The passengers ranked the airports on 34 different criteria, including transportation services, cleanliness of facilities, security inspections, waiting times and visa and customs services.According to the ACI press release, the rest of the top five is Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Hyderabad, all in the Asia-Pacific category. The top five in North America are Austin, Halifax, Ottawa, Jacksonville, and Portland. Cleveland received the "Best Improvement Award" for North America.
I've passed through Incheon International nearly two dozen times and can say it's a great way to enter and exit the country. In the past I've had nice things to say about its "Hub Lounges," its internet access, and its helpful staff.
About the worst part of going back and forth between Asia is having to leave its airports and arrive in North American ones. I like what Thomas Friedman had to say in a New York Times column in 2008, which I posted about last January:
Landing at Kennedy Airport from Hong Kong was, as I’ve argued before, like going from the Jetsons to the Flintstones. The ugly, low-ceilinged arrival hall was cramped, and using a luggage cart cost $3. (Couldn’t we at least supply foreign visitors with a free luggage cart, like other major airports in the world?) As I looked around at this dingy room, it reminded of somewhere I had been before. Then I remembered: It was the luggage hall in the old Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport. It closed in 1998.Last January I wrote
The next day I went to Penn Station, where the escalators down to the tracks are so narrow that they seem to have been designed before suitcases were invented. The disgusting track-side platforms apparently have not been cleaned since World War II. I took the Acela, America’s sorry excuse for a bullet train, from New York to Washington. Along the way, I tried to use my cellphone to conduct an interview and my conversation was interrupted by three dropped calls within one 15-minute span.
All I could think to myself was: If we’re so smart, why are other people living so much better than us?
And let's not forget the biggest deficiency in American airports: the people who work there.and I think that's generally true, a difference in how people in the customer service industry perceive their roles and responsibilities across cultures. That's looking at people who staff ticket counters and information booths, and not even taking into account the ridiculous Transportation Security Administration and the hassle of measures imposed on us in the "land of the free," by people who don't make the connection between our nation attacking foreign countries and imposing its will on others, and the need for "protection" from "terrorists."
Adding to the discomfort of the flight between Asia and the U.S., and this is a whole other issue related to the travel experience but not to airports, is the low level of service economy class passengers can expect on U.S. carriers. Each time I've crossed the Pacific on North American carriers---United, Continental, American---I've found discourteous staff who are rude to people who don't speak English, insulting to passengers within earshot, and who treat people as a burden rather than as paying customers.
36 comments:
I read the Friedman piece as well last year, and I didin't find JFK to be as dissapointing as he said. The sparrows flying around the international departures terminal didn't do much to impress me though.
I took a train from Penn Station to Vermont 3 weeks ago too. Penn Station was indeed dingy and had some homeless people milling around. The best part about the place was a pannini stand and a Korean sushi counter, but that didn't change the fact that our Amtrack train to Vermont was delayed for two hours and a half hours.
Probably the biggest advantage that both Penn Station and JFK had was the fact that one didn't have to worry too much about getting cut in line or shoved in a crowd. And I found that JFK in general was much more comfortable than the tiny room that you have to go to at Incheon to get a return visa, which is a nightmare. (On my last trip I avoided that by getting the return visa before hand. I also left from Gimhae and not Incheon.) But yeah Incheon is a nice airport.
I just want to say that Lee Jung-Soo is a big wuss. He says Ohno doesn't deserve to share the podium, but here he is anyway.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Silver-medallist-Apolo-Anton-Ohno-L-US-shakes-hands-gold/photo//100214/ids_photos_sp/r625745325.jpg//s:/afp/20100217/wl_asia_afp/oly2010sskateshortkorusaohno_20100217010452
Phht... Had luggage "lost" twice in Incheon. One time the bag had been in the freakin' airport almost the entire time, but it got to me about a week late.
There's not enough affordable normal food (affordable fast food or a bit too pricey Korean food and pricey Western food).
I'll start referring to Incheon as a first-class airport when the express train to Seoul Station is completed.
