Berlin Schonefeld Airport

First of all, after arrival at Berlin Schonefeld you end up in a maze of corridors with a lot of stairs leading to a small door into a arrival area before leaving the airport. There are nearly no signs to show you were to go, so good luck if followed a bunch of tourists and end up at the railroad station, which has only 6 ticket vending machines for a lot of passengers. Departure went ok, make sure you go through terminal C, which is no more than a small hall with the security checks but its the fastest way to go. There are no seats in this hall, but thats ok. But then, after the security checks you end op in a narrow passway stretching the entire airport as a departure lounge, they have far too little seating, it is crammed. After the check in you get to your plane pretty easy and you can relax after experiencing this fine piece of German mis-engineering.

Berlin Schonefeld is an omnishambles. As we arrived for departures I felt so sorry for all the arriving travellers. there were hundreds of folk queuing to get train tickets. The number of machines is utterly inadequate to the cause, I could only feel glad that I had arrive at a much quieter time. Even so the information we were given on arrival about ongoing travel was wrong, even when I sought to clarify the woman at the travel desk was brusque and actually, I discovered later, wrong. On to departures where there were no seats, space upstairs in the fancy lounge for the chosen few of course but the rest of us expected to stand or sit on the ground. Down to the room before boarding and again not enough seats and Air con put on too late given the high temperatures outside. Do budget flyers need to be treated with such indifference? And yes, prices are ridiculous, 7.50 euros for a filled roll. I love Berlin but Schonefeld is horrible

Absolutely terrible experience. The airport is horrible. Not enough seating and the prices for basics such as water are extortionate. We were called to the easyJet desk because our flight was delayed. We checked with security that we could go out and come back in easily and they said yes of course. When we came back through they wouldn't let us take the bottle of water we had bought in the departures area, for an extortionate price, even though they had seen us walk out with it 5 minutes prior. The man on the security desk was extremely rude and not very understanding at all. I will never choose to fly from this airport again.

Berlin Schonefeld is a complete disaster on every single aspect. On arrival you move through a grim series of makeshift corridors and cabins and queue up at passport control before entering the baggage collection hall. This hall is falling apart. The ceiling is mostly exposed with wiring hanging down, baggage carousel very dated and the actual space is just too small for the amount of people that pass through. On entering arrivals the signage is really bad with a small sign with an image of a train pointing outside. I followed the crowds out of the terminal and across to a covered walkway and down into the station. The signage in the station looks like it will be helpful with large signs denoting "Berlin City" but this is where it stop. There are two travel options which you would have needed to research beforehand; Berlin City on the S-Bahn and a slightly more direct service that serves different station on the RB/RE train. The ticket machines are unclear if you can use either ticket on either train as some of the machines have signs directing you to use a different ticket machine if you are using the express service (this is incorrect and confusing as it turns out that you can use the ABC ticket on either service and the machines are all the same for that purpose). The machines only accepts debit cards and Maestro cards which have been issued in Germany. Departing from the airport was an even worse experience. There are four terminals (A, B, C and D). I followed the signs directing me to terminal D to check in my bag for my Ryanair flight. Checked in my bag after about a 30 minute wait then made my way to the security queue next to the check-in desks. At the queue a woman looked at my boarding pass and started gesturing and shouting in German for me to go to terminal B. Yep, you have to go back outside and make your way to a different terminal to go through security and to the boarding gate. When I finally made it to Terminal B it was a construction zone and there was no indication that I was in the correct place. The entire terminal is kitted out in Easyjet orange. I asked if I was in the correct place and I was gestured into the queue. Security wait time was average enough. After security you are led into a duty free show with all the usual fare. There are a few other shops around, dotted between gates, seating, lounges and unmanned passport control desks. The seating is totally inadequate for the number of people and departing flights. More than half of the people were sitting on suitcases, window ledges, the floor or just standing uncomfortably. The terminal is disgustingly dirty so I passed on buying any food in Burger King or the Irish Bar, but still had to bizarrely walk through them both to get to my gate. I made my way down through a series of corridors and to passport control at the gate entrance and into a small room with too few seats for the 180+ people boarding the flight. Everyone was packed in together for about 40 minutes until the flight started boarding. Every single staff member I made contact with was incredibly rude, dismissive and had no concept of customer service. This airport is a complete fiasco and an embarrassment to the German capital. It is baffling that this airport is allowed to actually operate.

