Beijing Capital Airport

Customer Reviews

4 star Skytrax Rating
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Queuing Times 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
Customer rating from 230 reviews
3/10
4 star Skytrax Rating
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3/10

"Avoid this airport"

(France)

Not Verified | Avoid this airport for International Transit. I foolishly picked Air China to save some money. Pay a bit more and choose elsewhere! If there’s a definitive false economy experience, this airport ticks all the boxes .
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitMarch 2024
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"avoid this airport for transit"

(United Kingdom)

Not Verified | Better avoid this airport for transit. Beautiful airport and at the same time one has forgotten about the passengers going through it. Basically no food, no bars, no wifi - may be this is the real China. My 4th time transiting here and my last time, it seems it is getting worse with time.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitJanuary 2024
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"a very stressful experience"

(Sweden)

Not Verified | I have had transits in Beijing airport numerous times and never had a problem, I usually chose transit in Beijing because I like that airport and find everything very clean, easy signs to follow etc. But this time… it was the worst. I have never experienced something as bad as this time. We had between 2-3h waiting time in Beijing which is usually more than enough. Other times I have had time to eat food, shopping etc. but this time I was running like a horse around the whole airport. The signs were very unclear. We followed the “transit signs” but suddenly they just stopped appearing so we had to ask every single person we met. It was not only my family that had problems with transit we were so many families that were trying to find the right path but all failed. I felt bad for the families with small kids. They were struggling the most. The staff was very rude and not very helpful and because of the weird transit route they told us to take this time we missed our flight, we managed to get tickets to the flight after but the staff was very rude telling us we were the problem. We tried to explain the situation that the transit route was very inefficient and made us run across the airport but they didn’t want to hear it. This was a very stressful experience that I never want to do again. Might never chose Beijing airport again.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitJanuary 2024
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Staff 12345
no
7/10

"nice and big airport"

(Hungary)

Trip Verified | Very nice and big airport. But this airport is totally ok. There is no cold, normal temperature. The passport check was very fast. The shops are closed but now is 4 a.m. There is just a few people on the airport but maybe this is not a transit airport. I booked the Air Chine lounge in advance and there are rooms and comfortable chairs, snack bar with soft drinks.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitJanuary 2024
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes
1/10

"nothing to do and its freezing"

(Australia)

Not Verified | There was no one at the desk to give out transit visas for an hour and a half. When they arrived we were declined a visa as there wasn't enough time remaining (although our lay over was 8 and a half hours), we then stood in another 90 minute line to pass security and go through to transit only to find all restaurants are closed, no rooms available in hotel, most shops closed, no smoking area, nothing to do and its freezing. I could never even have imagined an international airport to be so bad. Confusing, no clear signs, no one to ask questions to.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitDecember 2023
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"An airport to avoid at all costs"

(United Kingdom)

Trip Verified | Was at this airport for ~7 hours during a transit unfortunately. Never seen a capital airport so unsatisfying! The airport architecture and setup itself is completely normal and you end up walking a lot like many airports of this size. But this airport has 10% of what you would expect from a capital airport of this size in any other part of the world: For drinks: Starbucks or Costa or vending machines. No bar, duty free for strong alcohols only. For hot food: Pizza Hut or KFC. No Chinese restaurant or fast food that you would expect in the capital of China. For shopping: 2-3 shops for perfumes or clothing. But that's pretty much it. most of them are shut for some reason. There is only 1 small Chinese souvenir boutique which was about 20 square meter! I ended up buying some boxes dried noddle from this souvenir shop to get hot food other than Pizza Hut or KFC! Fortunately they have hot water dispensers a bit everywhere (one of the only positives). I saw on Air China website that if you had a connection longer than 2 or 4 hours (can't remember) you could access their lounge for free. Unfortunately I didn't know which one! So I went to the first one I found to ask. It was the Business class lounge (I knew it wasn't that one). But when I asked the reception staff for the right lounge, the only answer they could give me with their super bad English was "You can't access this lounge". And they were not aware of this benefit for long connection. Crazy! By pure luck I ended up walking by another place which was a "Transit Lounge". This time the reception staff person didn't even speak a work of English! But used a mobile app to communicate. That where I discovered you apparently need to book your slot BEFORE you trip to get access to the lounge for free. Otherwise you have to pay! I also discovered later that you may not even be granted a slot even if you try booking in advance. Insane! So we ended up spending the 7 hours in a freezing cold airport. Don't if it was the air conditioning which was cold or simply not working as it was ~10 degrees outside. Were were on a bench, trying to charge our phone one of the only 2 places of the whole airport where you can plug your charger (with several plugs not working). They had many old traditional USB charging plugs, but our phones cables were USB-C only (yes we are in 2023 and not 2010 anymore!). When it comes to wifi, you can get free wifi. But everything is blocked. It's pretty much useless for someone coming from Europe like me as pretty much all the websites/apps I was trying to use were blocked. The only positives of this airport: many toilets which had 2 staffs (one men and one women) assigned to each of them! So, super clean. Tons of fairly comfortable benches with armrests in the middle which allows you to lay down for a nap. That said, it would have been nice to see some lounge chairs like you have in most big international airports. An airport to avoid at all costs!
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitNovember 2023
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
4/10

