Incheon International Airport
Reviews and Complaints

There was insufficient public education about items that are restricted on board a plane. i had a 3kg weight in my carry on baggage which was taken away in the premise that it has the potential to harm someone on board. I am disappointed that there were no clear information that states that ‘heavy' items are prohibited on board & i don't see how a weight has the ability to harm someone. This has caused great inconvenience for me & i am disappointed to be met with a less than patient service staff who showed annoyance because he couldn't understand English & is unable to converse in an international language fluent enough to make this whole process easier. I hope that Incheon airport can work on this to prevent similar disappointing events from happening & get back to me asap.

sincerely,
an angry passenger

The customs staff rudely open my hand carry bag and told me I have two boxes of face cream over 100ml and cannot pass through. I said throw them away but the customs lady staff quickly took them and walked away. It seems like they were happy having a free gift... Their attitude was very bad. I couldn't find any rubbish bin at the customs checking point!

The television is so loud, it doesn't only affect people who want to take some rest, it's really disturbing and noisy. No one actually watched it, the only reason for the existence of the Samsung TV is to annoy people and waste electricity. I think the television can be turned on during the day but definitely not at midnight! When there's lack of resting facility (e.g. chair) a suitable environment should be provided, at least it should be a quiet place.

I flew with China Eastern Airways flight number MU580 on Friday the 20th of July 2018. My seat number was 37B. The flight was on its way to NKG the serial number was 135. I had checked my baggage in and was asked to wait for 5 minutes before leaving in case there was a problem with my baggage. I waited 15 minutes before leaving and nobody had called me to do a baggage inspection, i then left to board at gate 130. Upon arrival in NKG my baggage has been broken which the NKG baggage service then provides me with another bag. However the lock on my bag had also been broken but the zip lock manufactured with the bag was still locked so I did not worry about the additional lock as it could have been broken if bumped against something. Once I arrived back home I unpacked my bag and noticed that medication is missing from my bag. I need this medication back as it has to be taken everyday. Please advise as soon as possible.

Email: [protected]@icloud.com
Number: +[protected]

The sales clerks at the ICN Terminal2 duty free liquor and tobacco shop did not know that they must place purchased liquor in a sealed "duty free" plastic bag. It is necessary to place purchased liquor in such a sealed bag in order to carry the liquor as carry-on baggage after arriving at DTW to continue to transfer to fly from DTW to CAK. The DTW security personnel inspected by carry-on bag and explained the problem, but they required that I check in my carry-on bag with the liquor in it as checked-in luggage because I could not carry it onto my transit flight because the liquor was not in a sealed "duty free" plastic bag.

good morning. this is my first trip to korea. being how it is i was excited as per usual about visiting your country. however, i was unpleasantly surprised by the attitude of the people manning the information counter and the ticketing counter to purchase my tickets. both the ladies looked harassed when i asked them for more clarification and the one in the bus ticketing had the nerve to try to shoo me away when i was getting clarification. i guess she was annoyed by the fact that she couldn't understand or speak english that well. in that case don't work there or find someone else to help explain to me. simple common sense. such a contrast to japan which i have made multiple visits and never once treated such. FYI i am a paying customer and did not get anything got free. very disappointing indeed

Dr Zainura MD FRCR
Ministry of Health
Malaysia

I have had a terrible experience at Inchon airport. This was my first trip with the family to Seoul and all I can say is that there is NO customer service in Seoul and at the airport whatsoever. We have had many bad experiences at many shops during our trip, however this incident was particularly bad! I went to this famous ginseng store (正官庄) near Gate 27 with the intention to make some purchase, while I already picked out one case of ginseng to buy and looking for other products to buy, I touched a bottle which was put out on displayed, I didn't realize it was not a sample, the sales man quick shouted at me and turn around asked his female colleague to tell me in Eng that " I must pay for it". I tried to explain I didn't open the bottle, he was having none of it, instead he lean his face forward me and gave me a very unpleasant and angry look, I was so shocked by his uncivilised behaviour, I tried to dispute with him in a calm manner, yet he refused to communicate with me but kept on giving me a "dirty" look! I couldn't believe someone could behave in such a way towards to their potential customer in this so called international best airport. In the end I paid for the bottle that I didn't know what it does, i refuse to make any more purchase, while I am not bothered about the money as it was only $8 for a bottle. Unfortunately, I was to angry and shocked that I didn't asked for his hand, as I just wanted to get out of Seoul, but this experience had really tinted my impression on South Korea, and I will certainly not make any more purchase from this ginseng company and I will think twice before I make any plans to visit Inchon agin in the future.

