Thank You Stansted (Again) ...

[sunny-dave]

It's all very well providing an 'enhanced shopping experience' (see http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterBank/Question1404108.html ) but actually could you spend a bit of your money on sorting out arrivals?

All I want to do when I get off a plane is to get back into my own country, collect my car & go home.

I do not need a one hour queue for passport control.

The UKBA may as good as a chocolate fireguard at keeping out unwanted immigrants, but it is stunningly effective at keeping UK citizens waiting in line for extended periods - at least one of the queue monitors must have been trained in Soviet Russia in the bread queues of the 1950s.

I 'only' had to wait an hour to use one of the automatic gates (of which fewer than half were actually working). The poor people in the manual check queue were well over 90 minutes and heading for 2 hours when I looked.

It was a quiet evening - everything had landed on time - there were 'no surprises or incidents' (I asked) - so why is it so difficult to match supply to perfectly predictable demand?

Yes I have complained to Stansted.

I am considering whether to complain to UKBA ... but I have to fly again soon & am understandably reluctant to get a flag of 'awkward' on my Passport Number - I'm not a fan of latex gloves and internal inspections ...

seriously unsunny dave

[sandyRoe]

Apart from that did you have a nice holiday? ☺

[Retrochic]

For goodness sake you've been on holiday,something a lot of people either have not the time or money to do. Stop moaning.

[ummmm]

Yeah...be told! Lol..

When we look for holidays Stansted and Heathrow are a no no...

[sunny-dave]

I had a lovely holiday, thanks sandy.

I know I am lucky retrochic - but if no-one complains, the service just gets worse & worse. We pay these people (quite well - I checked) - they ought to be better at their routine (not very difficult) jobs.

Yes, ummmm - Stansted joins Heathrow, B'ham and Manchester on the naughty step.

[Retrochic]

well you hardly need an airplane to get to Blackpool do you

[ummmm]

I went to Blackpool for my friends wedding and as I don't travel too well we decided to stay the week. We had a lovely time, bit cold but very enjoyable :-)

I'm currently looking at places I need to get a plane to.

[anneasquith]

you need a new user name ****** dave ?

[Cloverjo]

You should fly from Bristol, sunny-dave. Almost always quick and hassle-free.

[sunny-dave]

It seems that smaller airports are usually better, cloverjo.

It was great when Coventry was being used for passengers - only a portakabin & no 'shopping experience' - just an efficient service.

[Apollo26]

Similar experience at East Midlands last October, got off the plane and had to queue in the rain to even get into the building!

[gness]

You can phone me to let off steam, Dave......I'm getting used to it.

The daughter spent and hour standing in the gangway of the plane at Heathrow last week.....no explanation....then another hour plus to go through passport control......twice......again no reason give.

Glad you complained...she did and more need to.......x

[paulllambert]

I've never had a problem at Stansted. My favourite airport to fly from.

[Fitzer]

As it was border control there's nothing Stansted can do (apart from complain to UKBA), UKBA supply the manpower for the controls and I assume are responsible for the automatic ones as well. I, too, have waited there for an hour or so on a 'normal' evening