London Stansted Airport

The airport operates way over its capacity. It's so apparent at every step of the process. Bag drop-off takes forever. At least one hour at security every time. Similarly, when landing at Stansted, immigration queues are extremely long and I also had to wait more than 1 hour to collect my checked in bag. There are often delays also during taxi, both when taking off and landing, with passengers sitting on planes for a long time whilst waiting for take off or a parking spot. Overall, a terrible experience every single time.

Meeting my family, took 2 and a half hours for luggage to be taken off the plane. No explanation except that Ryanair contract baggage handling out. Fraught family members who had the wait all that time to get their cases after a long delayed flight. A shambles Ryanair, who had all packed up and gone home. This isn't service.

Staff on exit security gate was loud and bossy - screaming at people to "Proceed to Gate Number 10, 11, 12 etc ". No need for this rudeness. When it was my turn to go through gates the passport didn't seem to be registering on the machine so it took me some time to work out what was wrong. In error, I reinserted the passport the wrong way round and staff member grabbed it from my hand and made an announcement that 'Madam wasn't doing it right, and why had she (me) torn out a page from her (my) passport? Was this staff member hoping for a few laughs? I stood frozen to the spot, feeling incredulous. What was going on in this woman's mind? A childish tirade, thinking she had 'nabbed' someone trying to get through the gate illegally. I'm 63, Irish resident in UK and arrived from holiday in Italy. There was nothing wrong with my passport at all and I hope she felt embarrassed at her mistake, although I doubt it.

Worst ever experience through an airport security system. Crowd so big there was no room to form orderly queues. People jumping over barriers in panic because they were going to miss flights. People angry and stressed and arguing with people pushing in. I was lucky, I managed to join a queue, it took me 90 mins to pass through, but when I looked back I knew the crowd behind me would have a longer wait. Awful, hateful experience.

Self check in was not working properly with my smartphone, I asked assistance to the man next to self check in machines. He told me that his terminal was not working. He sent us to the other entrance. He forgot to inform his colleagues that told me that I (and the others with me) we couldn't entry from there. I make a complaint saying to the woman that his colleague sent us. Instead to call his colleague and ask him, in a rude way just said: "go back there!" In a sort of a ping pong game I have been sent against to the man in the main entrance which told me again: "terminal not working use other door". I go back again to second entrance to explain to the rude woman that we need to entry from there. She left entry the other people in the cue and she says me that now the terminal in main door is working to go there. Again another pong pong, it was evident from the facial expression they sadistically enjoyed about the situation. They stressed me and make me frustrated.

Had I not left the long queues at London Stansted Airport and gone for "fast track" I would have missed my flight. The new layout of the airport is winding and disorientating. It is an horendous experience negotiating this airport. What has gone wrong? Stansted was such a pleasure to travel through. I miss the old airport.

Having read some pretty damning reviews of Stansted I wasn't looking forward to flying from here last week, I was surprised to find it painless and even pleasant. Security was very speedy and completely hassle free. We did pay extra for 'fast-track' as the queues looked a little long but it was probably unnecessary - we were just impatient to get on to the 'fun' bit - shops and food. The Duty Free shop was large and had a good range of merchandise and the member of staff who checked ours out couldn't have been more friendly. (We left the goods to collect after our return flight, and picking them up was very quick, with another very pleasant member of staff dealing with us). A really good choice of food outlets offering variety, the place was clean and there was plenty of seating. We breakfasted at Leon and had a decent coffee at Harris and Hoole. Our Ryanair flight left on time. Return transit was similarly smooth, although being crammed, with baggage, onto a shuttle bus bound for the terminal is never pleasant wherever you go. Because the staff were pleasant, and there was seating to spare, and no delays, I have no complaints at all. Maybe in a busy summer period things might be different, but otherwise, don't let the many negative reviews convince you it will be horrible at Stansted, it certainly wasn't for us.

The worst airport experience ever. There was a crazy up stairs then down stairs followed by upstairs again to get to passport control. The airport was understaffed resulting in unacceptable queues. This was particularly true at security where there was a very long and winding queue which was poorly managed, and less than half of the scanners in operation. An hour in a queue is very stressful when you have a connecting flight - you would have to give yourself a minimum of 2 hours at this airport. Why when I had already been through security in Seville did I have to go through security for a second time? Why is there not a better design for connecting to a flight? Having finally got through security there was a ludicrous winding trail through a never ending stream of shops and restaurants before eventually reaching a sign for the gates. I was now faced with a 10 minute walk to the gate. Whoever designed this airport clearly had little regard for travellers. The distance to walk was unacceptable, and the IKEA like style of ensuring you must wind past all departments is infuriating. I cannot rate many of the facilities because I spent all my time in queues and was unable to get food or duty free - I hope I never have to use this airport again.

My worst airport experience ever. For arrival there was only the queue at the passport control that was annoying. Concerning the departure I can hardly think of one positive thing. I had a very early flight, so I arrived some time before midnight, only to finds that the handful of seats were already taken. Only option now was the floor. I was lucky to find a place near the radiators, extremely uncomfortable but at least warm. The entry doors were close by and wide open through the night (-2 C). Staff kept shooing people away, not to sit or lie there. Finally they woke everyone up 50 minutes before any facility opened. Why? We'll never know. Security was a disaster. Apparently customers are just a nuisance without rights. I ended up in a line with the female officer missing so they processed the luggage but let only male customers through. There were about 25 woman before the gate and about 15 men waiting for them behind it, and in the middle of it everybody's valuables. I asked the officer to take my wallet out of the tray. He was standing at arm' s length from it and told me he couldn't because he couldn't leave his post. Nothing was stolen, but it was a long wait and extremely chaotic. I finally got 1h of sleep in the waiting area after security which was a lot less draughty but extremely crowded - at 4.30am.

Travelling through Stansted with Ryanair to Cork on 15th November 2015 and had already printed our boarding cards online. Tried to go through to departure and used the automatic scanner which did not read our boarding card. I asked for assistance and was told very rudely that I was not using the scanner correctly. When the staff member tried to scan it he also failed and threw the paper back to me and said to go over to a gentleman at the end who scanned it after huffing and puffing with no trouble! Passed through security who were speaking to everyone very rudely about removing footwear and obtaining a tray. It was chaos and there were not enough trays and staff were in a panic. I was wearing boots and took a few minutes to remove them as the zip had got stuck. Instead of trying to help me three members of staff stood grinning and telling me to hurry up. I went through the scanner and was met by more rude staff. My case was opened as I had inadvertantly packed my toothpaste and shower cream. I have no objection to my case being opened and I am happy if security is extra strict but everything was scanned and taken away to be scanned again and the whole time the woman was talking about me not being able to read signs to the colleague next to her and he was talking back about a young woman he was searching. It was disgusting. The security staff at Stansted need to be retrained in customer service. One staff member was shouting out about the airport being on high alert on that day. We do not need to hear that and surely it should always be on high alert.