Shanghai Pudong Airport

Not Verified | Long haul flights to and from PVG for 4 day biz trip. Inbound from ATL on DL: Long walk, long wait in "Foreigner" immigration queue hot and tiring. Tedious separate finger print scan and re-scan. Baggage on time, long hot walk to car. Departure on AA to DFW: arrive 3 hours early, long check in lines, erratic checked bag inspection then long outbound immigration for "foreigners" why? then, long, curt security check, then crowded long walk departure area with very few useful stores or eating spot, mostly high end, over-priced duty free and t-shirts, etc. Exhausting.

Not Verified | 24 hours in hell. Weather at Shanghai Pudong delayed my originating flight from taking off on time. I only had a connection at Shanghai Pudong, which still hadn't left by the time I arrived. Airport staff decided to not group people whose connections hadn't departed separately or expedite connection travelers, instead the entire plane got in 1 line. 3 hours later my connection is gone. I assume this will still be fine, and I'll just get on the next flight soon. I assumed wrong, next flight will leave a full 24 hours after I had arrived. Airport staff says they will provide transportation to a hotel, but won't give hotel name or location or how to get back. There's no way I'm leaving this airport without that info, who knows if I'll be able to back in time? They make me go through customs, get a temporary passport stamp, and make my way back to check-in with a printed piece of paper stating that I can get on the next flight. Check-in won't give me my boarding pass so I could go to my gate, it's too early, I'm stuck in check-in for the day. 12 hours with only hot water to drink (even in the hot summer), with warm vendor canned drinks. Sitting on the floor, trying to nap while killing time. Had multiple people try to sell me knockoff/stolen iPhones. Paid for wifi, didn't work. I spent 24 hours in Shanghai-Pudong airport, 8 of which was standing in lines. I will never go back here voluntarily. I am reluctant to ever connect at a Chinese airport ever again. Maybe I could have taken them up on the hotel, but it didn't seem like a smart bet. Worst airport I've ever been in.

✅ Trip Verified | The airport was comfortable but it didn't have many seats. Luckily we didn't go to the airport too early so we didn't need to take a rest while waiting. Usually the Asian airports have a lot of restaurants, but this one didn't seem to be like that. There were not many options. As a big and a very international airport, maybe PVG can do better in this.

Not Verified | Took a vacation to Thailand from SFO via Shangai. My experience was the 4 hr layover. My boarding pass did not yet have a Gate. I had to keep checking the screen. The Gate info finally updated. To be sure, I asked an employee at one of the Gates to verify. Without looking up, while typing away on her keyboard, she said "You talk. I listen." Okay! So I asked "please let me know if I'm at the right Gate for flight to Bangkok". She gave me this dirty look, pointed at the screen and raised her voice at me "Look at screen!", and continued typing. Feeling frustrated, I asked another employee, on his cell phone, at another gate. Same answer, "look at screen". Argh! I can "look at screen". I just wanted to be 100% sure. An hour later, I happened to overhear fellow passengers to Bangkok mention change in Gate. They picked up their stuff and ran. I don't recall any announcement. I picked up my carryon and ran also. I get it. It's your mentality to treat others like we are nuisance rather than paying customers. But your airport operates for the International community. Take a few lessons on customer retention. Oh, and wifi is a joke. You need to scan your passport for the password. Even then, you're still not connected. Several other passengers were unable to login. I'll never come thru Shanghai again until things change. If ever.

❌ Not Verified | After going to Shanghai and staying a couple of nights in China because of a delayed flight from China Eastern Airlines my fiancé and I encountered the most disgraceful, pathetic, exhausting two days of our lives. Every worker was angry, pushy, rude, told customers to shut up, put hands in the face of people they didn’t understand, gave horrible directions, standing around on their phones while we waited along with about 100 others for 2.5 hours to go through the visa line. From there brought to a hotel that didn’t have WiFi, greeted by more rude customer service. Elerly people were not helped, a 73 year old Japanese women struggled to carry her luggage and asked for help moving her luggage to the bus which was about 15 feet away, the bus driver said no and walked away (he was in his 30s). Disgraceful people, I can’t say enough. No WiFi at the airport too. International calls were not possible on their phones, dozens of people had family or friends waiting for them at the next airport with no way to contact them. No one knows English either!

✅ Trip Verified | I was flying from LA to Cebu, Philippines via Shanghai Pudong with China Eastern and I had an 18 hour layover. I knew from the start that I can actually get out of the airport without a visa as long as the layover wont go beyond 24 hours. I arrived 6 in the morning and tried to get to the immigration and explained to them that I wanted to go out but they just said no. So I went to china eastern and they were very unhelpful. I told them if they can help me talk to the immigration officer but they refused. They just always say “II don't know. I am glad I was in business class and I had a lounge access, but the fact that i have to wait for 15 hours inside a terrible airport almost made me crazy. People were so unhelpful, no english and there’s no hotel facility inside. Shanghai Pudong is a disgrace and I surely wouldn’t transit there anymore. There’s no food court, No entertainment and they only have 1 Starbucks with no seats.

✅ Trip Verified | Now this is a real huge airport. Rolling taxi with the plane is already a long trip and one may look outside the window to see a huge construction site to an additional terminal. Signs are okay but sometimes confusing. Organization of the check-in desks (flew Lufthansa) was just fair. The gate side is much more comfortable and better organized then the check-in are.

✅ Trip Verified | This airport is a complete embarrassment to China. The whole place is filthy, and don’t even get me started with the service. I was declined a room at the airport hotel under the guise of “not having a reservation”, however, the person afterwards also didn’t have a reservation but was able to check in simply because they spoke Chinese! I, too, am Chinese and my family is from Shanghai—however, I am far more comfortable in my native tongue, English. The staff heavily discriminate against passengers who aren’t fluent in Chinese, which is a disgrace, because this is an international airport, not a local one, and all staff should proper bilingual training. It’s as if they’ve never had any experience interacting with a foreigner in their life. China better get their act together before they can expect to be on the same footing as the rest of the first-world countries.

✅ Trip Verified | Yeah, it is not as fancy as Taipei or Hong Kong, but from my perspective as a handicapped person both China Eastern and Pudong treated me well. They acted as if they really cared about me, and made sure that a wheelchair and helper were available. The helper acted as if he were my best friend, very polite and always concerned that I was doing well. We were whisked thru the process of both coming and going without a problem. For my concerns, that rates them highly.

✅ Trip Verified | Most of the staff are untrained in proper English at this "Pudong International" Airport. No hotel facility for the long layover flight passengers. The washrooms are not maintained properly. The immigration facility is under staffed. The immigration forms are limited, so we have to rush and fight to grab it. China sells its products across the globe, but unfortunately it itself is sub-standard in management.