San Diego Airport

Not Verified | TSA female working directly after I was scanned was rude. She began by mumbling directions I could not hear or understand, then she began barking orders at me and rolling her eyes. Completely inefficient, the whole crew. Ran out of tubs to put our items in while workers were busy chatting off to the side, laughing. These people are responsible for assisting with detection of potentially dangerous passengers? Seriously, they are a joke!

Not Verified | I've traveled extensively in my lifetime, to Airports all over the world. SD Lindberg Field is always disappointing. I flew out mid-morning on a Wednesday to Atlanta (ATL). Seating at our assigned gate was full / not adequate, so we sat at an empty gate nearby. ATL, I feel, is what every big city wishes there airport to be. Large, clean and efficient for people, planes and cars. ATL has a great ground transportation system in place and a Rental Car center, which is next level, with easy freeway access. My flight back to SD arrived early, but we spent the time gained sitting on the tarmac waiting for a gate. Once off the plane, I visited a small, crowded restroom across from my arrival gate, which obviously hadn't been cleaned for a while. It smelled like an outhouse. Baggage claim took longer as they had two flights using on one baggage carousel. The ride back to our car at an area parking business was problematic (another issue) due to short staffing. Also of note, riding in the overcrowded van, was how poorly maintained the roads, into and out of the airport, are. I know airport construction has been going on forever, but the roads around the airport need to be repaved. Good first impressions are important. If SD truly wants to be a world-class destination, it has to quit trying to make a small, single runway airport do the job and build a new, modern air (and ground) transportation center. You cannot shoe horn a large, efficient airport into the space Lindberg Field occupies. Sadly, in today's dollars, I don't see that happening. I'll look to use John Wayne Orange County or Ontario next time.

Not Verified | This airport is terrible. There is absolutely no seating available! People have to sit on the floor and in areas that cause traffic concerns. There are so many people in the terminals that moving through the crowd is slow and frustrating. Only 1 bathroom in terminal area….massive line and paper product shortages. Only 1 bar/restaurant available and it is absolutely packed with mediocre service and food! For a city this beautiful and popular the airport is a huge disappointment and aggravating. Again, absolutely no seating! What is the maximum capacity in this place because I am sure we have passed an appropriate number causing concerns about safety and any type of positive costumer service type experience!!! Terrible! Do something about it!

✅ Trip Verified | I am a local. Easily the worst airport I have experienced in a long time. Always under construction. Short staffed. Incompetent baggage handling.. Flight arrived nearly on time at 10:55pm. Kept us on the tarmac for 45 min waiting for a gate when the plane occupying our gate was having mech issues and there were open gates available. Did not announce baggage carousel for 30 min. Even turned off the carousel location board for a while since it was midnight. Welcome to beautiful San Diego where we have zero clue about efficiency

✅ Trip Verified | This place is so tiny it’s a fire trap! Way too many people for either terminal. Bathrooms are also small. It needs expanding for sure. Plus the carpet at security was so gross.

Not Verified | Connected thru SAN on my way to HNL. The terminal is so small and crowded that one has to exit to baggage claim and reenter thru TSA check in order to change gates! Once I made it to the gate area, it looked like a refugee crisis. Each gate only had 30 seats and there were 6 gates arrange in a circle around a restaurant. I stood for an hour of my 3 hour layover. I would recommend not reentering thru TSA until the last minute. I thought LGA and PHL were bad, this is worse.

Not Verified | Worst terminal (Terminal 1) ever! It’s so tiny. Seems like too many people for one area. No seats and people coughing on each other. We were early thinking I could get a coffee and relax and wait. It’s a small circle. I feel like Thor in Thore Ragnarok, just walking in circles thinking you are going somewhere! This place sucks! Avoid this airport at all costs!

✅ Trip Verified | Had to make a connection here. Got off the plane. Had wheelchair assist. Went to Einstein Brothers picked up a drink take my meds for the next flight and a bagel. Then find out we are changing terminals and have to go through security again so purchasing an expensive airport drink only to throw it away 10 minutes later. Every major airport I have traveled through has secured connections from one terminal to another. This is totally crazy for an airport that has this mini flights. Had to turn around in the other terminal and buy another expensive airport. Drink not mentioning wasting time going through security for the second time which I had done 7 1/2 hours earlier in Honolulu. Overall, if you're making a connection, avoid this airport at all cost.

✅ Trip Verified | First of all, this airport was absolutely packed to the gills and filthy, it was holiday travel weekend and expected to be busy. We arrived from a 5 hour flight from Hawaii with TSA precheck, already gone through the checks in Hawaii, so we had snacks and waters, not knowing we would have to exit the terminal and go back through TSA. As we approach, we are told we do have to go back through, so we queue up, and realize these people are literally stopping every single person: families with kids and tubs of vasoline, families with candles and things they purchased, myself with an unopened bottle of water I purchased in the airport after going through TSA. We all just had them throw our stuff out. The hubs are set up so that it's just a big circle with gates and one bathroom for men and one for women, so once again we queue up to go into another filthy area that clearly had not time available to clean because it was so busy. Then we couldn't find seats to wait for our flight out because there was already so little space, until the last flight left. This was the worst airport in our travel, and probably the worst one I've ever been to. La Guardia seemed like a country club in comparison.

Not Verified | Terminal overcrowded without any major disruptions of flights to cause the overcrowding. No place to sit. Food options for travelers requiring gluten free non-existent. This is the worst airport I have experienced in the United States, Canada and Europe. Would not recommend anyone to route via San Diego unless they had no other option.