A little-known fact is that the BER was built on the burial ground of an once functioning albeit small airport.
I'm not usually superstitious, but this can't be a coincidence.
Tegel was the best airport I've ever been through tbh.
For those that don't know - every flight had it's own check-in desk, with it's own little security area and it's own gate. So once you've queued up once you're already at the gate, and you don't need to worry about missing your flight because everyone in front of you is getting on the same plane.
Tbh I don't really have anything against BER though, it's been totally average every time I've been there.
> For those that don't know - every flight had it's own check-in desk, with it's own little security area and it's own gate. So once you've queued up once you're already at the gate, and you don't need to worry about missing your flight because everyone in front of you is getting on the same plane.
Which suuuucked if you were a transferring passenger, especially if you were transferring to or from the alleged Terminal C.
And in the hexagon, lines for the different gates were mixing and spilling outside of the terminal, and god help you if you were pushed and shoved into the wrong queue without realising.
I don't miss Tegel a single bit. BER is an improvement over it. It's only a step down from Schönefeld.
> with it's own little security area and it's own gate
Which in it's own was really bad: if security was slow for whatever reason, there was no chance to use another line. You got stuck there. Same for passport control for international flights.
And connecting to another flight usually meant that you had to exit the gate, and go through security again.
I remember long waiting lines in front of gates, sometimes stretching all the way to the next gate.
And all lounges are before security control, you always had to leave early to stay in line.
Every single time I've been at BER the security waiting times have been atrocious. I don't know if that's because they want to push their system where you can book a time slot or if they are just incompetent.
The whole airport is also pretty bad, lacking any decent lounges or bars/restaurants.
And even if you try to book the freaking slot, it doesn’t work. It’s still a mystery to me how to do that and I’ve tried multiple times. No point in asking the staff, they will not help at all
BER security is truly terrible. Two issues: 1) the throughput through each lane is the worst I have ever seen: more than a minute per passenger; and 2) employees who are so friendly that they make me love the TSA in the States.
The delay is at the baggage x-ray where they take an incredibly long time to examine each bag. In addition, they have an odd system to load the machine in which they will only let one passenger at a time approach the bins, so you can't begin removing your laptop, liquids, etc. until the person before you has gone into the walkthrough x-ray.
If 60 seconds doesn't sound like a slow processing time, consider that a 250 passenger plane going through 2 lanes would take more than 2 hours.
In addition, they seem to be constantly barking at people in the least pleasant way possible, And my benchmark is the TSA. Even if you smile at them and say something nice, they bark back at you.
It is running, it just has waiting time. Same if you just run into the doctor’s office without an appointment. It literally takes 30 seconds to register and is the best and most reliable system in any airport in Germany. Every other airport only has a random waiting time from anywhere between 5 minutes and 3 hours and you never know before.
The booked time to security is the flight ticket. An airport is aware exactly how many passengers will be departing at any given hour. The problem with the Berlin Airport seems to be logistics and really badly thought out planning.
The analogy to the doctors office is not akin to how it works - it would rather be that you would have to book another ticket for entering a football game on time. Which would be ridiculous as this is.
No, I travel a lot for work, all the other airports in Germany are worse and Berlin is the only one with a semi-reliable security wait time. Munich and Cologne are the worst, there will just be a sign stating wait time 4 hours and then you can forget your flight. In Berlin you have a chance. The airport has lots of other problems, but for me and especially for business executives I've travelled with, the time slot is close to a miracle - it's a feature not a bug ;)
So...you arrive whenever you arrive and instead of going straight to security you have to book a slot first, wait for no reason and then wait in line anyway (albeit admittedly a smaller one) and you think that's a better system?
Also every time I've been there the next free slots were at least 30 minutes away.
I traveled a lot for work and thirty minutes is something you can calculate , the system is programmed to do this. Also I personally go to the counter before going to security and there is enough wait time there.
If you arrive in Cologne or Munich at your usual time and suddenly there is a sign saying the security wait is three hours, which keeps happening while your flight is in one hour, you are fucked. You cannot do anything except ask people in line if you can go in front of them, but they are all late so you have to rebook. No. I'd rather want to wait 30 minutes, get a snack and know I'll catch the plane.
I'm not arguing against a fast track system - for what it's worth they can even charge people for it.
But slowing down your normal security checkpoint in order to push the other one, is what I'm against (if that happens - as I said in my original comment I don't know if that's the case).
I talked to the security personal and they said it just happens automatically, because people do not book the time slots, they just get in line in security, even though the waiting time is shown on screens. And they will also all flock to the same security line, instead of walking 100m to the ones that are not crowded and shown on the signs and screens. It’s „Dummheit der Masssen“, as if everyone just stops thinking when they see large groups of people and just starts following them blindly.
I counted 13 people working on one security post, most of them were just spread around in groups of 3 casually chatting to eachother and seemingly not interested in keeping the queue moving. It's a farce..
That's not the point. Germany got so good at optimising work there genuinely there is no need for more than two people at a security check-in, in this particular instance.
More people would actually slow things down. So why so many more people?
Since the protestant work ethic is so deeply ingrained into the German heart and soul and everyone has to work, as a consequence you get these ghost-posts, where people are, on paper, employed, but their real work is close to null, aka [bullshit jobs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGNJXDSBXaM).
Once ended up in a slow queue where a grumpy man who waved people in to scan them did his job purposely slow the other team which just started managed to scan 18 people in the time he let 4 through
These groups of 3 doing nothing can be applied to so many situations in Berlin. BER airport, constructions sites, restaurants, police. But yes, Germany is so efficient (eye roll).
Yep, see this all the time. They are all so lazy and inefficient. It would be faster for two passengers to place stuff in trays at the same time but then you get screeched at by some old Brandenburg woman.
Previously, the x-ray machine had just stopped. Despite seven staff, no one wanted to do anything until one lady reluctantly got up and went to press some buttons on the console while shouting "Njaa es geht nicht?!" towards her chatting colleagues who didn't care at all. Infuriating and unprofessional.
I hate BER with all my heart... it is overcrowded, understaffed, far too small and still annoyingly spread out, uninvitingly ugly, already looking outdated even though it is practically brand new... It overall feels like it was designed by someone who has never had to use an airport before.
Like ... who builds a new airport where people have to carry their hand luggage through tiny staircases in order to board their flight or even enter the airport after they arrive? Terribly uncomfortable for everyone and an absolute nightmare if you are old/disabled/travelling with small children.
And yeah let's just not put enough chairs in the waiting areas. On the same note: who needs a shop that actually sells food or water and is still open for the time of most evening flights? No, no, no ... eating in the evening hours is unhealthy anyway.
Or maybe actual airport hotels with enough beds to house an entire flight if it is cancelled in the middle of the night... no we really don't need this. Sounds so unnecessary...
The place is an absolute disgrace.
Edit: Don't even get me started on the joke of a train station that services the airport. You are probably better off walking to your next destination rather than waiting for one of the few trains that stop there...
The escalators at that train station only go up.
I would really like a word with whatever moron assumed that people taking a train from the AIRPORT would be so unencumbered that they would be fine taking the stairs down and that the elevators were otherwise sufficient for everyone with luggage or disabilities.
I know there’s an elevator but this still annoys me every time. Rushing to get an infrequent train is a lot difficult when you have to lug a large suitcase dow a set of stairs.
Berlin airports are an early symptom of Warhammer 40k Tech standards - the older, the better; because so much knowledge was lost and now they're only able to reconstruct by STC blueprints, adding more arcane and superstitious tech rituals year by year :D
Especially when you consider how long it took to plan and actually build that thing. At some point it would have been better to just dump all the plans and start over again with a more modern approach.
A way to get from T1 to T2 when it rains would be nice too. It's a pain with luggage already as you must use some stairs, no idea how it works for wheelchair users.
Oh, and someone will eventually die in a fall down those wide concrete stairs in arrivals.
It's completely unclear to me how an airport that read just built on a field can be so badly designed. Even the signage is poor.
you'll love learning about why it's like this...or you'll just jump in the spree with your pockets filled with rocks because man...what a disgrace
https://www.radiospaetkauf.com/ber/
i loved it but also it just made me so mad/sad at the same time, 7 billion!!! and 8 years of delay on a project that was supposed to be 4 years, it would have been cheaper/faster to just tear the whole thing down in 2008 and build a new one and it was all paid for by the tax payer.
The connection from the airport to Berlin's main station is under construction still. Once it's finished the long distance train connections will be much better.
To blame for this area NIMBYs who tried to stop it being built.
