Seoul Incheon Airport

Not Verified | Terrible untrained staff make security a nightmare. Everyone is on their own routine and they get in each other's way and contradict each other constantly. They have no idea what is approved and what is not. Many rescans with no problems found. Total time waiting joke of security. While the terminal has lots of needless luxury brands, good luck finding bottled water. It's all image with no substance. Terrible airport.

Not Verified | Beautiful airport! Well designed and laid out with good accessibility. But an airport is only as good as its screening points IMO and in that department Incheon sucks big time. Poorly trained staff cause unnecessary delays with long line ups a result. Common sense is in short supply with these folks. The scanner operator continually lost track of bags and their associated images requiring rescanning. The group was disorganized and acted unprofessionally. They confiscated a set of nail clippers purposely designed to meet ICAO standards for length of blade. These folks treated it as though it was a sword! Tried to convince the vacuous looking supervisor that I had just come from 3 other airports within 22 hours that had accepted the device as safe for transport in the cabin. No luck. I was tempted to point out I could do more damage with my ballpoint pen in my pocket which passed inspection than I could with my nail clippers but - no luck. Moral of the story either pack things like this in your checked baggage or avoid going through Incheon which would be a pity. Maybe some day they will train the scanners how to do their jobs with a smattering of common sense thrown in.

Not Verified | Terrible for people with dietary restrictions. I had a 22hr layover at Incheon but the only vegetarian/vegan food I was able to find was a small pot of fruit and bag on nuts from Starbucks. I was absolutely starving by the time I boarded my 2nd flight. I asked the help desk if there was anywhere with vegetarian options and she just said very bluntly, "No, this is an Asian country". I understand that vegetarianism is not big in South Korea, but there are millions of vegetarians and vegans in Asia. It's shocking that a huge international airport like Incheon would have zero options catering to them in 2022. There's also no convenience stores where you can buy a bottle of water, snacks or travel essentials like plug adapters. It's all just luxury goods, liquor and makeup shops. It really feels like they've put all their effort into giving the impression that it's a nice fancy airport, but put zero thought into the actual needs of travelers.

✅ Trip Verified | You can’t even buy bottled water. My arrival to ICN was speedy with a warm welcome. However, when it was time for me to leave two weeks later, I had a less than positive experience. Security was quick and easy, but after security I struggled to find the most basic facilities here. They have the same three restaurants dotted around the terminal, a pho place, a stew place and a pork cutlet restaurant. Apart from that there are a few dunkin donuts, but that’s it in terms of food. There are no convenience stores and I had to search the whole terminal for an hour and a half to find one place that sold bottled water (yes, one shop in the whole terminal sells water). As for snacks, don’t bother unless you want a 20 pack of luxury biscuits. This place sorely needs a 7-11 or at least some vending machines. The shops also only advertise their prices in USD for some reason, and not KRW, which makes things confusing, especially if you don’t know the exchange rate between the two until you go to pay. The other reviews of this airport are correct in that unless you want to shop for luxury goods, there is nothing to do here. It’s really disappointing, especially for an Asian country, as they usually have great airports, and it’s a shame that a city like Seoul that has everything, is serviced by an airport that has nothing.

✅ Trip Verified | I am an amputee, above the knee, and carry a small allen wrench for the various screws on my prosthetic leg. The security detail at screening took due to "being too long". This is nuts. Fly all over and this is a safety concern to me now without what I need to adjust my leg if needed. Watch out if you are coming here. This is neither wise or making things safer! Where does the madness end?

Not Verified | Agreeing with another reviewer who said you cannot find needed items for travel, here. They are more concerned with looking world-class than providing a comfortable experience. I forgot my hat, and hoped to pick up a souvenir hat. No, those nicknack travel souvenirs they once sold are now gone. Replaced by more and more Gucci, Prada, MCM, overpriced alcohol, etc. This airport was much better 10 years ago. Now it is just superficial and a long, uncomfortable walk past stores that make you feel depressed because you'd never bother to buy anything there.

