What are your pet hates whilst travelling through airports?

[DoooooWhoop]

Mine are as follows:

Having to walk through stinky perfume shops on the way to the gates.

In the queue for security why do people stand so close behind you? Forever getting bashed or they push in whilst you're trying to sort your stuff into the security trays.

Being called to the gate too early, and then having to sit for AGES and can't get to the toilets.

So humour is with your pet peeves at airports.

@PangramAddict Interesting you find Edinburgh a good airport. I hate it.

It's too small so feels very busy most of the time, the low ceiling doesn't help. Being charged £5 for 10 minutes in the pick up is a piss take. It's filthy. The loos stink and the cubicles are too small so if you have a cabin bag it's awkward to get in and close the door. I usually have to help someone with the taps, hand dryers.
Staff are generally ok but I'm looking forward to not having to pull out things for security.
Passport control when you land is slow, the staff there are either patronising or not paying attention and people can be too scared to go to an empty egate without being told thus slowing the queue down. That section of the airport is really primitive, not a great welcome to Scotland.
The price and lack of choice of food & drink is disappointing. Too few places to sit, the benches that are there are uncomfortable. Also disappointing seeing people get fleeced by the Harry Potter tat shop where the owners are known for buying items from Primark etc, cutting the labels out and selling them from what I've heard.

There are some things that would be easy to fix and make it a much more pleasant experience.

Manchester T2 has a smoking area, up near the food court. I was thankful to have discovered it as I'm a very nervous flyer so having that nicotine hit helped de stress me immensely and for the first time in years I was able to sit and look out of the window during take off and actually enjoy the Flight, instead of shaking and crying with my fingers plugged into my ears to drown out the roar of the engines. Unfortunately the return journey on Tuesday didn't have the same effect and I spent take off gripped tightly to the seat in front of me, shaking like a leaf. It probably didn't help by the aggressive guy who came on shouting and swearing at the cabin crew and taking his anger out on me. Moron!

Aren't you meant to put your phone in the tray separately to your bag? I forgot to take my nook out of mine last year in Doncaster Sheffield Airport and it was as if I'd committed the biggest sin ever. Security swabbing my bag, my laptop. Asking me to turn my laptop on, but not actually touch any part of it. Not sure how I was meant to do that. Then asking me what the very blurred looking image on the screen was. It wasn't until I looked and saw my phone in the tray I went oh fuck and realised I'd left the nook inside my bag. It had obviously slipped face down and I hadn't seen it against the black lining of my bag. I felt like a right moron after that. This time everything that needed to come out went into a clear plastic pocket in the front of my bag with everything liquid wise into one of the plastic bags and then away into zipped part once through security.

Poor slot availability for my jet

@Surely2023IsTheYearForMyRainbowBaby

It’s laptops / iPads etc that need to be taken out, I’ve never had a problem with leaving my phone in my bag.

Might be airport dependent but the rules generally are that you can leave a phone in your bag or jacket pocket.

I think small airports can be really shitty though - I’ll always avoid Teesside if I can given their awful service a few years ago.

People.

The person I'm always stuck behind who has never read about what you can take through security, they haven't read any signs and they are dressed in fifteen layers with shoes they can't take off and put on easily. (Knee high lace up boots woman! I'm
Thinking of you)

People stopping dead in the walk through duty free, in blissful ignorance of people behind them.

People not prepared at security. I've flown with babies, so don't tell me how difficult and impossible it is..it's not. It's about being prepared.

Also, you know (the Pp who commented) that duty free is for people going home, not going on vacation. Hence the 1l bottles. It's not for a week's holiday.

This dawned on me the other week 😂

The toilets - they always manage to stink of all the body fluids at once.

Slow people.

Shit food.

Over-priced food and drink.

Unavailability of basic essentials in the departure lounge.

Showing boarding pass every time you buy something.

Losers drinking alcohol at any and every time of the day.

Children.

Super important men who have super important very loud phone conversations about their super important jobs and super important trips, usually while side-eyeing any remotely young-ish, attractive-ish female human within a 10m radius.

I've always just taken mine out.

