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Heathrow or Gatwick or Stanstead?

Last twenty years, airports have managed to become some of the most hateful places. An excellent introduction to rip off Britain as their relatives get charged for any manner of activities, luggage trolley use, passenger drop off, arrivals pick up, parking charges - the whole nine yards.
 
Agree. I used to love airports, there was an air of excitement and adventure. Now they are just shopping malls with intrusive security and insufficient seating.
 
I spent about 12 years of my career taking planes to work overseas, at the peak it was about 50-60 flights a year, many long haul. Over that time i flew every class including first, yet i learnt to hate flying - and 5* hotels. I used to love airports and flying, but not any more. I would be happy never to step on a plane again.
 
The last time I used Stansted was a truly awful experience. I think it was for work. Herded down a narrow walkway past shops and a food hall like a load of IKEA customers. Flying has been pared back to the bone, nothing left to be removed.

I haven’t flown since 2013, and unless we go to Cape Town again I can see myself never flying again. Ticket prices will suffer significant increases this year, and a few more airlines will go under due to low passenger numbers. Good.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Agree. I used to love airports, there was an air of excitement and adventure. Now they are just shopping malls with intrusive security and insufficient seating.
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That's an interesting take on security. I've never found it intrusive and of course there's a history of terrorist attacks on aviation - those that we've seen the outcomes from and some that never made it past our security services but ports security was increased as a result. I find it reassuring.
 
Hate Stansted, tolerate Gatwick and quite like Heathrow, but I am a big fan of Heathrow T5 in particular (‘Pilots’ bar does a pretty decent burger and has good IPA on tap…).

I was also very impressed by City airport when we used it a couple of years back - we’re debating using it again this year.

Ad an aside, London really only has two airports - City and Heathrow.
Stansted and Luton are up north and Gatwick is closer to Brighton than London!
 
First Class and Business Lounges are not what they were. We dont seem to do a good job with them. The J-class in T5 is ok.
 
This thread is making me nostalgic. I have spent much of the last 15 years flying similar amounts to what gintonic mentions. I was in the US every month, couple of big Asia trips a year and many day trips to European key centres. I was a BA Gold card holder and enjoyed T5 First lounge and security experience, really took the sting out of flying. Did not mind being in Economy for most flights either with lounges and fast boarding with the GC. Fave business was Qatar Qsuites but BA First in a Jumbo in seat 1a to San Fran was a great experience.

To the OP, Heathrow all day long, only use Gatwick if you have to (Florida for example) and don't use Stansted or Luton under any circumstances, I loathe them both. City is OK for day trips but really only good for docklands and the city IMO, small and poor facilities.
 
T5 Heathrow is pretty good, when you get there. From my neck of the woods it is a bit of a go-around to get to - as it is over the other side of the airport from most of the hotels and other terminals. Terminal - to - terminal at Heathrow is not always straightforward - but at least not as bad as CDG, Paris. Other terminals are horrible with a huge sea of seemingly displaced humanity milling about at all hours.

Gatwick...Some of the gates are a looong trek from the terminal core. Allowances have to be made sometimes, but sometimes I have not realised that my gate was the one at the end. Sometimes the long term car parks can be a trek too. One time I got back from the Maldives in a freezing February night (2am) to find a car with a flat battery. That was after I had already been diverted to Manchester and took hours to get back on the laid-on bus. Still in hot climate clothing.

Stansted not really so bad - especially if you are staying the night before at the airport itself (used to be the Radisson - probably something else by now).
But taking the train to the gates always seems a faff. Queues at security can be epic in the early morning flight rush.

Luton - never used it since a childhood holiday. But dropping someone off a while back - it is just a building site. Mind you Dusseldorf was a building site for seemed like a decade. Every time I went the layout for getting hire cars back and getting into the airport seemed to change.

For my lotsa flying time I went to Chicago from Manchester every 6 weeks for ages. Flew BMI up front and got to know many of the staff on the plane and in the lounges at both ends. Flying with a sort-of private chef (you could ask for what you wanted within reason) was quite pleasurable.
 
cutting42 said:
This thread is making me nostalgic. I have spent much of the last 15 years flying similar amounts to what gintonic mentions. I was in the US every month, couple of big Asia trips a year and many day trips to European key centres. I was a BA Gold card holder and enjoyed T5 First lounge and security experience, really took the sting out of flying. Did not mind being in Economy for most flights either with lounges and fast boarding with the GC. Fave business was Qatar Qsuites but BA First in a Jumbo in seat 1a to San Fran was a great experience.

