JFK Airport
Reviews and Complaints

Hi,
On the morning of 8/6/19 we purchased our duty free, we were advised this would be dropped off at the gate as we were boarding our virgin flight back to Manchester. As we went through the boarding gate the guy indeed was there handing out duty free. Ours was not there, he tried to radio some guy and then tried on his mobile, he eventually got hold of someone and said it was on it's way. We waited as long as possible, still no duty free he advised us to give him our receipt and get would bring it on the plane, we refused to give him the receipt and got him to sign said receipt as we were not hopefull of receiving the items. We explained to cabin crew what had happened as we were last to board the plane. Unfortunately they advised us this happens often. The security checks were made and doors to the ane closed leaving us with no duty free. We still have the receipt and paid cash. The guy who was handing out the duty free appeared clueless about what we would do to claim but said he would log it as mot recieved. Now my jet lag has gone I've wrote this email so can you please tell me who I contact regarding this.
Many thanks (not)

So today almost all the CBP agents were not working or they were just processing 5 people and closing their door! I have waited 2hours after my flight to finally see a cbp agent which leads me to missing my flight! Note that I asked 3 agents to let me go through so I can catch my flight on time and they refused! And why the passport control would even mark an X on your receipt when it should be clear

Last Friday (5/10), my friend and I arrived at JFK after a 9 hour flight from Budapest. We are both petite women in our 60's. We had a 5 hour layover before our flight to SFO. Because our luggage was not sent on through to SFO, we had to retrieve it and recheck it in for our next flight.

Unfortunately, to do this meant going up one level with one heavy suitcase each, plus one carryon. To our dismay, all elevators and escalators were shut down. I knew we would struggle mightily trying to get those suitcases up the escalator and started asking any airport employee I saw for a solution. Nobody cared. Nobody stopped to help as I struggled to pull my suitcase up. I was incredulous as people stood around watching me almost [censored]. My lower back is still sore from the ordeal.

It would have taken less than a minute for someone to step up and assist me and my friend, but nobody cared. They just walked on by. I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in people than I was that day.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who struggled that day. There was a woman in a wheelchair who nobody bothered to help either.

You might want to tell your employees that it's okay to stop and help people once in a while! New York already has a reputation as an indifferent place. You had the opportunity to change that and failed miserably.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Dede Tate

On Friday the 10 th May we were going to Amsterdam with Norwegian Airlines.
While waiting in the hall,
we asked some information at several employees but they seemed not to be of any help, they didn't even looked in our eyes .
Cause I was recovering from a broken shoulder I used an airport- trolley while we stood in an extreme long line for the security check. Suddenly some employee shouted to me and my daughter that it was forbidden. to use the trolley.
So I went out of line and put the trolley back on its place and tried to get back in line.
Than, a man ( type Indian) started to yell that I had to go back at the end of that long line. He thought that I was trying to cheat.
I began to explain what happened with the trolley and he shouted that he was the manager of the security and that he was sure that I was cheating. Than other travelers started to interfere, but no, he wanted the police to come to arrest me and he also said that he had the power to let me miss my plane. All travelers were chocked of this brutal act towards me.
My daughter started to cry cause of stress and your so called manager kept on acting like a crazy. It felt like we were in the third world somewhere in Africa, but this was USA !
Thanks to some other travelers we could again explain our good interests.
Next was the impolite behavior at the security. Nobody acted interested, they were chewing gum and talked mainly with each other. My bag was kept apart for extra check. Fine with me. But nobody did anything during 15 minutes. Staff was just standing and acting "important " and let me wait . I have never during my travel over the world experience such nasty acting. Why is that possible in a country like the USA?
We weren't welcome at all! I am very angry about this! Especially the guy who said he was the manager! How can you ever hire a man like that in a position like that?
After a good vacation in NY we went home with a bad souvenir.
I wonder if you guys are going to reply my complains. I would appreciate it.
In Europe we don't have behavior like this.

Today we were heading to the airport and got stuck with the air train as there was a problem with the system - no trains were going to our terminal 8, we were asked to stay in the train. I started panicking after an approximately hour of waiting. We decided not to wait anymore and get to the terminal 8 going back (even though the information alert told us that the trains are stopped). Luckily enough we managed to get to the terminal 50 minutes prior to our departure, but met a complete arrogance of the jfk employees- they told us they will take our luggage (because we still managed to be in time), but they don't know about air train and this is our responsibility to come to check in earlier. They didn't want to listen anything about the situation and other people nein stuck in the trains. More over, the lady on check in told the colleague not to check anyone in for our flight anymore.
I am speechless about this situation and feel terribly sorry about the other people that have possibly missed their flights...

