Manchester Airport. How can it be so bad?

[Sheepshanks]

Boringvolvodriver said:

It might be a stupid question but I wonder why people, once on the plane, presumably to go away, , would then decide that they can’t wait any longer so get off the plane?

Am I missing something obvious?

Nervous flyers, maybe, and the delay got the beter of them?

Both outbound and return legs of wife's flights last week were delayed as a passenger had checked bags then not boarded so the bag had to be found and removed. And there were no significant security delays when she went through T2 at MAN, or at CDG for the return.

[98elise]

Sheepshanks said:

Boringvolvodriver said:

It might be a stupid question but I wonder why people, once on the plane, presumably to go away, , would then decide that they can’t wait any longer so get off the plane?

Am I missing something obvious?

Nervous flyers, maybe, and the delay got the beter of them?

Both outbound and return legs of wife's flights last week were delayed as a passenger had checked bags then not boarded so the bag had to be found and removed. And there were no significant security delays when she went through T2 at MAN, or at CDG for the return.

I have a relative who's done that a few times due to nerves. He was ok on short flights but long haul was a real struggle. He's finally getting to grips with it and has managed a couple of holidays in recent years.

[andy43]

WCZ said:

how early can you get through security in relation to when you fly, if I turned up to the airport a week prior to my flight would it be possible?

If you're checking bags in some airlines offer a drop off service the night before so they have more time to mislay your luggage, otherwise you're restricted to checking in when they say you can - 2-3 hours beforehand.
If you're hand luggage only I'd kind of expect you could just scan your boarding pass and go straight in days before... as long as the system recognises your boarding pass as valid - a full week before and it might throw a wobbly.
Worth trying although surviving for a week on airport food could well be more expensive than hiring your own helicopter.

[Boringvolvodriver]

98elise said:

Sheepshanks said:

Boringvolvodriver said:

It might be a stupid question but I wonder why people, once on the plane, presumably to go away, , would then decide that they can’t wait any longer so get off the plane?

Am I missing something obvious?

Nervous flyers, maybe, and the delay got the beter of them?

Both outbound and return legs of wife's flights last week were delayed as a passenger had checked bags then not boarded so the bag had to be found and removed. And there were no significant security delays when she went through T2 at MAN, or at CDG for the return.

I have a relative who's done that a few times due to nerves. He was ok on short flights but long haul was a real struggle. He's finally getting to grips with it and has managed a couple of holidays in recent years.

Cheers - understand. I have had the checked bags but not boarded so have to offload bags before but never people getting on the plane and then deciding that they want to get off.

[captain_cynic]

Popped up on my news feed this morning. Probably still not enough time.

[Sheepshanks]

That's all very well but when my wife flew last week Air France didn't open the check-in desk until 2hrs before the flight (she had a bag to check in).

[Its Just Adz]

This maybe a daft question, but if one is delayed so badly by check in and security issues, and then yiu miss the flight, who is liable?

For instance, would the airport admit liability and have to put you on the next available flight?

[MOMACC]

Its Just Adz said:

This maybe a daft question, but if one is delayed so badly by check in and security issues, and then yiu miss the flight, who is liable?

For instance, would the airport admit liability and have to put you on the next available flight?

No.

You have no legal contract with the airport just the airline.

[PushedDover]

Duck sticks - they run out of fast track security passes when I need to go through on the 24th !

(Never heard of this before)

[Its Just Adz]

MOMACC said:

No.

You have no legal contract with the airport just the airline.

So you'd just be out of pocket to X amount.

No come back with the airport? Would insurance cover it?

[RammyMP]

PushedDover said:

Duck sticks - they run out of fast track security passes when I need to go through on the 24th !

(Never heard of this before)

About a week ago I tried to book a fast pass for the 20th May, they’d sold out. My flights at 5:30, I was going to skive off work at 3, get to the airport for 3:30 but now I’m thinking book the afternoon off to give me more time. But maybe they’ve got their st together by then.

[Sheepshanks]

RammyMP said:

About a week ago I tried to book a fast pass for the 20th May, they’d sold out.

