Seoul Incheon Airport

✅ Trip Verified | The airport's clean, easily accessible by train, very modern, very spacious, wonderfully designed, and just very efficient for the most part. Parts of the airport feel damn near like an art park. Customer service was fine enough, person-to-person, but there was this one so-called taxi driver in a suit damn near chasing me through the terminal after immigration and baggage pickup, trying to get me to take a taxi to my hotel. Unexpected in a wealthy, developed country. Anyway, Incheon is easily the second nicest major airport I've ever flown into as an actual facility, after Singapore Changi, and still puts most major North American hubs to shame. Even so, I still have to rank it lower than Changi or Hong Kong. Why? Two simple reasons. First, I flew in at 9:30 pm at night. The line to go through immigration and customs was 1.5 hours long, as there were only six booths open to serve what was easily 750+ people in line from multiple flights arriving at the same time. Leaving Incheon, security at 6:00 am still took 30 minutes to go through, as there were only four lines open to serve what still had to have been 200+ people in line. Massively inefficient. Second, either late at night or early in the morning, even with large crowds, there are extremely limited options for stores open that even sell simple things like coffee, gum, or snacks. So, improve efficiency in immigration, customs and security, and open up something more than an overly crowded Starbucks and jewelry stores at 6:00 am, and that might work wonders!

Not Verified | Incheon is one of those airports that does a few superficial things that are nice (the live classical music, for example) but falls well short on the fundamentals. In my most recent visit, departing for Manila, I arrived via the Airport Express. Having just barely set foot in ICN, things went south. My card was 50 won short and I was not allowed to leave the transport system. Obviously, the machine wouldn't let me out because that's not how machines work. The airport worker on hand also refused. Fair enough, I can pay the remaining 50 won to get this done. The person refused this, and instead asked for 10,000 won. I understand that these are minimal values (50 won = 5 cents, 10000 won = $10, more or less). But it's the principle. When faced with a foreigner who just wants to leave the country in peace, I was shaken down for a lot more money than I owed. Is that corruption or extortion? I'm not a lawyer, but either way, when you owe 50 won, you pay 50 won. Period. Anything more is a violation of fundamental ethics. This is the training ICN provides its staff, to extort money from tourists just to be allowed to get to their flight (which, quite reasonably, was my primary priority in this situation). What kind of leadership teaches employees to eschew fundamental empathy and ethics? Having had money stolen from me just to make my flight, I then proceeded to the rest of the airport. Lots of razzle dazzle, sure, but missing key things. Decent food, for one. The food was easily the worst in Korea, and the most expensive. Okay, that kind of nonsense happens at airports sometimes. It sucks, but it's not unusual. No good beer either, which would be okay if they had good makgeolli but they didn't have that either. How about a place to buy water? Typical of any mismanaged airport, you are more likely to find an Hermes scarf (I mean, Hermes is good stuff, don't get me wrong) than you are to be able to buy a bottle of water for your intercontinental flight. Or breath mints. Or anything else that you might need to make your flight more comfortable. You see, a lot of these so-called top airports try to dazzle with things that don't matter. Things that do, such as well-trained and ethical customer service staff, wait times at security, baggage handling, and the ability to procure key items for in-flight comfort, are somehow forgotten. Brutal experience. Not sure what the airport is designed for, but a good travel experience is not part of it, apparently. Oh, and when I messaged the airport about the problems I faced, I did not even receive a message back. So not only did they steal my money, they don't have even have the professionalism to address the issue.

✅ Trip Verified | There is free WiFi. In addition to many coffee shops, restaurants, helpful information and duty-free shops. Some airport staff is rude which I would agree with.

