Birmingham Airport

Not Verified | It took around two hours for the luggage to come on the carousels which is ridiculous. This is so poor for an unbelievably big airport and how busy it is. It’s like they can only do one plane at a time it’s that slow. I think that they have the same staff for every carousel

Not Verified | This place is the pits. The plane arrived 10 minutes early from Gran Canaria, for once quite a fairly quick route through passport control but more than an hour waiting for luggage to come through. 3 flight arrivals at once. About time they got their act together.

❎ Not Verified | Upon arrival at BHX on a Ryanair flight from Fuerteventura, as usual we were parked by T2, on previous occasions we were told to climb up 2 floors by a metal staircase on the outside of the unused air bridge. Since I twisted my ankle a month ago I find it a little painful to climb stairs. Asking a member of ground crew if they could direct me to a lift. No you should have booked assistance, how did I know I would have to use the stairs. Trudging up the metal stairs an elderly started to fall backwards, if a young had not managed to stop her the airport would have been liable for many injured persons. Reported the matter to airport complaints and the local Health & Safety. The airport say its a Ryanair problem for not using the Air bridge, I disagree, Airport property Airport responsibility.

✅ Trip Verified | My Aer Lingus flight arrived at Birmingham slightly early, taxied to the gate and the ground staff took about 15 minutes to find and fix the exit steps. We were then shepherded onto a bus driven around the airport only to be held up by a tanker refuelling an aircraft. We were told to de-bus just as a Ryanair plane arrived next to the abandoned bus, very dangerous. We were then directed to walk up the steep steps including some elderly passengers onto the air tunnel only to find the exit doors locked, another ten minute wait. The whole thing was a complete shambles and put passengers at risk on a live airside path. The management need to get a grip at Birmingham Airport before there is a serious accident.

❎ Not Verified | Queueing times are awful and despite starting with plenty of time, we arrived at the gate at last call. Security are rude and not consistent. I presented my liquids in a clear and fastened plastic bag and was told it was too big. I was given a much smaller bag which not all my liquids would fit into despite having less than the full quota. I was told to choose which to lose and 3 unopened brand new mini toiletries were put in the bin. The woman before me was allowed two bags. When I arrived home I measured the bag given by airport staff and it measures 18.5cm by 19cm, much less than the allowed 20×20cm.

Not Verified | If you like being treated and shouted at like a child, Birmingham airport is the place for you. The woman on security was terrible and having to stand near her whilst waiting to go through only made it worse. Not all passengers are frequent fliers and do not and should not be treated in this way.

✅ Trip Verified | 2 days after my arrival the service was completely opposite. A 'special assistance' pick up from the Novotel was arranged fro 08.45. At 09.00 the hotel receptionist phoned and was told "someone is on their way now". At 09.15 another phone call with same response. At 09.25, with help of one of the hotel staff I managed to get to the terminal to avoid missing my flight. At the OCI special assistance desk there were about 8 staff hanging around showing no sign of urgency. I pointed out that there was only 30 minutes before check-in closure but was told "no worry". At 10 minutes to closure they noticed my case and said "you need to check in" so off we went to check-in and then not through departures but back to 'special assistance' because of 'new procedures' just brought in and there was no-one with a 'blue badge' to take me airside! Eventually it was decided 1 'blue badge' could take 4 wheelchairs and pushers through - so through to departures. When 'gate closed' was shown I called an OCS employee who rushed around and found another pusher for the final journey out in the bitterly cold open air about 100m. to the plane where we were lifted by the lift onto our plane about 5 minutes after specified departure time. What a difference 36 hours made!

✅ Trip Verified | Fantastic 'special assistance' service. The hi-lift vehicle was waiting for our on-time arrival, I was wheeled straight through immigration and luggage retrieval by a chatty helper who even pushed me across to my accommodation at the Novotel. He commented "It won't be like this next with the summer schedules starting on 1st April". How true - see my departure report!

✅ Trip Verified | The security process is not traveler friendly. There is a lack of clarity and communication of what is expected of the traveler. All the communication is verbally and in general in a directive commanding tone, not friendly and welcoming. Over half of the bags are taking out of the xray, and not enough security personal is present to cope with the need to check trays resulting in a long waiting time. Ones a bag is checked it goes back trough the already congested xray delaying the process even further. All together I believe the procedures of the security process are outdated and inefficient. Add the inhuman connection and lack of communication a terrible experience. I am now traveling from different airports (ear midlands, Manchester & Luton) due to the security experience at Birmingham.

Not Verified | Travelled with special assistance help to Lanzarote, with a family that included autistic children. Our parking booking was lost in the system and messed up but luckily I noticed and it was sorted by phone, that could have been incredibly stressful for the boys. Special Assistance were great, giving exactly the help level we needed in the knowledge we could ask for more if we had to. Our sons had never flown and it really helped. Only gripe was on the way back in, my husband went ahead with our older two sons and I had the two autistic younger ones. At immigration the lone guard separated the youngest and me from the fifteen year old, who is the most severe and was clearly wearing a lanyard. If my husband hadn't been close enough to call back or if I'd been on my own he'd have wandered off and in the past has hidden to avoid a crowd. I tried to speak to the guard but she was with another plane load and I couldn't get her attention. Surely putting us all through the non fast track process would be better than risking someone's safety?