Beijing Capital Airport

Not Verified | I travel through this airport at least once per month. Food, dining and shopping options are limited, slow and repetitious. They do an okay job at keeping international flights on time, but immigration is slow, disorganized, sloppy, and generally rude (never a peaceful experience for me). Domestic flights are a horrible mess, delayed (sometimes by hours) more than not. The building looks impressive, but services are not.

Very unpleasant experience. First I would like to emphasize that I like very much young and competent people. I went in my life through many security checks on many different airports. It is very clear to me how necessary they are and how to obey the applicable regulations. The way the security check was performed in Beijing at terminal 3 was extremely unpleasant and ignorant. Almost every single item was unpacked and checked in a way showing a big incompetence of the staff. Every single lens of my camera equipment was checked and handled leaving fingerprints on it in. Even my glasses were taken out of the case and examined as a potentially insecure object. The way it was executed was full of power and ignorance. After the security check was performed I went to the Sunrise duty free shop to buy some items. My credit card was immediately rejected at the cash point because of a wrong pin. So I paid in cash. Outside of China I could use the same credit card again. The applied exchange rate was rather unfavorable. I left the airport with an impression meeting one of the most impolite staff having big power over myself I never experienced so far.

✅ Trip Verified | This airport is poor for several reasons: 1) Overall cleanliness is terrible. 2) Food options are limited. The only fast food was KFC and of course there was a long line. 3) Above all, airport security. I waited in a long line that moved at a glacier pace for 20 minutes, when I reached the front of the line, the machine to take a photo of the passenger failed. We were all moved to a different location, and I moved from the front of the line to the back. If you need to transfer at Beijing Capital, you'll need at least 2 hours.

Not Verified | Horrible place with no atmosphere. Freezing airport had to endure 10 hours as a stop over in a place where you need to wear a thick coat. Just nothing to do, kids play area was 20 foot square with just one slide suitable for a 1 year old. Shops, duty free and cafes were expensive. Going through security we were treated as poorly. Never again, no matter how cheap the airline is.

Not Verified | Freezing cold! We were in transit here from one hot location to a mild location. Apparently there is no heating so we froze for 10 miserable hours. We didn’t have winter coats as it was unnecessary to travel with them. The chairs are comfortable and it would be possible to sleep on them if it didn’t mean developing hypothermia or frostbite. We eventually filled our water bottles with hot water from the free dispensing machine and used them as hot water bottles. Everyone else wore thick winter coats, which seems crazy when you’re indoors. Too many announcements at departure gates. We didn’t try food or drink because the internet didn’t really work so we couldn’t work out true exchange rate. WhatsApp was the only thing we could get to work, but only one message at a time before it dropped. T3 was quite a nice terminal it was just spoiled by the sub-zero temperature throughout

✅ Trip Verified | Staff don't know English well. They are not polite and respectful. The airport is extremely cold. Wifi hard to use. We had a 10 hour layover at this airport. The experience was horrible. It seems that the airport does not have any heating system. We did not have any jackets and we were freezing (and we live in Canada so we are fine with cold weather in general!). It was so cold that we could not even sit waiting so we decided to ask the information desk for blankets. The lady working at the information desk in an international airport could not speak English properly. She didn't even know the word "blanket". She had to use a translation application to talk to us. In the end we were able to get the blanket but we were still cold and we had to return it 1 hour before our flight (because the information desk closed at 11.30 pm). In the end we decided to go sit in KFC. The wifi is hard to use since it keeps disconnecting. Many website and applications are censored. (Google, instagram, youtube, Facebook, etc).

✅ Trip Verified | Poor English ability of ground staff at Beijing airport. Staff working at the airport are not friendly or trying to help when you need. Staff show zero smiling face. Beijing immigration officers may not apply regulation on you without telling you any reason so forget about asking WHY !!

Not Verified | Unpleasant surprising departing experience. Looks beautiful from the outside but ugly from the inside. The airport terminal management should take a look at the reviews if they seriously strive to improve. If not, the biggest joke of the millennium. Will certainly avoid this airport in near future travel. Very hostile, especially from the immigration security check point staffs to departing passengers.

Not Verified | This is by far the worst airport I have ever been to in my life. We booked a flight with a 10 hour layover so that we could do a quick visit of Beijing. We did the research and it was doable, many companies actually offer layover tours for layovers of more than 7 hours. However, once we got there no one could guide us to the right counter, only a fellow tourist actually helped us. Once we got there a rude woman just yelled "no" at us and sent us elsewhere. Since no one in this entire airport spoke English and staff kept lying to us repeately (via translating apps) we had lost too much time to leave the airport and had to stay the entire 10 hour layover in this airport. Please note that this airport does not seem to have any kind of heating so with 0 degree temperature outside, the waiting hall was only marginally warmer and I think I've never been so cold in my entire life. So if you can't avoid a layover here, bring many layers of warm clothes and don't expect to be allowed to leave the airport if you don't have at least a 24hour layover. Also brace for very rude and incompentent staff.

✅ Trip Verified | Beautiful airport and one cannot help but being awed by it. However transferring from a domestic to international flight, at least in my experience, and having to still check in for the next legs, was a hassle. We had to ask some three people where to do it, take a bus and then the people mover. Going through security, with all the yelling, the beeping, the handling, the tight spaces was hellish. The signage didn’t help much at some point either.