On 5/3/2019, one of my family who travels a lot between the USA and middle east. She has a green card . She was away for five months.
The officer at the airport, he asked her to setup aside and took her to the room for three hours after she arrived to the USA for nothing wrong she did.
He and his friend were verbally abusing her because she was out for five months. And because she is from middle east.
They treated her very bad. They were making fun of her passport too.
they could not find any mistake against her . Then they let her pass the boarding area.
She has her green card for a three years with no problems at all until she met the bad officers.
I wish that we have a democratic USA, and everyone will be treated the same way.

4/15 10am

I got my noodles. Went to pay counter.

The cashier, Dominique, was rude, obviously hates her job. She was standing with her back to the cash register. When I said "excuse me", she had mumbled something, didn't bother to turn around. Then I realized the cash register on the other side was open. I then told her she should have turned around and addressed me instead. She told me to have a great day. I know what she really meant.

She needs to know she is in the service business.

Inattentive, rude, no attempt at eye contact. And when I politely remarked, she barked the same instructions over and over.

Good afternoon...I was on a flight on Sunday, April 7th leaving from JetBlue terminal 5 at JFK. I went into the Food Court and purchased coffee at the Dunkin Donuts counter. One employee by the name of Tika who works there, is the most rude and disrespectful woman I've ever met. It was 8:30am and it seems DD ran out of bagels, cream cheese and all sorts of other items. As passengers were ordering their items, she would snap at them and speak in a very rough manner. This is not the first time I've encountered her attitude before. I travel quite frequently. On my last trip back in March, I asked for steamed milk in my coffee and she sighed and got very disgruntal. This woman should not be working with customer if she does not know how to conduct herself. There was another woman who was also very nasty and mean but I didn't get to see her badge to take her name down. No one should have to deal with woman like this.

Hello I am submitting this complaint about a terminal 2 older woman who works at the welcome center. She screamed at me and my family because we walked up and asked her a yes or no question. She didn't like that fact that I didn't say goodmorning. She screamed and tried to humiliate me and my family. Then, she was talking to coworkers about us. This happened on march 26th at 7:30am. I have never been treated like this in my life by a airport worker. My family is dealing with a death of my father that happened yesterday so you could imagine how horrible we already felt. She has blond hair and she has to be about 65 years old.

I checked in to jfk on 29/3/3919, for a flight at 11.pm with virgin.after I did security I went to purchase drinks fir myself and daughter at McDonald's, I don't feel it was good service, than to top it off my kid was. Not put on my hot water propley fir my tea, which went on to burn my finger, but the worse thing was I went to the help desk to explain I had burnt my finger and asked if there was any first aid, I was told no, and advised to nip to the shop to see if I couldn't something, I feel to have no first aid is a disgrace, I only got assistance when I went to see if my flight was boarding g, and the virgin rep got me a burns kit from one of there planes, I also noticed a number of the staff at check in and heading towards security spike rude to people, all of the above is not what I whould expect from an international air port

Hello,

I was taking a connecting flight on Thursday, Feb 28th arriving from Montreal and flying out to Buenos Aires. On arrival we checked the flight information displays and saw that our American Airlines flight was departing from Gate 16. We proceeded to have dinner at the restaurant right next to it to be close by. After dinner we went for walk and decided to check out your Gate finder. As we checked our flight we saw the gate was B3 (see attached). We walked towards B3 just to find out it was another flight to Rio de Janeiro. We checked the FIDS and saw that the gate was 16 and I double checked the gate finder to see B3.
The kicker was when I informed the agent at the gate about the issue, she dismissed me as if I were an idiot. I think you need to QA your system and train your staff.
Cheers
Susana

Subject: complaint

Dear customer service
Dear complaint handling department

I would like to submit my complaint.

