Reviews Vancouver International Airport

Name: Vancouver International Airport
Rating: 3.8

3.8 from 29 reviews

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Overall rating: 3.8

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Tibbles31

1.7

Once off our 10 hour plane we had to queue a 4 hour queue to get in the country was not the best start to my holidays but I understand every airport has its hiccups...

Date: 01.09.2019

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john_cabs

3.5

Lounge in US Departures is a little small with limited outlets in the main seating area, but with good food. Solid wifi connection as soon as I got off my flight.

Date: 06.08.2019

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graham.xu

Vancouver is an amazing airport with stunning architecture and beautiful interior designs that enhance the experience a lot. While there are many food and retail services, many are in the domestic terminal leaving international travelers limited fast food options, however, the duty-free area is world class. There is a large variety of products at very reasonable prices for an international duty free area. The staff are all multilingual and will not try o up-charge you for anything.

Date: 21.06.2018

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Victoria Miles

4.2

I live in Van, but I have to say that Van airport is top notch in both the int'l and domestic areas! I have travelled around the world and few airports can rival Vancouver's.

Date: 24.05.2018

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dgrutsch

4.7

Imagined the terminal to be bigger and much more crowded for such a big city like Vancouver. But it seemed our flight from HKG was the only one landing at this time, so we went through passport control and customs very quickly without any waiting times.

Date: 03.05.2018

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karim_oussayar

4.2

Best airport I've traveled to. Vety clean, the vibe is very relaxing. For arrival, I didn't spend too much time at the airport. More details in my YVR-YLW flight...

Date: 27.03.2018

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Sweetpea

2.5

Refused entry to the YVR Business lounge as it was full.

A bit annoying as we were travelling on full price business class tickets.

Only blemish on an excellent flight.

Slept most of the way.

Date: 26.12.2017

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YULtide

Ridiculously slow security. Two priority lines and only one non-priority. The workers seemed to be taking their sweet time, as though people had come to the airport to enjoy the ambiance in the security area rather than, say, take a flight or something.

Date: 30.10.2017

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2007oo

4.5

Very nice airport. Easy. Quick for an airport this big. Very nice terminal and lots of restaurants and shops. Most of the airport closes at about 10 at night. Lots of flights. Great WiFi. Worked well. Nice flow. Great airport overall.

Date: 06.10.2017

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Romain49

3.7

Aeroport tres vaste, dans lequel il est facile de s'y retrouver.
A l'arrivee, douane electronique, qui est difficile d'utilisation, notamment pour les personnes agees.
Recuperation des bagages : ok

Date: 14.08.2017

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Matthew Brown

3.8

YVR's layout is neither modern, streamlined, nor open, but it manages to have a sort of down-to-earth charm all the same. Aside from the very passenger-oriented attitude of the service staff and beautiful and efficient international arrivals area, though, I couldn't quite understand why it's rated the best airport in North America. Facility-wise on the int'l departures side, I thought it was good, but nothing special. Maybe that's because I wasn't in the main or domestic terminal.

Date: 25.07.2017

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Matthew Brown

4.3

Spacious and filled with light and First Nations-inspired art. The staff here is very helpful and friendly and speaks a wide range of languages. Customs and immigration are smooth and heavily automated.

Date: 23.07.2017

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taylor giannelia

2.2

I had previously heard good things about YVR, but I am not sure where those came from after I flew through there today. After waiting for 30m to reach customs, I was sent to 4 extra checkpoints, only to be sent into the departures hall nowhere near my gate. Re-entering the secure zone was a mess as well. With only one lane open, the line took well longer than the quoted 0-5 minutes, and the security process itself did not occur with any apparent sense of urgency. Fortunately, once I was back airside, everything smoothed out.

Date: 09.05.2017

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Peter V.G.

1.8

Impossible to get an alcoholic drink anywhere. What is that about? Only option was to buy lounge access. Avoid departing here if you like to have a beer before you fly.

Date: 16.12.2016

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Scott M

4.2

Desperately needs some international terminal expansion. The D pier is packed during the mid-day rush.. we had to wait for a gate to open up.

Date: 04.12.2016

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Marek D

4.7

The Vancouver airport is really good situated, not very far away from the city. The check-in went really fast and quite well. The airport offers huge relaxing area, what makes it nice to travel to/from this airport.

Date: 20.11.2016

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nissa

4.7

Beautiful Airport, laid out in such a way that you didn't feel like you were at an airport! Lots of shopping, dining, artwork - security and customs was a very easy process. Amazing!

Date: 02.08.2016

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joe

3.7

Security line ups can be very long to get to your gates after check in in the afternoon.Always give yourself at least 3 hours before your flight.I had to Q today for 50 minutes just to get through security.

Date: 19.06.2016

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YULtide

4.3

Connecting from an international flight in YVR is a royal pain. They need to provide a way to connect without leaving the sterile area. No good purpose is served by extra security checks, especially with long lines!

Date: 29.05.2016

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Robert Richardson

3.8

Customs lines for entry to the US can get pretty long so make sure you allow an absolute minimum of 1 hour to get through.

Date: 20.05.2016

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KirbyMeehan

3.8

Generally good but there's more restaurants etc in the domestic departures than in the international, which I think is a bit odd.

Date: 15.05.2016

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Lukas Zawadzki

4.2

I can?t really say anything about the domestic area cause I always arrive at the international terminal. But that is very nice. They have a beautiful departure area after security and a nice arrival area too. I love the big waterfall on the wall right by the stairs which lead you down to customs. Also, the wifi is great and for free! Awesome airport!

