Behaviour that annoys you at the airport

[Liverpool52]

Have taken refuge in a bar now but what behaviour annoys you at the airport?

My top 2:

People who walk passed the multiple signs at Heathrow telling them about the rules on liquids (written and pictorially) and express outrage when said liquids get confiscated or they spend ages already at the conveyor belt digging out all of their little bottles.

On the otherside of security the people who, instead of moving their tray to the little cubicles designed for the purpose, they stand at the exit to the baggage scanner putting on shoes, belts, watches etc causing a backlog through the people scanner.

@rookiemere

It was utterly revolting- cabin crew should have more rights to remove obviously inebriated passengers.

They have those rights, in the UK's case it's enshrined in the Air Navigation Order:

"242.—(1) A person must not enter any aircraft when drunk, or be drunk in any aircraft."

The practicalities of actually applying of the law are probably beyond the scope of this forum but I've certainly known of people being either denied boarding or off loaded post boarding due to their behaviour...

I agree. We live 10 minutes from Manchester Airport but have chosen to fly from Luton in the past. Much nicer!

I remember five live radio a few years ago having one of their special radio documentaries about cabin crew and the people being interviewed had some astonishing tales of bad behavior on flights , people being drunk, violence , the ' mile high club ' verbal abuse and littering. Most of these were ex cabin crew.

I'm curious to know what it is about Manchester Airport that is so awful? Is it lack of space, disorganised, understaffed or what?

(Just so I can avoid if necessary 😂)

@Liverpool52 , I have to say, your ‘1950s’ couple did amuse me. Largely thanks to a lot of air miles, we’ve often travelled first or business, inc. on long haul, and from experience, most people in both aren’t remotely ‘dressed up’ - rather the reverse.

Problem with documentaries is that they can tend to give a misleading impression of the actual scale of the problem.

FWIW I flew up front for several decades, so hundreds/thousands of flights, albeit Long Haul, so TBF not typical I guess of perhaps the modern holiday experience, however with that in mind:

I think in all that time I was aware of one individual actually being handcuffed due to being violent.

On average, maybe once a year I got involved in the decision chain with regard to an offloaded of somebody who was actually objectively unfit to fly ( and FWIW that definitely was not always down to pre-flight booze).

Maybe once a month you'd get a report from the cabin crew of somebody on board being told they were no longest going to be served alcohol,

.....and only one report in all that time of an attempt on joining the mile high club...

OTOH biggest obvious and most frequent issue was the littering...common comment when we used walk through the cabins when disembarking was "do you think people leave their living rooms in this state?

Sorry to bang on about this but I genuinely don't understand what people are saying about trunkies. When we were travelling with small dc we sat them on the trunkies and then pulled them through the airport. This stopped them getting in the way of others, and saved our arms.

What are other people doing with them?

You are charged extra for everything. £5 to drop someone off. Going through security is organisational chaos (so you'll spend £5 on fast track). There are queues everywhere (pre Covid too).

It is badly designed too. Badly signposted. A long walk to the 'gate' after security then a very long walk to the plane. Up and down lots of steps. Security itself, trays weren't checked in order, just picked in random order.

It's like the house that Jack built having probably been extended many times.

We flew from Luton to Sicily. For 4 of us it was cheaper than Manchester even with the extra costs of petrol, airport hotel and parking. We were through security in a few minutes too.

I admit I can be guilty of this. Airlines have misplaced my hold baggage 3 times so far and I now make sure I pack a change of clothes as well as anything needed that’s not easily replaceable I.e. hen outfit, special wedding outfit etc.

Gatwick have the five pound drop off thing too
I find it outrageous that cabbies are charging more to the customers to cover what is us

Posted too soon Usually a five minute procedure to unload cases and people
It's an absolute con

If you pulled them through then great - but so many parents let their kids propel themselves (badly) though the airport or use them as toys, causing hold-ups or whacked ankles.

At the carousel - all the so very similar wheelie cases with nothing to distinguish them. FGS tie a ribbon round the handle or something, so it’s easy to see at once whose is whose.

The carousel is another nightmare.
None of the flying experience for any of us ordinary mortals is nice ; overpriced, packed out and stressful. That's before you even get onto a plane

Thanks for spelling it out for me! That does sound very annoying indeed.

For me it's the charges to drop off and pick up anyone from the airport. Bloody cheek.

People piling up on food on their plate in the airport lounge from the buffet and leaving half of it on the plate! Just take small amounts and go back later for more! Such a waste

No alcohol before Noon.
As for the people on connecting flights , tough shit if it’s before noon, have a cup of coffee or tea or water or a soft drink.

Same for the night shift.

The real problem is the policing of pissed passengers ends up at the plane.
The bar staff will take the money knowing they’re moving on, the gate staff won’t want a scene with 12 lairy lads or lasses so they’ll pass them onto the crew who won’t want to disboard them because of the delay getting their luggage off entails.

So we have to fix a grin and laugh along at their ‘hilarious’ antics , trapped in the confined space for hours and hours.

I was on a Qatar flight and a couple ( with a child) were absolutely smashed in the departure lounge at Bangkok. A few hours into the flight they were shouting abuse at the crew and had a physical fight culminating in the man hitting the woman with a glass bottle . We got off in Doha and the police were at the gate, my guess they didn't get their connection.

Manchester - SHIT!!! the baggage thing with everyone getting as near to the opening as possible because your black case may be the first one thro. I go further away and just keep watch for it coming round. people standing (a man thing) looking at the screens. your flights not for 2 hours its not coming on ....yet and when it does rushing to the gate means you are queuing again. On board food. Awful. I dont eat it.

Manchester - if you’re being picked up it’s a long walk to the pick up car park. Very shouty going through security.

Oh and lack of toilets in the baggage collection area. (Manchester)

Basically, everything annoys me about Manchester airport, it's an absolute hell hole from start to finish. I try to avoid it as much as possible even though it's my closest! Other airports are so much nicer, friendlier, easier, etc. It really is the bottom of my list - I far prefer Liverpool, Leeds/Bradford or even Glasgow. I used to love Blackpool, despite the very limited range of flights - it was a travesty when they closed it. Even nearly all foreign airports are more pleasurable than Manchester. There's just something nasty about it - nasty security staff, nasty parking attendants, nasty passport control - it seems like a place where all the joy has been sucked out of it.

@tanstaafl

*No alcohol before Noon.
As for the people on connecting flights , tough shit if it’s before noon, have a cup of coffee or tea or water or a soft drink.

Same for the night shift.*

Ah, that'll be good for business, I can see the advertising now -

"Connect via the UK through LHR/LGW, but tough shit if you want a drink at the airport before Noon"

Anyhow why Noon on your clock?..

In all honesty in my experience over the years the vast vast majority of passengers manage to fly perfectly OK, even those who may have had one drink in the AM.

There are mechanisms in place/in law to deal with those that drink to excess before boarding and if the airline(s) you use are reluctant to enforce those rules then maybe consider using another carrier or even another airport, rather than insisting on some form of (almost) universal ban.

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale The problem with trunki's is that they are pulled on a lead, they don't have a rigid handle, so the thing being pulled around is erratic in busy spaces. Kids put their feet down, or one foot down and it veers around, corners are taken with the precision of a stick in a river as the wheels don't rotate properly and so the trunki operator/trunki/kid unit alternates with no warning from a long thin train to a wide 2 + rope abreast blob and back again, so the lead is a trip hazard. It also puts grabby children out of the supervisory view of the parent when being towed behind them. None of this is personally directed at you but many people will have experienced these things. A standard upright wheely case walks to heel and a trunki is an out of control puppy on an extendable lead.