Shanghai Pudong Airport

Worst experience in Shanghai Pudong - incredibly rude staff. No-one speaks English in this International airport. They make no attempt to help and just want your money in the shops. I wish I had paid the extra to now to bypass this airport. Will never go again. No WiFi available. Avoid.

Arriving at Pudong, I was greeted by a spacious and clean corridor with Chinese artwork on display. The lines at customs were long, especially from several flights from Europe arriving at the same time, but organized. The staff were friendly. Bags came on the carousel immediately. Departing - check in was efficient but customs was long, due to delays the previous day and several intercontinental flights departing at the same time. However, lines were very organized. Security though, was a pain, since they asked me to take out all my metals in my backpack. However, they were friendly and the system wasn't as bad as in the US since I didn't have to remove my shoes. The building itself is clean, well designed, and full of shops and restaurants. Overall, it's not Hong Kong or Singapore, but it's still a great airport and better than most airports in the US.

I didn’t have a nice experience at this airport. Almost nobody speaks English. It’s hard to communicate with clerks/servers at this airport. Many of them are also insincere and lack hospitality in their services. I could not get WiFi as I didn't have Chinese number. This is inconvenient especially if you have a long layover. The log-in website has English, but it was broken and hard to understand. There were many restaurants and souvenir stores that were similar to one another. The only good thing about this airport is that it is clean.

Lousy airport to transit through. Had to get exit visa, which was easy, collect bag, which was slow especially when flying business class. I then had to get in a huge queue to get back through immigration and then security - this took nearly an hour. There were no priority queues for business class. Some airlines such as Lufthansa do not require passengers to exit the transit area. I flew Air China and was required to fully exit then return. This needs to change.

I would say the worst airport I have been to in my whole life. Everything was in Chinese, I used the currency exchange and ended up giving them 1/3 of my cash in commission. For food and beverages, the shops were in Chinese, people had no idea what I was asking, the vending machines saved me that day. The horrible 10 hour transit.

Was travelling on reward travel, which involved transferring between Air NZ and Air China. Unfortunately there was no check-through of bags, so I had to arrive, clear immigration, grab bags, drag them back upstairs, then check in for the Air China flight. Not fun. If you're connecting between NZ and Lufthansa, Swiss International or Virgin Atlantic you can skip immigration and use the transfer facilities. Terminal 2 is huge and modern. Some interesting shops. The Air China lounge is new and massive and very nice: a great refreshing shower. Remember to have a VPN setup on your devices if you want to use Facebook or Google whilst in China-these sites are all blocked. Don't bother going to your gate until your flight shows boarding. Even once it's "boarding" you'll probably have to wait 45 or more minutes, since flights always leave late it seems. That part of the journey was shambolic.

Shanghai Pudong International Airport needs to employ more staff who speak English. If you have a transit there and you do not speak Chinese, you will have an extremely hard time getting around because there are not enough signs, staff do not speak English at all, most of them will not even try to help you, and there is no wifi if you do not have a Chinese number and yes it is an international airport. My experience was horrifying.

Shanghai Pudong seems chrome-plated. Restrooms and concourse are spotless. The distance from the gate is long-no surprise-but there are 3-4 people movers to help matters, and free luggage carts. The worst part is passport control, the lines seem long, with 2-3 arriving flights, but things moved well enough. The shuttle to Hongqiao was easy to locate, with my limited mandarin. English speakers are abundant, the signs are both Chinese and English, with Arabic numerals.

Pudong is the worst airport I’ve experienced. 1) As an international transit passenger, you must clear security twice – even though you cleared security at your previous destination. 2) You must also hike a good distance before taking escalators to get up two floors from the arrivals area to the main lounge, or waiting area. 3) The airport is one long – very long – building. To get to your gate from the point at which you emerge into the main lounge can take as many as 10 or more minutes. 4) The air conditioning is barely adequate – meaning you’re likely to sweat pulling your luggage from point to point. 5) There’s only one smoking area: it’s make-shift room, down one floor and at one end of the long terminal. 6) The PA system, if one exists, is inaudible in the main lounge and monitors indicating flight times and gates are few and far apart. 7) Shops and eateries are abundant, but – again – locating what you’re looking for may require a long trek from the point at which you start. 8) The first and business class lounges are back down a floor – and very distant from the point at which you enter the main lounge. Escalators take you down, up elevators were inoperative during our visits. 9) Because of the lack of a PA system, boarding announcements in the business class lounge were made by an attendant walking up and down the aisle and all but shouting the information.

Arrived at gate 15 minutes before departure. Check in took 70 minutes, security a further 60. Raised the issue with security and at the gate. It was public holiday in China and there were staff shortages. Totally unacceptable for an international airport. Terrible start to a 22 hour day (flying back to UK) and poor reflection on Emirates. The VIP lounge was poor also. Definitely did not feel like China was open to the world that day. I suppose it never fully will be. Will definitely think twice about using Pudong again.