New York JFK Airport

New York JFK Airport, Terminal 8. The arrival is quite swift and clear. Airport lacks food outlets at the departure and arrival level before/after security clearance. The transit area is alright for food outlets but announcements are very unclear and can be improved, especially so when there is announcement for a delay or final call. Overall Terminal 8 is alright.

Terminal 5. Pretty fast through security on departure. Good range of shops and facilities. Trolleys are a total rip off at US$6.00 a pop. Absolutely ridiculous greed by Airport authorities. Explains why most people carrying own luggage. If you have to charge then make it a reasonable price and you will get more revenue. Decent airports do not charge. Car pick up a shambles with two/three ineffectual wardens more keen on blowing their whistles than actually controlling flow of traffic.

I was at Terminal 7 at JFK. It was quite disappointing the quality of this terminal. My arrival experience at JFK was also not that great. After a 14 hour flight, the last thing you want is long queues and I had to wait 1.5 hours just to get through immigration. There was not much space with narrow hallways at the arrival hall as well. This being the first time at JFK airport, I expected the departure hall to be much better. However, I was so surprised to see the size of Terminal 7 departure hall. It was very small when compared to the gigantic size of an airport JFK is. Terminal was lacking of glamour and excitement too - it was dull. Shops were not interesting and the terminal felt somewhat empty. There were some food retail, but not a great selection of them.

JFK has done some upgrading in some recent years which was much needed, however still has issues with being clean and rude people. Love visiting New York but I would rather go to La Guardia than JFK because of easier access to the city. But to be honest both airports need to be overhauled.

The worst airport experience ever! When arriving to terminal 7 after 15 hours travel (with a stop in Madrid) from Israel we just stood in a line for more than two hours to have our passports stamped. There is no place to sit in this long queing and nothing to drink. Some people were just sitting on the floor. The airport experience was bad in an other way. We had to pay 25$ for a taxi from the car rent in the terminal to the terminal itself, and then 6$ for a trolley for the suitcases. Transport shouldn't be free? Trolleys shouldn't be free? Since we were hungry we met the ugly greediness of the food shops; 9-13.5$ for a simple sandwich! 13$ for a simple pre-made salad with a piece of cheese! Please don't come to this airport when hungry. By the way, they always ask you 'how are you', but it does not mean they care even a little about you. It is realy a pity this is the first and the last view of the US.

After reading many bad reviews about JFK I was surprised in a positive way. Immigration was very fast and effective, 15 minutes after we left the plane we passed the imigration, the civil servant was neither rude nor friendly, did only his job. After we claimed our luggage we passed the customs and proceeded to the ground transportation deck, where we arranged the shuttle service to our hotel. It took 45 minutes after landing to leave the airport.

The security check at terminal 7 is confusing for first time users and the staff at the security check point were rude and yell at you for making mistakes. The staff at the McDonalds were sullen and unfriendly. Seems like everyone in that airport is in a bad mood.

This was our first trip to New York and having read lots of bad reviews about JFK we were worried and not looking forward to the experience. We landed at 16:00 on Friday of the Columbus day holiday weekend and were out of the airport an hour or so later. The immigrations / customs staff we met was polite and efficient. The same was true on our departure, we were quickly through security and had plenty of time to have a meal and drink. I have to say my first experience of New York JFK was excellent.

Worst experience in an airport. Arrived late at night after a 14 hour flight from Hong Kong. Baggage check and security closed, open at 3 am. Had to sit in the hard cold floor for hours waiting for the staff to arrive because of no seating. Staff at counter and TSA were rude and inefficient. There is no designated TSA Precheck line so I had to take off my shoes. Limited WIFI, no food vendors were open. Terrible experience. Never again.

I have never experienced such chaos and rudeness in my life. A two hour queue with staff barking orders to people in a way that really didn't say welcome to America at all. We were tired, we were thirsty and we were stuck in a long, long queue, a smile or two would have been nice. When we got to the front of the queue we were greeted by the most obnoxiously rude woman it has ever been my displeasure to meet. We'd watched her taking what seemed like forever to deal with the people in the queue in front of us. She looked red in the face and harassed and I felt a little sorry for her. For some reason our queue seemed to be moving far slower than the ones around us and I thought, maybe, she was new. The people before us were eventually done and moved away so I moved forward only to be shouted at. "I didn't call you. Go back behind the line and wait until I say. It's going to be a long time." At this point I'd have turned round and got a plane out of there right then if I could. Eventually, after she felt she'd kept us and all the people behind us waiting long enough she called us forward with a glare. There was no greeting, no smile, just a barked, "why have you come here?" spat in what sounded like an accusation. "Holiday," I said. What I wanted to say was 'right now I have no idea but I rather wish I hadn't.' "How long." "Three days," suddenly three days seemed about two days twenty three and a half hours too long. "Right hand. Four fingers on the green light," was the next command, followed by "thumb." Then it was all repeated with the other hand. Not a please or thank you to be heard and all the while she glared at us. Welcome to America it most certainly was not.