Seattle Airport

Immigration queues about 15 mins long over an hour to recover our bags from the carousel (747 flight) and I personally found navigating the airport difficult with a lack of decent signage. We headed for the airport shuttle and although we arrived at this airport twice within a couple of weeks still found it difficult to find. Plenty of food/drink outlets. The 2nd time we arrived aboard a 737 our bags arrived on the carousel within about 25 mins. Airport was clean and tidy. Queues at the desk were short and only 10 mins or so to get through security. Why can't immigration officers smile every once in a while?

A good clean modern airport. Use it once or twice a year however as per usual again the departure was a shambles. I waited at least 40mins in the security queue people are not advised what they can or can't take through security until they reach the x-ray machines. Greeted by a large security man yelling at us like a circus lion I didn't understand a word he was saying and asked if he could stop shouting and talk slowly and clearly. Could I suggest Seattle that you do as other airports do and have a security station as we do in London before folk get in the queue. Allow at least 1 hr to get through security. Wake up to these security issues do you homework before you fly.

Surprised how smoothly our check-in and security was. Everyone was so helpful and polite. We did make the mistake of eating at the Quiznos inside the airport (we had not seen the other reviews warning against that). Food was awful and the employees were the first rude people we had encountered in Seattle. We ended up spending more on money on food than planned because we couldn't eat what we had ordered at Quiznos. However the food and the employees were wonderful at the Japanese place where we ended up.

A delightful airport to transit through. Easy layout to negotiate. A large and naturally lit central dining area that is very relaxed. Sea-Tac is definitely one of the more attractive and inviting airports I have seen in the US.

Easy layout with great transportation to get there. The main concourse has many places to eat and shop. It is always very clean and I've never had a problem making a flight because of security lines. My only is advice is to avoid the Quiznos in terminal B. The food is sub par but they are the only place in that terminal so I think they know they don't have to try very hard. My advice - get something from one of the great places in the main terminal or C or D.

Flying from Seattle to Tampa the ticket counter workers were very respectful and clean. Going through security was good as well. But the TSA are very rude. My gate was B17 So it wasn't far to walk from security. There are plenty of restaurants stores and bathrooms available.

This airport is great. The atmosphere is really nice and getting through security is a breeze. My flight got cancelled once and my family was at the back of a line to get a new flight when a random worker came up and got us a flight closer to our destination. There are Starbucks in every food court and at every gate plus lots of magazine and book stores along with restaurants if you have extra time and would like to sit down. The gates are comfortable as well.

I experienced my worst security queuing experience at this airport. I was directed into a massive line which was moving very slowly. About 60 minutes later when I got close enough to see the actual checkpoints I found out why. "Elite" (high mileage first class etc.) passengers were being given priority at every checkpoint. Well there was a virtually continuous stream of such passengers so many of them got though in only seconds or minutes while us steerage passengers waited an hour to get to the same point. When I finally passed this bottleneck during my long walk to the gate I saw that there were many other much smaller security checkpoints with no lines further on down the hallway that I could have used instead. Despite arriving almost two hours before my departure time my flight was almost done boarding when I got to the gate! A miserable airport one that I hope to never visit again.

A big plus for this airport is the light rail. Two of us (adult and child) were able to take a commuter train from Everett (about 40 miles north of the airport) with an easy connection in downtown Seattle for a total of $12. There's an excellent food court with fair prices in the center of the airport but pickings can be slim in the concourses and especially in the satellite terminals. This might not be the best airport for people who don't mind walking a bit.

The airport has a relatively modern albeit somewhat chaotic feel. The proximity of the light rail station allowing quick and inexpensive access to downtown Seattle is a definite plus (it is located at the far end of the northern parking garage - best to ask for directions). Getting to the airport terminal to check-in can be confusing. Hotel and other courtesy vans let out passengers not next to the terminal but across the access road next to the parking garage. I saw no crosswalks across that road. To get to the main terminal you need to get to one of the elevators in the parking garages to take you to a skywalk (bridge) over the access road to the terminal then find a second elevator to go up to the departures level. We almost rented one of the baggage carts in the parking garage but were glad we used a skycap due to the confusing route to our check-in counter. There seemed to be a dearth of rest rooms in the check-in areas. As noted a bit of a walk to the security line (with special entrance for First Class passengers) then down 2 (more?) escalators to get to the train to the "S" terminal for our flight. We did get our exercise departing from this airport.