Seattle Airport

Not Verified | After being spoiled by our home airport, Tampa, this one is the worst I've ever experienced. The kiosks did not print out luggage tags. This caused a long process of waiting in line to have the tags printed. Security was another nightmare, going from one security area to another depending on your gate (What? Why?). Then on top of that, some gates are in the main terminal, while others are remote, requiring a train. Mine was remote of course. The whole place is inefficient, old, and needs serious upgrading. Not a good experience at all!

✅ Trip Verified | This has got to be the worst airport I have ever visited in the US. I have traveled to most states, and all the airports have their quirks, but this one annoyed me and that is hard to do when I am on vacation. I am not going to complain about things they have no control over like TSA lines or airline queues though their queue lines for taking passengers to the Rental Car Station was 100 yards long. I am going to complain about an unsafe practice that is directly caused by airport management. The use of buses to take passengers to their planes is something I have seen before and understand. However, filling the buses with passengers like sardines with carry on luggage is a recipe for disaster. I complained to the workers and they kept pushing people in. As I expected, the bus had to come to a hard stop (normally I would not have considered the stop as bad), and everyone wound up bumping into each other and tripping over luggage. No one was hurt but this is an accident waiting to happen. They had four buses queued up and it was unnecessary to unsafely pack this many people just because they think this is a subway car or a street bus. I choose to be on those and subject myself to that when necessary but not at an airport with carry on luggage. The other disappointing feature of the airport is its dinginess. The outside areas where you wait are poorly maintained with debris all over along with dirty walls and sidewalks. Not what I have come to expect from a US airport. I know its next to impossible to choose your airport but stay away from this one if you can until they make things safer and clean up their public areas.

Not Verified | The security check point lines just keep on getting longer and longer, extending the airport checking area. For years I have been traveling to and from Seatlle Tacoma, and numerous ineffective and inefficient security by DHS are implemented. Whereas, other domestic airports have greatly improved through better traveler services with multiple check points, shorter lines, electronic scanning capabilities, etc. However, as a world traveler, Seattle Tacoma has fallen behind not only domestic airports but also international ones from developing countries.

Not Verified | Two hours plus just to get to the immigration desk when I landed on BA53 at 11.30. This is beyond reasonable when waiting with two small children. Dreadful.

❎ Not Verified | I was at the airport at 6 am and the security line was one and half hours long. Arriving back to the same airport two weeks later, the baggage took a very long time to reach the baggage claim area. There is a totally inadequate pet relief area with a small bit of gravel, no grass. For smokers one goes outside the terminal at the baggage claim area, it is filthy and there is no cover which must be awful in the winter when it rains a lot in Seattle. To reach shuttle buses, Uber and other transportation you have to take an elevator or escalator up another level, cross a skybridge and then take another elevator down again. You cannot cross the road to reach transportation from the baggage claim area. This airport gets worse every year.

❎ Not Verified | Stuck on the tarmac after a 6-hour flight. The wait was way too long. They need to figure better logistics. I came from Philadelphia and that was better. And they are typically the worst airport on the planet.

Not Verified | The most disgusting place I have ever been to. Only a few check in monitors working causing approx. 1 hour lines. The dust and trash that cover the security floors is beyond sickening. The gate seats are sticky, dirty and full of trash, one even had a orange peel on the ground and no employee cared to pick it up. The bathrooms are worse than public street porta potties. This airport doesn’t reflect the city of Seattle. I am so turned off by this airport I will most likely never return.

✅ Trip Verified | What an absurdly terrible airport! There’s absolutely no reason on a non-holiday Monday afternoon to have a 1.5 hour wait in security. The airport knows how many flights and people to expect, and they should hire enough people to facilitate people getting through security in a reasonable time. Instead, there are very few staff around to help and direct (and the ones that are just blindly tell you to go to the next checkpoint because it’s “quicker,” when it’s not). The TSA agents are rude and defensive. One was giving me a dirty look and she said because I had given her one. Well, yes, I just waited in a 1.5 hour line for no reason, did she? She then went on that it’s my fault I was late (when I arrived almost 2 hours before my domestic flight). They also flag and pull lots of luggage from the line—but then there’s no one to check that flagged luggage and you have to wait another 10 minutes while your bags just sit there. I will avoid Seattle airport at all costs!

✅ Trip Verified | Long walk from gate to exit. We then connected on to the Light rail to downtown Seattle and it was pretty hard to find out where to go. If you are connecting to the light rail, it is inside the terminal, not outside There didn't appear to be long lines anywhere. There seemed to be tons of places to shop and lots of restaurants.

Not Verified | I entered Seattle on a Virgin flight on Thursday 30th May. I headed for Passport Control and was told to stop and wait in a corridor to the Passport area. I waited and waited for 90 minutes along with several other people , most of whom complained to the staff on duty after an hour. Announcements came over the intercomms that the passport control area was very full and they were trying their best to clear the backlog. The area where we were queueing was a corridor less than four metres wide , with at least 50 to sixty other people off the same flight. This area was very hot and became unsafe, so much so that we were offered free water whilst we waited. Several other planes arrived and putting it bluntly we were discriminated against. Although we had the necessary ESTA documentation to enter the States we along with many other passengers had to endure watching passengers rush right past us and enter the passport area to be processed whilst we had to wait in line. Many of those waiting missed onward flights thanks to this policy. After 90 minutes (roughly) we were allowed into the processing area. 30 plus finger printing machines were there for us to use. So after a nine hour flight and ninety minutes waiting in a very hot area we were given the task of taking our own finger prints . Now I understand English perfectly and read the instructions perfectly, but would the machine take my prints ? ….NO. I then checked the screen below where my fingers had been, the finger plate was dirty , greasy and covered in what I assumed was sweat. I pointed this out to an attendant. There were just two helpers at the time trying to control this area and barking at the passengers. Two helpers for 30 dirty fingerprinting plates and people from all over the world not understanding the instructions walking around puzzled, bewildered and disenchanted . So wondering what germs or micro biological virus I would pick up from this experience I transferred to a different machine. Eventually I obtained a piece of paper with a large “X” across it. I had failed my first test to get into the USA, now I was being barked at again and being ordered to another queue about two and half hours after my landing in the United States. After three hours I was given the all clear by a United States Customs Officer in a little booth, with his own finger printing machine that eventually, (although just as unclean as the previous one) agreed to read my finger tips ! This was a very bad experience. Despite many complaints by my fellow passengers, many of whom were fellow Brits, we all felt we were discriminated against. The young customs officer who eventually allowed us in to the United States stated “We are getting new machinery soon”. This experience which I can prove beyond doubt will mean I will never travel through Seattle again. I found the people nasty, barking at us, talking to us like we were thick and shepherding us around like sheep. I assume that anybody who lives in Seattle or works there would also be disgusted if they saw how people visiting their city for the first time ever were treated.