Date: 21.02.2016

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YULtide

Immigration is a lot easier without the passport scanners. Go see a human agent instead. It's faster and more reliable. The machines don't always work very well.

Date: 06.12.2015

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Bryce Parker

4.2

I personally love Vancouver International airport its a great airport easy to great around just enjoy it

Date: 30.11.2015

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brett armstrong

4.3

Honestly, I'm biased, YVR is my home airport and I worked there for 6 years, but there's really very little wrong with it these days other than it's always under construction. Those are improvements, but it truly never ends as soon as one project finishes the next one starts.

Sleepinginairports and Skytraxx have pretty good reviews including some from myself so check there for more info but here's the highlights.

Getting to the airport 5 stars maybe 4.5, the Canada Line gets you to/from downtown in 20 minutes basically and runs from around 5am-midnight. As a citizen of Vancouver I really wish this was 24/7, but for Airport purposes it doesn't need to be. The only challenge is when you have a USA/INTL flight at 6am on a Sunday. From downtown you can get just about anywhere in the city/suburbs on a connecting Expo/Millenium line train, or a downtown bus. Google maps is your friend and you can plan to get to just about any hotel or family using it.

Facilities...I suppose the bathrooms could be improved, seating as well, but beyond that there's not much to work on. Airside is better than pre-security, but if you're there late at night/early AM you're likely to be spending more time pre-security.

Wifi...it's free, and works! Every time! Amazing concept, wish the rest of the world would follow suit. You have to connect at their welcome page, but it's never failed me. Even with all the workers connected to it and even people in the lounges because it's often easier to connect to, it's still pretty fast. Maybe you can't download an iTunes movie, but podcasts should be fine and browsing/emailing is a piece of cake.

Food/retail, I mean retail at airport sucks. There's lots of places at YVR but they're all pretty generic. They sell nick nacks, magazines, some clothes/luggage, pretty standard stuff at standard airport prices. There's a cool sports store if you're travelling to the US which is worth looking at if you wanna pick up some local/national sports merch. Prices aren't over inflated vs what you'd pay in the city, but it's ONLY accessible to USA flyers based on where it is. Food is something YVR shines at imo. First, 24/7 there's Subway, Tim Hortons, Wendy's (I'm 99% sure) and Starbucks. Now that doesn't sound like a lot, but between those places you can get a full meal, at a decent price and it can be as healthy or as junky as you want. Kinda covers all the bases. During the day there's plenty more, a Wine bar, Whitespot, Milestones, Soho (I think that's the name), at least 1 sushi place, pizza hut, flying wedge (is that still there?), a Chinese place. So again there's lots of choice and honestly, nothing is CRAZY expensive. Hell the prices are better than most airports too, even the sit down restaurants don't gouge you. Plus if you're American then everything is at least 15-20% cheaper based on exchange. If you've got lots of time during the day you can take the Canada Line to Richmond Center or Lansdowne Mall both which have food courts that have a couple more choices, or the plenty of restaurants on #3 road, many of which are Asian if that's your thing. I say lots of time despite the ride taking only 10 minutes or so, you don't wanna rush out there, then walk 5 minutes, then chow down super fast and run back to the train, it's not worth it based on what the airport has.

Lounges at YVR are decent, Air Canada domestic needs work but all the others are pretty good. The fact that there are domestic/intl/tb lounges for both star alliance and other is why I give it 5 stars. If you have status you shouldn't be left out no matter where you're going.

Immigration is usually quick if you're a citizen, if you're not it LOOKs a bit slow, I'm honestly not sure if it's good or bad.

Baggage claim is hit or miss, the area it's in is fine, it's spacious but I think the airport authority could do a better job using the multiple carousels, I often find that 2 flights end up on the same one while 4 others remain unused.

Lastly back to retail...if you've got some time, there is a brand new outlet mall on the airport island. It was a really big deal when it opened, I've yet to go in, but it's supposed to rival the US outlet malls. There's a starbucks and a few places to eat but the focus is retail. High end and bargain. If you've got 2+ hours to connect and don't feel like sitting in the airport/lounge head over there. It's at the Templeton stop on the Canada line and the ride is free i believe between the first 3 stops. It's an open air European promenade type mall though, so if it's pouring rain, you're gonna want an umbrella...luckily there's a vending machine for that! The crown jewel of YVR in my opinion :) if it's still there it's at international/US arrivals where all the families wait along the back wall, I think it's like $5 and you get a personal (probably disposable) umbrella. Brilliant!

Date: 24.11.2015

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Tim

2.7

Been travelling to YVR for years and it's seen some major improvements that see it constantly rated highly in the world airport listings. However......Duty Free shopping is limited when compared to other major international airports and the Air Canada Lounge is very tired looking and is found wanting compared to some of the premier airlines. Passport control was an absolute joke! A full hall with endless rabbit runs, queues backing up the entry stairs, awful! Just too many big flights arriving at the same time and not all the desks open.

Date: 12.10.2015

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Rod Severn

3.7

A bit confusing. There was little in way of directional signage as we were going from International to a Domestic Transfer. We just followed the flock hoping someone in from knew the way. Other than that it appeared a nice airport for the short time we were there. The staff were friendly and helpful.

Date: 27.09.2015

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Jeremy Reinhart

4.8

Top notch airport. Beautiful facilities, quick security, and a wide range of shopping and eateries to pass the time with. The only downside is the wifi is not the best. Other airports that need updated *ahem* MSY *ahem* should really look to YVR for a model on how to do it.

Date: 13.08.2015

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lucas

4.3

it was a general airport nothing mind blowing it was easy getting into airport plety of flights but wifi was bad checkin line was lond and security took long. over all it was okay. but the good thing is they had great food stops there