Shanghai Pudong Airport

✅ Verified Review | We landed in Shanghai Pudong airport on-time. We had a 4 hour layover. We had taken Shanghai Airlines and after horrible service with them we had to deal with this airport. Starts out on the bus exiting the plane and going to the terminal. We get inside after being marched through, asked for assistance for transfers and transit. The staff either said I do not know or told us to seek the main office. We ultimately followed everyone to the customs gate and had to apply for a visa even though we were just there for a 4 hour transit. Explained this to an officer and though he understood our situation he made us sit through the longest and slowest customs line. That ate up about 2 hours of our layover. So the next part is we had to pick up our baggage. We go to the posted gate and to our surprise our bags have not been delivered. Waited another hour and still no one in our flight had recieved their bags. Bags finally came out and at this point we rushed to the other terminal. Get to the terminal only to find we have missed our flight. Found the assistance counter and they had the audacity to tell me it was my fault even after showing them proof. They sent me back to the main terminal to speak to another representative (more security checks) who then redirects me to the same person I spoke to. Anyway, I got some certificate thing from China Eastern and met a lot of people who missed their flights, all sad stories at no fault of their own. Met people who were stuck there for several days. Got onto a new flight after some work. We get into the plane and are about to take off. Then our captain tells us that the airport has not cleared our takeoff and that we will be heading back to the terminal. After 2 hours of just sitting around we finally got the clearance to fly out. Could not have been happier.

Shanghai Pudong airport is large and modern and its infrastructure is a credit to China's rapid development process that such facilities stand tall. I wish I could say the same for the management and the service side of it. This side slides right down to the bottom of the scale. And worst is, I don't see why this could be the case or for any excuses when you have such a fine infrastructure. I was a transit passenger in Pudong airport flying Air Chana from Tokyo. My connecting flight was so to Sydney in 2 hours time with Air china again. I had to make my way though the the corridors guessing all the way (lack of signs and direction) eventually arriving at the immigration gate. I was then forced to ask one aloof security personal with repeat gesture of me being a transit passenger I was pointed towards the far end which was still an immigration gate. It turns out I still needed to get a visa to get out and recheck in a like a fresh arrival at the airport. I still would not have minded had the process being routine and swift, instead I was looking at the immigration office for a good 20 minutes while she fundled my passport asked for my ticket, looked at me couple of time, stamped the passports twice and god knows what else was the process that they had had to go through, while I only wanted to catch the connecting flight. I don't even need their visa and bureaucracy to start with. After this I eventually figured my way out and out to the departure level to re-check. The Air China staff at the counter asks where is my luggage? I told him I am a transit passenger flying the same airline and going to Sydney. He said I needed to go back and get my luggage and I have 40 minutes to do so. Needless to say this caused stress, as the gentleman had limited English and that was all the help he could give. Made my way to the information desk, hoping they could help me out after seeing my itinerary but their English was so rudimentary and empathy was even less. Ran down to the security, tried explaining my situation in slow English and this time it wasn't hard for them to understand me and they let me go through in after security scan and check. I am positive this episode happens day in day out at their end and they know exactly why I want to go back in. Any way got my suitcase and did the re-check in and went through the appalling immigration process again. Hurried our way to the gate and we had about 30 minutes left we quickly got through the gate and boarded a bus that was to take us to the plane. But this was not the last of Pudong transition. We stood in the bus for over 30 minutes crammed full of people very cold out on the tarmac area, while the airport staff waited for the final people to board, and we were not even the first people to board the bus. Couldn't they get multiple bus and get the bus moving once its full or semi full and get another bus for the other batch? I felt like a cattle waiting to be shipped. I was only too glad I got away from this airport in one piece with my luggage intact. The government bureaucracy who is running this airport has no idea of international standards. Is it so hard? Comparing the Tokyo Narita experience to Pudong there is no comparison.

A primitive airport, at best. Passengers at my assigned gate were exposed to the outdoor (very cold) weather and were shown no courtesy. No personnel spoke English and were rudely dismissive of any questions. This is a Delta Airline's "partner". A horrific experience.

As an Australian female solo traveller Shanghai Pudong airport was the worst place stop over. The staff barely spoke English. The signage was horrible. Even the tourist information staff did not speak English. If you have to go through here, I suggest that you get some local currency as some internal take away food outlets did not accept visa and MasterCard. As this airport is trying to push itself to be an international transit airport and gateway to China it requires a massive shift in attitude by its staff, in this day and age there efforts are simply not good enough.

✅ Verified Review | An execrable transit experience. The signage is unclear, the staff unhelpful. Even for an international transit, you may have to go through the immigration (something you have to guess by yourself), and you may also have to pick your luggage to have it checked in again for the second leg of your trip (and of course, go through the security, and Chinese immigration, again). Some of the transit areas seem to be reserved for China Eastern, but no staff were able to tell me whether or not I was in the right place until I reached the counter (after having queued for the n-th time). I definitely do not recommend Pudong for transiting.

