Review: the Escape Lounge at London Stansted Airport

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• Paul says:

  9 Feb9 February 08:56

  Been there three times this year and told twice it was full.

  They block a large section off for Emirates when they have a flight scheduled who reduces capacity massively.

  Stansted desperately needs another lounge.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Feb9 February 09:38

    MAG is missing a trick not adding 2 higher quality lounge options. It wouldn’t cannibalise the Escape lounge much and could raise the airport’s reputation. MAG would make more money overall.

    I can hardly imagine what Manchester Airport passengers must go through at MAG’s home airport MAN.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      9 Feb9 February 10:09

      Read the article and you will see mention of the excellent premium offerings at MAN and a new terminal opens this year so things are on the up. It is significantly better than Stansted from a lounge perspective.

      • Anna says:

        9 Feb9 February 12:57

        Only if you can get in! I’ve been granted access to the Escape Lounge in T3 once in 4 years – still it’s a good excuse to trot out when I’m cancelling my gold Amex 😂. If OH and I were having a couples trip away I might consider the PremiAir offering if it was on special offer at the time.

    • peter king says:

      9 Feb9 February 13:51

      We go to 1903 or premiair 🙂

  • Lady London says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:21

    When I’ve been in there early people were getting turned away around 4.45am or not much later.

• AlanG says:

  9 Feb9 February 09:40

  I have flown Emirates from there about a dozen times and I now actively just avoid this place, it’s dire at time with cold food and little or no bar service where you beg for a drink.

  Less hassle to goto Weatherspoon’s above it !

  So much for EK having their own lounge. I was shown the space 14 months ago and nothing has changed

  • Lady London says:

    9 Feb9 February 09:52

    Weatherspoon’s has the highly visible flight announcement screens that are visible from your table. Helps a lot when a gate is finally announced when MAG thinks they’ve kept you penned in the sh1tty beyond-overcrowded main shopping arena to have spent your money – then you finally see which gate.

    Important as Stansted is dominated by Ryanair which means everyone then rushes like a pack of wolves to the gate. Gates go from stone cold empty to rammed in 5mins or less as people don’t want to be No. 71 in Ryanair’s queue and have their hand luggage taken off them and checked.

    If you have any mobility problems but short of declaring yourself disabled, or if you’re not prepared to use your elbows defensively if not offensively then avoid Stansted.

    • Lumma says:

      9 Feb9 February 10:35

      Most annoying thing about them not showing the gates until the last moments is that the bars in the gate areas are actually nice calm quiet places compared to the rest of the airport, but that’s probably because you’ve just got time to neck one point before you need to queue up.

      Make sure you never board the shuttle train by accident. It’s a nightmare trying to get back to the main terminal when you’ve sleepily misread Barcelona as Bratislava!

      • Lady London says:

        9 Feb9 February 10:48

        Haha. Been there done that. MAG is so desperate to keep you shopping they don’t post which gate number until anyone that’s not race-fit or has anyone elderly or slow with them, is in real danger of not having enough time to get to a C gate before they will be denied boarding.

        The end of the queue that has passed through the gate may be less than 10 feet away – literally – and the plane may not even be there as they make everyone stand in the tunnel or on the stairs for ages – but Ryanair’s contracted staff will deny you boarding if you’ve not been able to run a mile in 15 mins or so.

        G*d help you if you accidentally head to B gates rather than C gates or vice versa as you say. Even old US airports aren’t as bad as Stansted in this kind of thing.

        • Anna says:

          9 Feb9 February 13:01

          I was at MIA years ago when they changed the actual terminal our flight was departing from, announcing it during our 2 hour wait to get through security (this was around 2002 at the depths of US airport direness). Then they told us to run really, really fast if we wanted to make our flight (we did, with seconds to spare).

• memesweeper says:

  9 Feb9 February 10:33

  You’re being too kind about the breakfast being similar to the Hampton. No eggs for instance, I don’t recall anything cooked other than bacon rolls. It’s abysmal. I’ve visited twice with PP and LoungeKey before, and frankly I won’t even give them the benefit of that business in future (even though the cost to me is zero). Good magazines or not this place deserves to be deserted until it is improved. You’ll find me in Giraffe or Pret.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Feb9 February 10:51

    There is quite a well rated HIX not too far from STN that I’ve always had in mind to try if travelling to STN by car. According to the ratings it’s infinitely better than either the Radisson or the Hampton and reasonably priced.

