London Gatwick Airport

Arrived in North Terminal early morning and departed South Terminal early the following morning. Arrival was a bit of a hike to Immigration no queues and we were in the baggage hall within 10 minutes of getting off the flight followed by a 15 minute wait for the bags. Out the door - zero hassle. On Departure I walked into the terminal quick check-in on Monarch upstairs for Security Check which is better than any other UK Airport and as good as anywhere in the world no queues and I was in the Departures area within 10 minutes of walking into the terminal. I don't like the new Duty Free Shopping set up but nobody's forcing anyone to shop. I much prefer LGW to LHR and it certainly affects my choice of airline. Most months of the year it's a pretty civilized airport.

Left waiting for baggage for over 1.5 hrs on Saturday. No explanation and I found the staff particularly unhelpful. Two were unable to speak English and the man in the lost baggage office kept repeating the same thing - 'go and look at the board for the correct baggage number!' Also had long queues at immigration and drinks machines in baggage claim with no prices on them. Do you have to guess how much they are? My guess was 2 pounds but no keep going!

Arrived on BA from Malaga 15th Feb. Baggage took nearly an hour after touchdown to arrive on the carousel. An announcement said the airport had contacted the Swissport handlers and an apology was offered but no explanation. When I rang my carpark provider they said they'd dealt with many people who'd been stuck in the baggage hall for hours that day so there was obviously a serious problem all day. This cannot be acceptable.

Have travelled many a time using Gatwick but can honestly say that our recent visit was the worst ever. So sad that despite all the money spent on revamping it convenience for the customer seems to be bottom of the heap. Flight out was fine using night before check in although £6 for parking a mere 30 mins to drop off the cases is laughable. Return was appalling. Arrived around 13.00 on a Saturday and were faced with what felt like a mile walk along many corridors to get to passport control. Once there predictably there was an enormous queue for UK/EU passports but only around 8 people waiting in the foreign passports queue. We eventually got to baggage carousel and were pleased to see baggage arriving. However they only managed to deliver half the bags and then nothing for a further hour. Occasional apologies over the tannoy but no proper estimate of eta or reason for the delay. The final insult was to find a crowd of weary travellers awaiting the arrival of the bus to the official on site long stay car park. We could not all get on the first one and waited a further 15 minutes for another cattle truck to arrive. We had used this parking facility in the past and been happy with the service but will now revert to APH (for which several empty buses passed us while we were waiting). So Gatwick looks glossy now but organisation and customer service are sadly lacking. Our flight from Austria took less time than it took us to exit Gatwick.

The corridors are endless the arrivals and departures areas are chaotic and dirty and the Gatwick Express is a model of 1970s-style British inefficiency and shabbiness (and at £19 for a single not cheap). Heathrow is a breeze by comparison.

Gatwick I prefer to Heathrow by a long way it's a smaller better organised airport for one but it has a few small benefits too. It has an EAT. in the departure lounge which sells cheap and good espresso and there is a Greggs once you pass through customs on arrival (which isn't remarkable). Other than these small things the airport is generally well laid out and overall I quite like it.

Arrived at Gatwick mid December first time flown into this airport and probably the last. Baggage took an age and the sign posts to the pick up point were very poor as were the staff who appeared to find it an inconvenience when asked directions. Took me 20 mins to find my pick up due to the signs being so poor was not impressed.

My daughter was due to fly to Edinburgh on Christmas Eve at 8.50am. Bad weather and electrical failure coupled with floods delayed most flights. Thousands were delayed but some flights were leaving. As the day wore on her flight was shown as active and she waited until 5pm when the gate was opened. She sat a further 3 hours at the gate and then the board showed that the flight had been cancelled. At this point all the easy jet staff turned off the lights and left together with the majority of staff from the airport. Thousands were left stranded and police were called and agreed that the situation was unacceptable. Will never use it again.

Passed through the South Terminal Sunday morning. Security was a breeze. Through the obligatory Duty Free and the departures hall. Sign for gates indicated upstairs. Once upstairs sign indicated down stairs! Access to the gates hidden in the corner. Very confusing. Hopefully only temporary until the demolished pier has been rebuilt.

Arrived at North Terminal on a Saturday evening with no queue to speak of and bags delivered promptly. Used the e-passport service for the first time only quicker than lining up for a passport official because most people don't use it. A refreshing change from the usual long waits for everything.