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I’m thinking of doing MAN-LHR-NCL return as a BA holiday next year for 320 TPs. I have an old uni friend in the area who I visit every year anyway so it would work well – and be interesting to compare experiences! But Newcastle is 2.5 hours’ drive from us so we may as well drive to LHR if we were avoiding domestic connections.
I’m thinking of doing MAN-LHR-NCL return as a BA holiday next year for 320 TPs. I have an old uni friend in the area who I visit every year anyway so it would work well – and be interesting to compare experiences! But Newcastle is 2.5 hours’ drive from us so we may as well drive to LHR if we were avoiding domestic connections.
That’s hilarious. Base price for that is £267. Must be one of the cheapest ways to get 320.
I’m thinking of doing MAN-LHR-NCL return as a BA holiday next year for 320 TPs. I have an old uni friend in the area who I visit every year anyway so it would work well – and be interesting to compare experiences! But Newcastle is 2.5 hours’ drive from us so we may as well drive to LHR if we were avoiding domestic connections.
One wonders if BA holidays systems would pick up concurrent ‘holidays’ as in MAN-LHR-NCL and NCL-LHR-MAN. 😀
Fortunately I’ve never had the apparent displeasure of taking a flight from MAN. What I’m curious to know is whether it is any worse than an international to domestic transit at LHR T5? Currently that tops my personal list of the world’s worst airport experiences.
That IS a miserable experience, @BJ, most recently having done T3 – T5 and then been turned away from Galleries North a couple of weeks ago! Especially as you’re returning from holiday instead of anticipating one. But the thing at MAN is the whole randomness of it; why do the rules change from one month to the next, why do the scanners see things that aren’t even in your hand luggage, why can’t you get a shot of rum without a mixer in the Escape lounge? At least at LHR you feel like you’re in a modern, relatively well-run facility and not trapped in a Sartre play (like the actual characters in Huis Clos 🤣)
*In fact if Sartre wrote Huis Clos today he would set it in MAN T3.
@Qwerty, yes, they do!
Also MAN-LHR-EDI and so on.
Fortunately I’ve never had the apparent displeasure of taking a flight from MAN. What I’m curious to know is whether it is any worse than an international to domestic transit at LHR T5? Currently that tops my personal list of the world’s worst airport experiences.
Yes and I speak from experience of both, on many occasions.
Last int-dom at T5 was from Larnaca, where on arrival at T5B the security staff watched me walk towards them, closed the transit lane as I approached, refused to let me go through, sent me to T5A where the total turnaround time for me to get back to 5B lounge was 1 hr and 20 mins rather than 2 mins if they’d let me pass.
MAN is still worse.
I commented on the video that even being relieved of my passport and held at gunpoint in the transit lounge for 10 hours at Cairo (armed guards wouldnt let anyone leave until 60 mins before their flight) was a better experience than Man.
Fortunately I’ve never had the apparent displeasure of taking a flight from MAN. What I’m curious to know is whether it is any worse than an international to domestic transit at LHR T5? Currently that tops my personal list of the world’s worst airport experiences.
My tale earlier in this thread was from yesterday and absolutely bloody terrible.
@Anna, @davefl, you’ve got me itching to see for myself what MAN is all about 🙂
Don’t do it. Trust me. The only thing that was vaguely decent was the old BA lounge which was big, airy and almost empty. It allowed you time to de-stress after security. Sadly it’s long gone.
I actually had bantz ladz playing music off one of their phones in the T3 Escape Lounge last time I was there. And this was in the allegedly quieter glass overlook area they try to keep for BA passengers. It was like a circle of hell – awful tinny dance music playing whilst overlooking the chaotic main bar below and a sign at the bar saying “Water machine broke”. I loved the choice of the ambiguous tense of broke. No taps then eh, I asked? I was told the Coke machine still worked.
There was a jug of iced water on the bar last month! Perhaps it’s too expensive to fix, like the travellators.
The best thing was being kicked out at 7.50 pm a couple of months ago while waiting for our (delayed) 8 pm flight to LHR. The BA people all headed for the old lounge space where it was at least quiet with comfy chairs and civilised loos – so the pax who were going to miss their long-haul connections could fret in relative comfort!
