Houston IAH

This airport is like a flashback to airports of the 60's and 70's. The galleries from concourse to customs are endless austere and unwelcoming with an announcement warning you of imminent arrest should you mutter something "sarcastic" (that's a quote) under your breath.

Interminable immigration queues at major US airports have become the norm but I will admit to being pleasantly surprised by IAH - not because the queue wasn't long because it was but because compared to many counterparts some effort was in place to at least have it move fairly quickly given the queue size. What was particularly impressive to me was that IAH seemed to have a roughly equal number of desks open for non-citizens as for citizens; in my experience this is extremely rare in the USA. Since most of the arriving passengers seemed to be US citizens - leading to what seemed to be an extraordinary queue all the way out of the immigration hall for the latter - this led to the even rarer phenomenon of non-citizens often having a shorter wait than the citizens even though the former were being processed faster. For all that I still had to wait about 70 minutes before clearing immigration but a similar length queue at Washington Dulles for example would have required two to three times as long to clear. Otherwise facilities at IAD seem to be a notch above average for major US hubs with clear signage 45 minutes free wifi many plugs for laptops and the best duty free shop I've ever encountered at a US airport.

IAH used to be one of the more efficient immigration and customs clearance airports. Not anymore. Returning to the US from Costa Rica we had to clear in Houston before transferring to a flight to SFO. There were approximately 3000 people in line at immigration and only 16 inspection stations operational (there appeared to be around 50 inspection booths). People were queued up outside of the immigration hall into the terminal. No effort was made to prioritize clearing by transfer flight time. People were left to their own to shuffle their places in line to accommodate those transferring to other flights. The officials who monitored the queues were completely unhelpful and almost mocking of passengers' plights arrogantly telling passengers to blame clearance delays on the airlines! The queue for US residents/citizens was 4 times the size of the queue for non-residents but they refused to move inspectors over to the US resident/citizen queue to balance the load. Two hours and 10 minutes later we cleared immigration. The slowest clearance I have experienced in 30 years of travel at any airport in the world. Mercifully our connecting flight was delayed for mechanical issues (although I felt bad for the passengers already on board). A brief chat with the gate agent (Continental) prior to boarding indicated that this is an ongoing problem. DHS refuses to put on any more than 27 inspectors. The airlines send DHS their plane loading plans in advance so they will know what the passenger volume will be and they do nothing. It costs passengers thousands of $$ every day to have to stay in hotels because of missed connections. It costs the airlines thousands of $$ every day to issue vouchers. Wouldn't it be a lot less expensive to put on 10 additional inspectors every day?

I arrived here en-route to Mexico from Newark airport. Newark (you can see separate review) is about the worst airport I've ever been in. Houston on the other hand was rather nice. The signage in the airport was a little 'iffy' in places but this was due to what appeared to be fairly minor work going on so was probably not a big issue. Apart from that it was easy to navigate. The staff were courteous although could have been a little warmer. The facilities were good and offered a range of well priced food and shops (a treat for an airport). At no time were queues excessive or slow. Immigration staff were courteous and efficient. Overall it was what a large modern airport should be.

It's very convenient and compared to other hub airports a much better chance of not having your flight cancelled or delayed due to weather. For those who wait a long time to go through immigration invest in the Global Entry Program it's 100 dollars for 5 years. When I go through passport control it never takes me more than 10 minutes and you also go through an expedited line through customs. For star alliance passengers United is moving in August 2010 to terminal C which is the same terminal operated by Continental. Terminal C and E have plenty of places to eat at with the best being Pappadeux in Terminal E. If you want to avoid changing terminals avoid riding continental express so you don't move from terminal B to E. The Presidents Club in terminal E is very nice with a separate family room. I find this airport to be much nicer than Atlanta JFK Newark Chicago. I have never been to an airport that delivers your strollers faster than at this airport. Check In is very fast and seamless. The queue through security is not too bad as there are plenty of security agents.

I have travelled to many countries and entered the States through many airports. I have never seen anything like the immigration line at this airport. We missed our flight because of the long line And had to stay at a hotel in Houston because later flights were booked . At least once we go to the immigration officer he was quite friendly and polite. Avoid this airport at all costs.

I use IAH frequently and have mixed feelings. It's major convenience is that sitting in south Texas it's unlikely to be affected by winter delays. It is also a cheap hub to fly through. OTOH it's dreary unnecessarily sprawling the bathrooms are third world and it always smells of mould.

Terrible airport in almost all respects. We were in transit from London to Mexico and even with over 2hrs to spare almost missed our connecting flight - how can a hub airport be quite so bad? Connection was less of a problem on return journey which left us looking for anything that might resemble half-decent catering or shopping - no chance.

If you have any choice do not transit through this airport. Limited staff endless queues (over two hours to clear the first stage) swaggering officials and ignorant support staff who seem to find amusement in the plight of passenger who are going to miss their flight. If I heard the statement "There is always another flight"once I heard it half a dozen times. No consideration for the inconvenience caused. The worst thing is the endless loop recording (that you cant ignore because of the high volume) informing all how much the immigration service is working to serve us. This is not an airport that I would consider travelling through again.

Expedited immigration baggage and customs services. Convenient national and international connections facilities. Fair restaurants and shops available.