Good day

Yesterday 26 April I was looking for help finding a simcard to use until Im settled back into Korea. On the 2nd floor a staff member at a simcard-wifi desk sent me to the third floor to find out where I can get a rechargeable simcard. I know this is departures but I just followed the instruction. When I got to the information desk. The woman working there was very rude and unprofessional. I asked if there is any Simcard phone services on this floor and she said 'why would there be a mobile service on this floor, can you show me where on this floor there could be such a place' I was shocked at here response. I told her that I was sent to the third floor. She then aggressively demanded to know the name of the person who sent me to the third floor. I couldn't even remember the name of the phone company let alone the persons personal name. She was at the information help desk out the elevator on 3rd floor. She needs to change her attitude and behave professionally.

Hi to whom it may concern.

I would like to make an official complaint.
My wife and my luggage in transit on flight EK 322 Emirates flight from Dubai on the 18-19th of February were opened and some of the content as well. Furthermore, a belt is missing.

Some of the Herbs and spices bottles had been opened. Also a bottle of CK perfume. The herbs cannot be used and the bottle of CK (large) is now basically empty.

It is hard to determine whether the airport in Incheon or Dubai is responsible, however, someone should be made aware and held accountable for this incident.

I would like to know what the Airport response to a situation like this in terms of the customer and or the employee/s who are potentially responsible for this.

I appreciate your immediate attention to this matter

Arie Vellema
Email: [protected]@yahoo.com
Phone +[protected]

On 18 Feb 2018 at 19:30, i and my child take the shuttle train from entrance near gate 27 to gate 101-118, but unfortunately we can not return when we arrived in the area of gate 101-118 as the train is only one way direction, then i ask the customer service centre in concourse, two staff are very good attitude and helpful to solve this trouble with unreasonable airport rule.

the staff name is Cho Daegeun, and other one lady staff seat in the middle chair in the counter.

actually, i don't know why no any highlight message to show in the entrance when i take the train OR no airport staff to remind passager in the entrance.

On 09 Feb I was on transit from US to SG, stopping at terminal 2. During the transfer security clearance, I was told to stand aside for Pat down. That's fine but I have a 2 yr old son with me. I specifically told the officer, I have a son (and he was clearly holding my hand). The officers did not allow me to handle my son but pulled me to one side while letting my son run free out of the room and up the escalator. I was shouting and screaming "my son, my son! pls someone grab my son!" but no one helped. There were about 20 officers at work.

At this point I didn't care I had to go get my son so I ran off to get him. Luckily another elderly passenger helped to stop my son midway up the escalator. What if there is no one there to stop him? Will the airport be responsible if he gets lost? Will the airport be liable to any injuries sustained by him (he is only 2 yrs old, how do you expect him to know how to ride an escalator properly?)

Coming back to the same officer she insisted that I be separated from my son again but I said can someone pls look after my son?

Nope. No help at all! what is this ridiculousness and stupidity? It takes common sense to know if one parent is being pat down, someone need to be taking care of the kid or you Pat them down together

No word of apologies nothing. The ridiculousness and lack of service is a huge disappointment from Koreans. No use building a new terminal if you lack the empathy and common sense to do your job

Hi,
I am taking flight to Kuala Lumpur and was checked in at D34 at 8am. Group of us received bad service from the ground staff named 희유나 and her colleague who sit beside at D35 with blur name tag that I can't clearly read her name.
As a well trained ground staff that always face with foreign people, they supposed be patient and polite to customers when we can't understand or speak slowly to us. We had a oversized luggage, and she told us at the first time in English that we should proceed to oversized luggage and we didn't hear it clearly at the first time. And she asked us who can speak English. I would say everyone of us can understand English. Just the matter that she speak too fast and in Korean accent that we can't hear it clearly.
As the queue is long behind, I didn't say anything more after checked in. It's early in the morning, we don't be served with a smile and got this kind of bad service.
Please take this complaint and have a professional action to this staff.

Thank you.

I was not plan to drop my leggage to baggage chexk in, but to bring it to the cabin.but unexpectedly my Luggage is over the limit for cabin baggage.so i decide to put it to baggage check.i am put all of my thing in that luggage.and the baggage drop officer didn't inform me that the power bank is prohibit for baggage check.and i suddenly got information from the officer at boarding area that my power bank was throw away.surely that is very unpleasant treatment for me.the officer should inform me when i put the baggage so i can carry my power bank to cabin.but they didn't do that. Since i am the student in Korean university and will be back in February to Korea, can i take it back to me when i arrive at Korea. Thank you for your attention.
Rulia Maulani
flight d7 505 to Jakarta transit Kuala lumpur

Hello,

I am writing to you about the poor service myself and my partner received at the EASTAR Jet Check-in at 5:15am on 2017/11/20.

We were one of the first few people in the queue, ready to be checked in when the desk opened.

