Berlin Brandenburg Airport

✅ Trip Verified | One of my worst airport experiences outside North America. It's hard to express how disappointing this airport is, considering how long it took to build and the extraordinarily high costs involved. It's dark and cramped, and feels like it was designed in the 1950s. Bathrooms are tiny. Signs and directions are absent or misleading -- this is a real problem, since it is very difficult to figure out where you are supposed to be going. Some automatic doors don't work. Queuing is extremely inefficient with multiple lines moving at very different speeds towards the same goal (eg. security line), leading to massive line-cutting and impatient and angry travellers. Queuing times are long (eg. 40 minutes to clear security) and the airport is still nowhere near real-world capacity. Our security scanning station broke down and because of the elaborate and completely intransparent queuing system, there was no way to unblock the jam. Employees are unfriendly. I get the impression from Berliners themselves that they long for the good old days of Tegel airport being the main hub, and I can't blame them. Brandenburg is a mess.

Not Verified | Airport poorly designed, departure information board right after escalator from the S-Bahn-DB causing everybody to queue up there to check their information blocking the escalator traffic, airport is big for walking distances and no escalator to speed up walking for any end, and for British Airways, even travelling for business class there’s no priority security lane at this airport. If anybody arrived early before check-in courted assigned, well good luck, the only departure restaurant I think it’s a Starbucks and it closed for me at 4pm. And one wishing for a drink has to travel downstairs to arrivals, and the price is slightly hiked comparing to central Berlin. It’s not free of charge to shower at Tempelhof lounge for business class ticket holders, cost €15EUR for a shower kit. (Unless you bring your own towel you’ll pay to shower, which is ridiculous as this is the first airport lounge that actually charge business class customers to use their shower, the only one I’ve seen so far around the world) and if your flight is over 9pm departure then good luck because the lounge closes at 9pm. Also for someone boarding at gate C-D this Tempelhof lounge is at the end of gate section A, which is a 10-15 minutes walk from Tempelhof lounge to gate C and D. I would avoid flying to this airport, this airport feels very cheap in every possible way.

✅ Trip Verified | 1) On arrival, our bags took 1hr 15mins to arrive on the conveyor, the airport staff just shrugged their shoulders and said it was not their problem as it was Swissport responsibility. Overall responsibility is The Airports. Swissport just said they have staff shortages and declined to help. 2) On departure, the Baggage check took almost an hour, the area was inadequate and unable to cope with the volume of people. They will have serious problems when normal travel volume resumes. 3) The departure gate number was inaccurate on the information board. This resulted in our panicking when we discovered we were at the wrong location. There were no airport staff to help and advise. When we finally found the departure gate we were exhausted and very stressed, we were within 2 minutes of the takeoff time. I can imagine this scenario inducing a heart attack for some. 4) The walk, or run in our case, was too far to the gate, presumably due to the carrier penny pinching and opting for a cheaper far away gate. But the poor airport design is hostile to its customers.

✅ Trip Verified | I fly out of this airport four times per month, and it is appalling. Staff are extremely rude, the airport's design is atrocious, with slow security checks, lounges that do not accept Priority Pass cards, and lengthy walks required to find one's gate. The check-in area is far too small and the rail transportation links to the city centre (Hauptbahnof) are infrequent and slow. And, there are stairs everywhere and insufficient elevators and escalators. It is just an awful experience traveling through this airport. By comparison, the old airport Tegel was a dream.

Not Verified | It was a horrible experience to get through this airport. The staff was incredibly rude and took too much time to control the people. They seem to enjoy their power over the passengers who are trying to get the flights. If ones need to get through the passport control I recommend to plan 4h in advance or otherwise you risk to miss your flight. I’m already scared for the next time I have to get through this. I feel drained and exhausted!

Not Verified | Awful, awful, awful! Laughably awful. Where are the signs? The only good thing about this airport is the business class lounge passport control. Really dreadfully designed airport. Why hardly any restaurants or shops airside? And pretty few departure board signs too.

✅ Trip Verified | I am still very upset and traumatised by going through airport security at the airport on Sunday night. I was on my own, and struggling to find my mask going through as I had taken it off for the instant covid test. While struggling in my bag to find a mask a man started staring at me intensely, then he started shouting at me to put on a mask. I told him I was searching for it and I was really upset by him staring at me and asked him to stop. He continued to ignore me and kept on staring at me. I again asked him to stop as I was close to tears. Luckily a kind man also queuing up handed me as mask. I told the man at security that I would call someone to stop him intimidating me if he kept on. He then proceeded to call the police over! Needs less to say at this point I was completely upset. He told staff to ignore me and not let me through. I had to beg and plead to get through. I am ashamed for your airport that you would treat someone like this.

Not Verified | This is the most ridiculously badly planned airport I have ever used. Huge areas of wasted space, and where space is needed - narrow bottle necks. The scandalous entry to the passport control to get through to Gates C and D is utterly unbelievable. The designers have created an artificial bottle neck that meant there was a 30 minute queue to even begin the passport control queue. It took me 50 minutes to get to gate C6 after security on a Thursday afternoon outside of vacation season. Security is another bottle neck nightmare, narrow and completely unpractical. Departure notice boards are laughably bad. Sign posting inadequate, the ambience - a dismal pastiche of a Spanish airport from the 1970s. Utterly dreadful and embarrassing.

✅ Trip Verified | Unfortunately I lost my phone on way to airport and could not make the flight as it contained covid documents, but this new airport does not have one pay phone in the entire building to allow passengers who do not have a mobile phone to make a call. The airport information desk is an absolute joke referring people around in circles as long as you do not stay at the desk you are not their problem. When eventually able to make my flight there are super long piers with no moving walkways. Boarding gates down steep flights of stairs if departing from a gate with no bridge, means people left queuing on stairs whilst extended boarding checks are made. Honestly the old Schönefeld whilst tired was a much easier and better experience. Germany waited many many years for this showpiece airport and then got it badly wrong.

Not Verified | I hope to never use this appalling airport again. On the inbound journey, there is no facility for British passport holders to use the e-gates (unlike at Heathrow etc where EC nationals and others can use them). I had to wait in a queue for over 45 minutes. When I reached the front of the queue there was a staff member who very slowly went through all my paperwork. Asked inane questions and asked to see my return ticket. Then there was a two hour wait for our bags. On the return journey, there was a massive queue at check-in, then a massive queue at security, then a further massive queue at passport control (again my British passport could not be used on the e-gates). There was no information on the departure screens that the flight was delayed by over an hour (found this out from the BA app). We used a restaurant near the C gates which was overpriced with appallingly slow service. I saw several panicked people trying to push in the security and passport control queues as they were about to miss their flights. Customer service is non existent and all staff were rude. I feel discriminated against as a British passport holder.