Not sure where the info came from,but my missus says they've suspended Fast Track. Mkaes sense I guess, she said it felt a bit awkward when the stopped the main queue to let her in so when it's very busy that's not going to go down well.

[captain_cynic]

Its Just Adz said:

This maybe a daft question, but if one is delayed so badly by check in and security issues, and then yiu miss the flight, who is liable?

For instance, would the airport admit liability and have to put you on the next available flight?

The airline is generally responsible for sorting you out. Any compensation from the airport would be sorted out between the airport and the airline.

[PushedDover]

Sheepshanks said:

RammyMP said:

About a week ago I tried to book a fast pass for the 20th May, they’d sold out.

Not sure where the info came from,but my missus says they've suspended Fast Track. Mkaes sense I guess, she said it felt a bit awkward when the stopped the main queue to let her in so when it's very busy that's not going to go down well.

Nope
Booked fast tracks today (although a maximum limit of two tickets) today for 7th May just fine
Tried 10 mins later for the aforementioned 24th and

[stub101]

Question - In this day and age why does each airline have their own check-in desks (and staff)?

Surely every airport ‘could’ just have a load of multi-airline check-in desks (still with business/first separate of course) which would allow them to staff up or down dynamically dependent on number of flights, plus also smooth out the huge queues at some and short/no queues at others???

If they can allow twilight check-in then the technology in place surely allows the above.

I’m no expert but presume this would save money and vastly improve the debacle I experienced at both Manchester and Geneva this week.

It would also stop me arriving at the ‘wrong’ end of the check-in hall every time and battling against the flow of people who’ve done the same.?.!.?.!

[surveyor]

Yeah but.

That would put Manchester airport in charge of checkin as well as security. Sound like a good idea?

One of my ways to avoid idiot Ryan Air where they would put one checkin staff member to serve all of their flights and I’d be caught in the holidayers was to always fly aer lingus. Worked a treat.

[triggerhappy21]

We had a flight out of Manchester shortly after lunch from terminal 1 with easyjet. 4 of us with 2 young children, and a bag and car seat to check in. Anticipating the worst we arrived 3 hours before departure.

We were through bag drop and security in 25 minutes.... Best run we've had through MAN. There was a serious number of staff on hand. Suitably impressed.

Still the most baffling layout I've ever seen in an airport. Poor signs, narrow corridors, bottlenecks, stairs, stairs, stairs. Spent most of the 25 minutes getting lost with crowds of other people.

[Swervin_Mervin]

T1 is a very old terminal that's been added to multiple times over the decades. Hence why it's no longer fit for purpose really.

The next phase of the major works is to bulldoze it i believe and T2 extended further to create 1 giant super terminal. IIRC

[Imasurv]

We’re hoping to fly out of Manchester T1 later this month and I was wondering whether time of day impacts the number of flights and how busy the airport would be at any given time. This is purely anecdotal, but on the day we fly there are 40 flights leaving between 6-8am, 26 between 8-10am, 36 between 10-12pm, 26 between 12-2pm and 20 between 2-4pm which is half that of 6-8am.

This is presumably because no flights leave overnight and they won’t have any delayed flights to catch up on, so they front load the day with loads of early flights. This means the early flights result in far more people going through security etc early doors, leading to long queues. Any delayed morning flights will already have people through security so maybe you have a (slightly) lower chance of delays caused by security etc later in the day? Just a bit of a theory - anyone else see this borne out or is it bunkum?

[halfpenny43]

Flew out of T2 earlier today back to AMS.
Hardest thing was finding where to take the rental car back ! (picked it up from Norwich Airport).

Bit of a queue at security but the biggest issue was that each tray you put your bags, laptops etc in have a barcode in - and the scanner was not reading the barcode. I had 3 trays and all 3 got pulled for no reason other than the scanner had not read the barcode. All 3 got rescanned and 1 failed again. New tray and success.

Despite the 10 mins in security I had no other issues. The terminal itself was empty although I think there were only 2 flights - Air France to Paris and my KLM flight to Amsterdam.