Although I wrote a blog post about Inchon airport that still gets me a fair share of hate mail (http://koreanrumdiary.blogspot.com/2009/08/back-in-swineland-among-scum.html) I do actually rather like it, and that one awful experience was (probably) just a one off. I've been through there a few times with no problems. The worst I could say recently was that the staff were all unfriendly... but it was Lunar New Year and I understand that they all wanted to be with their families and resented having to work.
So yeah... I'd rather kill time in Inchon than LAX or CDG any day.
I actually do get stuck in LAX a lot, and it's not so bad. Expensive restaurants, but a lot of them. You can always escape and trek it to In-n-Out. The only thing that would really make me choose ICN over LAX is that ICN has the free wi-fi. I was able to use my iPhone to blog being in Korea... maybe the first one ever to do so.
And I'd have to say I've found the staff at ICN and LAX both pretty courteous.
The immigration people in LAX were dicks to my girlfriend when we visited my parents for Christmas. The guy at the booth kept asking her if her parents knew she was dating an American and then told her she should just marry a nice Korean boy. I thought I was in Korea for a second, lol.
ICN is much better but it would be nice if they had more food choices.
Is ICN a winner in a "fittest kid at fat camp"? Never had too many problems with the airport. I mean it suddenly becomes Korean rules when lines happen. (Something I can never figure out. You travel with Koreans and they obey line culture from departure to stop over but then once they hit ICN it becomes shove your way to the front of the line, bash the crap out of people with your luggage cart, etc.)
The check in people struck me as pretty dumb. I've been given the wrong ticket (with a Korean woman's name on it, no less... got all the way to my SEAT with the wrong ticket), sent to immigration for no reason, etc.
But I've never seen a massive line at security like I've seen at American airports. The departure customs always remind me of the freedoms we still enjoy in the west.
My main issue with Incheon is that there are not enough bars or restaurants, and there's not enough to do once you're air-side.
I have had only one experience of LAX, and that was three ways bad and horrible. First, the plane arrived and an immigration guy got on and loudly and rudely told everyone on the plane that he didn't care what we had been told, everyone was going to have to pick up their bags physically and transfer them to the next part of the process and it didn't matter if the bags were checked through to the destination or not. It was several years ago now, so I can't remember the exact way it was put, but I remember thinking there had to be a better way of phrasing it, particularly as the point of first contact for the passengers arriving in the States. Then there was the long line to be processed with people who were obviously more important than anyone else, given they kept nudging me forward with their bags. And then there was dealing with the check-in staff at Air Canada's desk. Air Canada is the worst airline in the world. I really mean it. Think of the skankiest, dirtiest, meanest airline (Aeroflot comes to mind from what I have heard from others) and it wouldn't come close to how bad Air Canada is. I sometimes think Air Canada sends their staff (from ticket agents right on through flight attendants) to school for the express purpose of learning how to be as rude as possible to their customers. And since they have the backing of the government, they seem to take themselves as having carte blanche. But I digress. Although I wouldn't rank it as the top (the convenience of being able to check my bags downtown and then enjoying myself for a few hours before heading to the airport for a flight makes Hong Kong my favourite), it is certainly better than any airport I have been to in North America. At Incheon, you are certainly not going to hear a public announcement about how, "due to the stupidity and incompetence of the ground staff, your bags will not be arriving on carousel 1; they will be arriving on carousel 2," and hearing that announcement repeated 4 times. What a way to introduce incoming travelers to the friendly city of Calgary.
Apparently they didn't take into consideration the tax drivers at Incheon. We lived in South Korea for two years and during that time was ripped royally.
One time was picking up family and involved two taxis. It was after the Suwon buses stopped for the night so we had no alternative. The sign clearly stated 70,000 won per taxi. Yet they got lost for over an hour and charged us 350,000 won. This was at 1 am and we argued for about an hour with them in front of our apartment. We ended up having to pay but luckily I took pictures of the taxis and license plates.
My Korean friends helped me file a complaint which only lead to a mark against these drivers. They told the authorities that we had given them a generous tip. So we were out the money. I was hoping to get at least get the difference back.
I'm still steamed about it and it was two years ago.
I had some time to kill at the airport a couple weeks ago and used the spa/sauna they have. It was great.