When the staff arrived and sat down at their desks at they started chatting between themselves and pointing at us and laughing, as well as counting how many people in the queue and which staff member was going to get us. We chuckled to ourselves as we knew they were talking about us but found it quite unnerving as we felt we were being singled out and made fun off - even with a language barrier its obvious what was going on!

Then one of the staff members started taking previous lugguage labels off the suitcases in front of us and then asked where we were flying to her, when we told her Taiwan she turned back round and went back towards the desk telling everyone 'Taiwan' again they all laughed and she never came back to ask anyone else were they were going or check the queue behind us - many with previous lugguage tags still on. Again we felt we were being singled out and laughed at.

Once check-in opened we went the a desk, but the agent wasn't confident in speaking English (and our korean is very basic) so asked if she could pass us on to her collegue (the one who had approached us when we were queuing) we said that wasn't a problem as we were having trouble explaining to her why we hadn't booked an onward ticket.

Once passed over, the women was very abrupt with us and said we weren't allowed on the flight without an onward ticket (she hadn't even looked at our passports) - we queried this as we had researched about visas, onwards flights etc before booking the flight and knew becuase we both have British passports that it we didn't need to.

We explained that to her, but she was very insistent and went and got a print out of the 'ASIANA AIRLINES' she showed us the last page which said mentions needing an onward ticket, but refused to get the next 'detail' page of that. She then went on to ask were we would be going next, we told her either the Philippines or Vietnam, and said we had to book the ticket now - I asked her what if just brought the cheapest ticket from herself - she dismissed this and told to go to Philippine Air and come back as she has customers to serve and then tried to serve someone else, without even letting us try and speak! We noticed the print out she had was two pages and asked if we could see it, as we weren't happy in the way she dismissed us, she let us look at it and on the front page it said 'British Passport holders' can stay for maxium 90 days and therefore can fly in to Taiwan without an onward flight. We pointed this out again she insisted on going back to the other page and saying we had to go and buy a ticket. We showed her our British Government website on the visa rules and at first she said she didn't know what a government was! after we asked her to check again, this time she ended up going to another desk to speak to someone and couple of minutes after she came back with a waiver for us to sign about if we did get pulled aside in Taiwan and questioned - we said this was fine and that we filled something similar in before.

We received no apology from her and only recieved the one form at first, I then had to tell her we needed one each, before I even had to a chance to sign mine she took it back - I then had to ask for it back so I could sign it! We checked our bag in and then that was it, no apology, no sorry for a misunderstanding or anything!

Not only this, while waiting for our flight we met up with somebody who we met in Korea who was on the same flight as us, and he had no problem checking in, they just asked him to sign the waiver form and checked him in. I would like to know why we had such an issue, while someone else on the flight had no issue at all?

We have travelled to many places over the years and have been through many airports in the last 7 months, and have never received such bad service. Even with a language barrier in other countries we have always manged to check in smoothly and leave on good terms.

We thought it would be best to inform the airport itself as they are representing you after all and believe you should be made aware. We are unable to find a complaints service for EASTAR Jet and therefore cannot make a complaint to them.

We would appreciate if you forward this on to its company and its staff as it is firstly unprofessional to laugh and make fun of customers, especially in an airport! Secondly, we felt descrimanted against.

I look forward to you response.

I took airport bus 6015 on wednesday 18th October 2017 at Ibis Hotel around 10:30am. The driver was extremely unfriendly and shows not interest at his job whatsoever. I was on thr bus with a few other passengers and at one stop he stopped the bus, walked towards me and told me to shut up right in my face. There was no sign on the bus that people can’t make any sort of conversation. As most passengers were talking amongst them, unsure why the driver has told me off while others were making conversations too. Please let the company and the driver understand that how they treat tourists represents how others view korea as a country not as an individual.

To whom it may concern,
We are 4 tourists coming to Incheon today for our return flight to Vietnam wih Vietjet Air as below details:
1- Perkins Matthewdanie - Passport - [protected]; Reservation code of Vietjet Air ticket - [protected]
2- Nguyen Quynh Mai - Passport - B9504458; Reservation Code of Vietjet Air ticket - [protected]
3 - Nguyen Thi Thanh - Passport - B7133637; Reservation Code of Vietjet Air ticket - [protected]
4 - Tran Thi Hai Yen - Passport - B9545079; Reservation Code of Vietjet Air Ticket - [protected]

