flew BA LHR > ABZ on Sunday no issues at all, swift bag drop and through security with no delays
Definitely train. Tube will almost certainly be fine, even if it's not then one of the Thameslink trains to Sutton stops at Wimbledon, where you can switch to the SWR trains to Leatherhead (Dorking services). In fact that may be easier anyway than navigating the tube.
The people of Leatherhead will not like being told they're in SW London I suspect though 😀
Flew out from LHR to SIN Saturday before last. The M4 spur road was queued up for about 10 minutes to get to the roundabout before the tunnel and apparently on the drive back out it was queued back to the M4 itself. TEast was reasonably busy, certainly the Euro half term package gates were looking fairly spicy but the SIA check was pretty easy and security was only a tiny bit longer than it could've been because I faffed sorting out laptop etc before I got to the scanner and some people ignore all the signage and seem surprised to have to turn everything out of their bags, take belts off etc etc. Arrival in SIN was as good as normal except for the number of Brits who hadn't got their paperwork ready or had multiple persons on single sheets which required a lot of shouting and calling people back 🫣
Currently at the gate at SIN for flight back - been easy so far, hopefully LHR immigration won't be ball achingly painful.
Just about to leave our resort for flight from Verona, bit there's strike action at the airport. Message from TUI that we're all being sent back to resort. No further information.
Threw the last bit of suncream away yesterday!! 🙄☀️
One advantage ( and there are not many) of having a child with Autism is the ability to breeze past the hundreds of people in line to the nice special assistance desk, and through security….
Now just got to keep him amused for the next 2 hours 😀
One advantage
Another advantage, I managed to get a plumber in to do a simple job quickly as he had a afternoon free because the person he was going to see was flying back from Malaga to Bristol rather than to Manchester.
Bristol last Thursday - was fine as a) departed on time at 10am, b) hand luggage only, so only security to deal with.
Departures was something like >30 flights 6am -> 8am, then only a few an hour until the afternoon tranch.
Coming back was delayed a little as EZ needed to call in standby cabin crew from home - I suspect that could have ended up as a cancelled flight very easily.
Flying from Madrid to Newcastle via Heathrow with BA in August. Hope everything sorts itself out by then. Paid the premium over LousyJet / Ryanscare because at least if your flight gets cancelled you get automatically booked onto the next one. Usually do KLM via Schiphol but the cost for that route in August was insane.
BA... because at least if your flight gets cancelled you get automatically booked onto the next one
hah, good one. Our flight to phoenix 2 weeks ago got canned after a 6 hour delay (fault with the plane), everyone was kept at the airport a further two hours, then just told to go and collect their bags then find themselves a hotel, and transport to the hotel, and wait further news (zero assistance from BA). I was rebooked from business down to economy despite business seats still being available (yeah, first world problem, but when you pay £9,000 for a ticket you don't expect to be sat at the back), and most of the other folks didn't get back for another 4 days, as BA made no attempt to book people on other airlines. Absolute shower of ...
Also LOLing at the idea that BA will sort you out. They were worse than useless IME when they stranded me - in the end Qantas sorted it out even after pointing out that it was not their problem (codeshare booked with BA) - if I had waited for BA I would still be wandering about the International Terminal at Heathrow looking for my plane!
In your shoes I’d be look hard at trains, the faff of flying outweighs the time saved IMO.
This...
Even Munich to London by train is only a few hours longer than the total travel time by plane when including the time to get to the airport, check in, security, flight, queue for security, baggage, train/bus into town.
The train takes 9 hours with two easy changes. Main station in Munich is only 10 mins from my door. Couple of hours to Frankfurt, change (same platform), couple of hours to Brussels, change (45 min wait, get food), couple of hours to London.
Total time of flying isn't far off.
An hour to the airport, couple of hours waiting, 2 hour flight, 45 min ride from airport into town.
And no queues with the train!
Still sat at resort. Better than being at the airport but everything's packed up so we are twiddling our thumbs. No option to keep room or be moved elsewhere temporarily. But could be worse. Thank God for the kids club!!
Flight delayed from 11:10 to 23:45. Means getting back home maybe 3am ish. Gonna have to take another days annual leave tomorrow!! Oh dear.
Spoke to another guy for East Midlands flight, his is delayed till 03:45 😱
I've done EDI-LGW return for work twice in the past couple of months without drama.
Junior flew out of EDI to Crete last Thursday with Jet2 and was delayed 3 hours.
We've got Italy via LGW booked for July - out to Rome, back from Alghero. The original LGW-FCO leg was cancelled and has had to be reorganised already.
I'm beginning to question the wisdom of flying this summer - let alone having crazy two leg journeys via London which effectively doubles the risk of disruption or cancellation 🤦♂️
Munich is only 10 mins from my door. Couple of hours to Frankfurt, change (same platform), couple of hours to Brussels, change (45 min wait, get food), couple of hours to London.
Did exactly that journey a few years ago with a couple of days stop over in Brussels. Original point of departure was Verona and we came over the Bernauer, (sp) pass on a train pulled by two massive freight engines to manage the gradient. European trains are awesome.
