Stepped off the plane at Gatwick and 29 minutes later we were boarding the bus to the carpark.

In case useful to anyone, eurotunnel eventually got us on a train 2.5 hours after arrival, 1.5 hours after our ticketed train.

Has anyone been through Heathrow recently? Got to fly to the US for work in a few weeks. I’ll probably be flying down from Newcastle then either BA or American to Dallas Fort Worth.

Flew from MAN on sat. Checked in @ 6am, flight was at 8. No queuing. Security took 5 mins.

Doddle.

Although MAN airport is sh1t. Needs some proper signage to help you navigate.

just spent three weeks van camping in the UK. No hassle on eurotunnel in and P&O out. But the motorways were utterly horrendous, Dover to N.Wales (360m) on a Sunday took a full day – about the same as it took to drive up to Calais from Spain (700m)

Anyone flown out of Glasgow recently?

Just went through the tunnel yesterday, no lorry queues, no traffic and we even got put on a train 30 mins before our booked one. Apparently it would have been a few minutes earlier if there wasn’t a broken down car stuck on it.

We have our dog with us for the first time and that was surprisingly easy too, 2 minutes at pet check in to scan his chip and we were on our way 🙂🐶

Anyone flown out of Glasgow recently?

No but I go there a lot and talk to the planes, apart from a few delays getting on to stand due to lack of ground handling it’s all running smoothly AFAIK.

Thanks phil.👍

We have our dog with us for the first time and that was surprisingly easy too, 2 minutes at pet check in to scan his chip and we were on our way 🙂🐶

On this Phil, did you have to do the worming tablet beforehand (or before you come back to the UK)?

Just did STN>MAH>STN with Jet 2. Because we paid for Parking, I add Fastrack at Stansted for an extra £15.

On the way out the queue at Security was about 1:15 reduced to 20 mins with Fastrack. In Mahon, it was about 10 mins out to our transfer, and 10 mins back through the other way 10 days later. Back at Stansted (18:30 Saturday 27th) passport control was completely empty and we sailed through.

I think the general consensus is that Jet2 via Stansted is one of the most reliable services currently.

@nicko74 we have to get him wormed by a vet, and the paperwork signed, before crossing back.

You have to do it between 5 days and 24hrs before travelling back.

Stepped off the plane at Gatwick and 29 minutes later we were boarding the bus to the carpark.

You weren’t on our plane on Sunday then. Already 2 hours late taking off from Greece as they had nobody to load the bags for the incoming flight (at Gatwick) – on arriving at Gatwick, there was no stand. Then there was no airbridge at the stand. So they got some steps eventually. Except there were then no buses to take people from the steps to the terminal. 2 hours between touching down and getting to the passport line. In the middle of that (everybody was standing up and had taken their bags from the overhead lockers), my 8 year old needs the toilet. We are in Row 20.

My last flight (June) to Amsterdam was cancelled while I was airside having a coffee – it then took me two hours for a BA staff member to let us back out through security. I’d rebooked with a different carrier from the north terminal and would have missed that too if it weren’t for a delay on that plane as well. 11.5 hours that day to get from LGW to Amsterdam. I could have cycled it in that time.

Oh… and I drove to collect my wife and son when they landed last month. They were hand luggage only and it took them 3 hours to clear passport control. I was asleep in my car at a Horley layby at 1,30am waiting for them having arrived at 11pm once I’d checked that their plane had landed.

Shambolic. And no signs of it improving from my last 3 experiences.

in the past two months I’ve flown out of/into City, Bristol, Heathrow (8 bloody times), Munich, Palermo, Toulouse, Hamburg, Orly, Chicago and a few others. I’ve honestly not had a single problem other than a little longer in security and a problem with an Easyjet flight which was delayed by an hour due to complications with plane and passengers.

Ferry back to the UK from Calais yesterday was absolutely hassle free with DFDS.

In the middle of that (everybody was standing up and had taken their bags from the overhead lockers), my 8 year old needs the toilet. We are in Row 20.

Greeks dont queue or do instructions 🙂 Everytime. Boarding is even worse. Rows 1-10 please, all the Greeks start boarding. BA staff are wise and tell them to sit back down.

My trip to and from Switzerland via the Chunnel was all good, baring the std sh1t-show at UK passport control on the French side on the return. Everytime, why? 1hr wait for no apparent reason. Change of shift maybe?

Rows 1-10 please, all the Greeks start boarding. BA staff are wise and tell them to sit back down.

They probably just can’t understand that BA is such a holdout in boarding class anachronism. This stuff about accepting only people in “class 1 and 2”, “class 3” etc is ridiculous. I read a study that concluded that the most efficient way to board in practice is just for everyone to get on at random. Slightly superior to boarding all window seat passengers first. I was on an internal flight in Chile that did that, but it was pandemonium for other reasons.

Anyway …

I’d been stressing about horror stories from Schiphol, but our transfer there (from NCL to ATH) went fine with only a short delay due to Brexit at passport control.

did luton to zurich return last weekend – out fri back monday. zero queues or drama in the airports either way – but outboud flight delayed leaving whilst the fixed a ‘technical issue’

Ferry back to the UK from Calais yesterday was absolutely hassle free with DFDS.

Yeah, I came back last thurs and from our massive P&O queue, could see the DFDS lot were straight through. Then our ferry was delayed by an hour. Add in the recommended 90mins prior to departure and we had 2.5hrs of ferry port faff. Pah.

Just back from two weeks in Greece (Manchester > Rhodes). Getting through Manchester was painfully slow at the security but I could cope with that and we did make the plane in okay time. Unfortunately, a suitcase went missing in transit (we still haven’t got it – Rhodes says it was never scanned into the airport so it is either still in Manchester or gone somewhere else but the tracking app we have is still saying it is missing). Everyone at Rhodes airport was helpful as were the travel company reps in the resort (Jet2) but they tried and tried and tried to get through to Manchester (both the missing baggage people and their own team) and they didn’t get through once. On return, we tried to see if we could manually find it in their lost luggage department but there was no-one at customer services, the ‘delayed/missing baggage’ line rang and rang and rang and the ‘lost baggage’ line (yes, a different number) rang through to an automated system prompting me to choose the airport I was travelling through however Manchester wasn’t on the list of options!

Pro tip if flying from Manchester T3.

If you’re checking in hold luggage take a soft bag like a vango freedom 80+20

You have to go to a small desk for soft bags where there’s no queue!
Reason being they might get stuck in the normal conveyors.