Conversely I'd rather take a carrot peeler to the bottoms of my feet than be barefoot in LAX. Plus I might slip on all the drool from the people that work there.
Wow, I'm glad to have never gone through LAX. I've been through O'Hare (most recently this afternoon) several times, SF, Newark, and the two in New York, on my way to Pittsburgh.
The thing that drives me crazy about the international airports I've been in stateside is how rude the staff are in general, and especially to those who don't speak English. Perhaps that's just the caliber of employee airports can expect to attract. But while in Korea they're very courteous in Korean and know at least how to say please and thank you in English, in O'Hare I was herded around by guys with attitudes who acted like all these passengers were somehow interfering with their day.
People who work in international airports need to be more considerate to those who don't speak English as their first language. Heading into the arrivals hall at O'Hare Gate 5, it empties out into a narrow hallway, and you pretty much have no where to move. A Japanese couple was in front of me and stopped to look at the signs as a huge woman in an airport uniform was just shouting "left or right left or right left or right this is a high traffic area left or right left or right Jesus Christ it's on the sign left or right," rolling her eyes, speaking very quickly, and increasingly loudly. If you've been to that part of O'Hare you'd know it's actually not clearly marked at all where to go, and the first time I went there I had to make a few laps before I realized I had to go to the train upstairs. That's the only incident today toward "foreigners," but similar trips through international airports here have made me very embarrassed that visitors are welcomed to our country that way.
I guess I'm gonna have to write a letter or something. Assholes.
Pittsburgh is generally all right---it's pretty dead---but there's just a different standard of (customer) service in the US than in Asia. It's a topic that deserves a whole other post, but basically I've found that in Asia people treat customers with respect, where as in the US it's the employees who first demand respect from customers before they show it in turn.
I overpaid for a taxi at Incheon once as well---10,000 to the new town---because I didn't know any better. But they seem pretty good about clearing out the touts. I run into more at the Gwangju bus terminal than I do at Incheon Airport.
I've never been treated poorly by the staff at Incheon. In fact, usually they're overly apologetic. On the contrary, at American airports I feel like I'm being stalked by security and that every time I ask a staff person for help that I'm invading time they could better spend complaining about customers to the other folks behind the counter. It is absolutely a matter of mindset among the staff, who in Korea believe their purpose is to serve you and in the U.S. (seem to) believe their purpose to keep you from getting away with anything.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100217/world/us_truly_wacky_weed
Anybody heard of this stuff?
Getting rid of the touts should be of the utmost importance at ICN. It would pay for there to be airport employees patrolling the area to make sure they stay away (well, maybe they have it). I've actually gone up and warned people off from getting in the tout taxis. But then that makes me look suspect. :(
As far as LAX and other stateside airports are concerned, I'm willing to cut them some slack. With one notably obnoxious exception, I have been treated reasonably well by California airport staff. Not always with utmost courtesy, but rarely ever obnoxious or rude. (The same is true at ICN, however, even when I was detained on an immigration matter that turned out to be no issue at all.)
US airport staff get treated like crap. Not everyone, but enough people in the airport take out their frustration about their bags being too big, having to pay for their bag, their plane being delayed, them not being able to carry liquids, the lines being too long, the airport food being too costly, etc., etc., on the airport staff who have no control over it. They have a sh¡tty day almost every day. People are yelling at them, screaming at them, threatening to get them fired because of the liquid bottle rule, etc., on a regular basis. Not most people doing this — most American travelers at airports are pretty mellow and understanding — but enough to be a big pain in the arse. Some of it's from foreign travelers, too, from the self-important Korean businessman who looks down on people in the service industry to the guy from Whereveria who doesn't have all his documents.
I've found that if you just go up and talk nice to them, they're often relieved you're not going to berate them over something they can't control. That's actually a good way to get special treatment, though that's not why I do it and it wouldn't work all that often anyway.
Anyhoo, LAX is getting to be nicer and nicer. I don't mind the place and there's a lot of stuff to do. ICN may deserve its reputation for friendly staff, but I'm not so sure that LAX (or SFO) deserve a surly reputation.
brent wrote:
Anybody heard of this stuff?
Yeah. I think this story popped up a year or so ago.
