Johannesburg Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Most aspects of OR Tambo airport are average and acceptable. I found it clean and staff were usually helpful. The one thing which made it a distressing experience was the very limited information for departures. When you enter the airport there are signs saying there are no announcements. That is quite normal in any busy airport, no routine boarding announcements. But they mean 'no announcements at all'. So if there is a gate change or passengers checked in that have not boarded there are no announcements, it's up to you to discover. We missed a connecting flight to Victoria Falls because the gate shown on our boarding card issued at Nelspruit Airport changed before we landed at Joburg. The large dot matrix info boards only show a limited number of flights (perhaps 20) and at busy times this might only be 30 minutes ahead. Our connection wasn't displayed yet, so we went to the assigned gate and waited. Meanwhile our flight departed from the new gate. No calls for missing passengers, no calls about the gate change. This is made worse because the LCD screens at each gate do not show the flight details until boarding starts. Had they done so we would have seen the gate we were at was for a different flight. There are no staff at gates until boarding to help and very limited info at the few help desks. SAA accepted the lack of gate change calls was their responsibility and put us in a hotel at their expense but we missed a day of our holiday with nothing to do in an airport hotel. On our return from Victoria Falls to London via Joburg we were extra careful about checking our gate. While waiting in the main concourse I noticed airline staff carrying hand written "last call for" notices to round up missing passengers. They aren't allowed to shout the flight numbers though. No announcements allowed. So they just hover hopefully near the info desks. So be warned, if a gate changes it's up to you to find out and getting that info can be very difficult.

✅ Trip Verified | Once again - there was only one gate open on the left hand side as we entered through to the domestic boarding gates, despite 2 green lights showing. I told the supervisor as she was leaving - and she really didn't care. She answered that the one gate must have not been working - so only one light showed, but made no attempt to remedy the situation. There were various ACSA employees laughing with one another around the gates and it's not the laughing that was the problem, it's the complete indifference to the people queuing or the one poor guy who was trying to go as fast as he could. This is a perennial problem at OR. I could have a rant about the smelly loos (the ladies do not rinse their cloths or mops in disinfectant often enough) - but that's an issue for another day!

✅ Trip Verified | I have experienced numerous bad experiences at this airport and finally decided to do something about it. Every time I transit through Johannesburg, I get asked for tips by airport staff who are doing their jobs and this time, I was asked for a tip in order to be allowed to go through security with no problems! I am outraged by this behaviour in general and particularly during a potentially vital security checkpoint! If you are paid to do a job, do it professionally without trying to guilt travellers into subsidizing your salaries - can somebody do something about this please.

❎ Not Verified | Arrived on 1 Dec 17, pleasantly surprised by the speed going through immigration after the horror stories I had heard about only took approximately 15 min in the queue. Unfortunately can't be said when we left flying on to Cape Town with British Airways, spent about 30 min at baggage check in. Why can't 1 member of staff take 3 min to process a passenger but some other staff member twice as long. Also a female staff member took over a desk and then spent 5 min arranging her hair, coat and other items before doing the job she's paid to do, ie serve customers.

✅ Verified Review | Had awful experience going through the passport control section. Completely disorganised staff herding us from one queue to another. I was in line to go through non SA passport but because of the queues I was redirected. Staff on 1 and 3 completely ignorant when I was trying to give a fingers/thumb print on the screen. I had never used one of these before and was did not know how to properly lay my fingers on the screen. The staff member sighed dismissively and stated if the screen doesnt go green you will have to go to another desk. My husbands finger was in a splint due to a broken tip, after at least 45 minutes and being sent to different desks staff at each desk sent him off to another desk until eventually he was processed and allowed to go through. Completely unprofessional and bereft of any customer friendly emotion. By comparison to staff at heathrow so friendly and interactive with us and our kids

✅ Verified Review | SA190, 11 Oct 17, Johannesburg-Mauritius. Having through checked my baggage from Cape Town to Mauritius, went through the "quick" customs control. Hectic queues that took at least 45mins to reach 1 of +/- 6 desks being manned - far too understaffed. What really grabs my goat is the contempt that Customs officials have for their fellow beings! No good morning, no smiles, chatting away to each other and the supervisor laughing loudly with his colleagues. No "how are you", no "have a nice day" or "enjoy your flight", which is so untypical of friendly South Africans. As per my previous gripe in Aug 17, ORTIA officials lack any form of customer service. Once again security personnel here were very chatty and friendly. The return experience however, on SA191 / 22 Oct 17, was like chalk and cheese. A very friendly, responsive female customs official who wanted to know all about my trip, how Mauritius was, and whether I could take her there next time as my 2nd wife! All she would require from me would be "maintenance" - such a funny lady and we laughed - in typical South African fashion! The outbound experience unfortunately underscored the inbound experience.

✅ Verified Review | I use this airport weekly, the domestic terminal is relatively organized. What makes it so unpleasant is the incessant announcements which are shouted continuously around the terminal for boarding. You are almost deafened by this and it is impossible to make a phone call or focus on anything due to the horrific noise levels. The announcements are continuously blasted around the airport and when one stops another starts so you cannot decipher what is actually going on. If any pertinent information needs to be broadcast it may be largely ignored as people have stopped trying to hear what is going on. Usually airports use the screens to give the boarding information and passengers are told to follow the information on their boarding pass as to the departure gate and boarding time. It is ironic that most of the loud boarding announcements are from the smaller carriers who only have around 30 - 50 passengers on the plane as opposed to the ones which carry 180 passengers. All in all a dreadful noisy experience.

✅ Verified Review | Departed on BA054 / 13 AUG 17, JNB-LHR. Johannesburg International (ORTIA) is a jigsaw puzzle of terminals coming from four different boxes! No flowing design structure. Domestic departures + arrivals (beautiful, airy, modern glass buildings), old domestic arrivals section (dark, stark and dirty). International departure check in area (disgusting, busy like a night market, no sunlight, stuffy). Poor airlines - their staff are squashed in a very chaotic workspace! ACSA, international departures needs serious attention! New International departure terminal, Gates and Duty Free areas are however very nice, bright, colourful and spacious. Immigration officials are so-so, not overly friendly and could do with a Customer Services course. Security officials however were very friendly and smiling and processed long queues relatively quickly. Heathrow Terminal 5 report follows.

❎ Unverified | Very understaffed immigration. More than an hour on line to pass immigration, coming from a long flight from Brazil. Staff not supportive. Lack of information. Almost lost my connection. Confusing wifi. Has to reconnect once you move within the airport.

✅ Verified Review | Johannesburg airport is a good airport for African standards. It is clean, plenty of seating, and good shopping. However, there are 2 problems that I find very annoying every time I use it: on departure, immigration is very understaffed. I travelled on Saturday, the first day of the Easter school holidays at evening peak time. There were only 5 booths staffed (out of 17) by immigration officers, which resulted in having to close the security screening (just before immigration) every 20 minutes because passengers were piling up in front of the booths. Just to make it clear, the airport is not to blame, but the department of Home Affairs is! It has been like this since I moved to South Africa. On arrival, it is a shame that the airport management does not do anything about the crooks and hawkers standing in the arrival hall, trying to rip-off every single tourist. You don't find this in any other airport in South Africa, so why does Johannesburg tolerate it? I witnessed an american couple paying 20 dollars to get their luggage back from a guy that grabbed it as soon as they passed the door!