George Bush Intercontinental Airport – Terminal E

If your flying international on United, it is located in terminal E. Once you locate the United area in Terminal E look for the signs, that designate Steps 1 to 2. Step one is checking in, getting your tickets and bag tags if you plan to check in bags. Step 2 are for those dropping off their checked in baggage. If you don’t have any baggage to check in, proceed to security. If your ticket (same one you got in step 1) says TSA PRE-​Check locate the TSA PRE-​CHECK security line. If your ticket does not have a TSA PRE-​CHECK designation jump in to the security line with everyone else.
Once you pass security, remember to remove laptops from your bag and place it into a bin. Currently shoes must be removed and there is a body scanner.
Since this is a larger airport I recommend arriving at least 2 or 3 hours earlier, since ALL lines COULD be very long. From experience I’ve been at this terminal where it took me over two hours to get through security and I’ve also been here when I was able to get through security in less than 10 minutes.
Happy travels!

Came through on a change of flights from a international flight and had to go through customs, get my luggage and recheck in luggage to new flight, time was midday… the process for everything was within about 45 minutes… which was fast compare to mexico. this airport was clean and smelled of cinnamon rolls when we exited the airplane coming from Cinnabon.

I have been putting off writing a review on this airport because it can be hit or miss. There are days I love it and days I hate it.
Let’s look at it terminal by terminal.
Terminal A. I like terminal a because it is new, small and everything is easy to get to. The united club is small though and there are few restaurants. There is a Starbucks and a places called Third bar and that is where I usually eat. It has good burgers.
Terminal B. I hate the old section of B. It needs N overhaul. The new section is clean and laid out much better. For he most part though A and B are regional connections and typically smaller planes. You won’t be boarding a 777 or 787 in A and B. New B is laid out like a T with three main boarding areas. Old B is setup like lollipops where when you get done walking down the stick there are 8 gates or so around the lollipop part. Lol.
Terminal C. This terminal has a good United club and several places to eat. There are a few small fast food joints and it is easy to get to the gates with the X style layout.
Terminals D and E connect and are spread out far. If you end up here it can be quite the walk. Like ½ mile or so it seems. It isn’t like 100 yards. It’s longer than that (more like 250) just to get from the terminal link (tram) to the first boarding gates. There is also a nice United club here and several food courts and restaurants.
Overall it’s a decent airport but not as nice as some. I know it so well that I’m comfortable here but airports like LA, ohare, San Fran and many others are new, big and nice. With some updating Houston can be a leader.

For as huge as this airport is, it is amazing. You can get lost and found. It is great for long layover since Houston has allot of things to do. Great Duty free, Hot Clubs for various airlines
There are as aways Starbuck’s, Java and food court.

This terminal just cracks me up! It’s super busy, but they have a tram for VIP’s. I guess they are just people who pay for tram service? Anyway, the vehicle is like a golf cart limo, and it speeds thru the airport at impressive speeds while the driver unenthusiastically pretend yells a warning before imminent collision. «Cart coming thru» Just listen for those words carefully because that’s what you’ll hear seconds before one of these crazy taxi carts plows into you (I would imagine). The airport is clean, and spacious, but has no soul. Everything is outdated, so it looks like it might be in a perpetual state of construction, but it’s not, it just has no flavor at all. A couple stores sold some Houston keepsakes that could have easily said any city name, sadly. You can shop at the duty-​free but unless you are heading out of the states you can’t buy any of the good stuff, so why even try.

Terminal A is clean for the most part the so called food court is ok… except for the chillies too where service is horrible they made me almost miss my flight cos it’s so slow.

The food choices of this airport very good. There is a train that will take you to all the terminals which is very convenient.
1. Poorly conceived design, especially in the C-​terminal. Extremely confusing.
2. The biggest issue are the people in the moving carts that will run you down. I don’t know how many passengers they hit on a daily basis but I can imagine it’s a lot. They fail to remember that the people on foot are also trying to get to their gates.

This is my first time coming through Houston airport and it’s pretty nice. I’m connecting through the international terminal so this review is only about this terminal and not the checking in process. There are tons of eating options and plenty of room to walk around and stretch your legs. I wish airports (not just a criticism of this airport) would have benches where people can sleep, especially after a long flight.

The terminal doesn’t have much of anything. We had a midnight flight and the only place open was a choco store and a bar … which had minimal staffing. Me and my kid just hung around bored. I didn’t think much of this at first but on our way back to the States, we flew from the Taipei Taoyuan airport and good god they had so much shopping to experience there! Maybe our flight had something to do with it but I don’t remember seeing any store fronts.

