Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

❎ Unverified | Very disappointing. The guy at the information desk gave me misinformation - not once, but twice. Wrong information about baggage claim and about airport shuttles. Seemed very bored and disinterested in helping anyone. The American Airlines baggage claim was a mess. Signs giving the baggage claim area for my flight were all wrong. What a mess.

❎ Unverified | Baggage Claim area was abysmal. Frontier Airlines from COS arrived with info that bags would be on 4. No signs were at Carousel 4, but they were switched to 5. Bags came from 5, but stopped before the last bags came out. Someone noticed a flashing yellow light. No one was in the area to assist. Delta said the problem was Frontier's not theirs and we'd have to go to the ticket counter. The info counter person said she didn't have a phone and couldn't call. She has a phone. Frontier ticket counter said it's not their problem, the carousels belong to the City of Phoenix. City of Phoenix said that the carousel doesn't stop unless there's a jam and that's Frontier's problem. After about 45 minutes of this a Frontier ticket agent went into an elevator and got someone to finally react. Some mysterious guy apparently pushed on the flashing yellow light and the belts started moving. This shouldn't happen at what is claimed to be a Friendly Airport. Someone should be available to assure the carousels are working properly, regardless of which airline is using them. Bad experience.

✅ Verified Review | This is one of the worst airports in the US. The terminals are spread out all over the place, making connections a chore. If you have a connecting flight in a different terminal than you've arrived, be prepared to walk a lot. It also seems that this airport is unable to accommodate the number of airlines/flights arriving and departing. I've taken several departing flights that have left the gate early or on time, only to end up delayed 45-60 minutes because of taxiing and other tarmac traffic delays. Avoid this airport if you can!

Occasionally, when my flight is delayed and arrives at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport after about 10.00pm, the direct route back to the main lobby is blocked after deplaning at Terminal D. Subsequently, hundreds of passengers from various gates at the terminal and myself are re-directed to Terminal C, that adds about 750 feet (that's about 2 1/2 football fields long) to our tired trek home. It's rather disheartening and seems the City is too cheap to provide the needed security guard to watch us exiting Terminal D.

I have no problem with security checks - keeps us safe but after a 10 hour flight - the equivalent of 3 am for us we waited at passport control for over an hour, with, at times, only 1 booth dealing with the non American, non special assistance passengers. It was unnecessary and badly organised. Experience certainly didn't feel like "Welcome to America".

What a mess this place is. TSA is in chaos. Rude and inefficient. Body scanners are missing. Metal detectors used are apparently not set with proper sensitivity. One of us cruised through with one artificial hip. The other of us lit it up because of two artificial knees. Thus, an invasive pat down ensued. Ridiculous waste of time for the agent and the traveler. Not enough lines. Not enough space. Signage inadequate. Unorganized and sloppy. Then there is the terminal. Dirty and uncomfortable. Not enough seating for a plane full of passengers. Public address system poor. Boarding instructions confusing because you could not tell what gate was making the announcements. Nothing in the terminal says welcome to Phoenix. Nothing lets you know you are in the southwest. If we could, we would definitely avoid this airport in the future.

I arrived almost two hrs before my next connecting flight. To only stand in line for three hours. TSA by the masses yet just three lines opened. More than three flights missed by about 100 people. When I finally got to TSA I was told I had to leave the liquor I purchased In Mexico (sealed legally). I stated I would check it in (he never suggested that option). AA stated they have nothing to do with TSA delay, I paid $150 for next flight because yes, way before the "I would have to relinquish liquor" while in the 2nd hr of waiting on line I missed my flight. Lots of employees at this airport as I went to customer service to complain stated that the airport has been a mess since Dec 2015. Avoid this unorganized mess of an airport. Lastly it's very sad how AA nickle and dime its customers.

Overall, it is a great airport, however a really bad baggage experience has left a bad taste for checking baggage. My bags took 1 hour to arrive and were not on the carousel advertised on the electronic board. As I was leaving with much luggage that showed up on carousel 5, the airport board was still showing that my bags were still being waited for on carousel 1. At the tail end of a long, overnight trip, this was not a good experience to end my trip.

We were on a flight from Cancun Mexico to San Francisco with a stop in Phoenix. We purchased a few items from the Cancun transit shops wrapped and sealed in the special security cleared bag. Upon arrival at PHX, we cleared immigration and customs and were on our way to catch the domestic flight to SFO, which included going through TSA. The TSA agents confiscated our sealed purchased items stating that they were not in the right TSA approved bags. It is totally unacceptable to require all the countries in the world use the same type of security clearance bags used in the US. We ended up losing everything we bought to the TSA agents who supposedly "confiscated" them. The agents had a terrible attitude and did not even try to listen to the explanations. Very unhappy with how out of touch the TSA agents were in this airport. Try to avoid this airport as much as you can, especially if transferring from an international flight to a domestic.

Avoid for transit travel - informational signage and help is non-existent. After walking in circles for 15 minutes my wife and I finally asked a pilot what terminal our airline was in and then learned we needed to exit security to get to our terminal. Needless to say that meant we needed to clear security again. We had cleared thru Pre-TSA at our originating airport but our transit boarding passes did not have our pre TSA-clearance authorization printed so we had to go to our airline ticketing area to reprint. The lines were long and the staff working TSA were less than cordial. We asked if there was work in process to connect the terminals and they said no why would they? We explained that we had come in on Alaska (a major airline) and that we were departing on American (another major airline) and that going through security twice was a waste of resources and they pretty much they said too bad, that's just normal.