Washington Dulles Airport

We had a 4 hour transit from our flight from Brussels to NY. The bus which took us from the airplane to main building was old and slow. Upon arrival we had to line up for over 1 hour for the immigration process. After that we had to line ip again for security check. We couldn't connect to the wifi. It was an awful experience.

When Washington Dulles was opened in 1963 it was a pioneer of the jet age, located on a huge tract of land that could easily handle ground operations and all kinds of weather and an iconic architectural masterpiece of a terminal. "Mobile lounges," giant people movers, were meant to move passengers from close-in gates directly to their planes. When Dulles opened, the walking distance from check-in to plane was never more than 400 feet. That was before mass travel. All of the original elements operate against the new airport, so walking distances are long and security procedures labyrinthian. And let's not even talk about parking. Check-in is straightforward and security lines work well if you have TSA Pre-Check, less well if you're an ordinary flyer. Aerotrain services to the midfield terminals are good, but the C-Concourse station is built where the new terminal will be someday and not where the existing concourse sits. That gives you a quarter-mile walk to your concourse followed possibly by a lengthy walk to your gate. Aerotrain stops at Concourses A and B are much better. Food, beverage and shopping services are very much improved and are quite good these days. Gate hold areas are inadequate. Arrival is more straightforward than departure. Concourses A, B and C are connected to the main terminal by frequent Aerotrain service - Concourse D uses the less comfortable and outmoded mobile lounges. The only problem with Concourse C (United Airlines) is the long walk from the existing midfield terminal to the Aerotrain station, located where the permanent terminal will go when they finally build it. All arrivals come into a central area from which you may have a healthy walk to your baggage claim carousel. Baggage claim at Dulles typically takes somewhat longer than at many airports, partly due to the stances between the midfield terminals and the baggage claim area. Parking at Dulles is abundant but located a long way from the main terminal. Taxi and SuperShuttle queues are reasonably short usually. There will be a Metro stop at the airport but that's a few years away. Meanwhile, taking the Metro also involves a (not free) shuttle to the nearest Metro station.

Washington Dulles airport was awful. I flew from London with BA - the airline was great but immigration (I am a US citizen) for entry took 45 minutes as the the biometric photo reading in the US/Canadian/ESTA line hadn't worked. On the way out back to London, it took 47 minutes to get through security. The staff were just standing around and didn't seem to know what they were doing - they were rather rude, officious and as far as I could see completely incompetent. At London Heathrow with the same equipment and security, I was processed in 2 minutes. Dulles, 47 minutes. This is typical for the USA. We need to do a lot better in the future.

This airport has everything an airport needs, but it is very poorly designed. The terminals are far apart and aside from taking the internal shuttle you need to go up and down enormous escalators in order to access elevated walkways that connect different buildings. Also, they use very strange truck-like buses that can be raised off the ground like a crane in order to reach the doors of the terminal buildings. These vehicles are bulky and and militaristic. They look like they were designed by soviet engineers. The US has pretty bad airports on a global standard, so Dulles is still a decent airport in the US.

It amazes me how one busiest and largest hub airports in the US can be so bad. Its a 45 minutes drive from the city, which = $80-$100 one way cab fare. The security lines. You could wait an unnecessary 30 minutes in these lines, due to inefficient management. Then once you are finally through the machines, you have to make your way through the maze of escalators and halls to get to the right train or bus-thingy to get to the correct terminal. My personal favorite is when you get off the train at Terminal C and you still have to walk 1/3 mile to get to the concourse. Then you have pray you took the correct turn to get to your gate. On the upside, it has some decent restaurants and shops.

I was flying to Dulles and back from MSP (Minneapolis). The lines for checking in and security were relatively short, even though it was the week after the 4th of July. The only thing I'd have to say about Dulles is the amount of food options in the main building before the escalators to get up to Concourse A. The only food option is a Subway and possibly a Burger King if you want to eat a meal. There's a Dunkin Donuts for snack though.

I'm a regular user of Dulles, and was dreading arriving on the afternoon of January 4th, a peak travel day, on a packed trans-Atlantic flight. Leaving the people mover (and I know I'm in the minority, but I like them), my heart sank when I saw how busy immigration was. Several other flights had arrived at a similar time, including flights from Japan and Qatar, and I resigned myself to at least two hours queuing in the non-citizens section. But that's not what happened. For the first time ever in my experience, the immigration hall was almost fully staffed, processing was quick and easy, and I was through both immigration and customs (more long but fast-moving and well-staffed queues) in precisely an hour. Many of us are often - quite rightly - quick to complain when US airport immigration is poorly staffed and painfully slow, but I thought it worth noting at least one day when Dulles actually managed to get it right.

Long term parking can be an issue. Dulles does not have a good or reliable shuttle to long term parking. There is no rhyme of reason to how the shuttle service works at the terminal. After recent personal travel I was appauled at the lack of any organization. Everyone is left to there own accord. This is expecially bad if you use United Airlines for arrival.

My husband, 10 month old baby and I flew into Washington Dulles from Frankfurt, Germany and therefore had to go through customs to get back into the country. It was the absolute worst experience that I've ever had in customs. The halls were cramped, it was hot, there were people crammed at the foot of the escalator, so unfortunately, people were getting backed up on the escalator. It took us 2 hours to get through customs and we missed our connecting flight.

Arrived early morning in IAD from LAX. Once you disembark from the aircraft, you have to take these uniquely-shaped shuttles that take you to baggage claim. After you collect your bag, the Supershuttle check-in is inside the terminal, and you have to wait inside until they call your ticket number. During the return flight, I found it unique that all the passengers (domestic and international) gather in the same general area for security screening. Once screening is done, you catch a shuttle to your respective terminal. United terminal was relatively quiet with fewer passengers travelling on a Sunday morning.