In heathers airport, as a U.S. Citizen flying biz class it took 15 mins. To get through border patrol and customs. In Houston, where we spend far more tax dollars for too little real safety — it takes an hour to get your passport checked and 2 hours to get through customs. Think IAH may be in the running for the most inefficient/​ineffective and overpriced security system ever.

TSA — you beat your coworkers in PDX. This time, it took 24 minutes for an opt-​out pat down.
The next photo shows 8 «agents» standing around while only 3 are working.
Meanwhile, you let the guy holding the cat through the metal detector. What if the cat had explosive shipped up it’s innards?

Had layovers here to and from Puerto Vallarta. This airport seems extremely unorganized. The lady that sat next to me had the flight attendant request a cart for her to bring her to her next gate since she just recently broke her foot. And of course, there was no cart waiting for her when she got off the plane.
On our way back from Puerto Vallarta: we had already gone through security once at the Puerto Vallarta airport. It took us about two hours to get through customs AND go through security AGAIN! I purchased alcohol at the duty free shop which was sealed in an airtight bag and they had to open it and go through it !!! I do not understand the protocols of this airport. I literally had to run from terminal E to terminal C to catch my flight. Thought I would have time to relax and grab food considering I had a 2 hour layover but the whole two hours was spent standing in line through customs and again through security.
All in all, avoid coming through here if you have an international flight.

I actually quite like this terminal.
It has WiFi. It has great seats in front of the gates, with lots of power outlets (great for anyone who wants to charge eletronic devices). And also, they have a nice selection of shops to grab snacks. You have the famous Cinnabons at Auntie Anne’s (classic of an American airport), Starbucks, some healthy options…
Granted, this terminal is HUGE, but they have several moving walkways throughout the way.
All in all, not a bad place to wait for your flight at all.

As airports go? Pretty good. I’m usually worried about making a connection when flying through Houston (weather, flight delays, tight turn-​arounds), but the layout is fairly simple. This makes connections a breeze. IAH certainly isn’t a modern airport like SFO, ATL, or DFW, but I’m usually pleased when I land here.
Pro-​tip: Watch out for the aggressive cart drivers/​people movers. For some reason there are lots of them and watching your back is not their priority.

This entire airport is confusing mainly due to a lack of signage. Arrivals board only shows arrivals for THAT terminal. Nice if they told you that. Each terminal is a self-​contained pod so if you’re unsure of exactly which terminal you’re supposed to go to, you’re in for a hard time. There needs to be more signs and more staff that can answer questions. Not a fan of IAH!

Terminal E was way better than the international arrival terminal. Last time I was here, about a month ago arriving from Europe it took 2.5 hours to clear customs because there were only 2 customs agents to handle the 30+ flights arriving over the 2 hours period. Ridiculous! Avoid this airport during the rainy season as well, as cancellations abound. No Bueno!

The electric people transporters/​trucks (golf carts?) or whatever here are accidents just waiting to happen. Driver of TC154 at about 9:30pm tonight (July 10) driving like a reckless fool with his foot on the accelerator. Watch out or you get hit — he doesn’t care!
Apart from these deadly weapons of mass destruction and little service Terminal E is pretty nice — decent eats there too (Pappadeauxs!!)

Pros:
Lots of seating.
Large viewing area at the end of the hall for looking outside.
Starbucks.
Cons:
Bathrooms were closed. Had to walk a long way to reach them.
Too much AC. Seriously too cold to sleep in there.
Dividers in-​between the chairs. No lying down unless it’s on the floor.
Water fountain water tastes weird and they don’t have filtered water dispensers like PDX.
Not enough outlets.

Terminal E is the international terminal for United. You may find yourself here even for domestic purposes if your aircraft had an international preceding segment or has an upcoming international flight segment. Or you know, if all the other gates in Terminal C are filled.
I do not like the TSA check point as much. The TSA Pre-​check line is not dedicated and operates fewer hours than Terminal C’s.
The food is better here, and there’s a Jamba Juice! The night of Memorial Day 2015 (think historic-​level flooding), this place was a zoo, and most restaurants were closed at 10pm. It was an absolute zoo.
The walk from Terminal E to the baggage claim (in Terminal C) is great for your FitBit but maybe not so awesome if you’re super tired.

Free wifi is always equivalent to 5 stars in my book and I also loved the absolutely excellent variety of restaurants in the two terminals I was at (E and B) but it’s 3 stars because of how long it takes to get between terminals!
You have to walk a fair distance from the actual gates to get to the train that links the terminal and in our original layover it would have meant we would have had only 40m which meant we’d be just tired and frazzled by the time we got to our next gate in B terminal from E terminal. And if this is the feeling with two adults, I can only imagine how much harder it would be with young kids!
So if traveling via Houston again, will make sure to have at least 1 hour in between connections. Just not a very customer experience friendly design layout for this airport hence the lower score.