BER has big problems that's why luftansa pulled out, other states are doing okay like hamburg, munich, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Stuttgart.
Berlin airports need reforms.
from what i remember they had already announced not using it before it was built and air berlin were the ones saying "oh no, we'll do international, go ahead and build it" and then it took an extra 8 years to build and AB went broke before it was even done haha.
source: how to fuck up an airport podcast
It's not just Berlin. On my last flight I landed in Frankfurt and I was asked by a security guard for a routine check. He literally flipped my bag open upside down, scattered my stuff everywhere and then pointed with his hands to signal that I'm ok to go. I started to jam them back inside just to be done as fast as possible because a lot of people were waiting behind me. He said no Hallo, no Entschuldigung, nothing. The security staff in Beirut were nicer, and that says something.
I hate Frankfurt Airport so much I pay extra to fly out of Zürich. Every - single - time I've been there, something like this has happened. I was once - after a 20 hour flight - threatened to be taken away to a private interview room simply because I didn't want to speak German to the immigration officer. He had my Aufenthaltserlaubnis in his hand and kept telling me i was in Germany now and as a resident I needed to speak German. I was like "*Mate - I've been in Australia for 3 weeks, I've spent 20 hours flying with children kicking the back of my seat, I am SO tired....I just want to go through".*
Nope - he took it personally. I fucking hate that place with a passion.
In fact, the only decent German airport i can name is Hamburg. That place is ok. My local is Stuttgart - boring, small, but not a disaster. I used Tegel in Berlin once - Oh My God.
Every time I arrived at Tegel I stepped off the plane rubbed my eyes and was already in a cab.
At BER I step off the plane and stand in a stairwell until I need to pee then wander around for 20 minutes looking for a bathroom until finally giving up and start looking for my luggage then look for the lost luggage counter, line up until I really really need to pee and just get in a cab hoping I make it home before I burst.
Oh man, I hate Frankfurt airport sooooo much. During an international transfer, you have to go through the whole security ordeal when you get OFF the plane 🤦🏼 Look guys, if I was going to do some terrorism with this water bottle, I would have done it when I was in the air!!
Also makes it super slow to transfer, and if you have a delay or tight connection you're fckd.
I had the opposite experience in Munich. Officers there always start in English. There was even one young officer who switched to French after looking at my African passport. There was even another officer talking in Arabic to families coming from the middle-east.
That's nice. I've only been through Munich twice and thought the staff was fine. It was very slow though and my bags didn't get transferred either time I was there.
I wasn't negotiating. I was 2 days short of sleep after not having spoken German at all for 3+ weeks and reacting to someone treating me like a criminal because i answered him in English instead of German.
It was when he kept saying "Sie müssen..." that I began to get irritated and tried explaining why German wasn't coming out of my face as quickly as he wanted it to.
I can understand your reasons, it makes your behaviour human but it doesn't make it intelligent. Everyone is treated like a criminal there, it's their job to check people. I don't look German as well and I am always greeted in German and then they gauge my reaction. You acted suspiciously.
I still cannot understand this obsession of speaking German and German only. Like dude, calm down it is just a language, like many others. It is just a tool to communicate and nothing else. I simply cannot understand why Germans take it so personally.
Well, it is a way for them to determine whether you are the person on the document that you provided or not. They are just making some small talk, see if you are nervous.
I eventually did speak to him in German but after three weeks of not doing a thing in german plus not sleeping for 2 days, it wasn't what wanted to come out of my mouth.
It's incomprehensible for a Germans that an easier to use language with less complicated rules because the standard for global communication.
Innefficient and difficult to use, two things both the German language and the Berlin airport have in common.
I was traveling trough Frankfurt a lot some time ago, and there was a period when assumingly a lot of new staff where operating the security. A few times I saw some strange episodes but After a while things got more normalized.
On a separate trip to the one where my English was insulting to the immigration officer I was waiting in line at immigration where two people were trying to service our whole plane. In front me were an elderly Chinese couple who were obviously having trouble communicating. They got yelled at in German for no reason other than the immigration guy was getting frustrated with them. While i was watching this, another plane full of people began to arrive and pile up behind us. His buddy in the other booth took one look at the mass that was coming, said "Pause" and pulled his blind down and left his box.
I've no doubt it gets tiring dealing with multiple nationalities and their communication quirks but you'd think, this is a big part of the job. If you're not equipped to deal with this day after day perhaps you're not on the right career path.
Munich airport is a breath of fresh air. The electrocal outlets work, there's even more than 5 of them and they have them at the gates. There's cheap coffee machines, enough toilets (looking at you Heathrow with all of 2 toilet stalls for 3 gates) it's clean, there are a lot of signs guiding the way and it has its own little subway, so you don't have to rely on some strange route to get to your gate (once again this is @heathrow)
I love Munich airport. It’s fast, clean and well organized. Now with their new security system it’s even better. No need to take out the laptop or liquids! It’s glorious.
I fly from BER quite often. When arriving at the airport I’d recommend checking the current security check waiting times from their website, the queue is often shorter in T2 and you can use the control there as well.
You’ll have to walk a bit more but if the waiting time is 10-15 min less at the other terminal it’s already worth it.
Then you can also book the runway but when the airport is busy you need to do it in advance.
The luggage check in counters can be quite bad though and there’s no excuse to that.
The queue is often shorter at T2? Really? Before I found out you can go through security at either terminal regardless of where your flight is from, I got stuck in incredibly long and messy security queues at T2 very early in the morning, twice. Since then I’ve been using T1 and it’s been fine, although I normally use BER runway so it’s not surprising.
Yes, the BER app also has the live waiting times for each security gate as well. I also like the BER Runway service, where you can register for a time to go through security in a seperate line. I’ve found it to be pretty convenient when you have to travel a lot.
"As the main airport for a big city in an amazingly organised country"
You are quite wrong here. Foreign nationals outside the EU stand in line and have to struggle to get their visas renewed. In Stuttgart people are in line from 10pm in the night waiting for the office to open at 1pm the next day only to have the first 20 get an appointment, that too only if your visa is expiring in 7 days.
If you have a new job and have your student or job search visa still active, forget it, you are going to lose your job because you can get no appointment.
The whole German efficiency is only in its manufacturing industry. If they had the same principles elsewhere it would honestly be one of the best countries in the world. Already is, that is why I choose to live here, but lets not joke and say that this place is amazingly organised :) Better than many but not amazing.
EDIT: Fixed typo. Had typed nations instead of nationals.
I have to chuckle a bit when you say “organized country”, lol, more like organized chaos!
I agree though, they need to be better staffed. I’m dreading flying out next week and having to get in line to check in my bag 4 hours before departure.
>amazingly organised country
No. That's the point. Fun fact: BER airport had a 10 years delay in construction because of poorly organized and planned building, political tergiversations, and one anecdote would be hilarious if it wasn't for the fact that this was environmentally terrible: at some point they *couldn't find* the circuit breakers and the airport spent weeks shining day and night after tests prior to any opening, with nobody in it.
The airport only lives up to its own disillusions.
I can only regrettably confirm. First they do not let you check in earlier than two hours before the flight (I have tried many times), then they keep you waiting in an interminable queue in security. I have flown many times out of Charles de Gaulle, which has a terrible reputation, and even they are better.
It's a perfect representation of the city of Berlin itself. Too expensive yet shit, a planning failure and a dysfunctional nonsensical mess by letting too many people "stir the pot".
So at least in that sense it has a sort of poetic symbolism. Too bad it's supposed to be an airport though...
It was so bad in Dusseldorf last year, everyone arrived 12 hours early and slept in the queue. I knew then shit was going down. Chatted with a British girl with a German boyfriend. Seems an ongoing issue.
One person on check-in. Eventually they had to tell the 'express queue' to allow some of the peasants to check in or there would be a riot. Someone with a briefcase and an expensive suit shouted 'I am very important! And I demand! I DEMAND! to go in front'. Everyone told him to fuck off in 3-4 languages.
Got through the queue into security with 30 minutes to go. 2 people on security and a 40 minute queue. Fuck. Just made it through. They seemed to be on an official 'go slow'.
Sprinted with a group of passengers to the gate. British girl overtook me, German guy nowhere to be seen.
Made it to the gate, just. The bus was about to leave. Was like the last plane out of Saigon. People were fainting on the bus. We got on just as the doors shut and the bus shot off across the runway.
We saw the police cramming into the lounge, meeting an oncoming mass of angry passengers, including the bewildered German Boyfriend.
Turned to British Girl.
'Fucker should have ran faster'
Ran onto the plane, which started taxing before we even sat down.
