The WORST Airports In America: J.D. Power (PHOTOS)

According to the latest evaluation of the nation's airports, America's fliers are mostly a truly disgruntled bunch.

The survey, conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, asked customers to report their satisfaction levels on six factors (airport accessibility, baggage claim, check-in, terminal facilities, security check and food and retail services), which they measured by asking about 27 more specific attributes.

And overall, the results were pretty bleak. J.D. Power says that while airport customer satisfaction is up slightly over 2008 levels, it still lags well behind customer satisfaction in other key travel categories, such as hotels and rental cars.

Large airports, for their part, have experienced a marked decline in customer satisfaction over the last several years, according to J.D. Power. Medium-size airports, by contrast, have seen little change, while customer satisfaction at small airports has risen.

But it's not all bad: even among the large airports, there were some stand-outs. Five large airports -- Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, and Charlotte -- earned very high overall satisfaction scores, and with a customer satisfaction rating of 705 (out of 1,000), Detroit topped the list.

Nonetheless, we compiled a list of the airports that J.D. Power reports have the lowest customer satisfaction scores. Check out the list of the ten airports you should do your best to avoid:

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Dulles International -- IAD

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Dulles, which had a satisfaction index score of 646, ranked third-worst among the medium-size airports. In five of the six categories evaluated -- accessibility, baggage claim, check-in, terminal facilities and security check -- IAD scored two out of five, but in the food and retail services category, Dulles did better, with a score of three.

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Dulles, which had a satisfaction index score of 646, ranked third-worst among the medium-size airports. In five of the six categories evaluated -- accessibility, baggage claim, check-in, terminal facilities and security check -- IAD scored two out of five, but in the food and retail services category, Dulles did better, with a score of three.

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Not So Bad Hellhole

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Worst Airports

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Comments

[riversideliberal]

01:57 PM on 04/02/2010

Boston is horrible! I landed there from Paris and needed to get my bags, go through customs, and re-check my bags. First, the bags all fell off or were removed on the other side of the carousel, so no one knew why their bags weren't coming around. Second, I had to stand in a long line at customs with very rude officials. But worst, I then had to traverse the entire airport, with no signage, and check in like a newly arriving passenger, in another long line. There was no simple provision for re-checking my bags through to LAX. Then, of course, the 25-minute shuttle ride to the other terminal. I had 3 1/2 hours and barely made my flight. D-.

Dallas/Ft. Worth, however, is a great airport to go through customs at. It took 3 minutes to do customs and re-check my bags. Organized, friendly, and efficient. A+.

[Westof405]

07:40 PM on 03/30/2010

I don't fly that much anymore, but wind up at LAX picking people up a few times a year. The place has all the ambience of a scene from an old Soviet era spy movie, especially the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Hardly a fittiing legacy for the former mayor.

[cameron d]

07:15 PM on 03/30/2010

LaGuardia, how I loathe thee.

[harborfish]

03:02 PM on 03/30/2010

Worlds best airports mostly outside of the USA. Worlds worst mostly inside USA? GOD we're good. The only thing we are great at is war toys and incarceration.

[Scott Lackey]

04:43 PM on 04/12/2010

There are two slideshows, "World's Best Airports" and "America's Worst Airports"
There is no "World's Worst"

However we are great at war and incarceration. Believe it or not, we're also good at manufacturing.
http://blog.american.com/?p=8593

[jmyoung666]

11:14 AM on 03/30/2010

With respect to food and retail Newark did not seem bad either time I flew through it.

[lullu]

11:00 AM on 03/30/2010

Newark gets first place for me. The security lines are like molasses going up hill. U.S. airports are another thing on the list for the infrastructure. Houston is very modern if you don't mind walking miles.

[CPAwADD]

11:41 PM on 03/29/2010

What's really pathetic is I remember how bad Philly's airport was before they fixed it up. I remember the only food I could find was a small bag of pretzels that the cashier told me was $3.50 as if I had to be nuts to buy it. I was hungry and on an expense account. The only thing memorable about the pretzels was the cashier's utter disdain for my buying them!