And it's pretty funny that the guy who "discovered" it thinks that people who smoke it or inhale it are "idiots."
It's also pretty funny that his name is "Huffman."
Air Canada is the worst airline in the world.
Agreed. I'm glad someone else said this. Air Canada now charges for meals on all domestic flights, as well as flights to America or the Caribbean. Not only that, but they proudly advertise this as some sort of amenity.
This means that you can fly the 6 or 7 hours from Halifax to Vancouver, and get nothing but a bag of crackers. Is any other airline in the world so crass? I find the service and experience on Air Canada to be better than American Airlines or Northwest, but I refuse to support an airline so monstrous and inhumane as Air Canada.
Air Canada is shit. Even though I have only a choice between Bibimbap or Bulgogi on Korean Air and must fight over the few periodicals in English, it beats looking at the fat ass of some 60 year old grandma. Yeah, I love the hot, skinny, sexy stewardess on Korean Air. Much more friendly, too.
When I transported my cat from Korea to Canada everything went well. I checked him in quickly enough, except quarantine is waaayy the fuck on the other end of Incheon. Incheon is much better than Toronto. It is one of the few things I have good to say about I country I hated living in for 4 years. Adios, shithole.
I agree that US airports border on a national disgrace, but Christ, Friedman could cut JFK a bit of slack. Sure, it's old, but it's also one of the most architecturally unique airports on the planet. It has character, even if the airport staff do their best to waste it.
Apart from the food not being free on domestic flights on Air Canada, it isn't that bad, at least they don't put up with drunks being dicks. Not in my experience anyway.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't the best, but I've flown on worse like North Western and others. Here, there are some good things about them...
http://www.aircanada.com/en/about/media/facts/awards/index.html
Incheon is Ok, I've only had one problem there. I like Hong Kong Internation Airport the best.
Flew there and back on Cathay Pacific, now that was the best.
Korea has one major airport right? How many does the US have?
Oh yeah, link's a no go.
Google: Air Canada awards to see what I'm talking about.
Chris wrote:
Korea has one major airport right? How many does the US have?
What constitutes a major airport? I can think of four that have millions of passengers, ICN, Kimpo, Pusan's Kimhae, and Cheju.
What's the point of that question anyway? The US has so many airports so it's harder to give good service?
The awards for Air Canada were awarded by a business traveler magazine. Back in economy where the people who are treated like goats:
To an Asian passenger with a child: "HEY!!! Get that thing out of the aisle!! I almost tripped over it, and then there would have been trouble!"
To a fellow flight attendant two rows behind me, loud enough to be heard by me, about the passenger in the seat in front of me, and therefore loud enough to be heard by her: "Jesus Christ, that woman is SO demanding!! Every five minutes she rings that bell and wants something from me."
In LAX while trying to check in for my flight back to Calgary, standing behind the other 20 or 30 people trying to check in for their flights to wherever, standing in the economy check-in line, and watching the three check-in personnel, two for the special customers (VIPs, first class, business class, etc.) and one for the economy passengers, watching as the economy check-in person take passengers from the business class line over the line she was charged with:
Me: "Excuse me, we'd like to be served as well."
Response:
(No I didn't forget to write anything there. There was no response.)
Me: "EXCUSE ME! What about us?"
Response: crickets chirping
Me: STOMP, STOMP, STOMP
My angry footsteps as I left the area to calm down as I had just come off a 12 hour relatively sleepless trans-Pacific flight, and I didn't want to create too much of a scene.
(No wonder the business travelers have such a high opinion of Air Canada. Too bad most airline customers don't fly Business or First class.)
And the coup de grace of that particular episode was the response to the complaint that I wrote in June to Air Canada finally arrived dated September 12th of that year. Can you guess which one? Yup, 2001. (Oh crap!!! We have pissed on so many of our customers and some wackos have just knocked down the World Trade Center. We need to get responses out to answer these complaints and placate our "valued" customers. Here's a bunch of $50 vouchers good for any flight in the next three months. Send them out people!)
Nope, Air Canada will never have my vote for any kind of being-good-at-what-they-do award. And if I have a choice of airlines, I will take the other one.