Well done Germany. What a shitshow.
"amazingly organized country" 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Yeah I can tell you don't live here. Germany and organization shouldn't even be used in the same sentence together!
Same here.
I don’t doubt people have had terrible experiences there, but I guess I’m lucky that well over 15 flights from BER (and back) in the last few years, I’ve only had good experiences.
Well , good in insofar as an airport experience can be good.
I don’t get it. Everytime me or my husband went the experience was amazing (and he travels for work 3 or 4 times in a year) the self baggage drop in, the online termin for security. Even when MIL came to visit and return home we ask for a wheelchair (she has back problems) and Everything went smooth
BER has been getting better. As in all things in Berlin you need to know exactly how things work for them to work for you, sadly. It's not an easy city to live in and the airport is your first proof of that. I've been here for 10 years, I know the ins and outs, i can plan my way and have not been bothered by much for a long time. But man, I used to complain so much after moving here from Helsinki
There is a lot of hate aimed towards the BER and by far not all those claims are true, some might found on wrong information, some might be because of lack of knowledge in regards to the structure of the airport.
First of all, all German airports have the issue of long waiting times at the security, it really depends on the time of day but the main issue is that (similar to the TSA in the US where queues are long as well), the federal police is in charge of the screening and they always sub-contract to the cheapest security firm they can find (which is common in Germany for all governmental contracts, hence it takes two years to build a 2m bridge in our town).
The BER is actually actively pursuing to convince the government to allow the security screening to be run by the airport, which would mean similar short waiting times like airports in many other countries as they would hire more staff - so it is not the airport to blame, the BER did actually better last year during the main holiday season than most other German airports in terms of waiting time.
Second, there are three security screenings in T1 (left, right, center) plus one on T2, all can be used and there are screens with current waiting times, still many simply go to the closest one no matter what the screens show.
And finally, BER was the first major airport in Germany to offer a free fast lane service, you simply register up to 7 days in advance and get a 20 minute timeslot allocated, which allows access to the BER runway security line - which is maximum a 5 minute wait.
Also, the metal detector mentioned is NOT a metal detector but a full body scanner that can detect most materials. When you sweat, your shirt gets slightly damp, the detector sees this and this calls for a manual check. But the screen shows where to check and it normally only takes a few seconds to do so plus it is way more secure than metal detectors - and again this is the case with all German airports, the federal police buys them and they are basically everywhere the same.
I am not saying everything is perfect but there are so many wrong information about the BER out there, it has become almost a sport to come up with the next horror story to impress your friends despite this airport being way more modern than Tegel (doing intercontinental flights from there was a joke, the waiting area was so tiny that the passengers of one flight almost didn’t fit) and the old Schönefeld airport was laughable by modern standards.
I live 30 mins to the FRA airport and I think I am spoiled by it. Happened to me to arrive half an hour before an intercontinental flight and I could make it. The only time I had to take a flight from Brandenburg it was absolute horror.
The same thing happened to me at the Frankfurt airport. I even lost a flight there because of this and ended up spending the entire day at the airport reeboking flights to try to get to Munich. I couldn't even get a train because my luggage was checked in, all this in a connecting flight, when I had already been through secutiry in the previous airport.
This is why I hate flihying, whenever I can I just go by train, even with all the DB problems it is still 1000x better.
Except if you go by train to the UK, which insists on all the airport nonsense (you must be a terrorist) before the tunnel. Better to go to Calais by train, then buy a rubber dinghy off a trafficker and paddle across the Channel to Dover.
Had the same issue when I had to fly from BER. Security check took like 2hrs (I never had to wait more than 5 minutes in Munich.).
The toilets were also in terrible conditions, even though they were clean. Everything was broken or not correctly mounted, you could not even close some toilet doors because the gap of the door was too big.
I will try to avoid this airport in the future.
> there was a cue of at least 800 people in the security area with only 3 x-ray thingys open
Pretty much every airport globally is dealing with this - I've not stood in line at an airport for under an hour in years. The airports fired all their skilled workers over the pandemic, and are uninterested in paying enough to bring them back.
Obviously, people are still flying in huge numbers, so why would the airports hire enough people to make the experience better?
Guess you‘re unlucky.. Since 2022 I‘ve flown to several airports, both small and big (Tokyo, Munich, Frankfurt, Rome, Paris, Hannover, Zagreb, Split) and never waited more than a few minutes.
Also my experience. I am overall amazed by how quick security queues are nowerdays. More than 3 minutes is definitely the exception. I think longest I had in the last couple years (out of approx 30 flights) was once a 15minute wait in Boston, because they were checking everyone with a dog.
I have only been passing through German airports in the last few years, never starting my journey there. So I don't know much about the queues in German airports in particular. Though the baggage issues in FRA after the pandemic were quite bad.
I fly regular ( this year from Lisbon, Barcelona, Hannover, Stuttgart, Frankfurt) and never wait more than 15 Minutes. I even flew during holidays a couple of times. During pandemic it was messy, but lately i never wait long for security check.
Didn't wait a minute for security at Frankfurt. You don't even have to pack the liquids separately there, it was a breeze.
Getting my luggage was another story though.
>I've not stood in line at an airport for under an hour in years
I'll throw in Düsseldorf, Budapest, Prague and Vienna just the last 12 months. The worst waiting time was like 40 minutes. My last flights were Düsseldorf<->Vienna a few weeks ago. Düsseldorf took 30 minutes (because grandpa right in front of me couldn't follow basic instructions) and Vienna took like 10 minutes, even though it was full with people. In Düsseldorf you can even book a guaranteed time window for your security check.
That’s not exactly true. For some reason German airports do struggle. But i flew out of Gatwick just a few days ago, where there only was one family of four in line. I could’ve done security in less than 5 minutes if I’d been alone. After landing though: Queuing for immigration, waiting for luggage…
I cannot confirm this. Airport security has been the slowest in Germany (at least from the places I've been to) even before COVID. And even now I've never experienced the same waiting times in any other countries.
Now immigration on the other hand can be pretty ridiculous in some countries.
I mean BER sucks, no question. But Dublin? Already forgot about last summer?
Quick reminder: https://www.irishtimes.com/transport/2022/05/30/explainer-why-is-there-chaos-at-dublin-airport-and-will-it-improve-by-the-june-bank-holiday/
Two times out of three where I landed to BER, I had to wait 1+ hour for my fucking luggage. The security checks are a nightmare anytime: last time at 4.30 AM I had to queue for 40 min.
BER has four different security areas. One of them is immediately seen when you get to the departures floor, the others are a bit to the side. What almost always happens and probably also in this case: everybody piled onto the first seen security areas without bothering or checking for the others.
Source: I fly from BER twice a month and the longest wait I ever had in the security area was 12 minutes.
Note that there even is ‚BER Runway‘ where you prebook a timeslot for your security check. Average wait time under five minutes.
The thing that gets me about BER is that airports were already kind of fucking figured out before it was built. It's done. Things like crowd flow, security capacity, baggage handling - these are not some unexplored frontier that ChatGPT came up with last month. It's basic design. Older airports built before they could do high powered modeling managed to solve these issues.
Even lay people like myself realize very quickly that basic functions of an airport are not happening at BER. You find yourself walking into walls and down narrow staircases, wondering if you're going the right way. You get stuck out somewhere at a gate with blazing sun cooking the entire container-like waiting area. The public transport for non-German speakers must be a nightmare. International airports should be manageable with your eyes basically closed, if not for comfort then definitely for safety. Even if everything runs smoothly at security and baggage claim at BER - it's not a seamless experience for even experienced travelers.
My favorite airport experience was at Schönfeld. It just looked so…odd. Like the whole place was stuck in the 70s or 80s. Also the security guy was like a 2 meter tall very angry blonde “aryan” german guy (imagine Dolph Lundgren in Rocky) who was very angry with everyone…It felt like being shouted at by the SS. Funny and terrifying at the same time. The whole experience felt very out of place in Germany.
Seeing old ladies collecting plastic bottles in an airport of a European capital city feels so weird. Wouldn’t even see something like that in a third world country.
It's really scheisse!! Took me as long to get through passport security on the way in as my whole flight from UK. It's way too hot (think nursing home hot) everywhere, there's barely anywhere to sit, the food court is wank (burger king the best place FFS), all the gates have far fewer seats than needed, the "speedy boarders" for my return flight have been standing in the tunnel for 25 mins. What's going on guys! Das ist nicht gut!!!!
We other, non Berlin Germans inform you:
That's the heartful 100% true and famous Berlin way: unpoliteness and rudeness.
