Birmingham Airport

✅ Trip Verified | For the second consecutive time had to wait an hour for baggage reclaim. No information, no service, no care. That’s why I normally choose to fly to Heathrow and drive back up to Brum. Much less hassle than going direct.

Not Verified | I sent an email review complaining of the service my disabled wife received (or rather did not) when arriving from Dubai. The automated reply said they will be looking at the complaint and that they would get back to me in a few days. Some 4 weeks later and they have not had the courtesy to reply with any explanation of the complaint. Very disappointed and think they should now explain your lack of customer care, our experience was awful on arriving at Birmingham. Trusting you will reply this time with an explanation.

Not Verified | This is my local airport but I have to say it is a shambles! Masses of check in desks allocated for budget airlines & a handful of passengers, TUI however was crammed down the far end in a small area but had loads of passengers so was chaos, Our flight to Cancun goes out the same time every week, and this Monday morning was not busy at the airport at all however we had to wait for over an hour as they had not got the snow & ice off the steps to the plane! Then we was delayed 3 hours on the plane as it was covered in snow & ice then had to watch incompetent employees trying to deice the plane! They ran out of de-icer 3 times as they did not fill the truck up each time! On arrival after a 10 hour flight had to wait in baggage area for 1 hour 20 minutes for the first bag to come off the belt, all I could hear outside was laughing & joking from the baggage handling team. They summed up Birmingham airport to me, a laughing stock!

Not Verified | A complete shambles at security. Birmingham Airport should be ashamed of their service today. They know a busy schedule in the morning, they completely under-resource the security desks, the result - huge queues. Took me around 2 hours to get through security, people were having to be pulled out of queues to fast track to get to flights on time. The safety requirements for COVID seemed close to non-existent. Perhaps the powers that be at Birmingham Airport might think we have a lot of flights in this period today so lets make sure we are staffed to deal with this. If the management are not able to manage these simple arrangements perhaps they need replacing.

Not Verified | I agree with J. Bell, 7th September, who said his aircraft was held for a considerable time - mine was the same the following week on 14th September. Fortunately, although the hold up was exasperating, it wasn't a problem. My main grumble is the 'ridiculous rule' regarding dropping off in the airport vicinity. I was dropped immediately adjacent to the Ibis Hotel (using a small lay-by for no longer than 30 seconds) I then entered the hotel because I was staying there for the night before my flight. This little excursion culminated in an extortionate fine for breaching terms and conditions of use of the car park. How Ambassador Road can be considered a car park is beyond me. APCOA Parking are there because the airport employs them, so they must take some responsibility for theiir actions as well as taking considerable money from the airport users who are almost a captive audience.

Not Verified | Passport control was good but waiting about 20 minutes for the stairs to get off aircraft and waiting over 40 minutes for baggage after getting through passport control. No staff anywhere, nothing communicated either.

Not Verified | I noticed that someone else has commented on the fact that the ground staff at BHX always seem to be surprised by the arrival of an aircraft and they are never ready. Tonight, after a 40 minute EasyJet flight from Belfast, we remained trapped on the aircraft (a full aircraft) for the same amount of time because nobody appeared to a) guide the aircraft onto its stand and then b) to bring a set of steps (just the front steps, obviously, it would have inconvenienced them far too much to bring both front and rear steps! It was very warm on board and although passengers all wore face masks this had to be a breeding ground for Covid - I wonder how many of us will have caught it after this disgraceful experience. Don’t these individuals realise that, ultimately, they will harm themselves by risking their jobs? People do have a choice and, if the comments this evening are repeated on other flights it doesn’t look good for them. Birmingham airport has an appallingly bad reputation for dealing with arriving aircraft and their apparent disdain for passengers. I have travelled the world and without a doubt Birmingham Airport arrivals is the worst by a considerable margin. Simply dreadful.

✅ Trip Verified | When I arrived BHX from a long trip that began on 31/8/2021, I mistakenly passed Baggage and into the airport without collecting my luggage. I was directed by a helpful WH Smith employee to Assisted Travel across from Spar. The employee there directed me to a phone where you may call to have your luggage brought to you (you can't go back at this point for security reasons), but was extremely rude. Once I arranged to have my luggage brought, I asked for assistance: my phone ran out of power and I needed to let my husband know my plane had arrived. She shouted the words "there!" and pointed to an area she said had a payphone (as if I was a dog). I discovered that phone was out of order so I returned and told her and she replied by pointing in the opposite direction. I eventually reached my husband and then sat in the designated seating area across from Spar to await my luggage. I observed this employee as she courteously (I'd even say sweetly) fielded questions from other passengers. Each of my own attempts to speak to her resulted in her pulling faces and replying in a loud and rude manner. She conveniently had her ID badge turned around such that I could not see her name. When I'd waited 1.5 hours I asked her if it typically took that long, to which she bellowed we are busy. I travelled thru ORD, Dublin and BHX, but Birmingham Intl was the only airport in which I felt very unwelcome.

✅ Trip Verified | As a regular user of Birmingham Airport due to its good proximity, each experience gets worse and worse. On departure, there are always long queues going through security due to low staffing levels so allow plenty of time before your departure time. The worst experience is on arrivals. Birmingham Airport always seem surprised when a plane arrives and you quite often have to wait a long time for the ground staff to provide the facilities for you to disembark from the aircraft. The next delay is the understaffed Border Control with long queues being very common. However the worst experience is trying to reclaim your luggage which takes a ridiculously long time compared to other airports both domestic and foreign. Last nights experience took 1hr 45mins from disembarking the aircraft to actually leaving the airport. The baggage area was full of hundreds of people trying to reclaim their luggage from 3 different flights all from a single carousel (no.4). Going forward, I’ll probably start using Bristol airport and hope for a better experience. It can’t be any worse?

Not Verified | The running of this airport can only be referred to as an absolute sham. Just arrived today and had to wait with a disabled passenger for just over an hour on the plane while waiting for assisted help. But saying that, it made no difference as the luggage did not get unloaded until the same time. Waited a further hour after this for the luggage to be loaded on the belts. No other planes on the tarmac at all, but still took over 2 hours to get away. There are no staff, the baggage office staff ended up loading the bags themselves as no one else available. TUI, mitie and Swissport staff will get the blame, but it is quite clearly the airport management that are not capable of running the airport successfully. Absolutely shocking, would sooner travel to other airports in the future.