Luton Airport

Not Verified | The worst of the London Airports by far. I have used this place for some 40 YEARS now, and all it's done is take one step back for every step forward. They save money at the expense of the traveller by simply putting too few staff on Departure checks and even at 6.30am on a late October morning they only had a handful of overworked checkers (and MANY empty booths) yet a long, LONG line of travellers getting more and more anxious as the time frittered away. ON top of that they have progressively expanded the ridiculous farce of making every one waste time by being "FORCED" to go through a serpentine 'retail experience' with no chance of any short cut. It may be the easiest for us to get to, but in future I will travel the extra miles to Stansted - and I recommend others in East Anglia to do the same! A Cheap and NOT Cheerful Airport to use. Be warned!

✅ Trip Verified | I got to the airport two and a half hours before my flight was due and joined a queue to check in (as I couldn't do it on line) and put baggage in hold, after queuing for nearly an hour because there were not enough desks open, was told to go to help desk (definitely not helpful) to pay £42 each to check in, then go back to the first check in and get boarding passes. Then had to take luggage to yet another area as it was a large case, so yet another queue! Then it was on to security and that was another massive queue, where nobody new what the other was doing and due to the time we had to spend there the gate for our flight was closed and we were unable to fly. When asked for help was told we would have to buy another ticket for a flight that wasn't for another 12 hours and go through it all again. The staff in every department, from security, airline, help desk and Airport are all agency staff and they don't want to take responsibility for anything. Over £600 on Flights, Luggage, Parking and Transport to and from Airport and I never got to leave the country. I beg anyone reading this, do not use Wizz Air or Luton Airport as they are unfriendly, unhelpful and unprofessional.

✅ Trip Verified | Luton Airport does not consider the customer. Parking is extremely difficult or just being dropped off. The terminal is a long walk from all areas, apart from being dropped by a bus or coach. The hills and the weather make all of this and unpleasant experience. Check-in and passport control were okay and on this occasion the security checks were reasonably quick. The departure lounge thinks more about selling produce, then providing comfort for the traveller. Most food outlets were fast food and very little seating. The departure gates can be a long walk from the departure lounge and here you have to queue to board the plane in an area where no seating is supplied. On the return to Luton, you are subjected to long corridors and then queues in the immigration hall. This is a very poor welcome to any foreign visitor to the UK, it is dismal, uncomfortable, and a long wait. Baggage reclaim can take a while and the signage giving information about the belt number is not very clear. Then starts the long walk to the exit and your means of departing the airport. When picking somebody up from the airport, you only have 10 minutes in the drop-off area so everyone waits in the area surrounding the airport to get a phone call from the person they are picking up that they have landed and cleared immigration. There is no obvious place to wait for this and Luton becomes an area of panic as people try to find somewhere to wait. As Luton Airport is partially owned by Luton Council, it should be a higher priority to make this whole process smoother. Luton Airport are trying to expand and add even more flights. This should not be allowed until they managed to get the existing infrastructure working better, and considering the end user, their customer

✅ Trip Verified | Arriving at Luton airport from Amsterdam: the same old long walk across the road, up the stairs, along a grubby corridor, down the stairs, into the passport control to the baggage reclaim and to the shuttlebus, nothing different from my last visit, pre COVID. Departing Luton airport however sees an improvement. The security personnel were much more business-like, I even heard the word “please”. The departure lounge was still being upgraded with many more shops, work in progress but a shortage of toilets, (some closed) with long queues, made life difficult. When boarding, there is was a long wait on a flight of stairs before I could board the aircraft. I had the official EasyJet size cabin baggage but had to put it in the frame to check the size. Of course it fitted but it was difficult to get my bag out again. The ground steward came across as rather aggressive. I only use this airport because I need to be in Bedfordshire.

✅ Trip Verified | Very crammed, I think this airport must be designed by a child who never been in an airport before. Going through security was fast enough but anything else is very unpleasant, room after room nothing straight forward, toilets are very small queue is long and smells. This airport is big enough for country size of Luxembourg not London.

Not Verified | Not a great airport! Starting off with the parking. Yes their prices for short stay is super expensive but there is the mid stay car park but it's quite a distance from the terminals. The car park is based about 15 minute walk and come rain/snow/sunshine you have to walk with your suitcases up a slight hill to the terminal. Also the car park has stones in the parking bays so if you reverse park you either have to carry your heavy suitcase, to the smooth pavement, or risk your suitcase wheels getting damaged wheeling them across the stones - better to park face first in in this car park! Bad start to a holiday! Who designs an airport like that? When we arrived at the airport entrance there are plenty of signs saying "no smoking" but lots of people smoking there ignoring the signs along with the staff not enforcing it. So you have to walk through a wall of cigarette smoke to get inside (same when we landed on our return flight!) Inside the airport areas are well controlled with good lane control for boarding and as well as security both were very quick inbound and outbound flights. In the departure lounge there was only one bank of screens and for a large area this is nuts as you have to keep walking over to read what is being posted on it regarding gate departure number. One thing I didn't like is the mini departure lounge having to walk down some stairs (not the end of the world!) but then so many people cramped in a room waiting for the doors to open so one can then walk on to the plane. Not a recommended airport unless you either get dropped off! Smoking outside the entrance area is a real problem here! There were even staff patrolling that either a) didn't care or b) also smoking so not a nice start wheeling your baggage through a cloud of cigarette smoke.

✅ Trip Verified | Left abandoned in a wheelchair for over an hour. Abused by ground staff because I couldn’t climb the stairs due to my disability. Special Assistance staff sat around on their phones refused to help. Worst experience ever.

✅ Trip Verified | The border control man working on 6th December around 6pm was so rude. Yelled at my mum who doesn’t speak good English, when I went to him to get my passport checked he said in a rude way “use the automatic machine, that’s what they’re there for!” My mum got through but I didn’t because of my glasses so I had to go to him again, he was visibly annoyed and asked “it’s because you had your glasses on so you don’t look like your photo, also why were you late?” We let other passengers off the plane first as my mum is elderly and slow with arthritis so she has some pain. Even so I don’t think we were that late maybe 10 minutes after everyone else! Before I went through he also said “You do realise your passport is going to expire in 5 months” yes I’m aware I can read. Really made us feel uncomfortable and saddened by his inhumane behaviour.

Not Verified | I travelled recently back home and 2 weeks later my dad (in his 70'), brother and my nephew (7) came for visit and both times on arrival, queues were enormous! One person at passport control? Really? (We all have e-passports yet ushered to personal checks) You should be ashamed of yourself for putting people through this. More than 1hr wait. It's awful, horrible customer service.

Not Verified | 35 minutes after landing and we are still waiting for ground staff to bring some stairs. The airport cannot get the basics right. Over expansion without the infrastructure. This airport needs new management.