Brother just came back no problem, Tenerife to Manchester, but stupid o'clock arrival at 4am. Very much a lottery.
Brenner Pass down to Innsbruck.... Nice journey done many times over the years.
Top tip.... Find the buffet car and keep ordering tidbits and drinks.... 😁
My LHR experience tonight is that immigration is a mess. It took about an hour to queue to get to the eGate.
The upside is that my case was waiting for me in the other side and from there it was about 30 minutes before I was home as the queue for taxis was 1 deep.
Couple of hours to Frankfurt, change (same platform), couple of hours to Brussels, change (45 min wait, get food), couple of hours to London.
See, that’s a great theory, but when we went to Munich it was over 12 hours with the connections.
Maybe it’s because we start our journey in the UK, but the reality is that Kings X / St Pancras is little different from an airport. There are still check-in queues, there is still security and there is still passport control. Plus Eurostar are keen to ensure you arrive early.
So our 07:01 departure to Brussels meant we had to be at KX before 6am, and we didn’t get off the super fast ICE at Munich til after 19:00.
The short walk to the hotel from Munich Hbf was the best bit of the day.
Much as I want it to be different, the reality of UK-Euro train travel is not yet up with the ‘convenience’ of flying for time. And the cost of the pp return train fare was over EUR400 versus £200 for the equivalent flights.
We could fly to Munich in less than six hours door to door. So you lose a full day over the course of a stay.
With a wife and two kids the virtue of the train trip is not something we’d likely repeat soon. We lost a day out of the holiday and were nearly £600 worse off. Highlights how difficult it is to get people to stop travelling by plane.
They keep delaying the introduction of direct UK-Germany rail services too, which would help!
Back at home now.
So flight from Verona was delayed from 11:10 yesterday to 23:45 yesterday. Boarded and took off nearer 01:00 this morning. Some people had been at Verona airport since 0900!
Plane was actually from another airline chartered in by TUI. This was a bonus, more leg room!
Got back to Manchester and the passport control queue was ridiculous. If you have a child under 12, you're syphoned into a separate queue, they had two desks open. Probably a good hour's queue, when everyone else just waltzed through, the knackered kids have to wait!
My LHR experience tonight is that immigration is a mess. It took about an hour to queue to get to the eGate.
The upside is that my case was waiting for me in the other side and from there it was about 30 minutes before I was home as the queue for taxis was 1 deep.
You did well there, 2h+ is pretty normal for T2 immigration lately.
A couple of weeks back people must have been 10 deep trying to get in to the lifts from arrivals to take them down to the ground floor for taxis and busses. It’s been absolutely incredible, both the number of passengers and the lack of organisation around there!
Manchester T2 was a complete flustercuck yesterday. Bag drop no prob - no one at all waiting 3hrs before flight - apparently majority had already checked in!
1hr45mins for security. Queue actively being managed into the shape of snail shell - withe the end in the middle. Genius. Then flight delayed by 4 hrs as no one to put bags in place, refuel etc.
No problems on arrival (Menorca).
Went from manchester to Copenhagen last Wednesday. 10:15 am flight. Arrived manchester airport about 08:00. Had about 20 minutes between coming out of security and final call for boarding.
Manchester’s security layout has always been suboptimal. The small number of staff on Wednesday did a very good job. But even the best will in the world can’t overcome the infrastructure failings.
Coming back from Copenhagen on Saturday on the 08:30 flight was different. I got up early to anticipate a couple of hours of queuing as advised by Danish colleagues. I did though check the airport’s website and they had individualised flight data giving a range of durations of security transit times: 15-17 minutes. Time for breakfast!
Copenhagen also had a less fraught atmosphere and more sensible laning for the security aisles.
Different experiences, but very different times and days.
Surprised at how scruffy Manchester’s air side was compared with Copenhagen. 🙁
From Leeds-Bradford to Malaga yesterday. Advised by travel agent to get there 3 hours before our 06.35 flight so me being me made sure we were there by 02.30. Flying with Bryanair & guess what, baggage drop wasn’t due to open till 04.55!
Anyway it opened at 03.35 but by now the entire population of Leeds were already queuing back to the Jet2 area. But the time we got (slowly but surely) to where we’d started the queue outside was into the car park. After 2 hours in the security line we got through to departure at around 05.30, on the plane by 06.05.
Because of a lack of ground crew the whole plane had to be boarded by the plane’s own single front steps, then some paperwork wasn’t right so we missed our slot.
Finally got off the ground at 07.20.
The fun really started at Malaga trying to find the car hire office, must’ve spent an hour doing laps of the airport but that’s another story.
Probably the worst experience of getting anywhere abroad I’ve ever had, & that includes a 3 flight job to Goa!
I flew from Stansted on Tuesday, back Friday for work. Ryanair said get there 3 hours early so I caught and earlier train.
No problem. Less than half an hour to get through security, all well organise and loads of staff. The departure lounge was hell though. Everyone must have come extra early and there was a queue more than 50 people long to get into Wetherspoons, people sat on the floor by every window etc.
Flights were Ok but full to Sweden.
Return no big issue, probably 15 mins to get through passport control.
