Honolulu Airport

Stuck for 10 hours. Came from Osaka. Leaving customs found almost no none checked on facilities. One coffee and one bar joint total for one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. So I had to check in. Place is dark and dirty. Worst prices in the United States. Chaotic check in. Noisy. Avoid HNL.

One of the ugliest airports existing on US territory. Arrival on the International "terminal" compels you to take horrible buses where you have to literally climb stairs. Checking-in for inter-island flights is rude. No wi-fi no store nothing. Departure for US domestic flights in confused. Only attractive: nice furniture. Boarding lounges are too small queues for security don't fit in the allocated space.

Although the design of the airport may have worked in the 70s when it was built today's security requirements make many of the airport's spaces either cramped or abandoned. The first floor gates have ugly dividers corralling the gates creating narrow bottlenecks in the passageways. Meanwhile the entire second floor is completely abandoned with old ceiling tiles laying about. In general it isn't a very welcoming design.

Aesthetically Honolulu Airport is a throwback to the 70s. For a place that is supposed to welcome people to a tropical paradise it is heavy and dark concrete architecture. There needs to be more wood greenery and updates to the fixtures. If you are taking Hawaiian Airlines to a connecting neighbor island flight be prepared to walk if you are in the far terminal where some mainland and international flights are parked. Its even a farther walk (or ride on the Wiki-wiki shuttle) if you're on Alaska Airlines. Our flight from Seattle parked at the far terminal and we had less than an hour to our connecting flight to Hilo. It was a mad dash with several co-passengers in tow scrambling for directions. Fortunately we made it in time. The airport is trying to make improvements and there are better dining options along with more shopping for people waiting at the gates for their flight. You may want to eat before coming to the airport as prices are steep. Its really nice to hear announcements in Hawaiian too which reminds you this is Hawaii after all.

Although they are trying to improve the airport at least in a cosmetic sense it has to be once of the worst designs ever with marathon hikes to go anywhere and dark dingy areas which are truly hideous. Having come and gone through Honolulu some 12 times since early 2011 I can at least say that the immigration security and customs people are generally pleasant and polite this not always being the case in the US who generally have some of the rudest and surliest officials on earth! Officiousness and coldness are general characteristics elsewhere in my experience over 50 years plus of travel. Since I spend a lot of time in Hawaii where I own a home there is at least a bit of a positive here.

I was amazed that a city so known for its tourism has such an outdated airport. Someone wrote that the decor was 1980's I would say it looks like vintage 1960's or 70's. The bathrooms looked as old in disrepair and with filthy floors. There is no free wifi nor could I find a place to charge up my electronics. You have to get around on a clunky bus shuttle between terminals and there are no good restaurants out by the gates. I ate literally the worst sandwich of my life at the Quiznos subs; it was total (overpriced) lump of mush. It's not even possible to buy a bag of normal packaged pretzels at the newstand just a tiny zip-lock bag of them for $5. Positives: you can buy leis upon arrival and even the security staff had that friendly aloha spirit.

Whoever designed this airport must not have been thinking too clearly or had very little background in airport design. This is without a doubt one of the world's most confusing illogical places to depart arrive or change planes. There is no sensible flow from one part of the airport to the other. Gates are scattered about in a way that makes it difficult to get from one to the other. Transport between terminals via Wiki-Wiki shuttle is inefficient. Arriving internationally involved the longest walk imaginable from the gate to customs. No signage at all after clearing customs for onward journeys on domestic flights. They should tear it down and start over.

Found the checkin and agriculture check in process at Honolulu airport totally chaotic and staffing unable to cope with demand. Long winding lines of hundreds of confused and stressed people queuing to check baggage at kiosks as commanded by 2 yelling roving staff. Directions are not apparent outside the airport building (where lines begin) and its not until you reach the beginning of the queue and get close to a human to find out you need to be on another line. People were treated like cattle. We were in a line for an hour and a half lost our visa card in the confusion and were charged baggage fees when not required.

Inter-island terminal (also used by Hawaiian Airlines flights to the U.S. mainland). The terminal looks like a 1980s time warp. Dark corridors dirty carpeting cluttered floor space between jetway and hallway dirty restrooms limited concessions and the worst food of any airport in the USA. If you're stuck with a long layover bring a good book or a laptop and your own food.

This is an unusual airport to say the least. International arrivals are relatively straight forward although the immigration hall can be very crowded when 2 or more flights arrive. Waiting times in excess of an hour are not unusual in the passport control hall. Queues can be horrendous and disorganised at International check-in. If you are flying Star Class on Jet Star beware that you do have a priority check-in but there are no signs directing you to it. This can easily save you an hour. Security staff are typically surly and disinterested TSA employees. They try to cram as many people as possible through one small x-ray machine/metal detector so allow a minimum of 30 minutes to clear security. Airside is average - whilst it is hardly to the standard of Changi or Hong Kong there are some shops selling overpriced souvenirs books and food. The open air walkways are very pleasant and provide a nice tropical feel to the terminal. International departure lounges are very plain with old and uncomfortable seats. A full A330/B747 will result in standing room only. They apply a quarantine method here: once you are in your departure lounge you cannot go back to the shops. Overall it is probably one of the better US airports but it still has a lot of work to do.