Beijing Capital Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Slow immigration officers on a power trip who massaged and looked through every single page of my passport. Took their time to waste your time even when informed your plane is boarding now. Gave you attitude by demanding you try and look like your passport photo and asked you to write your Chinese name when none of your documents had your Chinese name on it. I could have made up a name and they couldn't even read traditional. Useless security officers don't even bother to move a muscle when informed you are late to board and need to move to the front of the line. Had to beg other passengers if I could go in front of them. Asked if I had an umbrella, lighter, medication, hand lotion, battery, laptop, coin purse, etc. If I had any i would have to take them all out and put them into separate boxes. Archaic and slow system. Security almost always scans and touches you. Do not miss your flight or you will have to start all the way at the check in counter! Gates are very far away and far apart!

✅ Trip Verified | Camera unfriendly security check, every lens, charger, strobe had to be taken out for screening. Seems their x-ray could not scan any items in the bag and they have to scan everything in the tray. The signs are not easy to find. Some public areas are very dusty. Airport WiFi does not work on the MacBook, could not login at all.

✅ Trip Verified | On the same day, I forgot the departure time of the flight. When I arrived at the Hainan Airlines VIP counter of Terminal 1, it was only 3 minutes from boarding time. VIP counter staff are very friendly to check in for me and help me pass security check. The boarding pass is very smooth。 What a wonderful journey.

❎ Not Verified | Business trip. Despite the cost I will never step foot in Beijing again! Unnecessary, in your face security despite how gracious your manner or how fluent one is in Chinese. Felt as though they were putting on a show and/or I was being provoked. This for both my flight to/from Tokyo. Never again. Just don’t.

✅ Trip Verified | I was traveling from Tokyo to London and had a connection in Beijing airport (PEK) and experienced unprofessional security, everyone is given a full body pat down). It seemed that the staff were not trained enough to deal with the amounts of people who have an international connection within the airport. I had a 13:40 boarding time and I was just about passing the check at 13:30 (after about 2 hours in the line) which gave me just 10 minutes to find my gate, get some food and go to the toilet. It was unorganised and I would not recommend, I would rather spend the extra money to get a direct flight to my destination than connect in Beijing.

❎ Not Verified | I will never travel through Beijing again! I recently traveled from Seoul to Sydney on China Southern, with a plane change in Beijing. I have traveled to several countries and airports, but nothing compares to Beijing Airport. Upon arrival, while trying to transit, immigration was rude and it felt as though was going out of there way to make the process difficult and uncomfortable. I had all of the necessary information needed for security and was still treated unkindly. I will pay more money in the future just to avoid flying through Beijing, which is unfortunate as China Southern actually had good service.

✅ Trip Verified | We flew from Melbourne to Seoul and had to stop over in Beijing for transit (Air China to Korean Air). It took us 5.5 hours to transit here, we arrived at 5am and were only able to get to the next flight 10 minutes before the gate closed. Many people missing their transit flights. We have travelled to a few airports Melbourne, Sydney, Madrid, Rome, Narita and Singapore but Beijing was our worst experience so far. Beijing Airport has no information desk available, staff would give you different advice. We followed a staff member onto the train/subway and asked her which stop we should stop at (Airport staff wearing office uniform - couldn’t speak English/did not want to help). Staff working in Terminal 1 were very slow. I will avoid this airport at all costs in future.

✅ Trip Verified | We arrived to Beijing International airport as part of a tour in Feb 28, 2018. It landed at 7 pm. Needless to say, after 13 hours flight, nobody was in a mood for anything except getting out and on to the next destination. We got out to the tarmac and got on the shuttle bus, jam packed. Then we got behind a line of other vehicles and stopped for a good 20 minutes (no joke). There was no sense of welcome sign or anything of that nature. There was absolutely no pamphlet or map or anything that a newcomer can use to navigate. The line up for customs was long but only 2 counters opened. There was no cheerful feeling as it was very dark all around. They just did not want to waste electricity. After picking up our luggage, nobody knew we had to run them through the scan, smart for them, but please have proper signage as this is the first airport that we know to do this (beside Cuba, but they only scan carry-on). The line up was also long and local Chinese with little English tried their best to intimidate us for jumping their line. Come on, relax, didn't you see we were not local and were clueless? The waiting hall was also dark, crowded and very dreary. It was like at a local airport hall in some places like El Salvador or similar. And to get to the street level for the bus, you had to either wait in an endless line for elevator or carried your heavy luggage up the escalator. On our flight out, since we came in from a local flight (Shanghai), after getting off the shuttle bus, we walked along like herd to wait at the counter in order to ask for gate number as the guide could not speak English to tell us. It is quite disappointing for such a capital airport of a country that has made so much progress (look at the high speed train, the 20+ line subway system, the intricate highway) can be so dated and behind. Most staff do not speak English. I am not sure how they managed the visitors for the Olympic games 10 years ago. The only thing I like is the price of vending machine. One noodle bowl is only 6 yuan, which is about the same outside. Kudos for them!. They should make more in the vending machine as this is a hot item for stranded passengers. Also, water station always have hot water, wonderful. I know this is cultural as Chinese always drink hot water or tea, but it is so convenient for us. Compared to Shanghai airport, modern like any North American ones, Beijing airport is so far behind. We love flying to China, either Beijing or Shanghai, but would be nice if Beijing airport improves in the future.

✅ Trip Verified | An international transit longer than 3 hours results in you being stuck right before immigration, if you do not have a paper boarding pass immigration will send you back to a transfer desk. Transfer desk employees (Air China employees) don’t have access to other star alliance systems and can’t reprint or check you in, this is only possible 3 hours before departure. My flight Singapore to Hamburg with a layover in Beijing and Warsaw, I couldn’t get into the transfer area where there was food and drinks, my layover was 18 hours long and I was denied access to the most basic ammeneties. No one willing to help or explain. After 15 hours of waiting I was finally able to get my paper boarding pass which was written per hand! The airport is a joke, employees are rude and speak the worst English I’ve ever encountered. I thought Beijing Capital Airport was one of the best but even once I was through and cleared immigration the transit area is small and boring. I was in Terminal 3.

✅ Trip Verified | Horrible airport. Long lines in passport control and security check. I had to wait 2 hours in narrow srairs and under the stairs to reach security. One is treated like cattle. The security staff is terrible and mean. They pull out everything from carryon and rescan by x- ray. Then i was randomly pulled aside in the jetway for additional security screening. They opened my carry on , checked my shoes swabbed several artc Icles. The strangest thing eas the woman opened my wallet and flipped thru my dollar bills. Avoid this airport if you can. Oh, the toilets are dirty and stink. Overall it is a very bad airport.