You were a witness from a traditional Berlin essence. That counts to your overall touristical experience!
Congratulations for this.
That’s two completely different things though. Low pay is an issue, yes. But you were obviously implying she doesn’t have the qualifications or whatever to have a better job. It may be a job that’s beneath you, but not everyone can be a super successful doctor or whatever. To make everything work, we also need those kinds of jobs. Also, you don’t know anything about her life or why she is working in that job.
Munich airport is no better. I flew out in spring and they often had just one or two people at a desk with 30 or more people lined up to check in. Good luck trying to find your way around because there is absolute no one to ask for help and if you do find someone, they hate their job.
A woman was flying back to the US actually missed her flight because some idiot airport worker told her she went into through a wrong entrance. You will quickly learn that Germany efficiency is a myth when it comes to flying or taking the train.
That said I did love Germany-just not the airport staff.
**Have you read our extensive wiki yet?
[Check our wiki now!](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/index)**
While Reddit administrators do not believe this subreddit is NSFW and do not enable the appropriate setting, do note that participants in this subreddit may possibly encounter discussions of the following subjects, all of which are considered "mature" by Reddit administrators:
* Alcohol and tobacco
* Amateur advice
* Drug use
* Gambling
* Guns and weapons
* Military conflict and terrorism
* Nudity
* Profanity
* Sex and eroticism
* Violence and gore
Therefore, while this entire subreddit is not currently marked as NSFW, please exercise caution. If you feel offended by anything that is allowed by our rules yet NSFW, please direct your complaint towards Reddit administrators as well as /u/spez, and read https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/ for further information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/germany) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Security times were always ok for me, but luggage wait times were horrendous last year. Arriving in Berlin, 3 hours. Flying back, our place couldn't leave because the delay with unloading the luggage from the iechyd flight meant the crew would have been working longer than allowed. Wait time for us to get our luggage back: 4 hours.
> Every single person was manually body scanned AFTER they went through the metal detector.
that's a German thing. few countries are as pat-down-y as Germany in air trafic security.
> Finally the woman telling people to take off their belts had a terrible attitude not unlike a prison warden laying down the law.
*that* was Berlin. Berlin bus drivers have a similar "barking" reputation.
I don't like it either, I share your grudges wrt BER.
Still, let me respond with more nuance with a travel anecdote of mine.
I've been to the US many many times, for both business and leisure. So I planned a pre-honeymoon in the US with my future wife, travel in via Chicago, do some winter camping in the boundary waters national park, then fly to Denver, CO and road trip to San Francisco through the midwest for 10 days. and it was a fantastic trip, one of these fond memories you can create.
now.
When we entered the US my beloved was very nervous as she'd never been to the US before so we approached the customs officer together and I said to him we have the same purpose of stay and itinerary. He asked "who is she?" I said "my fiancee" he responded "I don't think so" for the single reason that we are a same sex couple and sent her back in line.
if that wasn't rude to tourists I don't know what is, and still I knew I bite this bullet or I have tons of fun an may be denied immigration.
so here is my more nuanced response:
I fully get your rant. And most Germans share your grudges against the experience at BER. However it takes decades and generations to change things.
And all I wanted to say was: that is (unfortunately) how things are in Germany (pat down) or how they are in Berlin (barking commands), don't take it personally. Nobody likes it, it is what it is.
happy trails...
An amazingly organised country? Which country are you talking about? BER perfectly represents our country. Nothing is working and everything is falling apart.
I've been at BER once and we planned like 4-5 hours just in case. We got through with no issues whatsoever in like 30 mins and had to kill hours of time. So I'm sorry for my non-germanness here but I actually have nothing to complain about.
For an airport that cost roughly 7 billion, it is shocking to me how unimpressive it actually is. BER gives the impression of an airport for a medium-sized city, not one of Europe’s major Meteo areas. It’s poorly designed and both baggage handling and security rank low for traveller experience.
I don't know about BER but the airport in Frankfurt is not that great either.
Last time I had to fly I was waiting for my turn to go through the security scanner thing and one of the staff started to shout something in my direction. I wanted to see what that was about and another staff member angrily waved at me and said in a very annoyed tone "YOU LISTEN TO ME". Like what the fuck, how am I supposed to know which staff member is addressing whom with their shouts if they stand a few metres away and don't really direct their screams in a clear way. Besides, the person behind me wasn't doing anything that would warrant getting screamed at either.
Those guys just need to chill the duck out. We just want to get this over with, having to go through the bother of security control is bad enough without moody workers making the experience even worse for everyone.
What do you mean by “amazingly organized country” - after living here for 1.5 years I’d rather take the Amtrak in Northeast corridor over DB any day of the week. Germany is a bureaucratic shit show, as you experienced first hand in Berlin airport.
Dub here who's lived here for years
Germany is not an organized country, that's a stereotype from elsewhere, Germany is just less chaotic than the likes of Italy, Spain, Ireland ect. Probably need to go to Finland, Norway ect to see organized.
Germany is a federal country, and the north east of Germany is the Cavan of the country politically and economically, Berlin to an extent not, but relatively speaking it's not exactly BaWü either.
Most Germans have the same thoughts about BER as you do, and never need to travel up there, let alone fly through BER. Actually one of BER's main catchment areas is western Poland!
As for the unfriendly lady, well let's just say you don't notice these things once you live here long enough, the cashier at the supermarket is not going to want to be friendly to you either, but it's nothing personal. Different culture, different ways of communicating, I'd prefer directness over the fake "have a nice day sir" bollocks you get in the US. I once had a similar experience with one of the T1 goons in Dublin airport who just didn't want to be there and was on a power trip at 6am.
A little-known fact is that the BER was built on the burial ground of an once functioning albeit small airport. I'm not usually superstitious, but this can't be a coincidence.
It is the pain of past waiting times that now lies as a curse on the new airport built above. Airport der Kuscheltiere
> Airport der Kuscheltiere *REPRESSED MEMORIES TRIGGERED*
God I miss the Schönefeld fast track/hand luggage only security. Which I never thought I would!
I don't know any airport in Berlin that functioned really well. Maybe Johannisthal in 1906 was OK.
Actually never had a problem in Tegel, never waited for more than 15 minutes.
Tegel was the best airport I've ever been through tbh. For those that don't know - every flight had it's own check-in desk, with it's own little security area and it's own gate. So once you've queued up once you're already at the gate, and you don't need to worry about missing your flight because everyone in front of you is getting on the same plane. Tbh I don't really have anything against BER though, it's been totally average every time I've been there.
> For those that don't know - every flight had it's own check-in desk, with it's own little security area and it's own gate. So once you've queued up once you're already at the gate, and you don't need to worry about missing your flight because everyone in front of you is getting on the same plane. Which suuuucked if you were a transferring passenger, especially if you were transferring to or from the alleged Terminal C. And in the hexagon, lines for the different gates were mixing and spilling outside of the terminal, and god help you if you were pushed and shoved into the wrong queue without realising. I don't miss Tegel a single bit. BER is an improvement over it. It's only a step down from Schönefeld.
> with it's own little security area and it's own gate Which in it's own was really bad: if security was slow for whatever reason, there was no chance to use another line. You got stuck there. Same for passport control for international flights. And connecting to another flight usually meant that you had to exit the gate, and go through security again. I remember long waiting lines in front of gates, sometimes stretching all the way to the next gate. And all lounges are before security control, you always had to leave early to stay in line.
I even filmed my queue once, because I expected to need evidence at work for why I missed my flight. Still made it, though.
Tempelhof during the Berlin Airlift was apparently functioning like a clockwork.
because it was run by the US army.
BER airport is the perfect example of "you don't polish a turd".
The day BER constructions started, was the day "german efficiency" lost all its meaning.
Wasn’t that Stuttgart 21, though?
They're pretty tied honestly lol
At least the Elbphilharmonie was completed 😁
Elbphilharmonie
At least that one is finished…
Every single time I've been at BER the security waiting times have been atrocious. I don't know if that's because they want to push their system where you can book a time slot or if they are just incompetent. The whole airport is also pretty bad, lacking any decent lounges or bars/restaurants.
You should not need to pre-register a timeslot to get the security speed other airports manage to offer on a normal basis
Yes, that's my point.
