London Stansted Airport

Not Verified | The airport will accept no responsibility for anything. Parking and the extortionist cost - refer to the Parking company. Flight arrivals lack of information - refer to airline. Appalling state of the toilets - refer to the cleaning contractors. And so it goes on. Of course this only applies if you can find an airport representative.

Not Verified | I used Stansted about 6 weeks ago for a short UK trip and will again next week as have to travel to Edinburgh for 2 days. The issue lies with the parking at the airport not the terminal or the services there. If you are doing a short trip of a couple of days then it is only possible to book one of the short stay airport car parks. The long and mid stay car parks are simply unavailable so the cost for a trip of 36 hours duration is in the region of £60. This is quite possibly more than the flight itself. I have phoned the parking service at Stansted and they have confirmed this is the only option for a short trip. If anybody is planning a weekend visit away they might wish to consider another airport. Luton Airport does not engage in this price gouging.

Not Verified | The airport has changed. Looks scruffy and tried to get some money from the ATM and not one worked. After speaking with several shops to get see if they did cash back. All managers said the same, the airport isn’t bothered about the ATM and going on about some dispute with the ATM providers. My fault, should have got some money out earlier.

Not Verified | Never coming here again. Such horrible customer service! I was caught off guard because I never thought to read the reviews of an airport in London. What a horrible affair that airport security was, just so disrespectful and dismissive. They also have a set of rules which are so unreasonable and were never even questioned at any other airport I've been too in any other country or the UK. Aside these petty enforcement of things like the plastic bag for liquids must be airport issued, what was worse was the people doing these checks, talk about uncivilised. It was just so unnecessarily horrible. If you have enough insight to look at reviews of an airport before you visit, do not visit this one.

✅ Trip Verified | What a joke this airport is. When leaving the plane the announcements were directing people to the e-gates where applicable. Waiting to get to the e-gate were, at a guess 300 people. The up and down lanes and no social distancing meant you pretty much rubbed shoulders with the strangers going in the next lane. Signs said "masks must be worn" were being ignored, by staff as well. There were about 25 e-gates, but some appeared to not be working. The queues were barely moving, when, after 1.5 hours of queueing, I got near the front it became obvious what was causing the problems. Before using the e-gates, covid documents were being inspected, but there were only 3 desks checking them. The staff on the gates looked completely disinterested, and my documents weren't checked at all. When I got outside, to be picked up by an offsite carpark minibus I noticed the charges that applied if you were dropping someone off or picking the up, extortionate 0-15 minutes £7.00 over 15 minutes £25.00. This airport is a disgrace from start to finish.

✅ Trip Verified | Haven't flown from Stansted for several years (even though it is my local airport I choose not to use it) but this time I had no choice. Since I was last here, the place has got worse. Direction signage is poor, staff are, at best rude, generally unhelpful and pretty obnoxious, the shops are very expensive, and food shops are a rip off. I had a coffee, I asked for semi skimmed milk and was told "we only have full fat", if I hadn't already paid I would have walked away. Seating is uncomfortable, the toilet I visited had several taps not working, cold water only, and broken or empty soap dispensers, and the toilet area smelled really badly. Cleaner staff nearly knocked me over with their cart because 4 off them were walking along talking and not watching where they were pushing the cart. Bag security staff are rude and abrupt. Queues to get to bag security and long and disorganised (at 4.15 am) for no other reason than the Staff are not interested in moving the people through the checks. I will only use this airport again if there is really no other choice. One last comment, parking is twice as expensive as at Gatwick

✅ Trip Verified | Further to my last review, I note the number of people not wearing Covid masks probably exceeds the number wearing them. Many of those not wearing them are staff or work contractors, over which the airport should have control. This, to me, shows management are inefficient and/or don't care. There is no enforcement of the mask rules, despite there being signs around, no security staff in general areas and nobody appears to care anyway. Management should lead by example. The place is a disgrace.

✅ Trip Verified | What can I say, budget airlines make for a budget airport. I was very disappointed with my recent transit through STN. On my arrival I needed to get a taxi to a nearby hotel, so queue was my first problem, an abject lack of signage. Is there a taxi rank? Is there an airport shuttle that does the hotels? Who knows, because there are no signs and no information. I booked and paid for a transfer to the hotel and another back to the airport online, it’s only when I got to the hotel that I saw that there is a shuttle bus. The hotel advertised it, Stansted didn’t see the need. Also, a nitpick, outside the departures terminal was a really tatty looking Union flag. Come on, STN, flags don’t cost that much, how about you take some pride in your appearance? Another gripe was the food court. On my way out to Budapest my flight was in the morning, so I could avail of fairly decent food in ‘coast to coast’. On my way back to Belfast, however, things were different. Despite there being a queue of people outside the only eateries open, they inexplicably decided to close at 8pm. This despite a constant list of flights on the board. Which leads me to my last gripe, the lack of information boards in departures and the total absence of USB ports anywhere in the airport for passengers to charge their electronic devices. A quick look through one of the windows up and down the various gates showed this airport is mostly serviced by budget airlines, and as a result it’s become a budget airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Arriving at Stanstead, I was dreading the usual abuse re seating and use of toilets, followed by humiliation at "security", but nothing had prepared me for the closure of nearly all available entrances to the passenger terminal, followed by the banning of anyone being seated. The staff at Stansted had roped off all access to the heating pipes which are normally the only means of seating in the departures area. Even if you're disabled (I am), on previous occasions on asking for seating, I was refused, humiliated and abused. This time, the 'Information' desk were very sarcastic when I asked "where can I sit for 3 hours, please?" They demanded to know why I had arrived at such a time (01.15hrs), and when I explained that (because of lack of night buses) it was the only possible way for me to get there for an 04.10 check-in, the attitude was that I must be particularly stupid: it was obviously all my fault that there is no seating: I deliberately and malignly expected some humanity here: No chance. When I decide to move aside the ropes etc which prevented anyone sitting at the [closed] Burger King outlet, the staff threatened to call the police: I called their bluff and refused to move, despite their aggression, and received applause from others who had followed my example.

Not Verified | Until the pandemic I travelled through Stansted every week. With an EasyJet Plus card you can skip the main security queue so that part of the experience is fine. Shopping is pretty good but their seating is always very crowded and it is generally impossible to sit anywhere that you can see the gate announcements. So a bit mixed. However, my biggest complaint about Stansted is transport to the airport and the car park charges. It is very difficult to use public transport as the trains to Cambridge stop at about 23:00. If you arrive any later than that then you are looking at a very expensive taxi ride after queuing up for 30 mins. The Car Parks are the most expensive around London and really badly managed. Also it is the only major London airport that charges for motor bikes. They claim a discount of 50% compared to cars but the reality is closer to 30%. Cycle storage is appalling - no way would I leave a bike their as it will be stolen/damaged in minutes. They could fix all this really easily but seem to have decided that their main business is expensive car parking. Wish I could avoid the airport.