New York JFK Airport

Absolutely awful upon arrival. I was towards the front of the customs queue but it still took 1 hour 30 minutes for me to get to the front. There was a huge queue behind me which went very far back and out of sight. I imagine those people were queued for hours. There are 27 customs desks and only 5 were open so this is the reason for such slow movement. No announcements or anything were made and no one thought to open more desks. The elderly people had no choice but to stand for the whole length of time. Americans were getting put through first. The staff were also very rude; the woman in charge pointed to people and made faces at them to show them where to go rather than speak to them. When she had to speak she made it clear she was unhappy shouting 'yeah you' or 'no there' etc. It was like people being treated like cattle. The man at the customs desk was equally rude only saying 'thumb' when he needed our fingerprints. He stared at the computer the whole time and ignored us when we wished him a nice day (sarcastically!). The journey home was much more pleasant however again it was not the best service.

Arrived 9 August in T7 from London City - pre-clearance via Shannon meant we arrived in shabby domestic arrivals but cleared in approx 35 mins. It would appear to be the only civilised way through from other reviews. Departed T7 on 18 August - BA night sleeper service. Smooth departure via security etc. Did minimal shopping in duty free but found what we wanted easily and well priced. BA lounge a disappointment for a long haul. Menu choices v poor and limited for a hot meal service - rather a poor buffet would have been better served to have eaten in NYC and spent less time at airport. This is a matter for BA rather than JFK. A qualified thumbs up due to fortunate arrivals opportunity.

I went to JFK on JetBlue to STI. It's ok but it's very far because Continental (now United) no longer fly's to STI. The Terminal is very good and clean but the lines at Security and Check-in are too long. However when I came home (through Terminal 4) the line for immigration was very short and quick but the security is not nice. Baggage clam can take an hour which is too long. JFK is somewhat ok.

Horrendous queues to get through immigration. Flight from London took over 2 hours to get through immigration not enough staff and booths getting shutdown for staff breaks. I will never use this airport again.

Very happy with my overall experience. I arrived from Dublin with Aer Lingus so I was fortunate enough to skip the immigration queue (as we had pre-cleared US customs in Dublin). We were lead through the airport to a shabby looking baggage reclaim used for the T4 domestic flights and the bags came quickly and I was on the airtrain within 20 minutes of arriving at the gate (a feat that not even the much smaller Glasgow airport can accomplish half the time with domestic arrivals!). My return was a similarly painless procedure. Check in had short queues (although I had arrived ridiculously early) but you do have to haul your baggage from the check in area to a separate bag drop area with visible X-Ray scanners. Appeared to be a bit of a security nightmare and you simply had to leave your bag in a big pile and the security team put it into the scanner. There are plenty of shops before security. Sadly the prices are insulting even by airport standards. $5 for a bottle of water $2.99 for a packet of crisps and $4.39 for a packet of gummy sweets. There are a few places that are much more reasonable. Sadly not enough seats available before security but if you look around enough you'll probably find some (particularly towards the A gates). Security was fantastic. There were very short queues and that was with busy flights going out to supposedly "high risk" areas. Staff were very friendly and helpful. There's not much though security in the B gates area but plenty of seating. Overall I didn't find cleanliness to be a particular issue. We did have a long taxi to get to our takeoff but that's to be expected with a busy airport. I'd happily fly to and from JFK again. The terminals are all quite small so it all felt a lot more intimate than one would expect in such a large intentional airport. However bear in mind that I didn't experience customs and immigration from this airport so can't really comment there.

I arrived today on AF 12 from CDG. In fifty years of flying on five continents I have never seen such a sight. Upon deplaning we were greeted by extremely rude staff who practically shoved US citizens into a fast lane. Non-residents and aliens were shoved into an interminable mob of waiting people. The immigration hall itself worked tolerably for US citizens (I got through in about 20 min despite the immigration officer not believing that my passport and I were the same person: I had to show him my drivers license). The poor people in the other group were jam-packed like sardines with those in the upstairs holding pen trickling down the escalator into the immigration hall. My heart went out to these people. How can we expect tourism if we treat them like this? No toilets no water no care for babies and the disabled. An absolute disgrace. The customs official with whom I spoke said that they had complained many times that terminal 1 was too small for the load. My city of origin for this trip was Mumbai India. Mumbai airport at departure time was jam-packed but compared to JFK terminal one it was paradise. Disgraceful.

Absolutely the rudest staff I have encountered! Flew into JFK from London Heathrow and after a long flight entered this hot and stifling airport. Queued for hours to get through customs and were spoken to like naughty schoolchildren by the security staff and customs officers. It really did dampen my first impressions of New York. Decent Customer service and manners non in this airport.

Spent 4 hours in the passport queue at terminal 1! Unfriendly staff and crowded terminals 12/3. I was arriving at Terminal 1 and departing at terminal 2/3. All terminals were crowded due to packed shopping facilities and gates. Queues are the biggest problem of this airport but unfriendly staff contributes to the drama.

We were prepared for the worst after reading the JFK-reviews but it wasn't too bad at all. Arrived in terminal 8 and had to queue for 45 minutes. We expected at least one hour. Friendly TSA-officer luggage was put besides the belt. Continued 5 days later from new terminal 4 on Delta which is quite spacious. We arrived early -by convenient subway/AirTrain- because of the expected long queues at security but there were hardly any. The whole process took 15 mins. Security staff not as unfriendly as other airports. Just bear it!

Horrible experience Monday returning to the states from Paris. I fail to understand how an international airport can be run so poorly in this day and age. They always seem to be caught by surprise when a plane load of passengers walk in. Had to queue up in a hallway upon deplaning - U.S. citizens to the left wall visitors to the right. If they couldn't speak or read English it had to have been an anxiety-ridden experience. Many of us on the left side tried to help those who didn't comprehend. There was only one worker directing people and it didn't appear that he knew any other languages. After 10 or 15 minutes of just standing there we were allowed into Passport Control room which was crammed full of passengers from other flights. It was so full that we had to queue up against the far wall. It was hot in the hallway and it was even more hot in this room. They had huge fans. We had to ask that they be turned on. Finally got through and found our luggage pulled from the carousel meaning passengers had to circle the carousel several times to find our luggage instead of staying in one place and pulling it off. They pulled the luggage off because it was needed for a plane from Athens that had just arrived. Even more chaos ensued when that baggage was pulled and tossed into the Paris mix. Absolutely mindless operation through every stage of deplaning. Shouldn't we have this all figured out by now? We've been doing this flying thing for a while now.