Outbound Airports you avoid?

Here in flyover country, the choices are mostly dictated by timing and itineraries.

ORD, I used to fly there monthly and there was a delay in landing almost every time.

ATL - just too busy. Avoid in summer due to potential bad weather.

Any of the NYC airports.

DFW for Europe - its the wrong direction.

Miami! Huge, confusing, very poor signage.....getting picked up on return, at the terminal, is an absolute nightmare..it's always hot and crammed with tired travelers, everyone jockeying to find even a place to stand with their luggage. I fly out of there every year (not in. high season for Europe) and I absolutely hate it. Many local drivers refuse to even pick up there..

Many people who do not speak Spanish always comment that without that language a traveler is at a big disadvantage. Spanish is the lingua franca at MIA.

An airport that is much improved in LaGuardia in NY.

Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth--Anytime we've gone through these airports we have had delays resulting in overnight stays.

We like Charlotte, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit--Since we are familiar with these airports we can manage connections through them.

Toronto was OK. Air Canada delays seem to ripple through the system so a delay at our home airport is reflected in a delay at the larger airport.

For me it is Newark (EWR). Never again. Also not a fan of Miami or Charlotte. Chicago (ORD) can be OK but can also be a nightmare, so I usually avoid unless the price is just too good.
Coming from the Midwest, I also avoid anything that requires backtracking - looking at you DFW and MSP.
For my recent trips, JFK has been the most convenient option. Not as easy as DTW or ATL, but so far not too bad.

JFK tops the list. Delays & it never feels clean in the airport.

Ones I prefer in order of preference: Minneapolis - easy to maneuver & some decent restaurants. SeaTac - usually it’s less expensive than Minneapolis for a connection. Less to see within the airport, and I don’t like the two satellite concourses because they take more time & tend to be less clean. Salt Lake City is fine.

Anything east of Denver.

I do all I possibly can to not connect anywhere in the US.

In order of worst first:
JFK
ORD
Newark

For me:
I try to avoid EWR, LGA & JFK. That airspace is just too crowded these days.
I don't mind them for outbounds, but I try to avoid ORD on inbounds from Europe. Their customs and immigration is among the worst.
Seasonally, I try to avoid ATL during peak hurricane season.

I'm a United customer and my airports are RIC, ORF, IAD, & EWR. I do not share the seemingly popular opinion and like Dulles and Newark. If there were an airport I were avoiding it would probably be PHF, it's the nearest airport, but it's only served by AA.

We try to avoid ORD after a cancelled flight left us sleeping in one of their terminals. We actually try to avoid any stop in the US on a transatlantic journey. We have gotten stuck overseas before, but we ‘d much rather be stuck there than in the US.

Living in Atlanta, I can fly directly to almost anywhere I want to go. Lot of people hate on Hartsfield-Jackson, but if this is your home airport (and Delta is your preferred airline, natch) you have a distinct advantage!

Only one time in my life did I make a connection on an overseas flight when my travel agent talked me into flying another airline to save money. The connection in Philly was a nightmare and I swore I'd NEVER do it again.

My general rule is that when all things are equal, choose a connecting city that you wouldn’t mind being stuck in.

I am fortunate in that I rarely need to connect on flights to Europe. When I do need to connect, I nearly always choose to connect in Europe; when my inbound flights have been delayed, I have always managed to get to my final destination on the same day.

When I was younger, I often connected at one of the NYC area airports because they were typically cheaper than non-stop flights from the DC area airports. Now I avoid connections in the NYC area simply because I have experienced delays and weather groundstops more than once.

JFK is the worst. ORD comes in a close second.

As someone who lives outside the US, I do whatever I can to avoid transiting at a US airport. I find the requirement to go through immigration just to transit to be annoying. I am not aware of any other countries in the world where that is required, unless you are transiting within your destination country (or within Schengen to another Schengen country). This week I'm flying MEX to Ulaanbaatar and transiting at Narita. I've already checked, and since I'm on a single ticket (even though it's two different airlines), I can transit airside.

My home airport is Guadalajara (GDL). I can't get to many overseas destinations direct from GDL, so I usually transit in Mexico City (MEX).

If I must travel through the US, or to the US, my options are fairly limited. The only airport I'll do anything to avoid is JFK. On my way home from my upcoming trip, I will be transiting at LAX, but I'll be spending the night at a hotel, because my flight from LAX to GDL is not until the next day. I've done that before when returning across the Pacific, and it's not too awful.

Since I live in Northwest Arkansas, for me it's any airport that doesn't have a direct connection from XNA. When I lived in Dallas, it was any airport that wasn't DFW, unless I was already in another major city with lots of AA flights to Europe.

Now, I still prefer DFW over ORD and CLT for AA connections to/from Europe as it has the best lounge for layovers.

JFK and LAX. If I have to use LAX to get to a destination, I will not go to that destination. Maybe this has changed, but when we were there in early 2024, to get ground transportation to or from the international terminal, you had to go to the domestic terminal. JFK required a walk outside to get from one terminal to another and also required use of many steps to get in and out of a terminal and has a long walk to passport control. I have reached the point in life while I will pay the more expensive fares to fly from ATL, where I can use the Plane Train to go between terminals. Not to mention the easy availability of pralines and Chik Filet.

Anything east of Denver.

Hallelujah to that.

I avoid all of the ones that cost more than the least expensive one wihin a 3 hour drive. Goat farmers dont have the luxury to be any more selective than that.

I live in Greenville NC, closest airport is PGV which only goes to Charlotte . I gave up that connection years ago. I will make an exception for Charlotte but I need to spend a night prior to departure, There are direct flights to Madrid from Charlotte.
So now I have a driver that takes me to RDU. Raleigh airport is surprisingly well connected, for example direct flights to London. And from London I can go anywhere in Europe. From Raleigh I can typically get flights to Europe, Frankfurt, Rome, Helsinki, Copenhagen etc.
If I fly to Toronto AA has direct flight to Helsinki and for Stockholm one stop in Helsinki.
To get to Toronto from Raleigh I use United airlines because there are 5 direct flights daily less than 2 hours from Rdu
. Like others my goal is to get to Europe as a direct flight,if possible, but no more than one connection in the US.
I have also experienced icelandair.com from Rdu, of course all Iceland air goes to Iceland first and then wherever in Europe you want to go Amsterdam, for example .

From my Iowa airport, I always have a stop, often extended. We have United, American and Delta, I much prefer Delta due to the hubs they use. I can get directly to both Atlanta and Minneapolis, both are efficient, I prefer Minneapolis though. We used to have a direct flight to Detroit, we really liked that, a great airport to fly from, unfortunately it went away with covid, and likely not coming back.

I avoid any Delta flight that routes through JFK, and I avoid American and United as O'Hare would be the likely hub, and I avoid O'Hare based on past experience.

To answer the original question, JFK, LaGuardia, Newark and LAX are by far number one in horrendousness, with ATL and Denver in distant second.

As to the comment someone made in re a non-Spanish-speaker being severely disadvantaged at MIA...having flown through there scores of times, first of all that assertion is pure bollocks as literally all signage is also in English, and literally all employees apart from perhaps janitorial staff speak fluent English; and second, if a person can't abide English not being the first-language wherever they are, why would they choose to travel to Europe?

GPB, I completely agree with your second paragraph.

For proximity and rewards points I have to us Newark, so I’ll say JFK.