• Andy S says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:03

  Escape lounge isn’t worth the visit. We’ve flown Jet2 4 times in the last couple of years, you can see which pier they go from, from the terminal. Due to the volume of Ryannair flights and the shed like feel of their departure lounge it’s not so easy. Get yourself what you need from Pret head over to Jet2 pier, lovely and tranquil away from the mayhem that is Stansted. Fantastic runway view at the end for AV geeks

• J says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:03

  The last time I flew from Stansted (mid-september last year), I arrived over 2 hours before the flight and almost missed it – 40 minutes checking in a bag and almost an hour in security. I haven’t dared risk it since, despite being my nearest airport. Was I just unlucky that day, or is this a not unusual experience?

  • Lady London says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:32

    Not at all unusual.

    Security often huge queues at 4.30am for all the flights Ryanair bunches at 07.00am. funnily enough queues can be light for awhile after that.

    This is an airport where hitting security straight after you arrive due to not having any luggage requiring checking is a really useful strategy.

    • Shoestring says:

      9 Feb9 February 12:35

      for a while Bristol Airport was advising all passengers to arrive 3 hrs before flight – and the queues really were horrendous at times – OK now and it’s back to a 2 hr recommendation

    • Hotel-User says:

      9 Feb9 February 12:48

      Just out of interest, what is the “earliest” you can get through security in the morning for a 7am flight ? I know that the airport is now not 24/7 open …. and that MAG have stopped pax “sleeping” in departures ( transport is a problem for early flights ).
      Don’t like our use airport, regularly, but some routes only seem to fly at silly O clock on FR

  • Yuff says:

    9 Feb9 February 19:35

    I arrived at the airport at 11.51am today and was in the lounge by 12.25pm and the queues were horrendous.
    Worst the queues have been for the last 1/2 dozen trips.

• Aaron says:

  9 Feb9 February 12:01

  Re: the reason there is not yet a nicer lounge at STN like 1903…partly it’s finding the space. There really isn’t any. You should likely see one after the planned terminal redevelopments (….if indeed they actually happen :-). And if they ever get more long-haul / US flights then that would also help support the case.

  Re: why MAG don’t allow many third party lounge operators…it’s because they like to do things themselves. They don’t want the competition. All part of their little rubbish pseudo airport and “airport services” delusional empire

  • Rob says:

    9 Feb9 February 14:58

    You can always find the space. Escape is on the lower level. Weatherspoons is on the mezzanine (which never used to be there).

  • memesweeper says:

    9 Feb9 February 16:11

    STNs plan is a whole new terminal. Unfortunately for them the local council has said ‘no’ and the National government does not think it is strategical significant piece of infrastructure… so it may not go ahead. I’d not expect any improvements until this is decided which will doubtless take years.

    • Shoestring says:

      9 Feb9 February 16:21

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-48804549 – here’s the story

      fair enough I guess – I was a very young ‘No Wing Airport’ protester (7 back in 1970) – it was chosen as the 3rd ‘London’ Airport – and the views of local people must matter, even if they are NIMBYs and can’t see the big picture as regards the economy etc

      which is why Boris Island was actually an excellent idea, nobody much would have suffered noise & other pollution

      • Andy says:

        9 Feb9 February 16:26

        “Wings off Wing” – I was there too, and a couple of years younger than you!

      • marcw says:

        9 Feb9 February 19:04

        The problem is “who funds that pharaonic infrastrutcture”. Taxpayers money? Private money? Airlines?…

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Feb9 February 19:05

          there’s a pretty good case for airports/ airlines to be subsidised as they enable the economy to function smoothly

    • Lady London says:

      9 Feb9 February 20:29

      Surprised government is not overruling the local council’s refusal. I suppose the 2 cows and a sheep near the airport would be disturbed.