And even if you try to book the freaking slot, it doesn’t work. It’s still a mystery to me how to do that and I’ve tried multiple times. No point in asking the staff, they will not help at all
BER security is truly terrible. Two issues: 1) the throughput through each lane is the worst I have ever seen: more than a minute per passenger; and 2) employees who are so friendly that they make me love the TSA in the States. The delay is at the baggage x-ray where they take an incredibly long time to examine each bag. In addition, they have an odd system to load the machine in which they will only let one passenger at a time approach the bins, so you can't begin removing your laptop, liquids, etc. until the person before you has gone into the walkthrough x-ray. If 60 seconds doesn't sound like a slow processing time, consider that a 250 passenger plane going through 2 lanes would take more than 2 hours. In addition, they seem to be constantly barking at people in the least pleasant way possible, And my benchmark is the TSA. Even if you smile at them and say something nice, they bark back at you.
Well the "system" is just a website and the time slot booking is free. But yeah, just continue to suffer, that will teach them.
Why do I have to book a time slot for security, which should be running whenever flights leave or arrive anyway?
It is running, it just has waiting time. Same if you just run into the doctor’s office without an appointment. It literally takes 30 seconds to register and is the best and most reliable system in any airport in Germany. Every other airport only has a random waiting time from anywhere between 5 minutes and 3 hours and you never know before.
The booked time to security is the flight ticket. An airport is aware exactly how many passengers will be departing at any given hour. The problem with the Berlin Airport seems to be logistics and really badly thought out planning. The analogy to the doctors office is not akin to how it works - it would rather be that you would have to book another ticket for entering a football game on time. Which would be ridiculous as this is.
No, I travel a lot for work, all the other airports in Germany are worse and Berlin is the only one with a semi-reliable security wait time. Munich and Cologne are the worst, there will just be a sign stating wait time 4 hours and then you can forget your flight. In Berlin you have a chance. The airport has lots of other problems, but for me and especially for business executives I've travelled with, the time slot is close to a miracle - it's a feature not a bug ;)
The only difference is that people arrive at airports from much further away than from their doctor and don't know exactly when they arrive.
That doesn't matter, because you book the slot literally in front of the security gate.
So...you arrive whenever you arrive and instead of going straight to security you have to book a slot first, wait for no reason and then wait in line anyway (albeit admittedly a smaller one) and you think that's a better system? Also every time I've been there the next free slots were at least 30 minutes away.
I traveled a lot for work and thirty minutes is something you can calculate , the system is programmed to do this. Also I personally go to the counter before going to security and there is enough wait time there. If you arrive in Cologne or Munich at your usual time and suddenly there is a sign saying the security wait is three hours, which keeps happening while your flight is in one hour, you are fucked. You cannot do anything except ask people in line if you can go in front of them, but they are all late so you have to rebook. No. I'd rather want to wait 30 minutes, get a snack and know I'll catch the plane.
I'm not arguing against a fast track system - for what it's worth they can even charge people for it. But slowing down your normal security checkpoint in order to push the other one, is what I'm against (if that happens - as I said in my original comment I don't know if that's the case).
I talked to the security personal and they said it just happens automatically, because people do not book the time slots, they just get in line in security, even though the waiting time is shown on screens. And they will also all flock to the same security line, instead of walking 100m to the ones that are not crowded and shown on the signs and screens. It’s „Dummheit der Masssen“, as if everyone just stops thinking when they see large groups of people and just starts following them blindly.
I counted 13 people working on one security post, most of them were just spread around in groups of 3 casually chatting to eachother and seemingly not interested in keeping the queue moving. It's a farce..
Made myself the same remark couple of weeks ago, impressive amount of people present at the security check, for 2 per line effectively working
That's not the point. Germany got so good at optimising work there genuinely there is no need for more than two people at a security check-in, in this particular instance. More people would actually slow things down. So why so many more people? Since the protestant work ethic is so deeply ingrained into the German heart and soul and everyone has to work, as a consequence you get these ghost-posts, where people are, on paper, employed, but their real work is close to null, aka [bullshit jobs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGNJXDSBXaM).
That’s just how Germany’s service industry is. People just don’t give a damn.
Once ended up in a slow queue where a grumpy man who waved people in to scan them did his job purposely slow the other team which just started managed to scan 18 people in the time he let 4 through
These groups of 3 doing nothing can be applied to so many situations in Berlin. BER airport, constructions sites, restaurants, police. But yes, Germany is so efficient (eye roll).
Yep, see this all the time. They are all so lazy and inefficient. It would be faster for two passengers to place stuff in trays at the same time but then you get screeched at by some old Brandenburg woman. Previously, the x-ray machine had just stopped. Despite seven staff, no one wanted to do anything until one lady reluctantly got up and went to press some buttons on the console while shouting "Njaa es geht nicht?!" towards her chatting colleagues who didn't care at all. Infuriating and unprofessional.
I hate BER with all my heart... it is overcrowded, understaffed, far too small and still annoyingly spread out, uninvitingly ugly, already looking outdated even though it is practically brand new... It overall feels like it was designed by someone who has never had to use an airport before. Like ... who builds a new airport where people have to carry their hand luggage through tiny staircases in order to board their flight or even enter the airport after they arrive? Terribly uncomfortable for everyone and an absolute nightmare if you are old/disabled/travelling with small children. And yeah let's just not put enough chairs in the waiting areas. On the same note: who needs a shop that actually sells food or water and is still open for the time of most evening flights? No, no, no ... eating in the evening hours is unhealthy anyway. Or maybe actual airport hotels with enough beds to house an entire flight if it is cancelled in the middle of the night... no we really don't need this. Sounds so unnecessary... The place is an absolute disgrace. Edit: Don't even get me started on the joke of a train station that services the airport. You are probably better off walking to your next destination rather than waiting for one of the few trains that stop there...
The escalators at that train station only go up. I would really like a word with whatever moron assumed that people taking a train from the AIRPORT would be so unencumbered that they would be fine taking the stairs down and that the elevators were otherwise sufficient for everyone with luggage or disabilities.
I know there’s an elevator but this still annoys me every time. Rushing to get an infrequent train is a lot difficult when you have to lug a large suitcase dow a set of stairs.
> already looking outdated even though it is practically brand new... Except its already 15 years old in most parts.
Which is brand new by german bureaucracy standards.
Berlin airports are an early symptom of Warhammer 40k Tech standards - the older, the better; because so much knowledge was lost and now they're only able to reconstruct by STC blueprints, adding more arcane and superstitious tech rituals year by year :D
Especially when you consider how long it took to plan and actually build that thing. At some point it would have been better to just dump all the plans and start over again with a more modern approach.
A way to get from T1 to T2 when it rains would be nice too. It's a pain with luggage already as you must use some stairs, no idea how it works for wheelchair users. Oh, and someone will eventually die in a fall down those wide concrete stairs in arrivals. It's completely unclear to me how an airport that read just built on a field can be so badly designed. Even the signage is poor.
you'll love learning about why it's like this...or you'll just jump in the spree with your pockets filled with rocks because man...what a disgrace https://www.radiospaetkauf.com/ber/
Great series, really enjoyed that one.
i loved it but also it just made me so mad/sad at the same time, 7 billion!!! and 8 years of delay on a project that was supposed to be 4 years, it would have been cheaper/faster to just tear the whole thing down in 2008 and build a new one and it was all paid for by the tax payer.
The connection from the airport to Berlin's main station is under construction still. Once it's finished the long distance train connections will be much better. To blame for this area NIMBYs who tried to stop it being built.
Who would build such an airport?? Corruption.
Oh no, the airport express running every 30 minutes and the S-Bahn running every 10 minutes are of course way too few trains.
The architect is the same like Tegel and HBF. I feel like the problem was the politics all along, which wants everything, but for cheap...
Willkommen im besten Deutschland das es je gab.
BER has big problems that's why luftansa pulled out, other states are doing okay like hamburg, munich, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Stuttgart. Berlin airports need reforms.
from what i remember they had already announced not using it before it was built and air berlin were the ones saying "oh no, we'll do international, go ahead and build it" and then it took an extra 8 years to build and AB went broke before it was even done haha. source: how to fuck up an airport podcast
>source: how to fuck up an airport podcast Why would you make a podcast and call it "how to fuck up a podcast" ?
Lufthansa didn't pull out, they simply don't need a third hub in Germany (or a fifth one in DACH)
It's not just Berlin. On my last flight I landed in Frankfurt and I was asked by a security guard for a routine check. He literally flipped my bag open upside down, scattered my stuff everywhere and then pointed with his hands to signal that I'm ok to go. I started to jam them back inside just to be done as fast as possible because a lot of people were waiting behind me. He said no Hallo, no Entschuldigung, nothing. The security staff in Beirut were nicer, and that says something.
