Manchester Airport

Not Verified | Avoid this Airport. Lets start at the beginning. Arrived at terminal 1 departures to drop off my young son. Multi-storey car park closed, it was full. Cost me £3.00 to exit througn the barrier. Why wasn't this sign posted closed before I got to the multi-storey. Easy money I guess. I was then directed to park in the arrivals car park. Had to get through the ticket barrier, you press the button and remove a token, no instuctions on what to do with said token! Managed to negotiate my way to terminal 1 very poor directions, staff at the information booth seem demoralised and not really helpful. Checked luggage in. After saying our goodbyes, my son went through to boarding, 20 mins later he's ringing me, telling me he thinks he will miss his flight due to huge queues going through security. How can this be the case when he went to board 1hr before departure time? He had to push to the front to ensure he didnt miss his flight! Having found out what you have to do with the said token, you place it in the machine in the building, again no instuctions and it cost me £10.00 + £3.00 from earlier. Welcome to Manchester. What a rip off. Never again, it was horrible. Some years ago I travelled from Manchester and it was much better than this. The CEO of this shambles of a airport should hang their head in shame. I doubt it though, they know no shame and will keep trousering their huge salary and pension contributions.

✅ Trip Verified | This review is intended for the airline I was flying (which I cannot name) and Manchester Airport Security to suggest better communication with one another in order to ensure that no other customer is forced to endure the aggravation and expense I have just experienced. It began at the luggage drop - where I asked for assistance but none came until too late. I had a combined luggage allowance of 30kg. Packing my cases I had one with 14kg and one with 16 kg, which by my math came to 30kg. Unfortunately I put the smaller bag on first and when I put the larger bag on, I was told to remove one kilo from my bag. This was in fact my wash bag- and checking with the airline employee I was assured that since I had no article of more than 100ml there would be no problem at Security. How wrong he was- the small plastic bag given at security – UK rules say should be 20cm x 20cm but Manchester Security obviously has its own sized bags (19cm x19cm) causing me to have to dispose of some rather expensive hypoallergenic make up. I was further asked to remove my money belt – which I have never been asked to do at any other airport in the world. Since I have a hip replacement I almost always have to go through separate X-ray security- but the young lady who scanned me was extremely officious and I would say passively aggressive. One pleasant security official, who I cannot name, did try and help and took me to the Head of Security to lodge a complaint. That young man- Head of Security, was supercilious and condescending and after a very short period of time I realised my complaints were falling on deaf ears. As I see it, I have two solutions available to me; one is to stop flying with the airline I have flown with for over 10 years, and the second is to stop flying out of Manchester. Since I have been flying with the particular airline since its inception - (but out of Luton or Gatwick) and have never encountered such poor service, I am left only with the option of not flying out of Manchester. I realise that this is probably of little interest to you - but I promise you I will be informing all my family, friends and colleagues of the poor customer service I suffered today. I look forward to your response.

Not Verified | Rip off. This little grey box entails excessive car park charges, rude staff and what's more £1 for a trolley. My gran (in her 90s) was provided with self service wheel chair. Unbelievable. Avoid.

❎ Not Verified | Security here is a joke, we missed our flight because the screening took so long and they said it was fast. It was not. We waited at least 25 to 30 minutes to get through and by then the gates were already closing. Baggage check-in was also poor, we waited nearly 30 minutes for that too. They called our names out then I ran towards the gate leaving my wife behind which I shouldn't have to do, from the moment they called our names they waited 2 minutes literally, before closing the gates. Anyone who's been here will know the exit for the security screening is not 2 mins away from gate 27. Its more like 10 mins to 15 if walking normal pace. We missed our flight at the end even though they took 20 minutes to remove the baggage off the plane when they could have let us through. I knew Thomas Cook was an absolute risk and a joke and I took this same trip last year with Virgin without a single issue. The staff are also rude! Not all of them though. Just the certain idiots with their miserable existence that don't want to be there. I've now booked another flight for an extra £600 simply because security is terrible in this airport. Last year in terminal 1 people waited way more than 20 mins even though they said it should be less than 15 minutes. Last years complaints went through the roof regarding security and staff. Exactly what I'm complaining about here. If everything just moved along quicker like it does with other airlines then I'd be on that plane with my wife. Now a £1300 pound holiday turned into £1900 with fewer days aswell. Absolute joke!! The statistics show that this airport is the worst in the country for unhappy people. 1 in every 17 people have said they have been very dissatisfied with the service and no doubt this will be majority towards Thomas Cook. You literally get what you pay for.