"All restaurants were closed"

(Germany)

Trip Verified | I arrived from Hong Kong and had to wait for 5 hours for my connecting flight to Frankfurt. All transfer passengers had to have their passports checked and had to go through airport security again, only one channel was there, so it took quite some time for the people to clear that check. Then we arrived in the international section of Terminal 2. There were toilets, a lot of closed shops (we are talking 9:30 p.m. here), free hot and cold drinking water and 2 open stalls, one Costa Coffee and the other Starbucks. All restaurants were closed (KFC closes at 4 p.m.) The terminal was pretty dark and it seemed there were only 2 flights that night. Of course airport security took away the drinks purchased in Hong Kong's duty free zone. I really recommend passengers to bring their own food to Beijing Airport, as you will not be really able to buy some. There were some vending machines, but they only accepted Alipay/Wechatpay (most transit passangers will not have that) and RMB bills in small denominations.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitOctober 2023
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
7/10

"security check was fast and efficient"

(Germany)

Trip Verified | Transited twice. First international to international. It was a bit messy as I followed the sign for international travel but the transit gate have been closed. There have been two transit gates, the other one was on the other side of the terminal and no signs lead to there. Need to ask several staff to find the way. However security check was fast and efficient. Terminal itself had several shops but many of them have been closed. As I stayed in the lounge I did not use any restaurants. Walking distances have been quiet far. Second transit was domestic to international. Need to use a train between the two terminals and that one have been totally overcrowded. Immigration went smooth and fast. The terminals have been perfectly clean.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitSeptember 2023
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes
1/10

"To be avoided at all costs"

(France)

Trip Verified | Worst airport experience departing from Terminal 2 in the middle of August, boarding at 7:00 am. After security, there's absolutely nothing to do but wait. Stores closed. Beverage vending machines empty and not accepting international payment cards. Chinese payment apps (WeChat/Alipay) are unusable by foreigners. So it's hardly possible to just get anything to eat or drink, and the only shop (opening right before boarding started) selling hot beverages doesn't have coffee. Need to use a passport to access censored Wi-Fi (no Google, Gmail, Twitter, YouTube, etc.). Staff speaking terrible english. Horrible experience for a so-called international airport. To be avoided at all costs.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitAugust 2023
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
6/10

"serious queuing"

(China)

Trip Verified | The capital airport has convenient transportation. There is an airport express rail which can go directly to the center of the city. There are many automatic check-in machines when arriving at the check-in, and there is a special person for guidance. However, the number of manual check-in is small, which leads to serious queuing. Although airports expanded the security check before, we still have a long queue. There's a lot of restaurants at the airport. It's very good. There are a lot of mobile phone charging areas in the rest area, and WiFi is very fast, which is good. The boarding corridor bridge is very advanced. Departure and arrival are separated. But the baggage claim area is very small, which does not conform to the style of the capital airport. It is very crowded and uncomfortable. The guidelines are perfect.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitOctober 2020
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes