Seattle Airport

Not Verified | We were at Sea-Tac yesterday. I have honestly never hated an airport experience more; and we've had some doozies. There was a lot wrong, but I don't need to re-live the entire experience. (Shudder.) Just know that the TSA experience was absolutely grueling. To a person, each of the four or five agents we encountered as we moved through the horrific 45 minute experience was rude. They ranged from basically non-verbal with curt nodding to a woman who literally screamed at people. She spoke so rapidly no-one could understand her and when no one hopped to get the bag she was holding she screamed again She scolded customers -- some who did not speak English and had no idea what they'd done "wrong." I saw her slap a man's hand away when he went to retrieve his name. A supervisor was looking over her shoulder for a while and he looked angry. But he DID nothing. They were busy and probably stressed and overworked and must have decided passengers should suffer as well. That's one way they were successful. Everyone walked away shaking their head. Horrible, horrible customer service. Sometimes people can't choose which airport they must use. I just hope consumers understand this will be a horrible experience OR that perhaps someone who works there.

Not Verified | We had no problems at all arriving to the airport. The departure was a mess. Long lines and very disorganized. We pay for Clear and TSA Pre and I still got pulled out of line for the special screening which ok fine, I get that it’s random but so far this year I have been chosen on 3 out of my 4 flights. They make me and then 4 or 5 other random people wait for a good 5-10 minutes before anyone came to scan us. Why are you pulling people out of line to scan if no one is there to do it? I asked when someone was coming and was told they’ll get here when they get here. My husband told 2 women who were working behind the scanners that I needed my cane while I was standing there waiting and one rolled his eyes at him and then they both walked away. Never have we experienced such rude behavior at an airport and my husband has well over a million miles with Delta. To treat customers that way, especially someone with special needs is shameful.

Not Verified | Departure Terrible long TSA lines even on a Mon. I hr of zig-zagging and if you leave a comb in your pocket you are pulled for full body scan. Arrival (Alaska) will require a mile-long, mile-high up-n-down hike to find your baggage carousel. Then you get to zig-zag for an hour or more (on a Mon nite!) queuing for Passport Control. Now these guys are terrific. Overall rating is 0 for SEA. Customs rating is 10. TSA is 1.

Not Verified | Little to no seating, understaffed, disorganized, ugly, confusing, chaotic, stressful. The only thing good about this airport is that every once in a while, you get to hear Duff McKagan make one of the pre-recorded, TSA announcements. That is all.

Not Verified | Most horrible lines, waited 85 minutes for TSA. We just made our flight but had to run while hearing FINAL call. Employees assisting lines were rude and unhelpful. Will avoid this airport.

Not Verified | Avoid this airport! Security is an absolute disaster. Nearly 3 hours to get through and missed my flight. Completely unreasonable and disorganized.

✅ Trip Verified | Arrived two and a half hours prior to our flight, which was already pre processed by our cruise company, luggage done and forwarded, boarding passes given to us on board - all we had to do was arrive at the airport for an internal flight to Los Angeles, go through security and board our flight. What an absolute joke! Security line looked like a stirred up mess, but the board did say 35 mins to go through, so we didn’t really panic at that time. After trailing up, then down, then up and down, then across the bottom of a long rectangle, we thought, one more up and we’ll be at the security desk, were we heck as like - we had another three up and down and then a half line up again (the half because of a big pillar - which explained why the original up and down lines then crossed over the bottom). By this time we were around 30 minutes off our flight and we still had to go through the security checks and scanner (downright bloody lie that the board was still saying 35 mins to security - nearer 3 hours). Staff were not helpful at all except every now and then they’d barge someone to the front of the queue - for no apparent reason, either they had clearance of some sort and should have been in a different queue or their face fitted ! but it was so infuriating to watch. Any mention of missing flights due to the queues was met with selective deafness or a shrug of the shoulders. When we finally got through the scanning I asked a member of staff where our gate was and he flew his hands in the air and said “follow the signs”. Now being very close to close of boarding, even knowing which direction to look would have been helpful. Turns out following the directions was not the quickest way - there was a tram downstairs which would have saved us quite a hike. Never seen so many people running for gates in my life - obviously in the same boat as us. Our family, who live in LA, had TSA clearance and got through in about 10 minutes - I’m sure you can imagine the text messages passing between us. When we fly through Edinburgh/ London/ Manchester etc I see a pretty decent distribution of staff welcoming visitors worldwide as well as nationals with all people treated with respect. Seattle airport seemed to have an emphasis on nationals or TSA approved and very few staff attending to the general boarding line. (Most of the security screens were closed) We made our flight with minutes to spare, no time to pick up some water or a bite to eat on the plane. There were empty seats on out flight which our family found rather odd as the flight was full with a list of stand by passengers - guess those poor guys were still in the magic roundabout they call a security line - which is definitely a roundabout but there no magic in it. I will never use this airport again, which is a shame, because we had a rather nice week in Seattle before our cruise and would have considered a revisit - not going to happen I’m afraid. I have had to rate 1/10 because it won’t let me do zero and I can’t comment on airport facilities- didn’t see them as I was trying to get through to the gate before we lost our seat!

Not Verified | This is the slowest security airport I have ever witnessed. We arrived two hours before our flight and after check-in it took over an hour and a half to get through security line. The place is very unorganized. Horrible, horrible experience. Will never fly out of this airport again.

✅ Trip Verified | The long wait to go through passport control is appalling . The individual who wrote the comment April 2023 is spot on. The comments are exactly how I feel and can only endorse every word. I will not use this airport again!

Not Verified | Seattle airport is so bad! It took us 2.5 hours to wait and pass the security line. Of course, we missed our flight. Many passengers missed flights because of the ridiculous long waiting time! The airport staff did not care at all! It's common for them. We were forced to leave the airport and spent the night at a hotel and wasted the second full day waiting at the airport again. Can not say enough how bad the Seattle airport is! Very negative experience to Seattle! Will not come to Seattle again!