Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Bedfordshire

Wednesday : London Luton to Poznan with Wizz Air

After my quite scintillating story of getting from Norwich to London Luton Airport (that in itself is a bit aspirational, Luton is hardly in London but I won’t go off on that tangent) it starts again in the airport terminal. I had enjoyed a pre-departure nap at home, so was planning to be hugely productive overnight in getting things done, which I’m pleased to say did work out. I know Dave Morgan will be once again surprised and delighted at hearing about these exploits of my very slightly odd travel.

Two points. Firstly, I can’t relax before a flight, I have to keep checking the board. Secondly, note the only flight on the entire board that was showing as delayed.

So, what is there to do at London Luton overnight? Nearly nothing if I’m being honest. There is limited seating in the airport, although fortunately, I did find a space, not least as I got there so early. It’s a terminal which can’t really cope with the number of passengers it gets, and there were in the hundreds of people waiting at the terminal overnight for their morning flights, far more than when I was at Heathrow T3 a couple of weeks ago. I was pleased to note that the Pret landside opened early, so I moved there to enjoy a single can of Coke and three hours of charging my devices with their electricity. I’m not entirely sure they made much from my largesse. It wasn’t that busy though, I didn’t stop someone else from sitting down as it was never full.

Going through security was easy, other than my superglue was spotted in my liquids bag and they went off to test it. I’m not sure if there’s some odd drugs related use for it as that’s the machine they used, to swab it for drugs. The lady at security asked why I had superglue and I replied that it’s because I break a lot of things and want to fix them quickly. She seemed happy at that slightly odd answer. It’s actually because I was worried about my shoe breaking last year, which I’ve since replaced, but I’ve decided the superglue might be useful for all manner of reasons, so I’ve kept it.

After lots of faffing about, and nearly entirely catching up on this bloody blog, gate 30 was announced for the Wizz Air flight to Poznan. I have no sort of priority on this flight and certainly didn’t pay for that benefit, so I meandered slowly around the back of the queueing system, whereas the people in the above photo are rushing to go through the priority line. I got to the front of my queue for unimportant people and a staff member waved me forwards. I mention I’m not priority and she shrugged and said she didn’t mind either way, which ironically meant I ended up ahead of most of the people who had been rushing. This had the exciting benefit and advantage of my being able to stand further ahead on the stairs down to the aircraft.

Here’s the aircraft, which had been slightly delayed on its inbound journey, hence why we were operating around forty minutes late at this point. It’s an A320 aircraft, registration G-WUKD, which Wizz Air have operated since new in 2018.

The boarding process. I had let people get ahead because I kept faffing about taking photos of the aircraft. I think people thought I didn’t get out much, but I just wanted to ensure this blog had some photos that weren’t blurry. Selfless I tell you, absolutely selfless of me.

I could hardly deal with the excitement of being in a middle seat for two hours. But, I paid £8 for this flight, so there’s no way that I have anything to complain about. The aircraft wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it’s a short haul journey that isn’t much longer than some bus journeys, so it was perfectly sufficient. It was also just about full, although the lady in the row behind me was on the phone to someone in the terminal who had somehow missed the flight. She didn’t seem that concerned about the fact that her friend wasn’t going to get on the flight, I had hoped for a little more drama if I’m being honest.

I was quite embarrassed (although I’m not sure why, there’s a limited amount I can ever do about these things) at the British passenger who had a go at a Polish member of cabin crew, as he said he wanted to sit on the back row. The back row is often sealed on Wizz Air flights, sometimes for trim reasons of aircraft safety and sometimes because the crew sit there. Anyway, the helpful member of cabin crew politely told the man three times he couldn’t sit there. He replied “I’m sitting here, that’s the end of it”. It wasn’t the end of it, the crew member suddenly got bored of being polite and replied “Sir, you will need to leave the aircraft” and she clearly meant it. He argued, she stood there and asked him to make his decision. He grumpily moved back to his assigned middle seat further down the aircraft, but only after giving her some more abuse. It’s sad to see to be fair, but I’m pleased the crew member stood her ground, but I get the impression that she’s used to it, which is perhaps an even greater shame. The pilots sounded professional as well, we ended up arriving around thirty minutes later than expected, and they kept everyone updated.

The airport terminal in Poznan is visible in the background, but we needed a bus to take us to the non-Schengen gates at the airport. I just held back, I was in no rush, but once again, fortune favoured me and I joined a queue which for reasons unknown moved so quickly that I was at the border control desk way ahead of those in the other parallel lines who had started queueing up before me. Then I got delayed because the border control lady, who was perfectly amicable and friendly, decided she would count my time in the EU. It seems this can only be done manually, there’s currently no way of them doing this using technology, so she carefully worked through all my passport stamps and it took her a fair while. I didn’t want to undermine this process, she was doing her job carefully, but I knew I was within the limits as I carefully use a Schengen calculator to ensure I’m not spending too much time in the EU. She thanked me for my patience and I was on my way, pleased to be back in Poland.

