Tef Roqr

Review of Vancouver Airport Authority

This is my go-to airport. I've flown out of here t...

This is my go-to airport. I've flown out of here to go to Manitoba, Ontario; down to Seattle, over to Utah, Virginia or up to Hawaii; I've flown internationally to England and Germany. Every time, the stress of the actual flight attempts to overwhelm me, but the atmosphere of this airport brings me right back to chill. The chairs are comfortable, the Wi-fi and water are free; the windows are big and don't make you feel like you're cramped in with a ton of other people. The food is overpriced, the lines are long, and the bathrooms by the gates are cleaner than the ones in the international and domestic entrances. But it's an airport, the lines are supposed to be long (there are a lot of people to process!), the food is supposed to be over-priced (that's why you wait for your bag of peanuts on the flight).

Waiting for the luggage at the carousel takes time, every time, and going through customs with loads of other people takes time, too. The staff have always been helpful and pleasant to me, and when one of my suitcases went missing, they delivered it to my home the next evening, safe and sound (that was also a pleasant experience: reporting the suitcase, filling out paperwork, etc.). Yes, it's occasionally a long walk (or run, depending on how much time it took getting through security, who don't mind patting you down if you don't want to go through one of those horrid machines) to your gate, and definitely a long walk from your arrival gate to the exit of the airport, but the decor and the statues, the waterfall, they all make it a much better experience.

My only real complaint is about parking, which is absurdly expensive, especially if you intend on getting to the airport when the plane lands (when you're picking someone up), expect to wait (and pay for) an additional two hours before they're actually off the plane. I'm psyched that the skytrain is finally up and running, although I've not yet used it; it's just another example of how the airport, and the city, is working to improve the quality of people's experiences there.