✅ Verified Review | Me and my wife were going to Europe from New Zealand with a transfer at Shanghai Pudong Airport and it turned out to be a bad choice for me. Of course the airport is big and shiny, and passport control and security people are professionals. But when it comes to the human factor, such as interpreting the rules and caring about others, I'd say it's the worst. When checking my luggage, I was told that I cannot carry my guitar into cabin and that I have to put it as check-in because the soft case was "too big" - despite the general rule for musical instruments and that it was allowed when flying from NZ. I had two check-in bags already (same for my wife), and didn't want to pay 200USD for an extra one, so I've decided to put the guitar out, fill the case with some of the contents of one of my bags, and throw the bag out with the rest of the stuff. I wrapped the guitar in some of my clothes, but the manager told me it was "still too big" even though its base fit into the 2 dimensions given for checking (he said it was "too tall", weird logic) - so I had to take everything off and play the game of pretend. Still, I had to carry the wrapped guitar by the griff, jacket hanging on one of my hands and another item which was quite flat and wide so it was stuck in the X-ray at security and we forgot about it since we had too much on us already. I tried to call lost & found of this terminal afterwards, but they said they haven't found it, even though I can hardly imagine how such a big piece can go missing. I guess some representatives of this culture enjoy playing with their power, so to all of you decent folk out there, please be careful and aware.

I passed through Shanghai Pudong on my way home to Australia and this is a badly managed airport. The staff of our airline (China Eastern) had no idea on how to manage people, except by yelling at them, they had very bad attitude, and no customer servicing skills whatsoever. The security staff at the airport were a neatly-dressed bunch of kids who were rude and unprofessional. If you don't like to be treated like an animal, please save yourself lots of frustration and anger, and pay whatever it takes not to pass through Shanghai and avoid China Eastern. Otherwise, it's not so bad, if you think money comes before dignity.

✅ Verified Review | I was in transit from Japan to another country via Shanghai Pudong international airport with two different airlines. Big mistake. The airport do not have the logistics to handle passengers with transit purpose. Upon arrival, I followed the sign at the airport for transit and baggage claim since my next flight was from another airlines. But the sign lead me to the immigration check point where I was asked to apply for a temporary 24hrs visa permit. The custom officials there were rude when I asked them why I need that when all I need is transit from one plane to another. I didn't even intend to visit China! So I got my permit signed, collected my checked in luggage, bothered by the duty officials as they randomly checked passenger's luggage, got out and rechecked in from the connecting airline as if I just visited China, lined up with all other passengers at the airport for security check, filled up another departure form for immigration. With all these lengthy procedures, I wasted one and a half hour when I could spend my time visited some restaurants at the transit area. Luckily I had 3 hours of transit time. At last I didn't even bother to spend a single cent at their shops and restaurants. With the Chinese New Year season approaching, any airline passenger who is thinking of transit at this airport or any China's airport please consider having a high risk of missing your next connecting flight.

✅ Verified Review | Customer service is non-existent at this airport. I was transferring through this airport on my way to Tokyo and was supposed to change airports. Transfer desk people were nowhere to be found. Immigration window for transfer passengers had only one officer attending to 200 plus people. Communication in English is severely limited and the staff are rude and unhelpful. Wi-Fi is also not working. I had to wait at immigration for more than an hour and missed my connecting flight from another airport as a result. Luckily, I was able to board another flight later in the day. Needless to say, no apologies or any kind of assistance were offered. If you can, avoid this airport at all cost.

It is crazy how Shanghai Pudong as an International airport doesn't provide qualified staff, who are able to speak proper English. I don't request a high level of English but it is like beginner level or even nothing and it is very frustrating when you need to ask for information. When I arrived, I had a flight connection to Hong Kong - in general when you get out of the plane you just need to follow the "Flight connection or Transit Area" in order to reach the gates. In my case the "flight connection" was closed and the only path was "Immigration Office". I was quite surprised as in general once you go to the "Immigration Office" to pick up your luggage and to go out. I asked staff and he just didn't understand and oriented me to the "Immigration Office". I didn't have a visa as I was just expecting to transit. After a long queue I explained my situation to the staff that I don't need to pick up my luggage as it was registered to Hong Kong. I was given a temporary visa and I waited a short time but as expected I could not find my luggage, so I decided to go out and I went to pick up the boarding pass from check-in - thinking that the staff there might speak better English. Explaining the same things they told me that I have to pick up my luggage but again, didn't really understand my problem as I told her that there was no luggage at the reclaim. I was at risk of missing my flight connection so the staff requested that I fill in a paper of reclamation for the luggage and they finally gave me my boarding pass. Nowadays, you get a reference numbers in which you can track the luggage but of course nothing here. It was a very bad experience and wouldn't recommend transit here. If you do, please don't expect help from staff.