Punta Cana Airport

Our arrival at this airport was met by a group of very aggressive porters who all but took my luggage from my hands. The entry process was quick and almost comical as they only seem to be interested in the $10.00 entry fee. Pay quickly and move on! Our departure on the other hand was another story. While our Delta employee both at the counter and handling my husband's wheelchair were efficient and for the most part friendly the crowded terminal was ridiculous. There were too few seats and many people unwilling to remove baggage from the available seats so anyone could sit. There were many rows of only two or three people and a lot of baggage and packages where 6 or 8 people could have been sitting. When asked about the seats I was told they were not available! Someone in the terminal needs to monitor that situation.

Scheduled to fly Thomson/First Choice from this airport. Suffered a 5 hr delay due to a flight being cancelled the previous night due to technical problems. What was not acceptable was the lack of information available from Thomson no reps in sight they disappeared with the arriving holiday makers. The cancelled Manchester flights customers flew out on our scheduled flight so the notice boards showed our flight as having departed. When our flight finally started boarding we found out by word of mouth from other customers that the flight was boarding. Onboard cabin staff seemed grumpy and not quite as helpful as they have been on my previous flights with them. The plane we flew out on was the one that was scheduled to fly to Manchester the previous evening the inflight food tasted like it had been there since the previous flight. I had upgraded my seat and the food was worse than that normally served in the main cabin. You expect a little more.

After spending 8 hours trapped at the Punta Cana airport I feel that I have an intimate knowledge of the place. The choice of foods is ok but there are no healthy options. The prices in the duty free and gift shop are insane. As well I could not help but feel hussled by almost everyone there. The porters are overly aggressive and took by bag hostage until I tipped them. This was annoying as they grabbed my bag from our taxi before I was out of the taxi. When I was leaving the airport after a flight cancellation the porters tried to grab my bag from me. I had to grab my bag back from them. With regard to the delay it was next to impossible to find out what was happening because none of the gate staff spoke no English and they do not update the flight status info - the gate staff actively gave us false information. We were first told that our flight was going to be delayed 20 min then when we would ask for updates they would seemingly pull numbers out of the air. (1hr 2hrs 1hr 20 min). With regard to the check in agents they were pushy and rude.

I used this airport in January to enter and leave the Dominican Republic. Very good small airport with an excellent selection of eateries a priority pass lounge and good seating areas. The problems with this airport are two fold. Firstly getting to the airport on the new highway which is very poorly signed can be challenging. Be sure to make sure that your taxi driver really does know the way to the airport. Allow extra time to get to the airport. Secondly try and avoid the photo people who block key entrance and exit ramps in order to force you to pose for a costly photo. The new highway which is being constructed to Santo Domingo from Punta Cana should make flying out of this airport more attractive in the future.