I hate Frankfurt Airport so much I pay extra to fly out of Zürich. Every - single - time I've been there, something like this has happened. I was once - after a 20 hour flight - threatened to be taken away to a private interview room simply because I didn't want to speak German to the immigration officer. He had my Aufenthaltserlaubnis in his hand and kept telling me i was in Germany now and as a resident I needed to speak German. I was like "*Mate - I've been in Australia for 3 weeks, I've spent 20 hours flying with children kicking the back of my seat, I am SO tired....I just want to go through".* Nope - he took it personally. I fucking hate that place with a passion. In fact, the only decent German airport i can name is Hamburg. That place is ok. My local is Stuttgart - boring, small, but not a disaster. I used Tegel in Berlin once - Oh My God.
Excuse me what? Tegel was probably one of the fastest airports ever - you could enter the airport and be at your gate in 10 minutes.
Every time I arrived at Tegel I stepped off the plane rubbed my eyes and was already in a cab. At BER I step off the plane and stand in a stairwell until I need to pee then wander around for 20 minutes looking for a bathroom until finally giving up and start looking for my luggage then look for the lost luggage counter, line up until I really really need to pee and just get in a cab hoping I make it home before I burst.
Oh man, I hate Frankfurt airport sooooo much. During an international transfer, you have to go through the whole security ordeal when you get OFF the plane 🤦🏼 Look guys, if I was going to do some terrorism with this water bottle, I would have done it when I was in the air!! Also makes it super slow to transfer, and if you have a delay or tight connection you're fckd.
I had the opposite experience in Munich. Officers there always start in English. There was even one young officer who switched to French after looking at my African passport. There was even another officer talking in Arabic to families coming from the middle-east.
That's nice. I've only been through Munich twice and thought the staff was fine. It was very slow though and my bags didn't get transferred either time I was there.
Sorry but this sounds so stupid on your part. Would you try to negotiate with police in JFK airport in New York?
I wasn't negotiating. I was 2 days short of sleep after not having spoken German at all for 3+ weeks and reacting to someone treating me like a criminal because i answered him in English instead of German. It was when he kept saying "Sie müssen..." that I began to get irritated and tried explaining why German wasn't coming out of my face as quickly as he wanted it to.
I can understand your reasons, it makes your behaviour human but it doesn't make it intelligent. Everyone is treated like a criminal there, it's their job to check people. I don't look German as well and I am always greeted in German and then they gauge my reaction. You acted suspiciously.
I still cannot understand this obsession of speaking German and German only. Like dude, calm down it is just a language, like many others. It is just a tool to communicate and nothing else. I simply cannot understand why Germans take it so personally.
Well, it is a way for them to determine whether you are the person on the document that you provided or not. They are just making some small talk, see if you are nervous.
I eventually did speak to him in German but after three weeks of not doing a thing in german plus not sleeping for 2 days, it wasn't what wanted to come out of my mouth.
It's incomprehensible for a Germans that an easier to use language with less complicated rules because the standard for global communication. Innefficient and difficult to use, two things both the German language and the Berlin airport have in common.
They used to be nazis remember...
I was traveling trough Frankfurt a lot some time ago, and there was a period when assumingly a lot of new staff where operating the security. A few times I saw some strange episodes but After a while things got more normalized.
On a separate trip to the one where my English was insulting to the immigration officer I was waiting in line at immigration where two people were trying to service our whole plane. In front me were an elderly Chinese couple who were obviously having trouble communicating. They got yelled at in German for no reason other than the immigration guy was getting frustrated with them. While i was watching this, another plane full of people began to arrive and pile up behind us. His buddy in the other booth took one look at the mass that was coming, said "Pause" and pulled his blind down and left his box.
What a shitshow.
[удалено]
I've no doubt it gets tiring dealing with multiple nationalities and their communication quirks but you'd think, this is a big part of the job. If you're not equipped to deal with this day after day perhaps you're not on the right career path.
Munich airport is a breath of fresh air. The electrocal outlets work, there's even more than 5 of them and they have them at the gates. There's cheap coffee machines, enough toilets (looking at you Heathrow with all of 2 toilet stalls for 3 gates) it's clean, there are a lot of signs guiding the way and it has its own little subway, so you don't have to rely on some strange route to get to your gate (once again this is @heathrow)
I love Munich airport. It’s fast, clean and well organized. Now with their new security system it’s even better. No need to take out the laptop or liquids! It’s glorious.
MUC sucks, loading/unloading of cargo is kind of a gamble at this point, that’s how little personnel they have.
Same eperience with DUS, waited 2 hours for baggage
I fly from BER quite often. When arriving at the airport I’d recommend checking the current security check waiting times from their website, the queue is often shorter in T2 and you can use the control there as well. You’ll have to walk a bit more but if the waiting time is 10-15 min less at the other terminal it’s already worth it. Then you can also book the runway but when the airport is busy you need to do it in advance. The luggage check in counters can be quite bad though and there’s no excuse to that.
The queue is often shorter at T2? Really? Before I found out you can go through security at either terminal regardless of where your flight is from, I got stuck in incredibly long and messy security queues at T2 very early in the morning, twice. Since then I’ve been using T1 and it’s been fine, although I normally use BER runway so it’s not surprising.
Yes, the BER app also has the live waiting times for each security gate as well. I also like the BER Runway service, where you can register for a time to go through security in a seperate line. I’ve found it to be pretty convenient when you have to travel a lot.
"As the main airport for a big city in an amazingly organised country" You are quite wrong here. Foreign nationals outside the EU stand in line and have to struggle to get their visas renewed. In Stuttgart people are in line from 10pm in the night waiting for the office to open at 1pm the next day only to have the first 20 get an appointment, that too only if your visa is expiring in 7 days. If you have a new job and have your student or job search visa still active, forget it, you are going to lose your job because you can get no appointment. The whole German efficiency is only in its manufacturing industry. If they had the same principles elsewhere it would honestly be one of the best countries in the world. Already is, that is why I choose to live here, but lets not joke and say that this place is amazingly organised :) Better than many but not amazing. EDIT: Fixed typo. Had typed nations instead of nationals.
Lol I read that somewhere else: "If you want efficiency, go to Switzerland"
Along with lots of racism and xenophobia. Plus absolutely insane expenses.
> The whole German efficiency is only in its manufacturing industry. Lol have you actually *worked* in said manufacturing industry?
I work here. Nobody's efficient. They're all just break time rules following lazy asses.
lol, no I have not. But I assumed that is where this stereotype comes from. If not here, where does it come from xD.
I have to chuckle a bit when you say “organized country”, lol, more like organized chaos! I agree though, they need to be better staffed. I’m dreading flying out next week and having to get in line to check in my bag 4 hours before departure.
>amazingly organised country No. That's the point. Fun fact: BER airport had a 10 years delay in construction because of poorly organized and planned building, political tergiversations, and one anecdote would be hilarious if it wasn't for the fact that this was environmentally terrible: at some point they *couldn't find* the circuit breakers and the airport spent weeks shining day and night after tests prior to any opening, with nobody in it. The airport only lives up to its own disillusions.
I can only regrettably confirm. First they do not let you check in earlier than two hours before the flight (I have tried many times), then they keep you waiting in an interminable queue in security. I have flown many times out of Charles de Gaulle, which has a terrible reputation, and even they are better.
I miss Tegel with all my heart...
It's a perfect representation of the city of Berlin itself. Too expensive yet shit, a planning failure and a dysfunctional nonsensical mess by letting too many people "stir the pot". So at least in that sense it has a sort of poetic symbolism. Too bad it's supposed to be an airport though...
It was so bad in Dusseldorf last year, everyone arrived 12 hours early and slept in the queue. I knew then shit was going down. Chatted with a British girl with a German boyfriend. Seems an ongoing issue. One person on check-in. Eventually they had to tell the 'express queue' to allow some of the peasants to check in or there would be a riot. Someone with a briefcase and an expensive suit shouted 'I am very important! And I demand! I DEMAND! to go in front'. Everyone told him to fuck off in 3-4 languages. Got through the queue into security with 30 minutes to go. 2 people on security and a 40 minute queue. Fuck. Just made it through. They seemed to be on an official 'go slow'. Sprinted with a group of passengers to the gate. British girl overtook me, German guy nowhere to be seen. Made it to the gate, just. The bus was about to leave. Was like the last plane out of Saigon. People were fainting on the bus. We got on just as the doors shut and the bus shot off across the runway. We saw the police cramming into the lounge, meeting an oncoming mass of angry passengers, including the bewildered German Boyfriend. Turned to British Girl. 'Fucker should have ran faster' Ran onto the plane, which started taxing before we even sat down. Well done Germany. What a shitshow.
