London Stansted Airport

Travelled to pick up my daughter from London Stansted. Astonished to find that the fee for both setting down and picking up has been increased from £2.50 to £3. Anything over 10 minutes incurs a penalty of £50. Fortunately I was not subject to this latter charge but I understand that if you loiter over this £50, then it has to be paid before your car is allowed out through the barrier.

Three night break in Prague was wonderful until we returned into Stansted airport at about midnight on 14/5/16. It was a dreadful, tiring, frustrating and pitiful experience. Bad enough for us Brits but goodness knows what a bad first impression it made on first time visitors. On taking the transit shuttle to the terminal most passengers, including us, got off at the first stop which we thought (mistakenly) was the terminal. Only by luck as I was on the platform did I and several others hear the announcement on the train "Do not alight at this stop". This information should be announced at the start of the journey - not after the train has stopped at the first stop. On arriving to the passport control it was akin to a cattle market. I do not want to walk a mile up and down the lines to get to Border Control. The new epassport readers and gates are not fit for purpose. They are far too slow or broken and many travellers do not know how to use them. There were too few staff in attendance to help speed things up and it is much slower than the man in booth system it replaces. Finally to add insult to injury the Meet & Greet service arranged by our travelling companions failed to find his car that was still off site and we were forced to wait with many others in the same predicament in a cold office without any seating for at least 30-45 minutes whilst they recovered his car from storage. We have not flown for the last few years preferring to travel by the Shuttle into Europe and If nothing else this experience has demonstrated that flying has become a worse experience than we remember and we will only do it again out of necessity and certainly not for pleasure.

I'm going to give London Stansted a solid 1/10 for one reason - it is the only airport that I've ever heard of that opens and closes the gate in a 15 minute time span. You have to take a 3 to 8-minute walk or an airport-train ride to the gate within 15 minutes. Even if you're obsessively on the dot like I was, you might also find a time where you're 5 minutes from "gate closes at" and still rushing up an escalator. My guess is that they do this is because the gates (at least gate 01) have no shops, so you can't buy anything from the airport, which means no extra money for them? That's all I can conclude. Or maybe they keep this panic-inducing policy with the intention of keeping flights from here cheaper? What I can tell you is that if you fly from here, prepare to be on the clock to not miss your flight, and enjoy 15 minutes of adenaline during the race to the gate.

London Stansted security was incredibly slow. Not busy, just slow. I was invited to use Fast Track (or the equivalent at STN). People cut in endlessly and the following hand-checks were slow and tedious. Bags were searched by either staff who were either sighing heavily (at the thought of having to reach their quota of bag searches per hour?) or trying to engage in 'banter' with passengers which also took time I did not have. Then I had to snake my way around the tightly packed shops and claustrophobic retail area till, at last I walked out into what can only be described as a bus-station-like seating area. Thankfully I had a pass to the lounge so I made my way there. When my flight was called I had to take a monorail to the gates. I clearly missed the sign that said once I get to the gates I cannot return. A delayed flight meant a long wait in an uncomfortable gate area. On my return the automated passport gates were failing every few passengers. In the end I gave up and joined the queue to be met by a human being. I think this was quicker in the end. My wife had to deal with the ridiculous 3 minute pick-up rule (for being so inconvenient as to pick a person up from outside arrivals) - which you are charged for. Any longer and she would be stung with a £50 fine. Eventually she had to do a go-around as we could not see each other and we arranged to meet in the coach car park. Unsatisfactory. An airport to avoid.

3 day business trip to Tallinn. Arrived 1hr 15min before flight, already checked in, e-boarding pass, hand luggage. My trolley landed in the additional checks queue with 8 items in front of it. At some point during my 30 minute wait I went to the guy overseeing the operation, told him my boarding was going to start soon. He shrugged and said there must be something wrong with my suitcase. I waited my turn. The lady unpacked everything and took ages to do it too. I stayed friendly. Nothing was wrong. Tried to rush to my gate, but my way through the seemingly endless mile of tasteless shops was blocked by what seemed like thousands of limping middle-aged trolley pushers trying not to get overwhelmed by all the shiny adverts. Obviously missed priority boarding - had to repack all my hand luggage outside the plane so it could go into hold. On the way back the queues for both electronic and old passports stretched all the way to the escalators. When it was my turn the border police lady interrogated me for almost 5 minutes and - I'm pretty sure - ruined the experience for both of us. As a comparison: Hamburg, Heathrow and Newark take 5 minutes for security and 5 minutes max to get to any gate. What's so hard about making public transport work Stansted?

Through my own fault I missed my flight from Stansted. Rushing through security I accidently left behind my mobile phone and debit cards. I only realised this after I had rushed to the gate and found I was too late. I reported the loss to the security staff who made enquiries for me which turned up blank. At this stage they had done their job and could have left it, however they continued to make enquiries consequently found my mobile phone and debit cards which were returned to me. I was upset about missing my flight and security had to escort me back to the check-in area and the staff were skilled at putting me at ease. If the staff had not gone the extra mile it could have been very bad for me.

Stansted have just increased their drop off parking charges to £3 for 10min and £50 if you oversay. Dropped my partner at the terminal today, went inside to use the toilet (after a 2 hour drive), over-stayed 3 minutes and was charged £50. I couldn’t believe it. An absolute scandal - they can do whatever they want, it’s just a trap. I’ll just avoid Stansted as much as possible.

Awful experience for ePassport control at London Stansted. Technical issues with screens causing delays and horrendous queues. Same thing every time, even security check upon departure is outrageously bad. Can't they learn anything from Gatwick Airport? How hard can it be?

I had a surprisingly positive and smooth experience through STN this weekend (departure Friday evening, 22 April and arrival Sunday evening, 24 April). Amazingly, at all points of my journey the queues were reasonable. I don't think I had to wait more than ten minutes to get through security when departing, and passport control on arrival was similar. Admittedly, I did not take the e-passport gates, as I noticed these were taking considerably longer. I suspect this relatively positive experience was due to fewer travelers (London marathon keeping everyone here/bringing travelers in the other direction than myself?), as I sadly have experienced all the bad stuff on a Friday/Sunday with masses of people too, and ultimately agree that this airport is operating beyond capacity.

If I never have to travel from this wretched place, it'll be too soon. Everything about the airport is unpleasant, whereas 15 years ago it was quite pleasant. But it's nothing but queues and hideous white melamine boarding herding travellers into line for check-in and then the same again for security. Once through that, it's a long, meandering trudge past shops until the food area is reached - and if you don't want to eat, then there's hardly anywhere to sit. Once the flight is announced it's on to the shuttle train to yet another set of queues at the satellite boarding area. Then a walk in the open to the aircraft. Returning is even worse. Walk across the tarmac, up the steps and down 2 escalators to a dangerously inadequate single car shuttle. If this isn't a health and safety hazard, then I don't know what is. Arriving at the terminal, it's a race to the zig-zag maze at the woefully slow 'e-passport' gates. Then a further wait for hold baggage - and it's really great to find that the gents' lavatory is closed. Happiness is Stansted in the rear view mirror. I hope I never have to travel from this wretched place again.