New York JFK Airport

We came in on Aer Lingus from Dublin Airport on October 10 2013. Thankfully we had already cleared US Customs in Ireland. Our challenge was to traverse terminals and endure security wait times to make our connection on Delta to Atlanta. We had given ourselves 3.5 hours for our connection and I was glad we had done so. It took us just over one hour to snake through the poorly-manned security line. I asked the young man assigned to usher us through the line whether this was unusual. He answered with a very resigned tone "it is always like this people miss their flights all the time." Too bad JFK. I live in Atlanta and use that airport often. I will certainly avoid JFK in the future!

Arrived with LH at Terminal 1. It was the worst Airport I have seen. More than 1000 waiting at immigration. It took us more than 2 hours to go through. Half of the counters were closed. Staff were chatting to each other and ignoring waiting passengers. Immigration procedure is inefficient. Most of the officers use just one finger for the Keyboard. Every time we come to the US they collect fingerprints of all fingers. Meanwhile they must have hundreds of prints from my fingers. Baggage was laying around no belt number was shown. The guy at the customs looked stoned to us. Departing was also a mess. Airtrain was not working buses crowded. You cannot leave the baggage at check in. You have to bring it to a drop off point where is another cue. Very long wait time at security check. TSA friendly like prison staff. If there is no significant improvement in the future we will not come to USA anymore.

Arrived in JFK from London expecting to find a well managed immigration process. Was dismayed to find an absolutely disgraceful service - waited in line for 2 and half hours watching a skeleton staff process new arrivals at a snail's pace. Given the number of travellers going through JFK you'd think that they may have managed to refine and improve their processes slightly. It really was a joke after an 8 hour flight and frustratingly the staff appeared to be enjoying making people wait. Sort it out JFK! Apart from the airport experience NY lived up to expectations.

The worst airport I have ever visited. Me and my mother were travelling to Toronto Canada and had to pass through JFK for a transit flight. We had to clear customs with our fingerprints and photographs taken. The worst thing about the whole experience was just how rude and unpleasant all the staff we came across were. The airport itself is like a riot no signs of any systematic procedure with hundreds of people queuing left right and centre. Like the reviews have stated we had to re-claim our baggage which was a nightmare. Then passing through security was another hassle. The lady was so rude to us. Absolutely the worst experience in a long time I will be doing everything to avoid going to the US through transit in the future. Canada was the complete opposite!

A nightmare to go through customs. We arrived on September 4th and after an 8 hour flight it took us 2.5 hours to go through customs! We had to stand and shuffle for 2.5 hours. To top it off not all TSA booths were opened! This will be the last time I visit NYC.

Departed the American terminal on a short flight to RDU. This is my second time using the American terminal at JFK and though I'm not a fan of American nor a frequent flyer with them I can say that it is a very fine airport. The AA check-in staff were efficient handling the checked baggage after the kiosk check-in. The security line wasn't long this time of day. The terminal itself is huge and there seems to be plenty on offer for food and shopping. Seemed clean to me too. As this was a domestic flight I cannot say what the international connection experience is like.

We used JFK twice in August. The first time was to fly to Boston on American Airlines from Terminal 8. This terminal seems very modern. Queues at security were short and there were pleasant shops and restaurants air side. Two weeks later we arrived back at JFK Terminal 8 from Boston and then transferred to Terminal 7 for a British Airways flight to London Heathrow. Again Terminal 8 was good. Terminal 7 looks rather old by comparison. The queues at Fast Track security were short. The facilities air side seemed pretty limited. The selection of shops in particular seemed pretty abysmal (not a patch on LHR T5). Thank goodness for the BA lounge which was pleasant and comfortable. I would not have liked to have spent 6 hours in the terminal itself. Our bags were tagged from Boston to London and they arrived in London at the same time that we did so that was good.

I must agree with the majority of negative reviews here. I was absolutely appalled at both my experiences going through JFK - it's easily the worst airport experience I have had - I've probably been through at least 200+ airports large and small in my lifetime. Coming from Montreal on a weekday morning flight I was blown away that I had to remove my checked-in bag while in transit for a flight to Japan in the afternoon. Being forced to undergo customs and immigration and rechecking a bag and having to change terminals was a ghastly experience. The entire airport seemed like it was in a massive state of chaos. The line for immigration was at least 300 people long the inspector extremely rude. The signage is appallingly bad. The sign for the "Skytrain" (there's a laugh) has a somewhat arrow-like logo but the arrow is usually pointing in the opposite direction. I had to ask about 3 people how to get to it in Terminal 4. Going through security in Terminal 8 was chaos. No baskets in which to put my items. After I cleared security and started to look for my gate I discovered the gates were on another floor though purely by accident. Coming back 2 weeks later on a Saturday afternoon was an even worse nightmare after the 13-hour flight from Japan. There were at least 4 jumbo-jet loads of passengers in line for customs. Again I had to offload my bag again I had to switch terminals (my feeder flight to Montreal was at the absolute furthest gate from the hub in Terminal 4) and again there was the frightful security nightmare. From now on I will do everything in my power to avoid having to go through the US.

It's all a matter of timing. I had an early evening flight out of T7 and had less than a 10 minute wait at security. On the return I arrived late at night so there were no lines at all. T7 is a bit small but it gets the job done at times.

As a non US citizen my airport experience was appalling. We had just completed a 7 hour flight from the UK and were obviously feeling a little tired. As we got off the plane and followed the signs for immigration we were met with a huge queue waiting to even approach the immigration hall. There are 3 lanes for this area. The US citizens are allowed through without showing any ID the middle lane is for fast transit connecting flights and then the visitors lane. Once in the main immigration area we were herded like shuffling cattle in to a zig zag line for the next 2 hours it was worse than any queue I have ever experienced in a Disney park even! The staff were rude and non helpful. Thanks to the US paranoia we had to give finger prints. The consequence of all this queuing meant that once through security and in to the main baggage hall it literally is a free for all. There is no signage as to which baggage belt our luggage had arrived on it was just over 2 hours previous remember! The staff were totally disgraceful and rude. When I asked where our case were I was told I don't know and the staff member walked away! Welcome to America and you are our visitors? You need to have along hard look at the welcome experience because like so many things the USA has got this massively wrong it's appalling. Terrible experience.