They were then stopping every traveller and asking if they had food. I clearly didn’t, I rarely keep food in my bag long as I’m too excited to eat it rather than carry it about (my food I mean, not the bag), but another man had his egg taken off him. I have no idea why he had an egg, I assume it was hard-boiled though unless he had been very careful during the flight.

With all that excitement out of the way, I got a ticket for the bus. It’s possible to walk from Poznan airport to the city centre, but it’s a ninety minute walk and, frankly, I couldn’t be bothered, especially since the bus ticket is under £1. Dave Morgan would be horrified, I hope he doesn’t read this. I think he walks all distances of under 40 miles.

The bus went to the central railway station in Poznan, which is a city I’ve visited before I think on three occasions. I do perhaps need to start going to some new places, but I like the reassurance of these reliably excellent Polish cities.

Back in the Ibis Poznan Stare Miasto, which I had forgotten I’d stayed at a couple of years ago. All reliable as ever, friendly staff, a functional room, working air conditioning (although, fortunately, it’s not too hot in Poland, unlike in Krakow a couple of weeks ago) and a window that opens. Just lovely.

My welcome drink of a Żywiec Porter. It’s definitely good to be back.

There’s a Biedronka supermarket next to the hotel and I was sufficiently tired not to have to want to go finding food anywhere else, so this was a handy option. So this little selection, which looks like a kid who likes alcohol has bought it (there’s a reason for that), just had to do. I’ve posted this so I can comment on the price, this came to just over £5. Note the British cheddar cheese at the back, which would have likely cost about £3 on its own in the UK. I probably didn’t need all this, but I hadn’t eaten all day and I felt I deserved a little treat.

July 7, 2022
Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

And it was time to come back to the UK, departing from Lech Wałęsa airport in Gdansk. As an aside, it must feel odd for Lech Wałęsa when he uses this airport to know that the entire place is named after him. I’m always slightly saddened to leave Poland, but I’ll be back in a few weeks and so can look forwards to that.

Usually I’d just download my boarding pass on my phone and go straight through security, but Wizz Air don’t have any on-line processes in place to check the documents of travellers, so everyone is directed to the check-in desks first. It’s positive that they’re checking the UK’s Locator Form, although to be fair they’re legally obliged to, but a shame they don’t have a set-up similar to that BA have with VeriFLY.

I tried to get through a little earlier, but the friendly member of staff at check-in said they would only open the boarding desk for my flight two hours before the flight departed. She also helpfully mentioned that my mask wouldn’t be accepted by Wizz Air on any of their flights, although I did silently think it had been accepted on the Wizz Air flight out to Gdansk. But, I wasn’t sure on their policy and had a spare mask, so that was all fine. I was told to check the boarding screens around 150 minutes before the flight, which transpired to be useful advice, as that’s when the check-in desk for my flight opened. I was fortunate to be nearly at the front of the queue, as it snaked back to the entrance to the terminal within a few minutes. The member of check-in staff quickly checked that I had a passenger locator form confirmation and then my boarding pass was printed, which is a free service when customers can’t check-in on-line.

Safely through security (where I was praised by the security staff for my efficiency, which I lapped up willingly) and into the lounge (more on which in another post) it was time to trek to the corner of the airport and Gate 1, located in the non-Schengen zone. There was a queue, but there’s always a queue with Wizz Air…..

This process is the same with Wizz Air and Ryanair, they call passengers forwards to wait before the aircraft is ready for boarding. Which means a wait on the steps down to the tarmac, which is fine for me leaning against a wall reading a book on my phone, but less so for those who don’t feel quite as comfortable standing on steps for twenty minutes.

And it started to rain quite heavily, but it was only a short walk to the aircraft. Wizz Air rarely use airbridges, which has the advantage of meaning that I can take photos of the aircraft.

The aircraft was registration HA-LXS, an Airbus A321, which has been in the Wizz Air fleet since June 2017.

I boarded via the back of the aircraft and the flight was clearly busy, and I think just about full.

I had the middle seat, which is the first time I’ve had this in years, although the other passengers on each side were ideally behave which makes things easier. The leg room on Wizz Air really isn’t ideal, but the flight was only for two hours and so is bearable. The crew were friendly and helpful, although I couldn’t work out where they were from as their ability so speak so many different languages is really quite impressive. The pilot announcements were hard to hear, but we landed on time although the wind made the landing quite bumpy. Well, very bumpy actually, but it added to the excitement, although the babies on board decided at this moment that they really didn’t like what was happening.

