Washington Dulles Airport

Not Verified | Appalling. US customs system broke down, we stood in a line for over 2 hours, missed our connecting flight. Have to wait 25 hours for another flight. Most unhelpful staff ever, we are totally abandoned. United airlines are another disgrace. No hotel, food or even water offered to us. We are treated like dogs. Disgusting!! Will never fly into this horrible place ever again.

✅ Trip Verified | As many have stated, entering through immigration is a lesson in patience. With approx 200 people ahead of me and 5 persons working the kiosks it took 1 hour and 28 minutes to get to the immigration. Once there, it took all of one minute to be processed, thus I do not know why it took so long. Once through, it was time to have my carryon inspected...another delay. In the bag, was a bottle of inexpensive rum that I bought at duty-free at my departing airport. It was in a sealed bag, but no receipt attached to it. I think she may have handed it to me and I simply threw it in the garbage. Well, the staff member at customs told me I could not take it. I spoke my opinion of why from that point forward I would avoid this airport and departed one bottle short. Welcome to "Merricah"! Now, as an airport goes, Dulles is missing something. It is missing a "T" at the end of it's name. This place reminded me of something out of the movie Airplane. A place stuck in time. I had a 6 hour layover and that was the most boring layover I have experienced. Simply nothing to do. Typical of many airports, I grossly overpaid for a sub-par meal, but I was ready for that. The $15usd draft beer made me feel like I was at a Leafs game. The positives? My fight left on time so I did not have to stay any longer in Dullest Airport.

Not Verified | Our flight from Paris arrived at 4.30. We went to customs and there were hundreds of people in line. The lines seem to be moving very well and look like everything was running pretty efficiently. Then at approximately 6 o’clock all of the agents left and went on break except for one or maybe two with 1000 people in line. This is not acceptable. We had many families with small children which had to wait in the line for two hours waiting for the one or two agents that were still there to get through all of these people. This is totally unacceptable if the agents had just stayed at their posts for another 30 minutes the room probably would’ve been cleared but instead we all had to stand staring at each other for two hours.

✅ Trip Verified | Departure was fine, arrival was awful! After witnessing the efficiency of international arrivals at Heathrow, I was appalled at how awful Dulles was. As a foreigner in the UK, I was through immigration in less than 10 minutes, as I was able to utilize their automated kiosk, it did a facial scan to match my my face to my passport, then I went straight to my luggage, as I didn’t need to speak with an agent if I had nothing to declare. The entire time, every encounter with an employee at Heathrow was pleasant. I come back to my own country, and I’m treated like a criminal - get herded like cattle to wait in a long line because they only have four agents working, every agent has that arrogant facial expression and body language, and then I get yelled at by the agent because I declared items that I had bought on the electronic form prior to landing. “You didn’t need to do this.” They use facial recognition as well, but a human has to review it - why? Heathrow is much busier, and they’ve automated the entire process. If the CBP agents think they’re doing us a favor by doing their damned jobs, then automate the process and send them down to the southern border where they’re needed.

✅ Trip Verified | No gripes about Dulles Airport IAD per se - it is clean, well-lit, w/ good signage, the lounge space is a bit tight, but it works out - the shops and food purveyors are limping due to covid, so that is why they get marked down - this is no reflection on the airport, staff, or concessions. My gripe is about CBP agents. In a word they are arrogant. This is a bad reflection on our entire country for international arrivals. Personally, I used to go thru' IAD at least once a month, often more. Now only occasionally due to covid, and I can report that the CBP agents have had a chip on their shoulder for a long time - once I get pulled aside and sequestered for a random check (they found nothing), and the guy was offensively arrogant and rude. Two days ago I landed after 24+ hours flying and the CBP agent that took my GOES slip was just obnoxious. I am still angry that I was treated that way. His entire demeanor and his body language were overbearing and rude and arrogant. I don't know what it would take for the agents to offer a simple "good day, welcome to the USA" or similar pleasant greeting. How about a smile? I know that are in law enforcement, but do not treat us like criminals. If you have to exert your little "power trip" over passengers, perhaps a good psychotherapist can help, or why not better training - or just find another line of work. Anyway, I have figured out this reflects the CBP culture at IAD. My final comment is that the arriving traveler should get a pleasant greeting and a smile instead of a gruff, antagonistic "gimme that slip".

Not Verified | Although luggage delivery has been much improved over the years - and not surprisingly was very quick for the lightly used flight I was on (UA107 from Munich had 35ish passengers in the 787), CBP continues to perform poorly! It took me (US citizen) almost 90 minutes to clear immigration. There were at most 5 booths manned and for what felt like 20 minutes zero booths were staffed. Especially when comparing the immigration line to the efficient process of German passport control for citizens of the EU, one feels like a felon returning to a third world country: standing around waiting for the whims of uniformed personnel that stand around behind the booths chatting or staring at their monitor while not processing travellers. No urgency, no accountability, no interest!

✅ Trip Verified | “A third world hellhole” as a news outlet called Dulles is an accurate description. It is filthy. The employees resent travelers, many don’t speak English. TSA are utterly incompetent with jaded attitudes. I will pay a lot of money and waste a lot of time in the future to avoid them like the plague. An embarrassment to America.

Not Verified | Dulles is a horrible airport! It is amazing to me that in one of the busiest regions in the Nation nothing has been done at this airport to address the remarkable and ridiculous sprawl, the unreal security lines for domestic travel, the terrible, inefficient busing system, the terrible service, and the totally inadequate train system. This airport is a national embarrassment!

✅ Trip Verified | Traveling through Dulles now the past couple of years, as it is my primary international airport in Washington, has been pretty consistent. On average it takes me under an hour from check in to the gate, and under an hour on return from immigration to the arrivals curb outside. The TSA officers are efficient on departure, and the return of Mobile Passport is a godsend for immigration on returns. The main problems basically were the management of the mobile passport and Global Entry lines at immigration and of course the dreaded mobile lounges one has to take to immigration. But overall Dulles gets the job done.

Not Verified | Simply appalling. Arrived about 9pm ex LHR, 3 officers on the international side initially, reduced to 2 part way through. We were there at least 1.5 hours and we were at the front of the line off our plane. Those behind must have been there at least 2.5 hrs. US public infrastructure is so often very poor. Pick another spot to enter if possible.