Identification items:

Harmed people
Júlia győrfi-kalmár business class
Booking reference: q75r4q
Flight: lo34 - l
Terminal: new york john f kennedy jfk 7

And

Péter fricsovszky-tóth economy class
Booking reference: qw8g8a
Flight: lo34 - l
Terminal: new york john f kennedy jfk 7

Description of the complaint:

 we arrived to the airport on 2nd september 2018 (sunday), 3, 5 hours earlier than the planned departure to the airport, as we read it in the instruction of the electronic ticket receipt.
 we checked in and the baggaged dispatched at around 15:15 based on the instructions of the lot airlines.
 we were informed on the checking desk that the flight is delayed 1 hour 15 minutes.in the boarding pass the departure time was the updated departure time: not 17:30 but 18:45
 after the security check we asked information from the lot uniformed lady about the place of the business lounge, which was showed personally by her.
 in the display of the business lounge we followed the status of the flight countinously from around 16:30.
 unfortunately only the lo34-l flight status was not updated, only we could see is that in the comment column that it was delayed to 16:45. It means that in the comment column, it was not updated that the boarding is in progress (like the next day, please see it here in the picture when all went well)

 it was not updated that there is a final call, nothing. After 18:45, as the display was not updated and we didn't know that until when the flight is delayed, I went to the gate 5 to have some information from the lot uniformed lady. I arrived at 18:48 (which means that the business loung and the gate 5 is a 3 minutes walk) she told that the flight had already been departured.
  the lot uniformed lady told us that we could have our baggage and go where we want without any further help. So it happened that we were on the airport with our baggage on sunday evening totally humiliated and did not even realized what just happened. Only we had is a 24/7 customer service telephone number
 following júlia győrfi-kalmár business trip instructions, we had a 1, 5 hour call with the 24/7 cwt customer service, but then another 1, 5 half hour with the non-stop lot customer service without any solution on that evening/night as the polish collegues did not work then, so we couldn't modify our ticket. They told us to try to do that on monday morning.
 after this torture we tried to reserve a room via booking.com in the neighborhood of the jfk and got a taxi to take us around 11:00 pm.
 after a 6 hours sleep, we tried to modify our ticket and tell someone our complaint. After 2 hours conversation with the polish customer service collegues they modified our ticket for the next flight.
 lot told us that it is not their responsibility as they do not operate the airport itself.

Summary of the complaint

1. Not valid, not updated information in the display of the ny jfk airport terminal7
2. The loudspeaker was not audible on the business lounge, we did not hear our name

Our claim and possible solution

 we claim the modification fee for both two passengers (501 usd and 400 usd)
 we claim the transfer/taxi fees (55 usd)
 we claim the hotel fee for sunday night (243 usd)
 we claim grievance fee (100% of the sum amount above)
 total: 2 398 usd

All of our facts can be checked in your jfk airport cameras.
We really hope that in both two cases the jfk airport will handle this unfortunate situation with professionalism and empathy.

Regards
Júlia győrfi-kalmár and péter fricsovszky-tóth

Budapest, 28 january, 2019

On the evening of December 28th I left my wallet on Delta flight 214 flight from Atlanta to JFK at 11:30pm. Immediately upon returning home and realizing I had left my wallet, I called JFK and Delta lost and found. I was told they wouldn't have it yet and to call back the next morning. I also IMMEDIATELY submitted a lost and found claim to both Delta and JFK, which I had to pay a $30 fee for. The claim is #40869. I have called at least once every day since this happened.

On January 4th I found a message on Facebook from ABM Cabin Agent Jamee Magwood that she had found my wallet and turned it in to her manager. She instructed me to call back and tell these specifics to lost and found. I've been pretty rudely told multiple times that nobody has my wallet and they don't know what to do or tell me.

Since my wallet was FOUND by an EMPLOYEE and turned in, yet not a trace of it can be located, to me that indicates that someone internally has taken my wallet or there is a big problem with negligence, as I submitted multiple claims immediately. Again, the wallet was found so somebody had it at some point. I have received multiple emails from Delta saying they haven't found it, but are still looking. This does not seem to have ever been the case. Please let me know what you or I can do to save this situation. Thanks.

Hello:

First of all, I would like to thank the JFK for the convenient travel opportunity, but on 12/10/2018 something really happened. I am not satisfied about that and would like to get a clear explanation.

I bought a trip from NYC to Vilnius through Amsterdam (Attached file_1). In JFK the date of travel was changed due to the validity of my passport. Everything is good, but in Amsterdam I found out that my further trip was canceled. Why? No one could explain this to me. My plane flew out without me. Tickets were changed that I could reach my destination (Attached file_2). Arrival time went up by 4 hours, but nothing ends. In Vilnius I found out that my baggage is delayed. It was delivered to me the next day (Attached file_3).

