Washington Dulles Airport

Have used Dulles three times now coming and flying out. Must be honest I found this airport to be pretty good and efficient. It all depends on when you arrive and your luck. I have arrived on the same flight two months apart and the difference was 0 mins to 40 mins waiting in the line. Of course it depends on how quickly you can get off the plane. The TSA going out were really professional polite and it took me only a few mins to get through. The duty free and food is limited but there is plenty of space to sit and there are a few restaurants. Overall a good experience. Better than other US airports I have flown out of.

Arrived yesterday from London had 2 hour passport queue and after passing noticed that the queues were longer than when I arrived backing by the escalator. This is typical of this airport in my experience and totally unacceptable. The queue peak times are well known so the only conclusion is that the airport thinks it's fine. Ended up wasting time I otherwise would use for business. Me and perhaps 1000 other people were very angry.

I'm clearly in the minority here but I rather like Dulles. I use the airport once or twice a year and in the last decade I've never had to wait more than 40 minutes at immigration and more usually only 10-20 minutes (I'm not a US citizen and have to use the 'long' queues). Security seems to have streamlined their process and in the last 5 years I've never had to wait more than 20 minutes for security at departure. My suitcase is often waiting for me at the baggage carousel. Immigration and customs staff have clearly been taking some customer training and have become much friendlier over the last decade. I like the train between terminals. I even like the mobile lounges that take you from your terminal to immigration on arrival if flying internationally. My only real quibble is that duty free shopping options remain poor. I suppose it helps that by now I know to time my arrival time to avoid peak arrivals and departures where possible and I know how to work with some of Dulles' quirks to reduce (though almost never eliminate) my queuing time but compared to some of the other major East Coast international airports I really don't see much grounds for complaint in terms of either queuing times and facilities. Certainly it's a much quieter airport than some of its competitors which is a real bonus.

Departing from this airport seemed relatively painless (they even have a shiny train to transport you to the gate area) but arrival is a Kafkaesque nightmare due to immigration queues. After getting off the plane it took 20-30 mins just to reach the immigration area due to the wait for and ride with the antiquated mobile lounge. Then queued for a further 2 hours 15 mins at immigration (non-US citizen) - rows upon rows of unmanned desks no assistance or announcements. The queue got even longer behind me so some people will have waited for over 3 hours. After an 8 hour flight expecting families with young children to stand for so long is completely unacceptable. Then a hunt for bags deposited in a random location in the baggage hall and yet another queue for customs. Virtually every non-US citizen arriving that afternoon with a connecting flight will have missed it it is beyond my comprehension how an airline could profitably offer connecting flights in such an absurd environment. Avoid flying into this airport on an international flight.

Arrived from CDG had to walk quite a distance until the bus that brings you to the main terminal! At least immigration was very quick but upon departure on a domestic flight very early next morning I had to wait 30 mins to get through security since only one machine was working! Totally unacceptable for such a big airport.

Flying out was easy food was OK but on the way back we had to go through immigration and that was the worst experience I've ever had. The foreigners had to wait longer than I did but after entering in all of my information into a kiosk I had to wait in line for an hour and a half. All because I was unlucky enough to be singled out for extra scrutiny (got an X over my name). There was one person handling all of the foreigners one for the X Citizens/Residents but three for the non X'd Citizens/Residents. The total time from leaving the plane until getting our bags was 2.5 hours. The inspector was pleasant but considering that they have fifty inspector booths only manning five of them is just insulting.

Arrived from Frankfurt on United at 4 pm on a Sunday. One hour's wait to get through passport control. They have some new arrangement where you first have to scan your passport and get a ticket then get back in line to wait for the usual passport stamp. Why they do this I do not know but I suspect some contractor sold it to the airports authority and is making a good profit. I have flown through many cities and the only place I can think of that made me wait an hour was Lima Peru (but the people were friendly). You come back from a lovely vacation and have a nine hour flight to have people yelling at you to get in this line or the other. No other developed country does this. We are a third world nation.

Flew from Dulles on 28th October. Impressed with the speed efficiency and politeness of the TSA staff. A major change from previous visits. Otherwise Dulles no worse than other airports. Concourse A need better food outlets.

Flown into Dulles again. Queues for Immigration is not a good welcome to USA. Only 6 stations manned with a 1/4 mile queue for US citizens. Otherwise no worse than any other airport.

LHR-IAD-LHE. Flew into IAD Monday 29 Sept with BA to land just behind a Saudi Airlines plane. Immigration took about 1 hour after the little shuttle bus the up and down various endless corridors and escalators. Collected baggage and checked in with United Express for transfer to Savannah / Hilton Head International. We allowed a 4 hour layover so all relatively painless except the last minute Gate Change from C terminal to A terminal - just to keep the passengers on their toes and awake presumably. Returning from Savannah 13th October we then had the usual interminable walks through various buildings and up and down miles of escalators before collecting the baggage (which did arrived relatively quickly). The only problem was the signage to where we then had to go to check in with BA for our flight home - a very grumpy man at the Information desk eventually grudgingly told us the right direction to head. Check in at BA desk a breeze security queues minimal and Terminal B actually a very quiet and pleasant place to be for a glass of wine before flying home. Perhaps because it was Columbus Day. Would I recommend Dulles? I suppose as much as I would recommend any US Port of Entry or Departure - some are bad and some downright dreadful (Newark Chicago LAX Miami etc etc). Do allow plenty of time if you are transferring flights - we allowed 4 hours and got total peace of mind. And none of them are particularly good but Dulles was as painless as anywhere. My own personal opinion is that ANYONE who manages or is going to design an International Airport should be sent to Changi in Singapore to see just how it should be done. But all in all not too bad.