Incheon didnt know what an F3 Visa was so they separated me and my husband and then isolated him in immigration for almost an hour while they tried to figure it out but wouldnt tell me what was going on.
This summer when we came back from a trip to Cambodia we had to wait about an hour and a half to get through immigration because they extensively questioned and then sent to immigration every single person who was black. The airport may be ok but immigration are dicks.
Regarding numbers of passengers to come through, the Korea Airports Corporation site will give you some figures.
http://kac.airport.co.kr/doc/www_eng/info/E040101.jsp
For 2009, Gimpo handled 15,369,944, Jeju had 13,643,366, Gimhae (serving Busan) had 6,870,157, and Gwangju, Daegu, Cheongju, and Ulsan all had a little over one million.
A difference regarding in-flight service is not only the way customer service is viewed in Korea, but also the level of prestige associated with being a flight attendant. It's actually a desirable job in Korea, there are loads of schools devoted to it, and the standards are apparently quite high. There are restictions based on gender and age that some find objectionable, but the fact remains service is top-notch, and no North American carriers come close. Flight attendants in Korea undergo language classes . . . on trans-Pacific flights between Asia and the US on United, Continental, and American, economy class has only had one person who could speak the native language of the place we departed. It's ridiculous that on a flight out of Japan or Korea there's only one person---often not even a native speaker---who can speak Japanese or Korean. And those who speak English do so quickly and in a way not considerate of non-native speakers. Not even I could understand what the woman was saying regarding safety insructions because she was talking so quickly and so monotone (though she found it amusing, and was laughing about it with the other flight attendant while doing it.) No sense of professionalism or decorum.
Adeel, too right. Even if you fly Toronto to Seoul, the Toronto to Vancouver leg is treated as domestic and you get jack all for food. You would think, at least, they can figure out who their international patrons are and serve them.
The meal aside, I don't find AC that bad. I quite appreciate their coach has well stocked seat back video screens. Each movie starts with an ad but there are a couple dozen movies loaded. And each screen has at least a USB jack to power up your ipod. Each row has at least one socket for your laptop.
The vancouver airport, as well, I find nearly pleasant. Lots of water and wood.
As of this June, I've been flying with Air Canada regularly for 29 years and I've had my luggage lost twice. That's the only problem I've had with them...ever
That includes Air Canada affiliates.
If flight attendants for Korean companies have three complaints against them, do they not get canned or forced to become ground staff or something?
If that is so, and I believe it is, can you say say their dedication to good service is genuine?
Also, aside from the small inconveniences that accompany travel in general, I've never had a problem at airports in the States either.
I've had problems in Daegu, Incheon and Gimhae though, so go figure.
This will be called chauvinism, but in my experience, going from Incheon Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is like going from the Flinstones to the Jetsons.
Incheon Airport is quite basic, imho.
This will be called chauvinism, but in my experience, going from Incheon Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is like going from the Flinstones to the Jetsons
Can you explain what you mean?
I've never flown into CdG, but I would rate my experience in ICN as better than neighboring Gatwick or Fiumicino, or Paris Station (which is how I arrived in France). Is CdG that much better? I had a wonderful time in France, but it had nothing to do with transportation.
Charles de Gaulle is great if you like paying 8 euro for a pre-packaged ham and cheese sandwich.
Mr. Baekseju, was it the architecture you liked at CdG?
SIN is the best by far. Free internet, comfy couches, outdoor bar, nice weather, 2 thumbs up. ICN is efficient "usually", although lacks character imo, HKG is a little too "sterile" for me.
Singapore also has those free (or low cost; I can't remember) day trips into the city for people on long layovers. I didn't choose the best one, but it was something fun to do over the seven hours I was in Singapore while on a layover to Rome.
This is a business model ICN absolutely should copy. It would pique people's interest in coming back to a place they might not have thought of going to in the first place.
In my opinion, Singapore is the best airport. Like was mentioned above, those day trips are awesome.
Plus with the new 3rd terminal, there is so much to eat and look at, plus they have a Boost Juice there (fantastic juice/smoothie chain that started in Australia).
When ever I fly, and that's pretty regular, if given a choice, I will always choose Singapore as my stopover. Plus those free foot massage machines are great too.
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