Sydney Airport

How sad I feel about this experience at my home airport. Firstly at taxi drop off the trolleys cost $4. Departure is otherwise uneventful but duty free prices are high. When will retailers finally catch on that we can all check international shopping prices on our smart phones? It is Arrival that always seems to let me down. Travelling with young children precludes me from using the automated immigration system but the two biggest delays are baggage retrieval and getting through customs. There is simply not the space for customs to do their job properly and they funnel us all through one of two queues which we were on for over 30 minutes.

Recently was in transit in Sydney for 4 hours. Not an enjoyable experience. It was at night and the lighting was so bright it felt uncomfortable and definitely not relaxing. Was hoping to spend some time in a bar but the only bar I found was in the middle and in full glare of the lights. And even though the airport was busy there was no one there. They could hardly have done a worse job! Nearly all shops are all full of expensive stuff that nobody wants with grumpy shop attendants (probably because the rents are really high and no one buys anything). Adds to overall negative vibe of the place. You expect to pay a bit extra at airports but "normal" items such as drinks and chips are outrageously expensive. Best not visit this airport at all.

I am ashamed to think that Sydney airport and it's associated security and immigration staff are peoples first impression of Australia. The staff are rude arrogant and unprofessional. The facilities are dirty and poorly maintained. I was recently unfortunate enough to arrive early morning with another one or two large planes. Utter chaos! Nobody seemed to know what they were doing. Same thing happened on my way out of the country on a connecting flight! With nobody to direct passengers through a non-descript doorway with a tiny sign we had 200 passengers wandering all over the airport looking for their luggage. I asked a staff member where we were supposed to be and in spite of wearing a radio he just said "I don't know" and walked away. Signage is unclear to an Aussie let alone a visitor so when you see a tourist join the wrong queue you could be a little understanding unless you work at the SYD airport in which case you roll your eyes and in your best condescending tone say "madam. (sigh) what makes you think you should be in the Australian queue when you have a foreign passport? get yourself into the correct line which is over there" (shown with a wave of the arm as you turn your back and walk away).

I nearly missed my flight to Dublin due to woeful transfers. Having arrived ahead of schedule on a domestic flight from Melbourne the shuttle transfer took 30 minutes to pick us up from domestic terminal and then stopped to pick up passengers along the way. Going through security was also a nightmare process - anyone with toiletries in their on-board luggage was delayed while one person checked each individual bag! Made it to the gate just as it was closing! I doubt I would have made my flight if my flight from Melbourne had been delayed. Worse still nobody cared and there was no one to help or direct you to your flight. I can't believe that in this day and age there is a major international airport which has no efficient connection between its domestic and international terminals.

Seriously arrivals is getting worse and worse. Arrived Sunday morning. Getting off the plane and through e-gate is a breeze and then you get to baggage. Each time it is getting progressively worse. This time I waited 45 minutes before the bags even start appearing on the belt. The another 15 before mine appeared. Only to be greeted to a massive immigration line. It was terrible. After landing it was nearly 1hr 40 minutes before I was out in the arrivals hall. Sydney's International Terminal Baggage needs serious upgrading. I thought Bali's was bad Sydney is even worse.

Started as one of the best but now as the years have passed it's now old unimpressive. At least it gets the basics right. Lacking free facilities like showers etc. Shops all very expensive (except for some technology shops). Pretty good for navigation compared to other Aussie airports. The best part - the (although expensive) connection train straight to city.

I am a teacher and am used to crowds leaving on the first day of school holidays from Sydney Airport. What I was not prepared for was the huge queues on the Saturday morning 5 July closest I have ever come to missing a flight. Checked in in plenty of time but after huge delays in Immigration and Security had to run for the gate and made it as they were calling me re baggage (to unload it! I guess). Thank goodness it was Garuda and they were nice about it as we ran in with about 5 mins to go even small airports like Phuket do better than Sydney when it comes to queues.

Passed through July 2nd and 17th. Out to LAX and back via Seoul-Incheon each way and found the contrast to be amazing. Whereas Incheon is user friendly with plants vegetation and scenic photographs everywhere Sydney airport is as sterile as a dental surgery with no people friendly accents so suggest airport staff go to Seoul and find out what a world class airport looks like be educated and come back and do something to poor old Sydney airport. Also at Sydney every effort is made to remove cash from passengers and the owner/operators could again take note of Incheon where baggage trolleys are free as is terminal to terminal shuttles. Also at Sydney after leaving immigration to go to your gate duty free stores are so located that its impossible to get to the gate without going through a maze and then the gates are hard to find. As a proud Sydneysider I'm embarrassed about this substandard airport and maybe the government authorities ought to step in and force the airport to come up to a better standard.

Customs arrival area too small for the number of people arriving. Lines really long and no customs staff to direct passengers to which queue to join total confusion. Baggage hall too small carousel too small for the number of bags arriving area around carousel too small for the number of people trying to exit the baggage hall nearly impossible as lines long disorganised no signage. Numerous complaints from frustrated tired passengers. Sad thing is this airport has been like this for over 20 years and nothing has changed.

Early morning flight to Incheon. Check-in quick also security and immigration even though a steady stream of flights departing.