      Lived years in West London seeing councils get overruled on resisting Heathrow expansion.
      Despite massive petitions by residents who can t sleep and can’t hear themselves think in their own gardens. Seen at least 3 rounds of Heathrow expansion now since Terminal 4 was proposed. Residents are sick of getting woken by the 6 noisy third-world-standard polluting aircraft that are allowed to land in curfew hours because those aircraft are always late… lumbering in noisily every d*** night over my place in Kew…. I find it curious that Stansted’s local council and it’s massive population of cows and sheep has been allowed to resist the airport expanding.

      My memories go back to when STN was still a huge empty ex-military airport. I had a job as a ground courier meeting passengers from some few charter flights that used the airport then escorting them back to London on a coach pre-M25 and pre-M11. So it took hours. I always thought it would make a great commercial mainstream airport and it has. It’s just outgrown its facilities for passengers now.

      Allowing it to expand would relieve the pressure, allow the enormous airfield itself to be used better and provide a valuable service and more jobs. Who knows though, perhaps it will need to be commandeered back one day by the government. Maybe they know something we dont if they are not allowing it to expand.

      • Shoestring says:

        9 Feb9 February 20:33

        the 1600 people from Stop Stansted Expansion protest group say: ‘Up Yours!’ 🙂

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Feb9 February 20:38

          I remember the first time in my life I couldn’t sleep due to noise, it was when I was about 20 and went to live in Firenze/ Florence for a year to learn Italian – my first flat was horrendous as regards noise: single glazing and on a busy street. It drove me crazy, I had to resort to wine to dull my senses and moved out after just the first month.

        • Lady London says:

          9 Feb9 February 20:44

          1600 people protested plus 2 cows and the sheep? The government has ignored petitions of Hundreds of Thousands 000,000’s of residents in West London against each of the last 3 major expansions of Heathrow.

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Feb9 February 20:49

          and in Bristol pretty much everybody is supporting the airport expansion plans (doubling) as they recognise it’s great for the local economy

          airport is nicely placed, mind you – a few villages to annoy with noise but nothing much else

        • Lady London says:

          9 Feb9 February 21:06

          I wouldn’t mind moving to Bristol area – there is massive business growth in counties it serves. Sounds like local people have got sense about expanding their airport too. Rush hour traffic jams around Bristol now seem worse even than London though. Much less problem around STN. Except when idiots driving too fast in the Cambridgeshire fog cause pile-ups on the M11 when STN becomes impossible to reach by road.

      • John says:

        10 Feb10 February 04:04

        I moved to Kew recently. Heathrow paid me half the cost of some new windows and can’t hear planes at all. Actually I got the new windows to block out noise from the train line behind my house

• Paul Higham says:

  9 Feb9 February 12:12

  I used this lounge every week for a year in the early afternoon with Priority Pass. Denied access a couple of times due to crowding, but only for 10 minutes or so. It’s…ok but if I paid for it, I might feel a bit short changed. Went downhill went they stopped serving cheese bakes… :). All being well will be trying it as an EK passenger later in the year.

• Hotel-User says:

  9 Feb9 February 12:38

  Was almost totally deserted at 4:20am last week.
  Breakfast had a few hot options, inc Sausage, beans and overcooked bacon. Juices were nice and not made with water. Shame there is a carbonated drink dispenser for sugar free drinks.
  Pastries were good and fresh. Did not see the USB charges.
  Bar was open and saw a few pints being served !! No signs of a limit …. Glad I was not on that flight.
  Staff friendly and welcoming. Loos outside unless disabled or ask niceley …..
  Worth the cost ( freeish with AMEX ) better than some of the lounges visited in APAC
  They will let you fill water bottles up as well for the flight.
  Only once had a long wait ( 20 mins ) in an afternoon when an Emirates flight was due… but que was managed according to your likely flight time. Looked like they had taken over 1/3 of the capacity ( and no one was using it from Emirates ….. )
  Agree that security is the first thing you should do at Stansted. Worth getting there early just to avoid the panic that the que for security has taken about an hour and the person in front has no bag for the 2l of liquid shampoo ……

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