two people on the passport control desk? Or perhaps I should start at the doors leading to the arrival area that were unable to open due to a mechanical fault? Even the luggage trolleys seem to have an attitude - only being able to hold minimal luggage and not bothering to do a good job at that. There is no cover when you pick up a rental car, so imagine picking up a rental in the rain at night with copious amounts of luggage and two kids in tow. The signage was poor, the place was dirty. (I'm not expecting the Ritz but this looked like aged filth.) Its an international airport that acts like a national one. Dealing with our rental car company only added to the chaos. We flew in to Birmingham as it was cheaper than flying to Heathrow. Even if flying to Birmingham airport was half the price of our flight - I would not go there again. Avoid at all costs.