Kunming Airport

Not Verified | The airport itself is OK for transfer (domestic to international). The lounge for (China Eastern) business class and Skyteam elite members is very disappointing. It is almost empty, without warm foods. The personnel there explained that the cook does not like to work in the evenings, such an excuse appeared on some websites two years ago and the airlines/airports have not taken any actions to improve?

Not Verified | I had to pass through Kunming airport on my way to Thailand. It was simply for a layover flight, but our layover was 13 hours. Given that the purpose of our vacation was not China, we didn’t wish to deal with the hassle of leaving the airport. We assumed that being in an airport for 13 hours, there must be some place to sleep, right? Well, we discovered the “rest lounge” on the bottom floor, it was full of uncomfortable chairs that do not recline and cannot be moved. I did not wish for both me and my partner to be asleep in an unfamiliar airport and country at the same time so stayed awake away while he slept. Our 13 hours was from 6pm-7am the next day - so the middle of the night. The rest area was filled with visitors who were loud all throughout the night, very hard to fall asleep. We moved to some chairs that were actually more uncomfortable than the first, but we could move them against each-other and actually lay down. Well that worked, until the literal police awoke us at 12.30am as they came towards us on segways and yelled at us and made us move the chairs back. We drifted upstairs in search of refuge. We found a sleeping lounge, I gladly was ready to pay money for a wink of sleep, they would not let foreigners use the sleep lounge! You would think that at an international airport they would have an option for foreigners to get some sleep in a situation such as ours. All of the kiosks were closed, we couldn’t figure out how to use the ATM which was fine, our fault, but when we asked restaurants if we could use our cards they yelled “no!” At us and turned away. When the kiosks did open up, they sent us from one counter to another for about 2 hours. Never giving us a straight answer, we were very sleep deprived and simply trying to get answers. Finally we got an answer as to where we could check-in, and then they changed it on us 3 different times. We ended up sleeping in restaurant chairs guarding our things until we were able to check-in. I understand the airport is located in China, but for a foreigner at an international airport I was very displeased and baffled by the quality of service. Will definitely never be scheduling a flight through Kunming airport ever again.

✅ Trip Verified | Kunming airport was terrible. I traveled though Kunming on my way from Nepal to South Korea. Since this is China, even though I was only in airports, I still had to go through entrance customs, annoying but a country wide policy I believe. However, airport staff were unbelievably rude, condescending, and confrontational. I'm an American citizen, but a student studying in China. Apparently I filled out the wrong card, for even though I was only traveling through China in transit from Nepal to South Korea, I needed to fill out my an immigration card because I had a residence permit. Oops my bad, but holy hell the response. The woman walking between arrivals checking information shouted at me to go back and get another, implying I was a complete idiot. When I was back in line, there were a number of people who had the information on their phones, but it had gone missing. (Probably they had it open in a browser that had timed out). They had no internet and were frantically trying to figure out what to do. They were international travelers too, so of course they had no working sim cards and airport Wifi begins after customs. The woman started shouting at them too, "Hurry up! Get over there! What are you doing? Where is your itinerary? No, no WIFI!". I couldn't believe it. Shouting in Chinese culture is incredibly rude. I walked over to them and told them I had a sim card for China, let me find it. We stepped out of the way of the flow of people to one side. As I rummaged though my bag it didn't take long before the woman noticed us. She marched over and demanded to know what I was doing. So I told her, "They need internet to get their itinerary, I'm going to give them internet." She just glared at me, how dare I offer a solution or any help to these people? "No, you over there! Hurry up!" "They have no other means to get it, what you want them to do?!" Finally infuriated and annoyed, the woman let them through without the itinerary! Apparently it was just too much of a bother, and all of the information they had to have, staff decided they didn't need and they let all them through anyway. The way they treated me, and especially the tourists from Nepal, left me so infuriated I was shaking. It took everything in me not to start shouting at the staff and cause a scene. I have never been so horribly treated, nor seen someone else so horribly treated at any airport or anywhere else in China. To top this off, the rest of most of the airport staff could not be bothered to be helpful. I arrived between 8pm and 9pm, and had to stay until 7am the next morning. No one could be bothered to help me! All I needed was information on when the ticket counters would open in the morning and where I could find the WIFI machine to get access (turns out my sim card was out of data). However airport staff just waved me away and wouldn't talk to me. I speak Chinese! It definitely was not a language issue! The best employees were the cleaning people who helped me find bathrooms, the elevators, and didn't bother any of the guests sleeping in the restaurant chairs at 3am. Those women were a godsend because I was exhausted after my flight and customs. Otherwise, the airport was a bit dirty, saw a number of cockroaches. However, the bathrooms were nice and had toilet paper and soap. Anyone traveling to China should know that often public bathrooms expect you to bring your own and while airports are better, they can still be hit or miss. Always carry your own.

