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Wow. I thought the experience I had with Gatwick was a one-off... :( These days I aim for London City or Leeds-Bradford if I can, Heathrow is my second choice,

Wow. I thought the experience I had with Gatwick was a one-off... :( These days I aim for London City or Leeds-Bradford if I can, Heathrow is my second choice, and I'll actively avoid Gatwick and Manchester unless there's no other alternative. I keep meaning to try Glasgow or Edinburgh for departures... I've flown into Edinburgh due to a KLM screw-up but never departed from there.

dijit 8y ago
Oh, interesting! Would you be willing to share your gatwick story? I had no idea it was usually like this.
- philpem 8y ago
  I posted it elsethread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18714315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18714315 Basically, constantly rushed by the security staff, and another passenger tried to make off with my phone (the guy next to me stopped him by asking "Hey, are you with this guy (me)? I think that's his...").
smcl 8y ago
From my experience, flying out of Edinburgh the staff have all been pleasant enough, but depending on your luck the queues at the security bit can be a bit annoying.
Macha 8y ago
Manchester is the one airport that I will flat out avoid. It's up their with some of the worst US airports, and unlike those airports, has alternatives in reasonable distances. You can even see by the passive aggressive (and consistent device) signs in security "All electronic devices must be taken out. Small electronic devices are excluded. Failure may result in delays of up to 2 hours" that it's an institutional problem. iirc they had some distinction where being battery powered meant it was a small electronic device, unless it was an iPad. Add to that usual airport inconsistencies like "do I need to remove an 8inch tablet?" from my bag. A 10 inch tablet is pretty universally required to be removed, but I've been instructed both to return my 8 inch tablet to my bag or to remove it from my bag and sneered at for getting it wrong, sometimes at the same airport. Or let's talk shoes + TSA in the US: Some airports require them through the scanner, others will look at you like your crazy. This will often not be reflected in local signage. But then threatening a 2 hour delay for not reading their mind is just dumb. In my final visit to Manchester airport, apparently an 8inch tablet does count as a small electronic device but a PS4 controller does not. Therefore I was supposed to conclude from the passive aggressive sign that the tablet must be in my bag and the PS4 controller must not be in my bag.
- Tor3 8y ago
  I've never travelled through Manchester. But I travel a lot, and what I do is simply to grab a bunch of trays, and add all my gadgets (and camera, if I have one) from the bag and put them on a tray. Including the little Kindle. There's no point wasting time asking. Sometimes (b/c this depends on the local rules of the country, and they change too) the security will notice and say 'no need, keep the camera in the bag', but if not, it does no harm. I don't remove my shoes unless there's a sign saying that I must. As my shoes don't have any metal in them there's never a problem. But I always wear simple shoes that I can just flip off in a moment, without bending down, just in case.

dijit 8y ago

Oh, interesting! Would you be willing to share your gatwick story? I had no idea it was usually like this.

philpem 8y ago
I posted it elsethread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18714315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18714315 Basically, constantly rushed by the security staff, and another passenger tried to make off with my phone (the guy next to me stopped him by asking "Hey, are you with this guy (me)? I think that's his...").

smcl 8y ago

From my experience, flying out of Edinburgh the staff have all been pleasant enough, but depending on your luck the queues at the security bit can be a bit annoying.

Macha 8y ago

Manchester is the one airport that I will flat out avoid. It's up their with some of the worst US airports, and unlike those airports, has alternatives in reasonable distances. You can even see by the passive aggressive (and consistent device) signs in security "All electronic devices must be taken out. Small electronic devices are excluded. Failure may result in delays of up to 2 hours" that it's an institutional problem. iirc they had some distinction where being battery powered meant it was a small electronic device, unless it was an iPad. Add to that usual airport inconsistencies like "do I need to remove an 8inch tablet?" from my bag. A 10 inch tablet is pretty universally required to be removed, but I've been instructed both to return my 8 inch tablet to my bag or to remove it from my bag and sneered at for getting it wrong, sometimes at the same airport. Or let's talk shoes + TSA in the US: Some airports require them through the scanner, others will look at you like your crazy. This will often not be reflected in local signage. But then threatening a 2 hour delay for not reading their mind is just dumb. In my final visit to Manchester airport, apparently an 8inch tablet does count as a small electronic device but a PS4 controller does not. Therefore I was supposed to conclude from the passive aggressive sign that the tablet must be in my bag and the PS4 controller must not be in my bag.

Tor3 8y ago
I've never travelled through Manchester. But I travel a lot, and what I do is simply to grab a bunch of trays, and add all my gadgets (and camera, if I have one) from the bag and put them on a tray. Including the little Kindle. There's no point wasting time asking. Sometimes (b/c this depends on the local rules of the country, and they change too) the security will notice and say 'no need, keep the camera in the bag', but if not, it does no harm. I don't remove my shoes unless there's a sign saying that I must. As my shoes don't have any metal in them there's never a problem. But I always wear simple shoes that I can just flip off in a moment, without bending down, just in case.