Berlin Schonefeld is one of the worst airports in a modern city. After you have passed the security check, you are trapped. Too few sockets - terrible connection public transport to terminal and a very chaotic way to get to the gates - that's what Berlin Schönefeld is about. Yes, mainly low-cost-carrirers fly from here, but why are other airports in this fields so much better? And Berlin Schonefeld do not have any smoking rooms. The free Airport Wifi connection did not work.

Arrived and departed within 4 days with easyJet at Terminal A. Arrival went ok, no security or baggage delays. Place looked a bit grim though. Walked a few minutes to the nearest train station for our airport express into Berlin (hardly an express, seemed to stop at every station). Departure, well, animals have been treated far better at busy cattle markets, it was very busy and you could hardly move in departures, lack of air, as many sitting on the floor as were sitting on seats. There were no delays to departures which could have made this worse either. Toilets, well you couldn't swing a cat. This is easily the worst airport I have used and I have used a lot around the world. When our aircraft arrived, it took the ground staff 7 or 8 minutes just to put the stairs to the aircraft, the turnaround seemed so slow. The food and drink outlets were crammed, you couldn't find anywhere to sit, it was just awful. Berlin, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Berlin Schonefeld is one of the worst airports in a modern city. It has not changed much since the French sector days. Most aircrafts (mainly cheap flights) cannot park with a bridged station. You walk down stairs from the plane, then walk up to the first floor in the terminal, then walk down again, all with hand luggage up and down. Small airport but long walks. Remote to town (can take one hour)and the train station is almost 10 minutes away. Avoid if possible (unless you fly easyJet).

Berlin Schonefeld Airport is a claustrophobic place. The departures zone consist of a thin corridor where a huge number of passengers go back and forth. The security personnel are the rudest staff I have ever encountered. There also isn't enough chairs for passengers to sit on.

I've been to some badly run airports in my travels, but SXF is certainly in the top three. One thing you know at an airport is the number of passengers at 15 minute intervals throughout the day. Why at SXF do they pay no attention to this. One security screening lane open in Terminal B, at rush hour on Friday afternoon is a disgrace. I was a Terminal D passenger, but given that the security queue was longer than the queue for the Harrods sale, we were herded to Terminal B, where it was equally bad. Once airside, less than half of the departure boards were functioning. So all of the pax were congregating around those that did work. I know Berlin has a new airport opening in 2013, 14, 15, etc, but come on Berlin. Your airport is what we would expect in the third world, not what we expect from the so called leading EU nation.

Worst possible experience. I missed my flight to Vienna today. Sounds like a general issue which could happen at any airport, but here's the difference. I was in the check-in line for an entire hour and in the security line for 45 mins. It should be noted that there was only one security gate open for all passengers on all flights. There were around 10 flights taking off around the same time. While I was going through security, they called my name for the first and last time. I ran to the gate indicated but easyJet staff said that the gate was closed and refused to call and check with security that I had indeed responded to the announcement. I ran from pillar to post for help, and no one was prepared to make one call to the concerned person. It took another 15 mins to return to the easyJet counter to report my case. The airport authorities refused to hear me out until I approached the security officials requesting them to show me the CCTV feed to show they had caused my delay (as I had checked in well within time). It was after my request that the airport authorities convinced easyJet to issue me a new ticket for the next day's flight. The turmoil didn't end here. My suitcase had already been checked in and I had to collect it from Lost and Found since I didn't board the flight. When I reached the Baggage Handling agent, they asked me to wait as they couldn't locate the bag. I asked them for a time estimate, but they weren't sure. I have waited for half an hour already while I'm writing this. I would strongly recommend avoiding this airport.