Not Verified | Everyone there was super friendly and nice. I had a lot of difficulties with my quarantine housing and they all did their best to help me every step of the way. Staff stayed with me for 3 hours trying to resolve my problem any way he could! It was much appreciated and I don’t think I would have figured anything out without him.

✅ Trip Verified | The airport's clean, easily accessible by train, very modern, very spacious, wonderfully designed, and just very efficient for the most part. Parts of the airport feel damn near like an art park. Customer service was fine enough, person-to-person, but there was this one so-called taxi driver in a suit damn near chasing me through the terminal after immigration and baggage pickup, trying to get me to take a taxi to my hotel. Unexpected in a wealthy, developed country. Anyway, Incheon is easily the second nicest major airport I've ever flown into as an actual facility, after Singapore Changi, and still puts most major North American hubs to shame. Even so, I still have to rank it lower than Changi or Hong Kong. Why? Two simple reasons. First, I flew in at 9:30 pm at night. The line to go through immigration and customs was 1.5 hours long, as there were only six booths open to serve what was easily 750+ people in line from multiple flights arriving at the same time. Leaving Incheon, security at 6:00 am still took 30 minutes to go through, as there were only four lines open to serve what still had to have been 200+ people in line. Massively inefficient. Second, either late at night or early in the morning, even with large crowds, there are extremely limited options for stores open that even sell simple things like coffee, gum, or snacks. So, improve efficiency in immigration, customs and security, and open up something more than an overly crowded Starbucks and jewelry stores at 6:00 am, and that might work wonders!

Not Verified | Incheon is one of those airports that does a few superficial things that are nice (the live classical music, for example) but falls well short on the fundamentals. In my most recent visit, departing for Manila, I arrived via the Airport Express. Having just barely set foot in ICN, things went south. My card was 50 won short and I was not allowed to leave the transport system. Obviously, the machine wouldn't let me out because that's not how machines work. The airport worker on hand also refused. Fair enough, I can pay the remaining 50 won to get this done. The person refused this, and instead asked for 10,000 won. I understand that these are minimal values (50 won = 5 cents, 10000 won = $10, more or less). But it's the principle. When faced with a foreigner who just wants to leave the country in peace, I was shaken down for a lot more money than I owed. Is that corruption or extortion? I'm not a lawyer, but either way, when you owe 50 won, you pay 50 won. Period. Anything more is a violation of fundamental ethics. This is the training ICN provides its staff, to extort money from tourists just to be allowed to get to their flight (which, quite reasonably, was my primary priority in this situation). What kind of leadership teaches employees to eschew fundamental empathy and ethics? Having had money stolen from me just to make my flight, I then proceeded to the rest of the airport. Lots of razzle dazzle, sure, but missing key things. Decent food, for one. The food was easily the worst in Korea, and the most expensive. Okay, that kind of nonsense happens at airports sometimes. It sucks, but it's not unusual. No good beer either, which would be okay if they had good makgeolli but they didn't have that either. How about a place to buy water? Typical of any mismanaged airport, you are more likely to find an Hermes scarf (I mean, Hermes is good stuff, don't get me wrong) than you are to be able to buy a bottle of water for your intercontinental flight. Or breath mints. Or anything else that you might need to make your flight more comfortable. You see, a lot of these so-called top airports try to dazzle with things that don't matter. Things that do, such as well-trained and ethical customer service staff, wait times at security, baggage handling, and the ability to procure key items for in-flight comfort, are somehow forgotten. Brutal experience. Not sure what the airport is designed for, but a good travel experience is not part of it, apparently. Oh, and when I messaged the airport about the problems I faced, I did not even receive a message back. So not only did they steal my money, they don't have even have the professionalism to address the issue.

✅ Trip Verified | There is free WiFi. In addition to many coffee shops, restaurants, helpful information and duty-free shops. Some airport staff is rude which I would agree with.