✅ Trip Verified | The airport is clean. However, the waiting time is very long (hopefully our flight is delayed!) in part due to a very long security process. On my evaluation, almost 2 out of 3 people had to have an extra security verification for their hand bag. I think there is a better technology to use. I will try to avoid that airport next time.

Not Verified | Come through Manchester from Brisbane via Singapore every year. Second year on the trot where things haven't been as bleak as some of these reviews are. Arrived a little late from Singapore, straight through (and I mean immediately) through e-gate immigration. Bags took a couple of minutes, then bus to car hire village. Off plane and into hire car in well under an hour. Returned car 2 weeks later, night in Radisson Blu on site hotel. Checked in 2 hours before flight, no queue. Always have the issue of our 27 hr stay in Singapore on way home. Took a supervisor to book bags through the long layover. Yes, extremely thorough security, even down to taking headphones out of case, but as long as you are ready and prepared, not an issue in T2. Again no queues at 9.30 am.

Not Verified | Absolute chaos and confusion. When I first arrived, no one was there to guide you, you had to just follow the other people. Security guided people through quickly and just a scan of your passport and go through metal detectors. Not bad but odd. No real welcome to the city. The luggage claim area is big, dark and stark. I had no clue what carousel to go to so I went to the most crowded one but I didn't find my luggage there. I went to the other ones and as I was walking up to one I saw a security or luggage claim agent rolling my suitcase then left it in the middle of the floor and walked off. I chalked it up that he saw it matched my carry-on but he didn't say anything to me. I wasn't sure where else to go to next. I went to the service desk and no one was there. I waited for 5 minutes, no one appeared. I just decided to walk out a big exit gate and then I was in the main terminal where it was like night and day. On departure day, there was some confusion where to go. I started on the main floor in one terminal then went to the 2nd fl. just have to go to the main fl. again to check my suitcase and get my boarding pass. I didn't see any ticket machines. There was no real clear directions. I found that I had to go to the 3rd fl to security. The security area was jammed with people and noise. I accidentally put my boarding pass in the bin with my cardigan. The security guy wouldn't let me get it out. It wasn't there when I went to get the bin. Good thing another security guy found it. To get to my gate I had to pass through a perfume shop where sales ladies were offering sample spritzes. This is not safe for those with scent and chemical allergies. There wasn't any seating areas I could see. But I had to board right away, anyways.

❎ Not Verified | Worst experience I’ve ever had, I had two hand luggage bags - removed all my electrical and liquids. They came back fine but the other bag which literally just contained clothes went into a separate queue in which I waited 30/45 minutes to be told that my bag didn’t scan when it went through the scanner so it needs to pass through again. My bag went through the scanner and returned fine just like my other bag. If my bag had been scanned in the X-ray machine in the first place it would have taken out 30/45 minutes of my wait. Absolute joke.

✅ Trip Verified | Due to a cancelled flight, we had the 'pleasure' of almost 24 hours at and around the horrendous T1. Below are several issues: - Pay to drop off: had hoped to drop wife, infant and luggage at the Terminal before dropping off hire care, but not prepared to pay to do so. - Huge queue for oversize baggage drop (pushchair, car seats). Had to beg to skip the line as we wouldn't have managed to 1) check in 2) drop luggage 3) clear security and 4) get to gate. - Understaffed security at the Assistance Lane we were forced to use with overzealous security staff. - Far too many shops (most of which are cheap and tacky, not like Munich or Zurich), with too little gate space and seating resulting in queues stretching out into corridors (e.g. Gate 23) - The childrens play area consists of little more than a soft mat with five building blocks in a dark space. Not nice. No wonder there were no other children/parents there. - Long immigration queues, which we were fortunately able to bypass with our infant, but spare a moment of thought for visitors and those returning from deserved holidays facing an hour queuing. - Nearly the whole Terminal has low ceilings, no windows, is dark and dingy and is such a depressing place to start or end a holiday.

Not Verified | Entering the airport from the new bypass Cheadle side, there's absolutely no signs for terminal 2, had to turn around go off site and re-enter using a satnav to find it. And as for the 3 pound drop off charge, really, are you not making enough money already, who thought up this one? I can guess they were trying to impress the board. What an advert for our great city, disgrace.