Airport lounge

[Clemelew23]

I’ve booked an airport lounge at Gatwick North for 11.00 am.l on Thursday. We can’t drop our bags until 1.15 pm. I’ve been looking at recent chaos at the airport. Our flight is at 3.15 pm. Should I cancel the lounge now and get my £ back? Is it going to be a waste of money?

l flew from Birmingham airport on Wed 29 th June, 3.30 pm with Jet 2 and couldn' t believe how calm it was and how quickly we passed through, staff were excellent at inforning us where to go and what to do, we got there early and ended up waiting in departures for ages, Larnica Airport was empty when we arrived in the early hours, walked straight through.

If your flight is at 3:15 and you can't drop your bags until 1:15 (really? That seems very late!) I think I'd cancel - by the time you've dropped off, been through security, and figured out where your gate is, then got to the lounge I doubt you'll have time for much more than hasty glass - I don't think it's worth it at that point!

Why have you booked it for 11am? Is it not airside?

Silly me thought we would be able to drop the bags earlier and go through customs early and enjoy the lounge. Even if it was 12 I don’t think we will get much use of it. Usually there is plenty of time.

If available to book, the premium security will have you through much quicker. It’s £5-£7 use the Gatwick app for 20% discount if available. We travelled May half term, there were lots of queues for food even take out so it could be useful if you want to eat. Seats were hard to come by so again that could be useful to you.

It's so hard to know at the moment - sometimes you arrive and you're straight through, sometimes you're standing in the security queue for 45 minutes.

I'd cancel and just go to a bar if it turned out there was time I think.

I flew on Saturday and they wouldn't let anyone check in until 2 hours before the flight time. Literally not a minute before.

Bag drop time depends on the airline, I've flown with both BA and easyJet from Gatwick recently and been able to drop bags earlier than 2 hours without question.

A lot of the airlines have tightened up on people dropping bags early because the last thing they want is people hanging around the airport for hours when the airports are already so rammed. Part of the current problem is people arriving so early. Hence restaurants being packed etc.

Same with lounges. People arriving early (like the OP was planning to do) "to get their money's worth" are causing congestion.

I think in the past there were some people who arrived way too early but that was balanced out by the people checking in on time / later. Now everyone is arriving so early and the airports just can't cope. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Airports are rammed so people arrive earlier than usual to allow time for it being so busy so airports become more rammed.

I've had multiple messages for my flight tomorrow both reminding me to arrive in plenty of time and also not to arrive too early, definitely mixed messages.

I'm planning to arrive earlier than usual, just in case it's carnage, about three hours before the gate closes, rather than two, we could be sitting around for a couple of hours (hopefully somewhere we can get some lunch) we might just make it through in time, who knows. Last time we flew, pre covid the queue to drop off bags was huge and it took ages, the time before we walked straight up to the counter.

In answer to the question, I would cancel I think it'll be a waste of money, unless it also gets you a fast track.