Yeah LCY is my favourite London airport by a long way, though the company is usually unpleasant. What don't you like about it SV?
― Tim, Thursday, 7 September 2017 10:04 (six years ago) link
LCY can be pretty grim when overcrowded on a Sunday evening. The compact size and location is a bonus.
― mmmm, Thursday, 7 September 2017 10:17 (six years ago) link
Yeah it's not perfect, it does get crowded but so do all the London airports IME. City has a habit of filling up with some very shout-on-their-mobiles City types, but it's so much quicker and easier to get through than the others.
― Tim, Thursday, 7 September 2017 10:20 (six years ago) link
The location is great. I used to be able to get home in half an hour and now, from Medway, it's not much more than an hour. I hate everything else, though.
The company is definitely a factor. It's too small and too crowded. You usually can't check in more than two hours ahead of your flight and there's literally nowhere to go landside that isn't a commercial space - so if you arrive early, you have to either leave the airport or go to Pret.
When you've checked in, seating is extremely limited so gets too busy. There are no good shops. There's no business lounge (presumably because almost everyone would qualify for it) so it's perversely impossible to work at London's most business-centric airport. The last few times i've had to board basically from the central departure lounge and there are no dedicated spaces to do that, so you have had people queuing in the corridor, being told that they're blocking Boots so everyone has to turn around and queue in the other direction, etc - usually with a lot of aggro passengers.
If you need to turn up an hour before your flight, hop on the plane and be out, it's fine but it's just too small for the capacity of flights to be a pleasant place for anything else.
― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Thursday, 7 September 2017 11:08 (six years ago) link
This airport is a saviour compared to the horror that is Stanstead.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 7 September 2017 12:08 (six years ago) link
Where are you hanging out at Heathrow or Gatwick if you arrive early? I don't recall anything but a tiny handful of uncomfortable metal seats landside in either?
I can't imagine wanting to check in to any airport more than two hours ahead of time, particularly not one where I didn't need to check in so early, so I grant that could be annoying.
I don't think there are any good shops in any of the London airports.
Anyway, sounds like you use LCY more than I do these days - I used to use it a lot but have done so rarely over the last few years, and I've never failed to find somewhere to sit down, so I 'm sorry things have got worse. My basic point is that I hate all airports, particularly the London ones, and LCY doesn't seem any worse than Heathrow or Gatwick. And this:
If you need to turn up an hour before your flight, hop on the plane and be out, it's fine
is pretty much my ideal for what an airport should be, particularly one which is relatively well-connected to public transport.
― Tim, Thursday, 7 September 2017 12:26 (six years ago) link
Yeah I'm the one hour before person too. The idea of going into a shop in an airport for anything other than coffee is alien to me.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 7 September 2017 12:38 (six years ago) link
I see an airplane but its is made of fur and planets.
― Dean of the University (Latham Green), Thursday, 7 September 2017 12:43 (six years ago) link
City is easily the best airport, the fact the bars are the areas you wait in is a bonus. I don't find braying city types any more annoying than the ultimately similar variety of human stains you have to be around at any other airport but I'd agree generally that air travel is horrible and the people around you are generally really irritating/lacking in self-awareness.
For this reason also City is best, fewer queues, less walking, no grim maze of death by commerce like they've installed at Stansted both on the way through duty-free and in the horrendous food court circle that resembles that stone they all walk around in Midnight Express, arguably the most badly and brazenly designed public space I've ever been in.
I used to avoid Gatwick given that Stansted brings me back to Liverpool St and I live in Hackney, but I'm working v close to Victoria these days so Gatwick is very handy to get to from the office. I've been hugely surprised, particularly flying Easyjet, but in general really, at how calm and easy it is, short queues, lots of space, everything working very well. They fucked Stansted so badly when they redesigned it. Security queues included.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Thursday, 7 September 2017 12:51 (six years ago) link
I'd agree generally that air travel is horrible
air travel remains amazing and thrilling
sic you rollin up to SEA this time?
no immediate plans but surely sometime! maybe thanksgiving? and hopefully mopop/popcon next year, depending on employment & transport & such. (I'm a resident now.)
― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Thursday, 7 September 2017 18:46 (six years ago) link
oh welcome aboard, here's your red hat
― .oO (silby), Thursday, 7 September 2017 19:42 (six years ago) link
is it too late to go back home and wear a Make Australia Gay Again hat until the postal survey
― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Thursday, 7 September 2017 20:14 (six years ago) link
I flew on a gay plane up to Sydney yesterday. You could tell it was gay because of the rainbow Qantas logo.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Thursday, 7 September 2017 20:48 (six years ago) link
I am in Luton Airport. For older readers, there is no sign of Lorraine Chase.
I use Luton more than any other airport -- two or three times a year at least, due mainly to it being the only "London" airport which has direct flights to Gdansk where the in-laws live apart from Stansted, which would entail not only travelling further but also using Ryan Air, which I have vowed never to use again on account of certain shyster tendencies. It's recently been voted the worst airport in the country but I can't honestly see why (NB this may be habituation).
― Grandpont Genie, Tuesday, 12 September 2017 10:00 (six years ago) link
I am at George H.W Bush International. I was torn for a fraction of a second between going off in search of the garish bronze statue of your man there and just heading to the Centurian Lounge. The lounge won.
― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Tuesday, 20 February 2018 22:09 (six years ago) link
First time I ever flew to another country by myself was to Mexico via IAH. I was bored, so I figured, hey, might as well go get some pesos. Went to a window, got a lot less than I thought I would, and eventually drifted back toward my gate.