Not Verified | Worst customer service, rude staff, not helpful at all. It's an international airport, at least learn some English and manners. Why do I need to collect the luggage and check-in again even it was just for 3 hours transit? Why so long process for checking passports manually? While handing over passport, at least read out the name on passport, don’t ask who is this? Custom police and security are very rude. No shops in the whole airport accept dollars, just accepts Yuan only. No display of airlines on screens. This would be my first and last travel via Kunming airport, Guangzhou is far better.

✅ Trip Verified | This airport is quite the improvement from the previous one. The old airport reeked of different terrible odours, was terribly under capacity and badly designed. This new one has addressed some issues. Firstly, the terminal architecture is impressive, albeit I find it unnecessary. There are very few widebody departures yet the airport is extremely large. Unnecessarily large. I like airports in Europe because they tend to have shorter walking distances. The check in hall is very confusing. It lists the airlines, and on the Thai Airways website it literally just says "Row H/J/K" And my tour guide says that what that means is that some days it is row H, some days it is row J etc. This is really confusing, as I went to row K only to find Cathay Pacific. Security seems to take forever and is such a weird practice, the screening is done in small rooms. I don't like this at all as if you get separated from your companions you literally have to wait for them to emerge from one of the rooms. One thing that bothers me is the immigration. There were no automatic passport lanes for Chinese passports, which meant half the lanes for foreigners were taken up. It was a rather long wait at passport control. Staff can barely speak English. The only English proficient staff member I met was the Thai Airways station manager. For an airport which is served mostly by A320s and B737s I cannot fathom why in the world would they deem it necessary for such a large terminal. LAX has the gates close to each other which is very convenient for walking. My mum did not enjoy the long walks especially having to rush to the gate, as she has knee problems. All business class lounges are operated by the airport itself, none of which (at least in the international wing) have a window. They at least have some hot food and various snacks. Also, seats by the gates only come in the form of cheap massage chairs. To sum up this airport in a word, it's designed improper to its purpose. I think this airport is really a bit of a design failure, and without bringing too much ethics into discussion I believe it is designed to awe passengers than actually function as an airport. Unfortunately all the large airports in China have this problem. Luckily with my next destination, Guangzhou, I can use Hong Kong airport which is by far one of the best airports in Asia.

Nice, modern, clean airport with plenty of check-in rows. Food options fine with a McD and noodle shops. WiFi not always present. The only nuissance in this airport on departure is the number of times you have to show your boarding pass and passport, 5 times, yes 5.

A very modern building and a large terminal but very long walks to and from gates. Not very clean including the toilets. The persons cleaning the toilets would keep the toilet rooms locked and you would have to request him to open it up. The security and immigration staff are very rude and disorganised. I stood in a queue for immigration security staff were shouting and screaming at passengers. My hand bag had already been screened and cleared and just as I was about to go a lady started screaming at me 'Check Check" and wanted me to put the bag through again. Their systems were clearly not organised much like our Indian airports. The worst experience I had was when I had arrived the previous night from PVG at around 12.30 am. Not a single airline counter was open in the arrival or departure hall and there were touts openly moving around the arrival area soliciting people for hotel and taxi. I will avoid this airport in future.

A very long walk between gates and between terminals. Little in the way of eating we could only find one restaurant that was opened and this was 10 in the morning. A very disappointing place and I will try and give it a miss when flying out of Chengdu.

Spectacular to look at and spotless but beware the walk to/from the gate. And at around $12US the most expensive coffee ever. There is supposed to be a metro to the city which did not appear to be operational. I used the airport bus 13 yuan single however this only operates between 0600 and 2100 and is not sign-posted I only found it by chance. After 2100 a taxi is your only option. General tip when using taxis in China: print off your destination in Chinese script. The driver will not speak or read English.

On arrival a very large new complex. A long walk from arrival gate to baggage claim area. For a new complex it looks old. Dirty windows and patchy paint. I will have to wait and report on the departure process in 3 weeks time.