To the OP, Heathrow all day long, only use Gatwick if you have to (Florida for example) and don't use Stansted or Luton under any circumstances, I loathe them both. City is OK for day trips but really only good for docklands and the city IMO, small and poor facilities.
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I never went West or Europe - All of M.East, All of S Asia, SE Asia and east - not Japan (unfortunately) - some horrible places like KSA, UAE. Nigeria, Ivory Coast, China. But some lovely places as well Oman, HKG, Malaysia, Thailand, Sing, Taiwan....... I cant deny i like that part of my career, i felt privileged to some places many dont get to see.....but no more planes for me. I have worked my way back to liking certain (boutique maybe) hotels, but I have had all i can take from 4 or 5 star plastic business hotels. I must have been to India 50 time and HKG maybe 30 times.....Pakistan 5 or 6 times, and Bangladesh a dozen.....

I was once in Nigeria for a few weeks, when my boss thought it would be good idea to hot foot it to India. Flights were really tricky, and i had to go back to Heathrow - so i met my wife in the airport to exchange luggage and have a face to face chat for a few hours. She told me - she had booked a lovely trip to Thailand (J-Class on Singapore) with 5* hotels in three locations - i nearly wept with disappointment - i just wanted to go camping or stay in pub in the UK somewhere...... we did go on a lovely holiday to Thailand.
 
Ginger said:
That's an interesting take on security. I've never found it intrusive and of course there's a history of terrorist attacks on aviation - those that we've seen the outcomes from and some that never made it past our security services but ports security was increased as a result. I find it reassuring.
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You've misunderstood what I meant to say. I agree, security at airports is both necessary and reassuring (and I get twitchy at airports where it's a bit casual). What I meant was that the only way to tell modern airports from shopping malls is the security.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
gettwitchy at airports where it's a bit casual
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Try taking a domestic flight in Nigeria!! :D

There was one journey i took, where i was told my insurance wouldnt cover me if i flew. I went by car with a armed driver and my agent, on a drive that Google maps suggested about 4 hours, but it took me over 8 hours. Strangely you cannot get a receipt for "tolls" charged by armed militia.....oh what fun......
 
My previous job involved a lot of flying - I used to keep a tracker of the number of flights I did in a year and sometimes got up to 80 or so. A fair amount of those were domestic or to mainland Europe and wherever possible I did those from the City airport, partly because of convenience (25 minutes by taxi from my London house) and partly because it was usually a case of walking straight through security without any delays (sometimes 30 minutes from leaving the house to actually being through security). I used to go the US and to the Middle East a fair bit as well and for those flights from London I'd usually go via Heathrow as Gatwick was even more of a pain to get to. Whenever possible I used to fly from Edinburgh for longer haul routes as there were decent flights to the US and to the Emirates from there.
 
mandryka said:
If the hotel is on the Piccadilly line then that’s a reason for choosing Heathrow. Otherwise my preference is Gatwick - but that may be because I know it better (it’s very convenient from my house.) I like the food in Jamie’s Pantry, and I like the little train that takes you between terminals. I don’t like the BR train station but I do like the long stay car park.

The tube ride from Heathrow to central London is unbelievably boring, it takes for ever. Make sure you’ve got something to read.
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Take a coach, it’s quick and nearby!
 
I'm not native to the UK, but have travelled to London on business at least half a dozen times around the turn of the millennium and last in 2014. It's always been Heathrow. I've taken both the Underground and the Express train to London. I can't say I had much to complain about. The only slight inconvenience is transiting through LHR if arrival and departures are at different terminals. But that is no different to large airports with multiple terminals.
 
I got my fill of LHR and GTW on trips to the US etc. However one of my more unusual trips were a visit to LHR taking an Assistance dog (Endal) from his home to LHR for his first trip in a plane. This was a big event, the first trip for assistance dogs, I was driving the charities van along with Endal and Alan and a TV film crew from the BBC. Terminal 1 was a bit chaotic what with the usual business and the crowd of suppporters and press following Endal as he was checked in and walked through the security to the plane.

Another airport related trip was taking Endal andd Alan to Gatwick for a celebration that assistance dogs could now fly long distance, eg the US, subject to health regs etc. The event was a real "dog hanging" representatives from all the various charities that involved support or assistance dogs eg Guide Dogs, Canine Partners for Independence, plus other animal related charities were there along with their animals. The meeting involved some bigwigs from London to bless the venture.

After the event we took a trip from the South Terminal to the North Terminal and back so that I could take some pictures of Endal riding on the train to other terminal. Quite a few puzzled passengers on seeing a dog in the airport not accompanied by a police person.
 
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