Got to go to Brussels in a couple of weeks and definitely going by train if I can. So much less hassle, even from the North of England.
BTW we didn't get cancelled again, so got back two days late. Return journey took 12 hours door to door as we had to get from Luton Airport to Bristol Airport to collect the car and drive home...
Just sent off our claim to Easyjet for the statuary compensation and hotel costs.
I fly from Manchester at 14.05 on Friday to Nairobbery via Dubai. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it. Car park booked for 8am whereas would usually be 11am, just can’t afford (time wise) to get to Nairobi late🙈
Mrsstu was due to fly Brum to Edinburgh last Friday.
Flight was cancelled a few hours before.
She got the train instead.
Yesterday in Glasgow:
5 minutes to drop bags
2 minutes for security queue
Shame that the Loganair plane had technical issues before leaving Southampton to come up, so we were over an hour late boarding.
Flew in to Glasgow from LCY yesterday. No security area issues, ten minutes delay at take off due to technical issue with the plane, bit of a queue to land and maybe ten minutes for the luggage. No real issues at all.
Flying Dublin to LBA Friday, early doors because that's when the flights go. Not looking forward to the usual nonsense.
Sadly family were coming from Switzerland to London yesterday by train, and it's no better. DB were an hour late, causing a cascade of missed connections and the ridiculous situation of changing in Paris to get to Brussels to catch the Eurostar... Total travel time was probably around 12 hours
I went to a conference in Amsterdam last Monday from LGW to Schiphol. We'd cleared security and were having breakfast when they cancelled our flight. thankfully I was hand luggage only and managed to book with the Orange guys for later that day. No explanation given by BA (and I know the plane was on the stand as my mate works at the airport). Also they gave us no alternative on that day - only offering their corresponding plane on the following morning.
I had to get from south to north terminal for the new flight. It Took 2 hours as there were no BA employees to escort us out of the airport. Apparently it has to be an employee from the airline. And there was nobody manning the help desk, and the phones just rang and rang. I was more blasé as it was business travel but was still a very poor state of affairs.
Easyjet flight did leave - after announcing a couple of hour delay, that actually decreased to about 30 mins. Anyway - door to door it took me 12 hours for an hour's hop.
Queues for all the eateries at Gatwick were unreal. No exaggeration to say 50m snaking around the building to get into Pret and the other places. North terminal was still busy but nowhere near as bad as the south. Never seen anything like it. In fairness the queues moved ok.
On the way back Schiphol was very hit and miss. We got through security in about 20 mins. People 30 mins after us took two hours. And then airside 80% of bars and restaurants are shut - everyone queueing at the few remaining open places.
Absolute chaos in Dublin. No staff apparently
Flying to Stansted on friday, dreading passeport control as Wife and Kids have british passeport, but mine is french. I guess they Will have to wait for me.
Bristol/Belfast/Bristol has been fine the last few times. A few flights around mine have been canceled so not holding my breath.
Dublin next month, so a tad worried about that one, they finish a strike a few days before....
Flying to Barcelona from Stansted next Thursday. My problem will be the Stansted express due the the planned rail strikes.
I’ve just booked parking as well which can be cancelled up to an hour before arrival so I have a back up although roads will be busy.
Flying out of Bristol this Saturday. Gonna aim to arrive around 7am for a 10.45 flight. Fingers crossed...
Bumping this thread...
Herself and the kids are due back into Heathrow T3 Saturday morning at 8am from Barbados - are they going to suffer baggage claim hell or are things running better now?
Security was bad at T2 yesterday coming in and on Tuesday going out, but baggage seemed to be working fine. It took about an hour longer to clear than it should, but this was mid afternoon. I also flew back from ORD last Sunday into T2 and baggage was perfectly fine as was security. That was 07:00 on a Sunday.
I'd say you'll be okay - not express fast, but okay.
Eldest left Manc Airport on Wednesday at what should have been a quick and easy time in the day - through security between 10am and 11am. Took them over 2.5 hours just for the security bit. Then again, Manc is a shambles at the best of times...
@diris5000 (or anyone else who's flown recently) how was Brizzle airport? We're flying from there next Saturday. We've got Fast Track so hopefully that will reduce some of the wait at security.
Manchester was awful last Sunday am. Arrived 4:30am for a 6:40am flight.
Was held in a que in the car park for about 1hr as a pre check in que, check in was very slow, we joined the que for security and they were calling people through based on 30 minute slots of time ie if your flight is between 6:30-7am make yourself known. We had to be fast tracked through security and then had to run to our gate.
We eventually took off about 30 minutes late. Everyone was stressed out and knackered from the experience
As said above Manc has always been slow, but this has put me off flying from there again
@doomanic my wife and son flew out of Bristol yesterday at 06:10, had pre paid for fast track through security. No issues.
PS: no hold luggage, just hand held.
Luton fine this week (Sun in, Tues out). Both check in and security were well organised and maybe 15mins for each.
Easyjet flights both late leaving by 45mins, so not much really. getting a crew together the problem says pilot. Skeleton crew called in and waiting for all to have had their allotted rest time was the delay.
