How bad/busy are the London airports in the summer holidays, really?

[Forgottenmyphone]

We’re currently weighing up the pros and cons of going abroad in the summer holidays.Please tell me about your experiences of using Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted in August. Are they horrendous? What are the strikes like? Thanks

We used Stansted last year in the first week of the summer holidays on a weekday. Early morning tends to be very busy. Get there 3 hours in advance and pay for fast track security. We arrived at 0845 for a 1200 flight and it was bloody heaving! Had to queue for labels for car seats and take to outsize (maybe half an hour), plus fast track security (well worth it, they were pulling people out of the normal queue to get them to their flights!), took about an hour in total.

We live near Stansted and everyone I know does fast track security. You can also do bag drop the night before with some airlines.

I would consider paying for priority security at Stansted in the summer.

I didn't find getting through security too bad at stanstead, the queue was massive but it moved quickly.

It was after that when you could barely move in the terminal as every space was rammed full. Not enough seats. Trying not to step on people when walking through.
Then coming back the immigration queue was insane, and even had to queue to get through customs, and the line was so long it went back past the luggage carousels, so getting to the carousels to get luggage was difficult. I'd never seen anything like it.

It's a shame as it's so easy to get to for me.

I generally fly from Heathrow every summer and it's fine! Busy of course but never had awful queues and you can always find somewhere to sit.

I've used Gatwick and Stansted in august.

Always get early morning flights (6-8am) and never had a problem and found them horrendously busy.

Busy - yes! It's an airport. But not to the point it's made it a horrid experience.

It won't be as bad as whatever European airport you use most likely. I travel a fair bit for work and because of Brexit it can now take hours to come back from anywhere in Europe because we have to use the 'other passport' queue. Took me about 3 hours to go through Helsinki a few weeks ago because there were a few US flights going at the same time so the passport queue was ridiculous.

That will depend a bit on the pattern of flights. At a Spanish or Greek airport where 99% of non-EU passport holders are Brits going on holiday, they don't in practice have half the lanes empty with "EU citizens only" signs on them, while the Brits queue up in the other half. But at a major hub or a place with more business passengers, yes, welcome to the Brexit.

We’re going somewhere not very mainstream (certainly not your typical summer holiday) so not too worried about the airport at the other end.

I’ve often found Gatwick to be fine on departure and awful on arrival but it is luck of the draw really. Airports when they’re busy are fine normally as you’ve got distraction, different zones. Absolute worst for me was St Pancras in may half term 22. We were solidly queuing for 3 hours from about a mile into the car park, queuing and snaking all through the station at every point. Kids everywhere were crying, there was no help for older, frail people etc. Has put me off using Eurostar ever again.

Airports are always busy, that's an odd reason to put off a holiday, it's for such a short part of the holiday and there are things you can do to make it easier like security fast passes, twilight check in and airport lounges.

There are certain Saturdays that are very busy, but the airports and airlines know what the loads will be like that day and you usually get an email along the lines of 'The airport is due to be extremely busy on X date and we advise you to arrive at least X hours before your flight to ensure you don't miss it' and inviting you to drop your bags off the night before. Strikes - well you can't really plan for those unless you're booking at the last minute. Last summer there were strikes on key dates and lots of cancelled flights, but again there's not a lot you can do to predict when those will be in advance unless you only book at the last minute, which isn't advisable in the summer holidays.

Main Airports are always busy

What a strange post

Not everyone is an experienced traveller. It's not a strange post at all for someone who isn't used to flying.

Check your privilege

@saraclara

WTF are you in about

OP stated she travels several times a year via airports

Entitled indeed what a load of crap

Just for you @saraclara

RTFT next time you make your nasty little digs

I was about to apologise after your first response, but now? Nah.