I kindly ask you to rewiev this situation and give to me a clear explanation about that to email: [protected]@hotmail.com could the next time I would be more careful and should have an explanation for the people who meet me in destination place.

Sincerely,
Boris Kozhokin

During the security check, my ring slipped off my finger after I took off my jacket. So I put my ring with my bag in the box but my bag came out without the box, and so did my ring. I asked one of the staff but she gave me a very disrespectful response by saying why did you put your ring in the box and now we need to find the ring. During the conversation, she showed annoyed expression and turned her back to me while I was still talking. Is this a appropriate way to talk to a passenger or is this kind of person you prefer to hire for this international airport? My ring is lost and I got your staff's complaints. Such a wonderful day!

From my backpack in checked baggage were stolen two bottles of alcohol in total aroung 0.7l. In total there was 1.0l of alcohol in the backpack.
It was flight number L027. Items were safely imported three days before from Bogota, but on 11 Dec it was stolen on JFK airport between check in and baggage collection in Warsaw.
Worth of items is around 30$, but it's absolutely frightening that JFK workers can steal anything they want from the checked baggage. In last month I had 7 flights in Colombia and nothing was stolen.

My Wife & I arrived on Flight BA0177 from LHR late afternoon on11/20/18.
We are both retired and exhausted after the journey especially after being in line for nearly 2 hours.
Our Bags were delayed and we were approached by a responsible man with a wad of yellow tickets inside the terminal buildings who stated Yellow Cabs no longer go to Manhatton, but he could offer an immediate ticket for an alternative vehicle for a Fixed Price of $75
He grabbed our cases and marched off and put them in the trunk of a waiting car. We were tired and went with him. On the journey we asked who he worked for & he relied UBER.
We were suspicious as we knew Uber fares are not paid to the driver, especially as on the journey he commented we needed to pay taxes also.
His charge was finally $132, and when we refused he became aggressive so we had no choice to pay him which we did on a M/card credit card.
We also obtained a receipt from him and noted his New York Empire State vEhicle plate was HUH-5095.
Clearly this is a total SCAM, in which the thieves are taking advantages of the Old and the Vulnerable, under your noses. We secured a return fare from a reputable firm for $56.
Working as they do in your premises gives them a degree of respectability and you must be aware of these activities which in our view makes you complicit in their activities.
Your urgent response please.
Ian Keizner

Hi
I flew from terminal 5 on Tuesday the 6th of November.
As I was checking a flight information monitor a member of staff pushing a wheelchair with a lady appeared, my young son was with me and we immediately moved to the side apologising for being in the way, although it was hardly a crowded area and this male staff member could easily have gone round us.
When we moved aside he didnt thank us he did however call me an idiot which was totally unprofessional and uncalled for especially in the presence of my son.
This experience tainted my visit to the US and if I do return I will try my best to avoid JFK.

I had an unpleasant experience seeing off my parents at T1 today. My parents don't speak any English and it was their first time visiting the US so I wanted to accompany them till I make sure they get through the security and be able to find their boarding gate. When I found that I can't go through security if I am not traveling, I tried to help my father to connect his phone to the airport WIFI so they can contact me after they get inside.
We stopped near the entrance (not blocking anyone's way) of the security (Gates 1 to 12) and tried to connect to WiFi,
The staff there were so impatient and rude that they yelled at my parents and me to quickly separate and treated me as if I was trying to sneak in. I was kind of mad and explained to them my parents don't speak any English so I wanted to make sure they have their phone connected to WiFi to be able to contact me in case anything happen, but they ignored and just yelled at me to leave. I dont understand their attitudes, don't they have family or anyone they care? I understand the airport's policies and I never wanted to break them or tried to go through the security as well, the policies definitely don't require the stink and cold attitude of the staff towards customers to perform. It won't hurt anyone to be a little more patient and caring.
Was it because we are foreigners and my parents don't speak English so we experienced this? What a shame.
I think we will try to avoid JFK and choose the other airports if possible in the future.
I doubt if my experience and feedback here will be responded and even looked at, just expecting it can be of some help to more customers to not experience the same in the future.
Thanks.

I flew from JFK on Saturday 27th with Thomas Cook airlines at 10:35pm back to Manchester United Kingdom, I have just unpacked my case to find not only my perfume but a brand new foundation has been stolen from my case, I have had no note to say anybody has been through my case and I am absolutely appalled, sort this out. The fact I have to add more to "get attention" is also disgusting. My email is [protected]@gmail.com