Trunkies. Children small enough to ride on Trunkies are not old enough to manage them. They are a bloody pain.

Also lugging 10kg each of hand luggage into the cabin when you just booked 20kg each into the hold and it’s a short flight.

People who think the rules or processes don't apply to them.

Recently when flying from Heathrow an entitled couple in front if me at security were kicking up a right russ an being very rude about the liquid limits.

The security at Manchester airport. So rude and no customer service skills.

But of that list, what needs to be in a separate bag for hand luggage liquids?

So no reason not to have that sorted.

They'll dump your bottle of water for you anyway, & if you need to be re-applying lipstick between bag drop & air side, it goes in the plastic bag, alongside any other liquids or medications you can't be without for the duration of the flight.

@FKATondelayo
Regarding the previous poster's comment about people who 'scrabblle' at the 'last minute' to put their bottles into the security tray - what are we supposed to do? Queue up for ages while balancing 10 bottles of moisturiser/calpol/mascara on our heads and clutching passports, tickets, boarding passes and bags?
So you are the person scrabbling. Anyone who has travelled more than once surely knows to pre pack the 10 bottles into he one plastic bag ahead of time. Why are you scrabbling about with 10 loose bottles? It's literally a handbag with a plastic bag filled with bottles she your passport and boarding pass. What's confusing about that? No scrabbling required. Certainly No balancing things on heads

It's to do with VAT which depends on where you are travelling to

If it's within the size limits then by definition it doesn't take up too much space.

Don’t think I’ve seen this but people not putting their trays back after security. Rude arseholes.

We flew Edinburgh - Kirkwall (Orkney) this summer. Edinburgh was as described above; Kirkwall showed what flying can be like. On the way in we had to walk 30m from the plane to the building, yet our hold luggage was already waiting. On the way back, one of our hold bags was chosen for a manual check. The member of staff was chatty and friendly. The security staff were pleasant even if you didn't get everything separated correctly first time. The terminal building had a good view of the runway, no shops (can't remember if the cafe was open) and no music. There was a water refill station in the departure lounge. The LoganAir cabin staff also seemed pleased to see us. Then we landed back in Edinburgh.....

I know this is about things that annoy you at airports, but surely everyone realises they're basically glorified shopping centres with expensive parking and a captive audience? The mandatory long winding walk through duty free might mean something will catch your eye and you'll buy it, the uncomfortable seats might force you to stretch your legs and wander into the shops or food and drink places, even the advice to be there many hours before is designed to get you to spend money, especially these days with online check and twilight bag drop available on many flights.
Just prepare yourself mentally and you'll survive!

Security when your bite come out the otherwise and instead of picking up the tray and unloading your bits on the tables provided, people do it in the actual belt! Causing a pile up.

My god! The typos!

Bits* otherside**

Stansted Airport security at arrivals - I come theough often and actually feel frightened and very, very unsafe in there.
(ex-military for context)

There’s usually a whole bank of passport scanners nearly all out of service and maybe only 3 at each end that function - for hundreds of people. Never seen them all in service. I watch older sometimes frail people, queuing for up to an hour there, sometimes it’s just inhuman. There seems to be no-one overseeing it, no visible safety, there is no escape to use the toilets, just a feeling of being trapped among a sea of people.
The ladies toilets there before arrivals are a disgrace too.

Antalya airport - love arrivals, dislike departures, seemimgly always trainee staff for checkin for UK flights, long uncomfortable queues, and the contract security staff in departures used to be very openly rude.

Love Zadar, Lesvos and Fuerteventura airports - a joy to use.

Queing pre-security, anywhere, I stand sideways, tactically, to prevent people standing behind getting right into my airspace.

Did once have to urge my travel companion not to turn around in a security queue - as the very tall earnest woman queuing behand virtually had her nipples resting on his shoulders…

The frequent and very obviously not so random security checks which come with being a mixed race traveller.

Other than that it's dodging the perfume samples which the staff seem keen to force upon people. Spare a thought for those who have allergies!

Also being charged £6 for a 30 second drop off in the car park.

The whole experience. I prefer any other mode of transport.