We were flying to Hai Phong from Incheon International Airport, on the flight No VJ925 of Vietjet Air, which was supposed to fly at 6.45 Am today. We arrived at Incheon Airport at 3:00 Am to checkin. It was very crowded and we had to queue a super long line for a long time. One officer there showed us to the Jetstar counter for checkin when our turn came. It seemed that we queued at the wrong airlines.
How ridiculous it is when Jetstar staff in Incheon Airport still checked in for us and completed all necessary procedures for onboarding while our tickets were Vietjet Air? We showed our reservation codes and she did everything so smoothly to issue tickets that we couldnt think of any issue at that point. We just thought that like in our country, we could check in in any lines when it is high season with too many passengers.
Not until we lined up for onboarding did they find out the mistake. However, in stead of helping us to check-in again at Vietjet as soon as possible at that point (coz we had sufficient time in deed) and solve our problem, Jetstar staff just took us around and around the airport with our extreme heavy luggages to fix their internal issues.
Now that it costs us new ticket fares, 1 more hotel night (the Jetstar staff said she paid for it so that we could wait while she's working with Vietjet Air agency), time, energy and irritation to pay for a mistake made of a superb Jetstar staff who even didnt scan customers' documents but just automatically check in like a machine! She told us that she has been trying to help us (when actually the major fault is from her mis-checking our documents), but we have been waiting from that time to now - nearly 1 day with no result. We have never been such exhausted with airport in my whole life. My families are now really worried for us. And we also have to take another unpaid leave at work tomorrow for this delay.
We are tourists from another countries with no connection here, no local language, and you have put us in a headaching situation which is so so costly for us in every mean. We really didnt expect such a reputable name as Incheon Airport, Jetstar can make such a ridiculous mistake and tell us that we have to be willing to pay ourselves for your staff's fault.
Everyone officer working in your airport is representative of Incheon image, but badly this time, our experience with you has seriously damaged your professionalism and hospitality. I dont think such issue should be accepted in a country that is focus on tourism development like Korea.
All being said, we are writing this email seriously complaining of your service and ask for a full refund of all the cost we have to pay- airtickets, hotels, meals cost for 1 days, not to mention our 1-day leave from work tomorrow.
Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you soon.

I am a foreigner with a Korean visa because my wife is Korean . The Immigration officer
Ms Kim Mi Young, refused to speak English to me at the immigration checkpoint, when I informed her that I don't understand Korean . She continued talking to me in Korean, and in a very condescending tone while tapping my Korean Id card, demanding why I don't speak Korean, I would assume. She was asking me questions I could not answer. No translator was called to assist . Korean speaking is not a requirement for a visa . She was trying to humiliate me . I went to find a supervisor, and when I returned, the Immigration officer -Ms Kim- started speaking English to me . The managed accused me of being prejudice because I didn't understand Korean and she proceeded to ask if " I thought they should respect me ? " . The whole debacle resulted in me missing my flight, and out of a replacement ticket to get bumped to the next flight ... $$$ wasted. Very rude, disrespectful, and unprofessional. The American Airlines office in that airport did not help to bump me onto another flight.
Said good bye and good luck . Terrible experience.

Hello,

I don't know where I can make a complain for airport bus, but if this is not a right place, please help to let me know the correct website or email. My email is [protected]@hotmail.com.

I took 6015 at about 08:10PM from Incheon bound foro Chungmu Road station. The driver was not patient, not polite and even kind of rude to me.
I understand he can't speak English. He kept saying in Korean language and I replied politely when I just got off the bus. Our communication was only like 10 seconds long. He found he couldn't communicate with me, so it looked like that he suddenly wanted to give up and turned his back to his driver's seat. He was going to drive the bus away with my luggage!

Fortunately I came to realize that probably he needs my luggage sticker, so he could get my luggage for me. Yes, he did that, but he gave it to me in a very impolite way! I even said a thank you to him in a very nice way. However, I think I should still make this report, in case that your driver does the same thing to other foreigners.

I've come to Seoul many times and every time I took the airport bus in and out of Seoul. This is the first time I encountered this kind of bad experience. Hope you could make some improvement internally for good.

Antony Li from Taiwan

Myself and a passenger booked a bus to Gangnam station for 11:04PM. It listed two gates for pickup, but we went to the 2nd (closer) gate (#11). At that time the bus passed by and didn't stop. Now we had been forced to wait longer to a farther stop and take an unnecessary taxi from there (now missing subway times). The airport staff said that our tickets didn't count as reservations and only offered to refund our tickets. The staff offered no reasonable explanation as to why the bus wouldn't stop at the other listed gate other than to say that our paid tickets didn't act as reservations and they probably gave the seats to people who were at the first stop. Not even sure why they would list the second gate pickup if they don't honor tickets and the listed stop. Very uncomfortable and unhappy night with Incheon airport.

Just today for flight 5J129 to Cebu no one from the staff translated the events in english. We did not understand what is happenning. Instead adding to the problem we just followed accordingly what the rest were doing and we realized that we are heading to a hotel. So I assumed our flight is cancelled. Now I wanted to call the customer representative from Cebu pacific airlines of any updates of the flight however all lines are busy. Whom shall I contact with regards to the flight? This is too troublesome! Only those who understand korean language knows whats going on, how about us non-koreans? Care to translate in english? We feel so confused and lost!