Not long awake, thinking more clearly this morning … I’ll pass, LV may not cover extreme sports anyway 🙂
When I last sat in the T3 lounge amongst a large group of ‘enthusiastic’ holiday makers ensuring that they got extreme value from paying a lounge fee, whilst I lamented the passing of the oasis of calm that was the old BA lounge next door. It came to mind the saying attributed to Thomas Cook with the introduction of package holidays, when foreign travel had previously been limited to the wealthy, ‘better for the many, worse for the few’.
@BJ – at long last the railways seem to have been sorted out between the north of England and Scotland! You can once again get a weekend return from Edinburgh to Manchester for under £35 if you did want to visit. The cheapest fare just to central London is twice this, even though the distance is identical, so still no real incentive not to fly.
On four QF domestic flights the rear rows were boarded via rear stairs, strictly enforced and it speeds things up no end. People can understand row numbers, but groups are stupid; nobody understands them. Here, there is a reluctance at bigger airports to allow passengers on the tarmac unless strictly necessary.
Though, what have the Australians done… introduced boarding groups! Qantas now uses 1, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B!
There original system was criticized, so this new fangled one will definitely please them 😉
Just arrived back at T3 on an international flight for the 1st time in a while.
Egates were actually working but the person directing people to them for some reason couldn’t see the end one so never directed anyone to it.
Baggage belt 14 where ours was supposed to arrive did nothing for 20 mins and then a bloke popped his head out of the door, said to the few people standing close to the door that he couldn’t get it working so they’d be on 13. Only about 5% of the crows heard him.
Uber pickup point is now is in the T3 pickup area which is approx 400m away from the exit of T3. Across multiple roads, up and down curbs and generally very rough surfaces. The only way they could have made it more difficult was to put it across the dual carriageway in the clayton hotel’s car park.
One plus is that the water fountain in baggage claim (nasty unfiltered manchester tap) was actually working, unlike in T1 where the only one hasn’t worked for months and the toilets smelt fresh today but were still filthy.
@davefl waiting for luggage someone made an announcement and you said “only about 5% of the crows heard him.”
I have a picture of people waiting for their luggage, all lined up like crows.
Will this thread get as long as the Creation Bashing one? I think so.
Each time someone posts here, I give thanks that I am far, far from Manchester Airport
@Lady London, Lol my eyes are doing me no favours today, neither are my fingers. I should have said bleating sheep who don’t understand what the “Keep behind the yellow line” signs mean.
If they’d line up it would be great but no, they all stand next to the belt so nobody else can see, sit on it, let their kids play on it, even so far as to let them go through the curtain into the secure area. I despair.
I just want to be far from Manchester, never mind it’s airport. Maybe one day I’ll manage that but hey it’s only 32 days until my next trip (Caucasus region for the 1st time) and I have the marginally better T2 experience but with a 4 hour layerover in Brussels.
It’s good that a Southerner validated our pain, and also mentioned the appalling rail services! Perhaps now people will stop telling us we shouldn’t be flying MAN-LON as 3 changes with luggage is so easy.
I’m sure there was a time when menus were on the seats when you boarded, and you were then ready to order as soon as asked. At least the quinoa salad that absolutely nobody ate seems to have been ditched!
I’m a southerner (until I moved last year), I’ve validated this many times, MAN deserves the title of worst UK airport
Only about 5% of the crows heard him.
@davefl Ye know nothing Jon Snow 😂Sorry to hear about the MAN experience to add to many in this thread!
@SSS, you need to do a blog about living up here.
You haven’t actually done the complete MAN experience unless you’ve stayed in the Britannia hotel the night before departure though:
Will this thread get as long as the Creation Bashing one? I think so.
It’s on the right track – it took 9 days for the creation thread to reach post number 48 – reached in just 2 days in this thread…
@SSS, you need to do a blog about living up here.
You haven’t actually done the complete MAN experience unless you’ve stayed in the Britannia hotel the night before departure though:
I have never, and I will never, stay in any Britannia hotels…
Plus Manchester airport passenger assistance is enough torture for one person to bare… it’s got to the point where I have a direct email address to the manager of sub contracted passenger assistance company. I’m flying to Newquay in under 2 weeks, I’ll let you know how badly it goes!
@SSS, you need to do a blog about living up here.
You haven’t actually done the complete MAN experience unless you’ve stayed in the Britannia hotel the night before departure though:
Our corporate team once booked my manager in the one in the centre. I suggested he get it changed if valued his life/health. He’s been grateful ever since and mentions his close shave every time he comes up here.
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