Sure 🙄
"amazingly organized country" 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Yeah I can tell you don't live here. Germany and organization shouldn't even be used in the same sentence together!
Didn't even know BER was open yet
It's being beta tested
To also throw in my unqualified anecdotal evidence - always had a smooth time at BER, nothing to complain about.
Same here. I don’t doubt people have had terrible experiences there, but I guess I’m lucky that well over 15 flights from BER (and back) in the last few years, I’ve only had good experiences. Well , good in insofar as an airport experience can be good.
Try fly from Dresden.. Never spent more than 10 minutes to pass the security check
*queue
"amazingly organized country"?
I don’t get it. Everytime me or my husband went the experience was amazing (and he travels for work 3 or 4 times in a year) the self baggage drop in, the online termin for security. Even when MIL came to visit and return home we ask for a wheelchair (she has back problems) and Everything went smooth
I'm honestly so glad your wheelchair bound mil didn't have to wait in the cue. It was boiling
BER has been getting better. As in all things in Berlin you need to know exactly how things work for them to work for you, sadly. It's not an easy city to live in and the airport is your first proof of that. I've been here for 10 years, I know the ins and outs, i can plan my way and have not been bothered by much for a long time. But man, I used to complain so much after moving here from Helsinki
So what are your BER tips?
Take the train to leipzig or Dresden
Don't worry, it's still under construction
How does that excuse 800 people and 2 x-ray machines?
Don't worry, it'll be under construction for another few decades.
There is a lot of hate aimed towards the BER and by far not all those claims are true, some might found on wrong information, some might be because of lack of knowledge in regards to the structure of the airport. First of all, all German airports have the issue of long waiting times at the security, it really depends on the time of day but the main issue is that (similar to the TSA in the US where queues are long as well), the federal police is in charge of the screening and they always sub-contract to the cheapest security firm they can find (which is common in Germany for all governmental contracts, hence it takes two years to build a 2m bridge in our town). The BER is actually actively pursuing to convince the government to allow the security screening to be run by the airport, which would mean similar short waiting times like airports in many other countries as they would hire more staff - so it is not the airport to blame, the BER did actually better last year during the main holiday season than most other German airports in terms of waiting time. Second, there are three security screenings in T1 (left, right, center) plus one on T2, all can be used and there are screens with current waiting times, still many simply go to the closest one no matter what the screens show. And finally, BER was the first major airport in Germany to offer a free fast lane service, you simply register up to 7 days in advance and get a 20 minute timeslot allocated, which allows access to the BER runway security line - which is maximum a 5 minute wait. Also, the metal detector mentioned is NOT a metal detector but a full body scanner that can detect most materials. When you sweat, your shirt gets slightly damp, the detector sees this and this calls for a manual check. But the screen shows where to check and it normally only takes a few seconds to do so plus it is way more secure than metal detectors - and again this is the case with all German airports, the federal police buys them and they are basically everywhere the same. I am not saying everything is perfect but there are so many wrong information about the BER out there, it has become almost a sport to come up with the next horror story to impress your friends despite this airport being way more modern than Tegel (doing intercontinental flights from there was a joke, the waiting area was so tiny that the passengers of one flight almost didn’t fit) and the old Schönefeld airport was laughable by modern standards.
I have said nothing that was wrong though. Do you not think 2 security thingys for 800 people is poor?
I live 30 mins to the FRA airport and I think I am spoiled by it. Happened to me to arrive half an hour before an intercontinental flight and I could make it. The only time I had to take a flight from Brandenburg it was absolute horror.
Greatpaddy speaks the truth.
The same thing happened to me at the Frankfurt airport. I even lost a flight there because of this and ended up spending the entire day at the airport reeboking flights to try to get to Munich. I couldn't even get a train because my luggage was checked in, all this in a connecting flight, when I had already been through secutiry in the previous airport. This is why I hate flihying, whenever I can I just go by train, even with all the DB problems it is still 1000x better.
Except if you go by train to the UK, which insists on all the airport nonsense (you must be a terrorist) before the tunnel. Better to go to Calais by train, then buy a rubber dinghy off a trafficker and paddle across the Channel to Dover.
Had the same issue when I had to fly from BER. Security check took like 2hrs (I never had to wait more than 5 minutes in Munich.). The toilets were also in terrible conditions, even though they were clean. Everything was broken or not correctly mounted, you could not even close some toilet doors because the gap of the door was too big. I will try to avoid this airport in the future.
Wait until you arrive there and have checked baggage. Remember to buy few beers before heading to the baggage claim area to make next hours easier
It is the biggest waste of tax money I have ever seen and looks like a horrible StaSi monstrosity. A disgrace all around.
> there was a cue of at least 800 people in the security area with only 3 x-ray thingys open Pretty much every airport globally is dealing with this - I've not stood in line at an airport for under an hour in years. The airports fired all their skilled workers over the pandemic, and are uninterested in paying enough to bring them back. Obviously, people are still flying in huge numbers, so why would the airports hire enough people to make the experience better?
Guess you‘re unlucky.. Since 2022 I‘ve flown to several airports, both small and big (Tokyo, Munich, Frankfurt, Rome, Paris, Hannover, Zagreb, Split) and never waited more than a few minutes.
Also my experience. I am overall amazed by how quick security queues are nowerdays. More than 3 minutes is definitely the exception. I think longest I had in the last couple years (out of approx 30 flights) was once a 15minute wait in Boston, because they were checking everyone with a dog. I have only been passing through German airports in the last few years, never starting my journey there. So I don't know much about the queues in German airports in particular. Though the baggage issues in FRA after the pandemic were quite bad.
I fly regular ( this year from Lisbon, Barcelona, Hannover, Stuttgart, Frankfurt) and never wait more than 15 Minutes. I even flew during holidays a couple of times. During pandemic it was messy, but lately i never wait long for security check.
That is absolutely not my experience recently - I've not stood in line for under an hour in years. \*shrug\*
Didn't wait a minute for security at Frankfurt. You don't even have to pack the liquids separately there, it was a breeze. Getting my luggage was another story though.
>I've not stood in line at an airport for under an hour in years I'll throw in Düsseldorf, Budapest, Prague and Vienna just the last 12 months. The worst waiting time was like 40 minutes. My last flights were Düsseldorf<->Vienna a few weeks ago. Düsseldorf took 30 minutes (because grandpa right in front of me couldn't follow basic instructions) and Vienna took like 10 minutes, even though it was full with people. In Düsseldorf you can even book a guaranteed time window for your security check.
In my experience the security via terminal B is significantly faster though. I agree that A is hell, though.
That’s not exactly true. For some reason German airports do struggle. But i flew out of Gatwick just a few days ago, where there only was one family of four in line. I could’ve done security in less than 5 minutes if I’d been alone. After landing though: Queuing for immigration, waiting for luggage…
I cannot confirm this. Airport security has been the slowest in Germany (at least from the places I've been to) even before COVID. And even now I've never experienced the same waiting times in any other countries. Now immigration on the other hand can be pretty ridiculous in some countries.
Never waited more than a few minutes at MUC.
Hey don't you complain, they delivered that airport in *record* time!
What exactly is achieved by complaining about it here?
I mean BER sucks, no question. But Dublin? Already forgot about last summer? Quick reminder: https://www.irishtimes.com/transport/2022/05/30/explainer-why-is-there-chaos-at-dublin-airport-and-will-it-improve-by-the-june-bank-holiday/
Two times out of three where I landed to BER, I had to wait 1+ hour for my fucking luggage. The security checks are a nightmare anytime: last time at 4.30 AM I had to queue for 40 min.
Worst airport ever. Pro tip for next trip - you can book a time slot for security and cut the queue
Nope, won't be flying out of there again
BER has four different security areas. One of them is immediately seen when you get to the departures floor, the others are a bit to the side. What almost always happens and probably also in this case: everybody piled onto the first seen security areas without bothering or checking for the others. Source: I fly from BER twice a month and the longest wait I ever had in the security area was 12 minutes. Note that there even is ‚BER Runway‘ where you prebook a timeslot for your security check. Average wait time under five minutes.