[winias]

09:35 PM on 03/29/2010

As a New Yorker, nothing makes me prouder than seeing late-night vermin running through the LaGuardia terminal. Going to miss this place if I ever leave......or not.

[marleygreiner]

05:24 PM on 03/29/2010

Then there's Minneapolis/St. Paul. I had to spend the entire night there once, which was OK in a way. Nothing like being in an empty airport by yourself.

When my plane landed (late) there was only one gate to go through to get to the my area (since I was stuck there all night as opposed to getting a hotel). . Like in Philly, it was in a different terminal. The airline refused to transfer bags since the plane wasn't taking off until the next day (!) so we had to lug our bags down to the only gate that was open (a long walk) only to be met by rude security who yelled at people. Once I got settled in another late plane came in the other way. I was using my laptop, and a man approached me who only knew a few words of English, His flight had been canceled or delayed and he needed to reach his wife to tell her not to pick him up in freaking Amsterdam. There was more to the story, but I can't remember it I let him email his wife to tell her to stay home. The next morning more rude employees yelled at people at my gate for taking on carry-ons, Not too many carry-ons) but carry-ons.

[CPAwADD]

11:42 PM on 03/29/2010

Larry Craig had a great time at that airport!

[santiago sherwood]

12:59 PM on 03/29/2010

They should have a list call worst airports after 8pm. With every closing up Salt Lake city and pheonix are two places you don't want to be with a late night connection.

[mamababa]

11:39 AM on 03/29/2010

I click on the link ' World's Worst Airports' and I'm taken to 'Worst Airports in America'?

Come ON, H.Po - are we going to repeat that 'World' Series debacle all over again?

[IndependentBadger]

10:18 AM on 03/29/2010

Philadelphia's airport SUCKS.

You can look out a window and see where you're walking to, and notice it's about a block away, and then spend forty minutes walking through a maze of tunnels and half-assed security cordons to get there. Then, when you do, the wi-fi is expensive, erratic, the seats are all from the eighties, it smells funny, the colors and lighting are like a Bulgarian operating room, and the audio from the speakers is constant, loud, and reminds me of a dirty subway train driver barking at me. American airports in general just SUCK. What a lousy way to introduce foreigners to our country, too.

[marleygreiner]

05:13 PM on 03/29/2010

Ah Philadelphia truly sucks Great description I especially like Bulgarian operating room. . A few years ago I had to switch terminals which were in the same building, which according to airport rules meant security twice. That is, people landing had to go through security to get their connecting flight, even if they never left the area. I missed my flight because my original plane was late.

[CPAwADD]

11:44 PM on 03/29/2010

I remember what it was like before they fixed it up, okay that was about 23 years ago. It was wretched!

[kingjed]

07:30 PM on 03/14/2010

With the elimination of civil civil rights to fly on an American airline, why do i care. i drive, i will not relinquish my rights to a government or industry that treats me worst than a bag of s-it. I hope the go out of business soon.

[LeftCoastLarry]

08:21 PM on 03/04/2010

I've been through all those listed except two - LGA and EWR.
What's the big deal? They function well for the most part. Airports aren't a destination - the cities are.

[winterthur]

03:29 AM on 03/05/2010

NEVER fly out of LaGuardia (LGA) it's got the shortest runways!

[noaxe397]

09:46 AM on 03/04/2010

How was Detroit Metro not on this list? Filthy, dirty, run down.

[LeftCoastLarry]

08:18 PM on 03/04/2010

Have you been there in the last five years? It's been renovated.

[noaxe397]

09:20 PM on 03/04/2010

I was there in 2008, US Air,

filthy, dirty, run down.

[Ravi Abunijad]

11:22 PM on 03/04/2010

Apparently, it's more hilarious to put down the busiest airports in America and tell people to do their "best to avoid them." Detroit Metro probably is worse than some of these, but it must not get enough traffic to startle people by telling them "don't go there."