London Gatwick Airport

✅ Trip Verified | To start with a positive. Arrived from Dubai A380 and baggage was being delivered on the carousel as I arrived in the baggage hall. Very impressed and thanks to the hard working people behind the scenes. Negatives...who arrives as a tourist from foreign countries with English coins in their pocket to utilise the baggage trolley. Ridiculous and stupid policy. Just adds misery after a very long day travelling. And now the worst thing .....BE WARNED the ATM machines liberally positioned in the airport. I was charged 23% commission. $80 on a $360 withdrawal Outrageous. Yes it does state the exchange rate. However, long day long flight tired looking for bags looking for exits etc etc. For me this is disgusting and shameful greed taking advantage of weary travellers and not what I would expect arriving in England. What impressions of UK does this leave with foreign guests/tourists.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew into the South Terminal then headed to the North Terminal for my next flight. Directions were fairly good, however had a 30 minute wait at baggage reclaim. Self check in and bag drop through Easyjet was relatively painless despite the long queue. My biggest gripe is with the poor choice of eateries in the Terminal. I ended up going to Weatherspoons for a fairly expensive sub-par hamburger and fries. Aside from Wetherspoons there are only a couple of other options, neither of which appealed. The other shops are your standard airport fare, though I noticed some wildly differing prices for the same products in different shops, so it would pay to shop around. As for seating, most of it seemed to be swallowed up by eateries, leaving the free seats absolutely swamped. Having been to all of the London airports bar the City, I can say that Stansted is by far the worst, closely followed by Gatwick. Stansted's excuse is that it caters mostly to budget airlines, I'm not sure what excuse Gatwick can use, airports in Germany, France and the far east boast vastly superior facilities and make for a much better travel experience. Using Gatwick really was a chore, there was nothing enjoyable about it.

✅ Trip Verified | Security is very efficient and quick, staff seemed helpful and friendly. Departure environment is clean with lots of seating - I was impressed to see lots of charging points around the pillars to use. Food options could be more exciting , but there was enough choice for various budgets. They also still offer free premium magazines and newspaper titles that otherwise cost money on the way to the gate which is appreciated and nice extra touch - I picked up a copy of GQ and New York Times, but there were lots of options. Gate area was clean and well laid out with lots of seating, no crowding although once ready for boarding the areas could do with toilets as you have to go back out if you need to go. Arrivals is less good, quite long walk from gates to exit and very up and down which may be particularly annoying for those with mobility issues. Generally a pretty good functional airport, only reason I don't recommend is because it is quite difficult to get to from London and reliant on regional train services which can be unreliable.

Not Verified | Worst Special Assistance ever for my wife who is disabled and was travelling alone. They had the wrong names for the nine disabled people on the plane. Took 5 away in a buggy and left the other 4 to fend for themselves with no information. Eventually my wife had to walk the entire length of the south terminal, retrieve her own bag and then walk all the way to the carpark. My wife can normally only cover about 50 -80 yards before it becomes extremely painful. My wife sent me a text to say the Special Assistance had completely failed so I went to the Special Assistance desk in the South Terminal and spoke to the Concierge and showed him the texts from my wife. He could not find her booking in the system even though it was pre-booked with the airline for both departure and arrival. When I said it was appalling that they had a abandoned a disabled person at the arrivals gate with no help he replied - 'Yes it is appalling, but sorry there is nothing I can do' - they are legally required to provide the service. Worst customer service ever and shows a massive lack of training and basic respect for human dignity.

Not Verified | No issue with the wall from the airbridge to the immigration queue at the North Terminal. We were forced to go to the family queue (travelling with two children), and there were 8 people ahead of us. The first individual ended up being sent to a holding area, the family who were next in the queue had their fingerprints taken, and the next individual was also sent to the holding area! It took 40 mins for these people to be dealt with and finally we had our turn, 2 mins later we were through! The queue behind us was full of families coming from Krakow and the children / babies were all restless. Gatwick immigration should have enforcedthat non UK / EU travellers were not allowed to be in a queue for UK/EU citizens, having one person to deal with the queue might not be an optimal number?

✅ Trip Verified | The security process at Gatwick airport is one of the worst and sadly / annoyingly one of the most frequent I have to experience (it being my nearest). It keeps shocking me how long it takes to get through security and how militant (most of) the staff is treating their customers (the passengers). It feels like an army drill every time, over and over again. I genuinely hate it with a passion. I’m deeply saddened by how Gatwick feels at least 25 years behind.

Not Verified | In a broader prospective, this airport looks outdated and lacking in terms of technological advancements. I am in aghast right now after visiting this airport first time. Firstly, there is inadequate heating during night time (in my understanding there are advanced HVAC systems that can maintain appropriate temperature regardless of number of people increase or decrease at particular point of time, I wonder why this airport failed to do so !) Secondly, there are limited sitting options for passengers, I have seen people lying on floor during wait time ! This is absolutely disastrous for any airport for their customers. There should be appropriate system to maintain the Crowed if space is not enough. I hope these issues can be addressed by airport authorities in future but what impression it left in my mind and many others will remain for long term.

✅ Trip Verified | On arrival at Gatwick BA aircraft reached the stand and it was announced the delay in the jetty connecting to the aircraft. After 15 mins the announcement made was that there is a problem so all to use stairs. We had requested wheelchair help for my wife as she was injured and with a bandage on her head. We disembarked by walking down with me carrying both our hand baggage. The ground staff asked us to wait at the foot steps for wheelchair. There was another couple same age as us (over 70) waiting for similar help, a man was assisting them. After 10 mins wait this male staff asked us to walk to the terminal up the stairs and walk to passport control. He said the wait for a wheel chair could take a long time. It was a good 15 mins walk and not short as the staff mentioned. In the meantime he continued to assist the other couple by collecting their belongings and helping them up the stairs. We felt insulted by the behaviour of the ground staff and his attitude. My wife was having difficulty in walking and could have collapsed due to her head injury. This was very inconsiderate of the ground staff and no one else there to assist. Wonder where the humble and considerate personnel have gone!

Not Verified | The staff are very rude and not helpful when you can find them. Everywhere there is dust and other garbage on the floors. In the toilets is no soap available, no napkins and pee over the toilet seat.

Not Verified | Worst airport ever visited by far. Queues for everything were excessive, and flight information difficult to find. Once you eventually get through security, which is staffed by some of the most unpleasant people I have ever encountered, you are forced to walk through something more like a shopping arcade than an international airport. Not nearly enough seating (because most of the space is given over to retail units) and those that are available are out of sight of the flight information boards. Airport staff are impossible to find, we saw an elderly lady take a nasty fall at the top of an escalator and clearly needed medical help. Eventually staff from one of the duty free shops had to come out and assist (having tried and failed to radio/phone for airport staff to help). I hope I never have to use this place again.