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[STEMO]

Reading today about an off-site airport parking firm that has gone bust and all the customers know is that their cars are parked somewhere in the southeast of England.

Hmmm....I've seen that somewhere......oh yes.....in the very first post. In fact, I'm guessing that's what this thread is about.

You don't expect me to start at the begging to read 'old' news do you?

Why should you? Not many do. 

[Viral_Jim]

Reading today about an off-site airport parking firm that has gone bust and all the customers know is that their cars are parked somewhere in the southeast of England.

Hmmm....I've seen that somewhere......oh yes.....in the very first post. In fact, I'm guessing that's what this thread is about.

You don't expect me to start at the begging to read 'old' news do you?

Why should you? Not many do. 

 

[TheBoy]

After seven months working the forecourts, I would never entertain parking off site

Yup, totally agree. Again I love Birmingham for this. Just booked parking for our upcoming holiday. 11 days was £70 for a flexible booking (no cost to change car) and I can be out of the car, through security and ordering a pint in All Bar One in less than 20mins 

Only the last 2 times I've flown from there (both one of the first flights of the day), its taken 2.5hrs to drop bags and get through security.  I swore never again.  Suspect slightly later flights are a bit quicker.

[Auto Addict]

After seven months working the forecourts, I would never entertain parking off site

Yup, totally agree. Again I love Birmingham for this. Just booked parking for our upcoming holiday. 11 days was £70 for a flexible booking (no cost to change car) and I can be out of the car, through security and ordering a pint in All Bar One in less than 20mins 

Only the last 2 times I've flown from there (both one of the first flights of the day), its taken 2.5hrs to drop bags and get through security.  I swore never again.  Suspect slightly later flights are a bit quicker.

No

[Doctor Gollum]

After seven months working the forecourts, I would never entertain parking off site

Yup, totally agree. Again I love Birmingham for this. Just booked parking for our upcoming holiday. 11 days was £70 for a flexible booking (no cost to change car) and I can be out of the car, through security and ordering a pint in All Bar One in less than 20mins 

Only the last 2 times I've flown from there (both one of the first flights of the day), its taken 2.5hrs to drop bags and get through security.  I swore never again.  Suspect slightly later flights are a bit quicker.

You did choose to fly with an airline that uses quite possibly the worst handling agent ever

[Viral_Jim]

After seven months working the forecourts, I would never entertain parking off site

Yup, totally agree. Again I love Birmingham for this. Just booked parking for our upcoming holiday. 11 days was £70 for a flexible booking (no cost to change car) and I can be out of the car, through security and ordering a pint in All Bar One in less than 20mins 

Only the last 2 times I've flown from there (both one of the first flights of the day), its taken 2.5hrs to drop bags and get through security.  I swore never again.  Suspect slightly later flights are a bit quicker.

No

Bizarre.

In the last two years I've never arrived more than 90mins brlefore a flight (and no, I never missed one). That said, I once left it until 50mins before and had to get a move on. Then again, I never take hold baggage and parking in carpark 1 gives you free priority security.

So probably a very different experience.

EDited due to being shafted by Photobucket

[Varche]

You are just realising that the airports arent run for the customer but for the airport.

Arrive last flight of the day at Malaga and you have a hundred miles to walk to the carousel past dozens of empty carousels. No one actually manning passport control - it is like the arrival of a plane is a shock. Ghastly places to be avoided much better to drive or train if it is a short flight.

[Viral_Jim]

Right. 2nd half of my moaning post

In contrast, this was the queue, to join the queue at security the last time I flew into Heathrow.  .


This sort of thing has an unparalleled ability to p!ss me off. They know how many flights are coming in, how many people are on them. They probably know what everyone's meal choice was. So why the f@ck don't they get enough people in to deal with it. That, along with the sh!t road layout means I avoid Heathrow wherever possible. I have no problem with Gatwick the few times I've used it. But it's just bloody inconveniently located.

[Viral_Jim]

Ghastly places to be avoided much better to drive or train if it is a short flight.

Indeed. Having the choice to avoid them is something I am very much looking forward to in my new job. That said I will miss some aspects of the long hauls. Being paid a day's wage to sit in a comfy seat, watching movies and getting plastered isn't the worst way to spend a Monday

[Doctor Gollum]

Heathrows biggest issue is that it isn't 24 hours. Nothing much happens before 5am or much after 10.30 pm. It isn't a surprise that people might arrive outside these times... it's simply that there's no one there to deal with them

Flying from Gatwick, check-in/bag drop queues depend entirely on the airline/handling agent... BA, Easyjet, Emirates and Virgin all have large areas with several desks and (usually) enough staff to see that the process runs smoothly and security is 24 hour most days (new this year to try to mitigate the initial surge).

However, fly with the likes of Monarch or Thomson, and you're faced with a handful of desks manned lightly and, in the South Terminal in particular, cramped check in areas resulting in a relatively poor, slow and congested process.

Alot of this is down to what the airlines are prepared to pay

[Viral_Jim]

Interesting, I didn't know that LHR wasn't 24h. Does explain a few things mind! My standard now is to go Birmingham to Frankfurt or Zurich. I find changing at either of those hubs far less hassle than the M25. 

However, fly with the likes of Monarch or Thomson, and you deserve everything you get.

Fixed that for you 

[Doctor Gollum]

That too

If Heathrow were to become 24 hour, it wouldn't need a third runway*... but they don't tell you that in the brochure

* using this ( http://www.heathrow.com/company/company-news-and-information/company-information/facts-and-figures ) data, there's 1,293 movements per 18 hour day... if it went full time rather than part time it could handle 1,600 movements a day... I doubt that a third runway would deliver much more than this due to ground congestion

[aaronjb]

Indeed. Having the choice to avoid them is something I am very much looking forward to in my new job. That said I will miss some aspects of the long hauls. Being paid a day's wage to sit in a comfy seat, watching movies and getting plastered isn't the worst way to spend a Monday

I usually end up flying over a weekend for cheaper fares - and I don't get that day back.. not this time, though - LHR->SEA on Monday, SEA->LHR on Friday, direct, with Virgin. Damned expensive but at least I'm not paying the bill!

I fly through Heathrow out of preference really - Birmingham doesn't go where I need (direct), Gatwick is as useful as tits on a bull unless you live in Kent or Sussex as you have to drive past Heathrow to get there anyway, Stanstead is a hole and Luton is .. well, in Luton!

I have had highly variable experience at LHR though - sometimes it's 20 minutes from carpark to gate and sometimes it's four hours and, you're right, that is highly frustrating.

[TheBoy]

After seven months working the forecourts, I would never entertain parking off site

Yup, totally agree. Again I love Birmingham for this. Just booked parking for our upcoming holiday. 11 days was £70 for a flexible booking (no cost to change car) and I can be out of the car, through security and ordering a pint in All Bar One in less than 20mins 

Only the last 2 times I've flown from there (both one of the first flights of the day), its taken 2.5hrs to drop bags and get through security.  I swore never again.  Suspect slightly later flights are a bit quicker.

You did choose to fly with an airline that uses quite possibly the worst handling agent ever

They were well over an hour...  ...but getting through security was well over an hour as well.  You are hearing your name called when still nowhere near getting to the scanners, and the dweebs won't let you queue jump, stating I should have got their earlier - well, I had got there 2.5hrs before the flight.


Hence, I drive to destinations if viable.

[TheBoy]

Well, jimmy944, if that's T5, that looks a damn sight more organised than the one and only time I've ever flown from there.  Once bunch of security pillocks forcing you through the entrance in the distance in your pic, and the dweebs there, rightfully trying to force you back.  Then they get all shocked when there was a mini stampede.