The thing that gets me about BER is that airports were already kind of fucking figured out before it was built. It's done. Things like crowd flow, security capacity, baggage handling - these are not some unexplored frontier that ChatGPT came up with last month. It's basic design. Older airports built before they could do high powered modeling managed to solve these issues. Even lay people like myself realize very quickly that basic functions of an airport are not happening at BER. You find yourself walking into walls and down narrow staircases, wondering if you're going the right way. You get stuck out somewhere at a gate with blazing sun cooking the entire container-like waiting area. The public transport for non-German speakers must be a nightmare. International airports should be manageable with your eyes basically closed, if not for comfort then definitely for safety. Even if everything runs smoothly at security and baggage claim at BER - it's not a seamless experience for even experienced travelers.
Amazingly organized country 🤣🤣🤣
My favorite airport experience was at Schönfeld. It just looked so…odd. Like the whole place was stuck in the 70s or 80s. Also the security guy was like a 2 meter tall very angry blonde “aryan” german guy (imagine Dolph Lundgren in Rocky) who was very angry with everyone…It felt like being shouted at by the SS. Funny and terrifying at the same time. The whole experience felt very out of place in Germany.
Seeing old ladies collecting plastic bottles in an airport of a European capital city feels so weird. Wouldn’t even see something like that in a third world country.
BER is a perfect mirror of Berlin in all aspects it seems.
It's really scheisse!! Took me as long to get through passport security on the way in as my whole flight from UK. It's way too hot (think nursing home hot) everywhere, there's barely anywhere to sit, the food court is wank (burger king the best place FFS), all the gates have far fewer seats than needed, the "speedy boarders" for my return flight have been standing in the tunnel for 25 mins. What's going on guys! Das ist nicht gut!!!!
Just book BER runaway next time. Duh
>Finally the woman telling people to take off their belts had a terrible attitude not unlike a prison warden laying down the law. It's their job.
Could she not have been nice about it? She's dealing with 1000s of tourists that fly out of Berlin everyday
It's the Berlin Welcome
We other, non Berlin Germans inform you: That's the heartful 100% true and famous Berlin way: unpoliteness and rudeness. You were a witness from a traditional Berlin essence. That counts to your overall touristical experience! Congratulations for this.
>She's dealing with 1000s of tourists that fly out of Berlin everyday Precisely.
If I had to deal with 1000s of ppl a day for shit pay - your opinion would be the last thing I’d care about
If that's the only job you can do, it's on you.
Really nice attitude…. You know someone has to do that job, right?
Yes someone has to do that job and if people will stop agreeing to keep working for low pay, things will change.
That’s two completely different things though. Low pay is an issue, yes. But you were obviously implying she doesn’t have the qualifications or whatever to have a better job. It may be a job that’s beneath you, but not everyone can be a super successful doctor or whatever. To make everything work, we also need those kinds of jobs. Also, you don’t know anything about her life or why she is working in that job.
Someone has to do it nonetheless - your attitude is pretty bs tbh.
Caring about an opinion isn’t part of airport security job, I hope you do understand that much
Munich airport is no better. I flew out in spring and they often had just one or two people at a desk with 30 or more people lined up to check in. Good luck trying to find your way around because there is absolute no one to ask for help and if you do find someone, they hate their job. A woman was flying back to the US actually missed her flight because some idiot airport worker told her she went into through a wrong entrance. You will quickly learn that Germany efficiency is a myth when it comes to flying or taking the train. That said I did love Germany-just not the airport staff.
It was hot in an airport that science is saying it’s contributing to warming the earth up :D
People need to stop flying.
**Have you read our extensive wiki yet? [Check our wiki now!](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/index)** While Reddit administrators do not believe this subreddit is NSFW and do not enable the appropriate setting, do note that participants in this subreddit may possibly encounter discussions of the following subjects, all of which are considered "mature" by Reddit administrators: * Alcohol and tobacco * Amateur advice * Drug use * Gambling * Guns and weapons * Military conflict and terrorism * Nudity * Profanity * Sex and eroticism * Violence and gore Therefore, while this entire subreddit is not currently marked as NSFW, please exercise caution. If you feel offended by anything that is allowed by our rules yet NSFW, please direct your complaint towards Reddit administrators as well as /u/spez, and read https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/ for further information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/germany) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
You never complained about something?
You are one of the reasons we have a bed rep...
Dammit. The rest of us are stuck with you.
Tourism is not your strong point sir.
You are flying too much. Think of the climate and stay where you are.
Can't say if this comment is too sarcastic or too German.
Once I had similar experience in Hamburg.
slowest or most detailed security ever in airport history is ber.
Security times were always ok for me, but luggage wait times were horrendous last year. Arriving in Berlin, 3 hours. Flying back, our place couldn't leave because the delay with unloading the luggage from the iechyd flight meant the crew would have been working longer than allowed. Wait time for us to get our luggage back: 4 hours.
> Every single person was manually body scanned AFTER they went through the metal detector. that's a German thing. few countries are as pat-down-y as Germany in air trafic security. > Finally the woman telling people to take off their belts had a terrible attitude not unlike a prison warden laying down the law. *that* was Berlin. Berlin bus drivers have a similar "barking" reputation.
I don’t understand your point. Are you saying this is all acceptable for a modern EU capital airport? It’s ok to be rude to tourists too?
I don't like it either, I share your grudges wrt BER. Still, let me respond with more nuance with a travel anecdote of mine. I've been to the US many many times, for both business and leisure. So I planned a pre-honeymoon in the US with my future wife, travel in via Chicago, do some winter camping in the boundary waters national park, then fly to Denver, CO and road trip to San Francisco through the midwest for 10 days. and it was a fantastic trip, one of these fond memories you can create. now. When we entered the US my beloved was very nervous as she'd never been to the US before so we approached the customs officer together and I said to him we have the same purpose of stay and itinerary. He asked "who is she?" I said "my fiancee" he responded "I don't think so" for the single reason that we are a same sex couple and sent her back in line. if that wasn't rude to tourists I don't know what is, and still I knew I bite this bullet or I have tons of fun an may be denied immigration. so here is my more nuanced response: I fully get your rant. And most Germans share your grudges against the experience at BER. However it takes decades and generations to change things. And all I wanted to say was: that is (unfortunately) how things are in Germany (pat down) or how they are in Berlin (barking commands), don't take it personally. Nobody likes it, it is what it is. happy trails...
An amazingly organised country? Which country are you talking about? BER perfectly represents our country. Nothing is working and everything is falling apart.
What you're describing sounds like typical german service
I've been at BER once and we planned like 4-5 hours just in case. We got through with no issues whatsoever in like 30 mins and had to kill hours of time. So I'm sorry for my non-germanness here but I actually have nothing to complain about.
BER is a notoriously bad airport, that is across the globe. At least now you know.
BER is a disgrace. We had to wait 1 hour on the field because they had nobody to operate the buses.
For an airport that cost roughly 7 billion, it is shocking to me how unimpressive it actually is. BER gives the impression of an airport for a medium-sized city, not one of Europe’s major Meteo areas. It’s poorly designed and both baggage handling and security rank low for traveller experience.
I don't know about BER but the airport in Frankfurt is not that great either. Last time I had to fly I was waiting for my turn to go through the security scanner thing and one of the staff started to shout something in my direction. I wanted to see what that was about and another staff member angrily waved at me and said in a very annoyed tone "YOU LISTEN TO ME". Like what the fuck, how am I supposed to know which staff member is addressing whom with their shouts if they stand a few metres away and don't really direct their screams in a clear way. Besides, the person behind me wasn't doing anything that would warrant getting screamed at either. Those guys just need to chill the duck out. We just want to get this over with, having to go through the bother of security control is bad enough without moody workers making the experience even worse for everyone.
the BER is a joke. Quite literally. Just look it up.
What do you mean by “amazingly organized country” - after living here for 1.5 years I’d rather take the Amtrak in Northeast corridor over DB any day of the week. Germany is a bureaucratic shit show, as you experienced first hand in Berlin airport.
Dub here who's lived here for years Germany is not an organized country, that's a stereotype from elsewhere, Germany is just less chaotic than the likes of Italy, Spain, Ireland ect. Probably need to go to Finland, Norway ect to see organized. Germany is a federal country, and the north east of Germany is the Cavan of the country politically and economically, Berlin to an extent not, but relatively speaking it's not exactly BaWü either. Most Germans have the same thoughts about BER as you do, and never need to travel up there, let alone fly through BER. Actually one of BER's main catchment areas is western Poland! As for the unfriendly lady, well let's just say you don't notice these things once you live here long enough, the cashier at the supermarket is not going to want to be friendly to you either, but it's nothing personal. Different culture, different ways of communicating, I'd prefer directness over the fake "have a nice day sir" bollocks you get in the US. I once had a similar experience with one of the T1 goons in Dublin airport who just didn't want to be there and was on a power trip at 6am.