CNN was on and just so happened to be doing a Travel Tips feature, mentioning how you should never exchange currency at the airport. To illustrate the fact, they showed footage of people standing in line at the currency window I had just been to.
― pplains, Tuesday, 20 February 2018 22:23 (six years ago) link
I hadn't seen SV's cat photos! Omg. Anyway, no cats in Gatwick rn alas
― imago, Thursday, 22 March 2018 15:54 (six years ago) link
What the fuck kind of large international airport leaves the security until the gate ffs
― imago, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:43 (six years ago) link
Welcome to Singapore?
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:46 (six years ago) link
Or Berlin Tegel but that’s hardly large.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:47 (six years ago) link
Vienna
I don't get it. I guess it's only a real inconvenience if you want to buy duty free perfume/booze but it feels very strange and wrong, and creates bad queues
― imago, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:57 (six years ago) link
hmm I did not experience this last month in Vienna, it was right before the gate but isn't that normal?
try Kansas City (lol I know) for an example of this, though
― droit au butt (Euler), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 20:04 (six years ago) link
I mean I hate the new trend toward making me walk through a ridiculous mall-like thing selling nothing but perfume & Toblerone
― droit au butt (Euler), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 20:05 (six years ago) link
And milk powder (at least in Australia)
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 20:57 (six years ago) link
They are playing High Horse at Atatürk duty free.
― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Saturday, 5 May 2018 10:13 (six years ago) link
Nice
― droit au butt (Euler), Saturday, 5 May 2018 10:19 (six years ago) link
There is a Sub Pop store selling vinyl in the Seatac airport now
― sleeve, Sunday, 13 May 2018 22:31 (six years ago) link
Sub Pop store has been there for a while, SeaTac is sort of relentlessly on brand for an airport
― valorous wokelord (silby), Sunday, 13 May 2018 22:38 (six years ago) link
They’ll give you a sticker every time you go in which is why I have like a dozen sub pop stickers on a guitar case
― joygoat, Monday, 14 May 2018 01:33 (six years ago) link
duly
― laurel or hardyhearin (darraghmac), Thursday, 7 June 2018 16:34 (five years ago) link
au revoir
― valorous wokelord (silby), Thursday, 7 June 2018 16:39 (five years ago) link
did you get a Sub Pop sticker tho
― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Thursday, 7 June 2018 18:51 (five years ago) link
now in another airport
i presume its an airport there are planes landing and taking off
no other function of a fucking airport seems present or correct
― laurel or hardyhearin (darraghmac), Thursday, 7 June 2018 22:45 (five years ago) link
I'm in an airport eating clam chowder
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 7 June 2018 22:46 (five years ago) link
also in an airport. Been here since 1pm and was supposed to depart almost two hours ago
― marcos, Thursday, 7 June 2018 23:36 (five years ago) link
from arrival thru shuttle thru security to the actual ordering and receipt of just a fucking burger pls there isnt a single person ive interacted with in this shitheap that gives any indication that they were in the job ten minutes ago
and ask anyone in seattle im a fuckin cheery cunt
― laurel or hardyhearin (darraghmac), Thursday, 7 June 2018 23:45 (five years ago) link
I'm in another airport, wish I were home
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 8 June 2018 01:28 (five years ago) link
last airport, heading home now
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 8 June 2018 04:57 (five years ago) link
Been queuing since 05:35 and I haven't reached the "End Of The Line" sign yet
― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Sunday, 10 June 2018 12:58 (five years ago) link
It's funny how when there's a queue, they can tell nobody has a bomb in their shoes or their phone or their laptop, without looking
― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Sunday, 10 June 2018 14:01 (five years ago) link
ohare, for its many faults, had a new scanner that could apparently do that
― laurel or hardyhearin (darraghmac), Sunday, 10 June 2018 14:08 (five years ago) link
And yet the queue to get scanned was just as long as ever the other day.
― Tim, Sunday, 10 June 2018 16:09 (five years ago) link
one sniffer dog!
― laurel or hardyhearin (darraghmac), Sunday, 10 June 2018 16:14 (five years ago) link
We were confidently assured by one of the staff assigned to watch (and fail to control) the queue that the line would most be more quickly once “the canine” arrived. Cue dog, no perceptible quickening but at least we had a doggo to look at. (We arrived a bit early to be greeted with the news that our flight was 90 minutes delayed so we weren’t too bothered about slow lines, as it goes. 5 hours in O’Hare is a hard time.)
― Tim, Sunday, 10 June 2018 16:32 (five years ago) link
Move, not most be.
― Tim, Sunday, 10 June 2018 16:33 (five years ago) link
i think
now this is open to correction mind
but i think that new rules means that they have to rotate staff between different roles every fifteen minutes for some obscure security protocol and i think
now again i didnt see this happen myself
that the sniffer dog was at one stage operating the scanner
― laurel or hardyhearin (darraghmac), Sunday, 10 June 2018 16:55 (five years ago) link
At Luton Airport waiting for my bus to Oxford and discovering that the Wifi which works like a dream in Departures is totally non-functional in Arrivals! Oh and the airport outside of the security gates seems to have become completely dry --- not even any gins in tins in the WH Smith fridge anymore...
― Grandpont Genie, Sunday, 10 June 2018 17:00 (five years ago) link
creeping sharia innit
― CARL MARKS PRINCIPAL INVESTING AND ADVISORY SERVICES (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 10 June 2018 17:46 (five years ago) link
― CARL MARKS PRINCIPAL INVESTING AND ADVISORY SERVICES (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 10 June 2018 17:48 (five years ago) link
now look as ive said..
― laurel or hardyhearin (darraghmac), Sunday, 10 June 2018 18:22 (five years ago) link