Is Manchester airport the worst in Europe?

[SidJames]

It is up there for sure

I have always had the feeling, these places deliberately make the passenger experience as miserable as they possibly can.

I must say they excel at it.

 

[unicorn]

Once you clear security it's no fun, either.

In T1 seating is limited so everyone whos got there 3 hours early (us) then strings out their meals in the two dreadful diners upstairs while queues snake outside.

 

[City Hobgoblin]

It is up there for sure

I have always had the feeling, these places deliberately make the passenger experience as miserable as they possibly can.

I must say they excel at it.

 

[asia fields]

Off to Valencia today with Ryanair, arrived 3 hours15 mins before departure. Bag drop queue took about 45 mins, security about the same.

 

[bluenova]

I mentioned earlier in the thread my niece working overtime this weekend and was paid an extra £50 per hour exta on top of the O/T for volunteering. She'd already worked six consecutive 12 hour days
When she was getting towards the end of her shift, a message was relayed that they were asking if anyone could stay on to help sort out baggage or the whole operation was going to come to a stop and they were being offered £50 an hour

Small beans when you think how much a cancelled flight could cost.

Our Tui holiday was cancelled on Friday, and with automatic compensation, it could be near £500k that they have to pay back for just that one flight.

The gate staff looked on the verge of tears when they had to cancel - apparently one had been spat on and thumped the previous day. Supposedly came down to just a single passenger, as they changed plane, so needed bump 7 people. They had 6 volunteers when the pilot said it was too late and he would be hitting his max hours.

 

[splinter]

Once you clear security it's no fun, either.

In T1 seating is limited so everyone whos got there 3 hours early (us) then strings out their meals in the two dreadful diners upstairs while queues snake outside.

Think I'd just go sit in the bog :)

 

[toffee balls]

Once you clear security it's no fun, either.

In T1 seating is limited so everyone whos got there 3 hours early (us) then strings out their meals in the two dreadful diners upstairs while queues snake outside.

Wait till you get sat on the plane pal.
Nearly 2 hours on the tarmac yesterday waiting for Swissair.

 

[unicorn]

Wait till you get sat on the plane pal.
Nearly 2 hours on the tarmac yesterday waiting for Swissair.

Sympathies. That's the pits.

Took us 40 minutes to get off ferry from Jersey due to lack of staff to bring the steps. That was bad enough

 

[lust overlord]

That's terrible. Hope you get home soon.

There's some real ****wittery at play here.

An airport is one of the few places in the world where you know EXACTLY how many people are travelling on EXACTLY how many flights, and even better, what time they're going to be doing it.

Also, you would think that after years of running restaurants, shops and bars, you would think there would be so much sales data that they could probably predict down to within 0.8 of a sausage butty, pint or mars bar how many items of food and drink will be sold in a 24-hour period.

As I was bored between the tennis yesterday, I spent a bit of time monitoring twitter and various websites and I can tell you that TUI and Manchester Airport have had an absolute shocker. Here's some highlights:-

1. Flight delays going out to the Greek islands were regularly over 4 hours yesterday.
2. Plenty more well over three hours.
3. Queues for twilight checkin hours long.
4. Most shops and restaurants closed - 2 hour queue for the only bar that's open.
5. WH Smith ran out of sandwiches and people fighting for the last few scraps of food.
6. Families with young kids stuck in the terminal for 6/8/10 hours with nothing to eat of drink.
7. People sitting on planes on the runway for 2 hours.
8. People waiting 4-6 hours to reclaim their baggage after flights.
9. Cancelled and severely delayed flights yet no TUI staff in sight to explain any of it to increasingly angry customers.
10. Not necessarily related to Manchester, but as it's so severe, I thought I'd throw it in here: people stuck at an airport on one of the Greek islands SINCE THURSDAY with no information from TUI. WTF?

The bottom line is that there are far too many flights leaving the airport for the number of staff there. I feel sorry for those on the ground who are having to deal with this whilst the managers and planner hide away.

Looking forward to my TUI flight in 3 weeks. Carry-on luggage, expectations in check and military-grade plan are essential seems.

Stuck us in some apartments quite near to the airport at about midnight.

Missus eventually got a message this morning off tui to say that were now departing about half 12 tomorrow.

Could be worse.

 

[Sir peace frog]

Wait till you get sat on the plane pal.
Nearly 2 hours on the tarmac yesterday waiting for Swissair.

what happened on the swiss ?

at manchester ?