Not Verified | The airport was very clean, very beautiful, very quiet. If I had not been arriving with my husband who has leukemia and was in need of "Wheelchair" assist, I would not have been aware of the serious problem the staff has when caring for those who arrive there in need of wheelchair assistance. I have not seen more disrespect communicated to people in need of assistance ever in my life as I observed the two times we arrived. People were made to wait, standing, for long periods of time, were yelled at "follow me" and expected to be able to walk/run to keep up with fast moving staff, had their passports ripped out of their hands when they were unable to respond quickly enough to brusque questions, overall, their needs were ignored. My husband has some dementia and does not do well when separated from his family, yet a staff member, after first leaving us to wait for more than an hour abruptly grabbed the wheelchair he was in (I had put him in rather than making him stand) took him onto a full elevator at one point until I yelled at him to please wait for me. Once when they finally loaded us on a cart, they moved so abruptly that we almost fell out. Many were left for so long that they were in danger of missing their next flight. At one point in time they had two lines of people in need of "wheelchair assist" standing, waiting for more than an hour. I saw about 15 folded wheelchairs nearby which i began to unfold take out to help seat the people who were handicapped. One young woman took one of these and was able to sneak her Dad on it and wheel him to the next stop to keep him from missing his flight. I do not ever recall seeing people treated more poorly. Strangely, at the same airport when on the departing flight, my husband was treated with respect and everything went extremely smoothly, so it only seems to be an issue with arrivals.

Not Verified | I understand that the airport can be crazy from time to time, but providing service for foreigners who do not know how to communicate or has a disability. The airport staff shouldn't be rude to those who need help. Very disappointed with this airport. I guess it's the same no matter where you go.

✅ Trip Verified | Incheon Airport is a great airport. We passed through its new Terminal 2 twice. The airport is clean and has all facilities you need and some that were unexpected eg the opera singing and cultural displays. My 13 year old son particularly enjoyed the kids virtual reality experience. The Airport also offers transit tours, including of Seoul, which unfortunately we did not have quite enough time to do. There is at least 1 transit hotel at Incheon Airport that you can use overnight or for shorter periods, but we found the new transit lounge (which has free showers, free wifi and a 'sleep zone') wonderful and all we needed for our 5 hour layover, although the massages offered there seemed a bit expensive and we thought it odd that you could not buy a can of coke or lemonade, although other drinks were available at its food counter, at which you could also purchase sandwiches etc. Terminal 2 itself has some shops and food outlets but could definitely do with a drinks machine and some kind of fast food outlet other than dunkin donuts and the Korean chicken shop (though we enjoyed trying that too!). All in all though, it is a great airport that I am sure will only improve over time.

✅ Trip Verified | Seoul has been often reviewed as a good airport, I can only add to it. Spacious, comfortable, very relaxed environment compared to most airports I have been too. Quick security control. Made my transit time less annoying and tiring. Comfortable seating near the gate, with lots of space and pleasant temperature. Wifi connection ok.

✅ Trip Verified | Terminal 1, long distances to walk. All shops including food outlets close at 9:30pm, latest 10pm. Only couple of very average 24h places open. Wondering what the hundreds of passengers are meant to do scheduled to fly during the night. Very disappointing for a wanna be international hub. Clean, moderately efficient with security screening.

✅ Trip Verified | A radically different experience as an arriving international passenger than it was departing. On arrival, there were numerous large planes arriving simultaneously with hundreds if not thousands of people all jogging towards the first immigration area. There were already hundreds of people waiting in line and a staff member pulled the elasticated barrier closed as we approached and shouted at the approaching crowd “keep walking to next immigration”. After a few hundred feet we found another equally crowded immigration waiting line. It didn’t seem like there were enough people staffing the area and there were large numbers of people attempting to aggressively push through and cut the line. It was all very unpleasant and it really needed more control as on another day I could see tempers fraying badly here. By the time we finally cleared immigration and found the baggage claim carousel it had stopped turning and the bags from our flight were all waiting on the floor. This all contrasted starkly with the super relaxed, politely organised experience when departing again. It was pleasant and civilised which was nothing like the cattle market on arrival. A definite mixed bag here.

✅ Trip Verified | Excellent airport and facilities, very clean, efficient, friendly and helpful staff, relaxed and quiet terminal. Better airport than Singapore Changi. Arrived at 7 pm, I was traveling only with carry onboard luggage and walked off the plane and straight through immigration and customs and outside the terminal. No waiting in lines. Also good public transport from the airport, information and payment counters. Highly recommend fly to Seoul Incheon and beyond.