We have fown with Virgin and United quite a lot recently and find check in and boarding smooth and effortless so i guess it depends on the airline quite a lot, i think the chaos is mainly for budget and package tour airlines. The things that bug me at airports now is parking charges for drop off and pick up, charges to use a baggage trolley and (at some airports) the fact that you have to go through a usually sh*tty and expensive duty free shop to get into the departure hall oh and LAX, we transitted through there last October and agree it is a huge let down, the catering is absolutely rubbish. ahhhh, glad i got that off my chest
Totally agree with everything you've said. Also don't forget that when you go for a beer, you have to bloody well queue for that as well!
If that's the case they should let you sit in the bar spending your money instead of lying about the flight being boarding so you have to leave that behind to go and stand in a queue. It was a **** airline this time, but I flew from Manchester. But I must stress it isnt just the waiting that's the problem its the fact there's no reason for it. You're waiting for something that hasn't opened. If they just told you when checkin actually opens instead of the '2 hours before' lie it'd be fine. The same goes for boarding.
East Midlands now have clocks on each check-in that tell you how long you'll have to wait to be checked in, it took me 18 minutes. I was also impressed with their pre-pay parking, you just drive to the car park and number plate recognition let's you in and out. Usual over-priced ****e once you're in there, but nobody's perfect.
If you travel back on a late flight from destinations such as Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Corfu then you'll be on the 18-30 'Loud' flight. airlines usually fly back twice a day and ensure families and kids are on the earlier flight and those who have booked through 18-30 get the late flight. Manchester Airport is my favourite airport in the UK, Liverpool isn't too bad. The only downside is now we don't fly with Thomson to Orlando, we fly with Thomas Cook who Ofcourse are based in the **** terminal with flights to places like Turkey. INFACT my worst flight ever was a Thomas Cook to Alicante, the leg room was unbearable. I'm flying from Glasgow to Cyprus on Thomas Cook in a. Couple of weeks, I flew with easy jet from Liverpool there in March and it was actually a pleasent experience all round
As someone who's 5"7 I'm not sure leg room concerns me!! But every time I've used Ryanair I've never had those experiences. Bog is free, the charge for extra baggage isn't that bad, I've had more people thrown off for drunken and disorderly behaviour on Etihad Airways flights than Ryanair! They get you there (99% of the time) on time if not early - I think it's a good service. The one's who I'd never go with are Jet2, for one their main hub is that god awful airport in Leeds - and half of the fleet are fast approaching or have now past 30 years old! Not sure how it'd be cheaper to fly with BA when you'd have to travel to Heathrow either, but each to their own!
Agree Leeds is ****ing awful, they did all that work and its still ****. Why Humberside has never expanded or made any effort to, I'll never know. There would have been no need to build Donny airport. Though i do like to use Donny and its a Wthers pub in there. Getting that bus to your car at Leeds is a pain anarl. I'm doing meet and greet next week.
The worst airport I've been to abroad has to be Larnaca, queue after queue! Alicante isn't much better because it's a silent airport so they don't make announcements, almost missed my flight! When travelling to Orlando we also use Sanford, reminds me of Humberside. Does what it needs to do, no issues. Can't compare to Orlando inter because I've never been! The worst thing at airports is screaming kids. They're everywhere you go and you just wanna throttle them
Nobody wants to fly there, they'd all rather fly into Doncaster because it's cheaper. An airline I had an interview with a few months ago told me even though they're base is at Humberside, they fly from Doncaster as it's 5x more expensive to fly into Humberside - and that's with a 20 seat plane. Humberside's a lovely little place, but it needs someone to give them a boot up the arse quite frankly. They were VERY close to shutting down completely a few years back. The best airport at the moment is Liverpool, as there are TWO Wetherspoons in there. It's just ****e to get to.
Humberside really COULD HAVE been something, i think it's too late now with Doncaster and Leeds nearby. If they'd expanded when they needed too we wouldn't have had Doncaster airport.
The idea is to make sure people arrive in plenty of time, otherwise you would have everyone turn up 5 minutes before checkin closes with no chance to process them, get them through passport control & to the boarding gates (numbers of which at big airports may not be known until 20 mins before departure (especially with charter flights) Last time I flew it was a breeze, bags checked in for me from the hotel, pleasant wait in the VIP lounge with comfy chairs & a drink before heading to the departure gate just as boarding opened. Had the bonus of no stag/hen parties or screaming kids, but then you get what you pay for
Runways are also not long enough for some of the bigger jets, I have found on a couple of trips from Humberside that I have had to fly to Amsterdam first & get a connecting flight
Used to be enough for flights to Palma, Faro etc. Those planes are being used for flights to America nowerdays! Not sure the runway is a problem.
I couldn't tell you to be honest, Thomson are coming back this year though so at least there's something to go on.
