Originally Posted by
Flightrider
I’ve had the joys of flights through Stansted lately and after many years of avoiding it (my previous flight being an Israir A320 to TLV!) it reminds me exactly why I detest it.
Fast Track security doesn’t work and on two of three recent trips, I’ve ended up in the same security queue as everyone else without being able to work out how.
Security search staff are quite shouty and their ability to deal with anyone who’s first language isn’t English seems to be confined to shouting more loudly.
VP9 is signposted throughout the airport. What the heck is that, and why is it on so many signposts?
The departure lounge is heaving but the airport still says “relax” on the FIDS until your gate is available. No chance of that. Even before giving you a gate, some broad suggestion of which satellite would be helpful.
The gates themselves are filthy and you’re left standing in a stairwell for ages to consider layers of thick grey dust on every surface.
Domestic arrivals are all coached into some ghastly dungeon in the airport’s undercroft. If you’re on a 737 or A320, neither coach leaves until both are ready to go (why?) which creates a pile-up of people at arrivals and means everyone is slowed down to the pace of the slowest passenger.
All told, it’s a pretty awful experience that could be made a little better by a few tweaks like sorting Fast Track, earlier notification of which satellite to head to (even if not the precise gate) and sorting the coaching ops. All are easy fixes, but flying through STN is probably one of the worst options out.
Agree with pretty much all of this. Having travelled via LHR, LTN, LGW and LCY over the past few weeks, Stansted has been the worst by far.
Security seemed to take an age and just felt disorganised once you get to the end of snaking queue. You just get yelled at to move to one of the various machines rather than having a separate queue for each one. And yes, people were being directed to Fast Track, to then join a queue with everyone else.
The Terminal was filthy, the car parks looked like they hadn't been swept in years, every corridor was full of rubbish and dust. Even the roof supports were covered in a thick layer of dust, the same ones I noticed years ago and just never seem to be cleaned.
On arrival, we also had the same experience of standing on a completely full bus, with the doors closed, waiting for the second bus to fill before we left. Doesn't make sense to drop 180 pax off at arrivals all at once, rather than a staggered 90/90?
I now only choose Stansted if it's the only option for the airport I need, if its a route flown elsewhere then I will.
BTW, VP9 is a staff security point. Not sure why it needs so many signs, surely as a staff member (and I was many years ago at Stansted) once you know, you know?