It’s also fair to add here that this flight cost me £7.50, so it’s hard to fault Wizz Air for anything given that. The service ran as expected, the aircraft was clean, the flight was on time and everything was as comfortable as could be expected. The arriving into Luton Airport on time was fortunate as my friend Liam was there to pick me up, so he didn’t have to wait for endless amounts of time in an industrial park in Luton. Anyway, based on this flight I’d happily fly with Wizz Air again, they fly to a wide number of destinations that I want to visit and although I can’t claim the flight was luxurious, it’d be ridiculous to complain at the price that they charged.

February 7, 2022
Wizz Air (Luton to Gdansk)

This is the delights of Luton airport at 05:45 this morning, after the ten minute walk from the nearby Holiday Inn.

There’s the Wizz Air flight to Gdansk, with boarding information at 07:35. I didn’t fly with British Airways on this occasion as they have currently dropped the later flight to Warsaw and they’re dropped Krakow entirely. The Wizz Air flight cost a ridiculous £7.50 each way, which was another handy factor in this little arrangement.

The boarding information didn’t ultimately come until 07:50. Incidentally, the security process at the airport was efficient and I was airside within five minutes of entering the terminal building.

The boarding process was chaotic and ill-tempered, although I just let them get on with it. The boarding gate is on the lower level and so there is a flight of stairs between the corridor upstairs and the boarding gate, with customers waiting to join the queue. What is poor is that there are very few screens or boards to show customers that they’re in the right location as they’re going to their gate, this is in my view shoddy from Luton Airport, which feels a mismanaged set-up in general, as there were numerous confused customers about the place. I’m reminded just how well Heathrow T5 manage this.

The set-up here is that there’s a short priority queue and so the staff member called up to ask non-priority (people like me…..) customers to come down as there was a separate waiting area. A woman rushed down the steps, barged me out of the way and announced loudly “I’m priority, let me though” to the staff member. The staff member rolled her eyes and said “I called non-priority, I was very clear” which led to lots of muttering from the annoyed customer. There’s no real reason to need to rush to board, there’s plenty of space for bags and seats are already allocated.

There was an element of just bad planning here though, as we were in the holding area between the aircraft and the passports being checked for around thirty minutes. I found a seat and read a book on my phone, but there were no seats in the priority area, so those customers were all stuck standing up. It just felt muddled and there were three arguments between staff and customers over bags. I do like the drama to a degree, but some customers were getting quite het up. Oddly, the only customers getting het up seemed to be British, even though the vast majority of the customer on the aircraft seemed to be Polish.

We were finally allowed out to the aircraft, around twenty minutes later than scheduled. The aircraft is HA-LVI, a nearly new Airbus A321 Neo which has been used by Wizz Air since June 2020. The aircraft had a busy day, it came from Warsaw this morning, then went to Trondheim and back after it arrived in Gdansk. It’s off to Oslo tomorrow and I’m sure it’ll have a lovely time there.

The flight was absolutely fine. I hadn’t paid to reserve a seat and I was automatically given a window seat, but there was no-one in the middle seat as the aircraft was only about 60% occupied. The announcements from the pilots and cabin crew were polite, but broadly inaudible and the safety announcement was given way too fast to be of any use. However, the cabin crew were friendly and their service was efficient and unobtrusive, with the flight being perfectly relaxed and comfortable.

I had forgotten that it was winter in Poland, so this snow and ice everywhere was a slight surprise.

The disembarkation process was a little sluggish, with everyone taken to the main terminal by coach. I was in no rush and lingered about, which meant that I was one of the last people to get on the coach. So many people rush about and I can’t be doing with all that stress. By chance, it also meant that as I was the last to board, I was the first off the coach and I was the first person to leave the security area which was handy.

The member of security staff at border control was helpful, although he didn’t want to see my negative test I got yesterday, but he did check my Covid pass and my locator form. Although I could have got away without paying £32 yesterday for an LFT at Luton Airport, there are two reasons that I’m glad I got it. Firstly, I would have worried all day if I didn’t have it, and secondly, it’s just best to do things properly rather than risk being fined or deported.

And Gdansk airport terminal, safe and sound. I have to say that this was ridiculously good value for £7.50 and Wizz Air felt a safe and secure airline to travel with, with the cabin crew being friendly and the aircraft being clean. The boarding process was unnecessarily stressful for many customers, but I was quite happy with my window seat and bag near to me, all perfectly comfortable. I will no doubt travel with Wizz Air more this year, not least because of their range of destinations, but also because their flights are so often reasonably priced.

January 20, 2022
Luton – Holiday Inn

I’ve never stayed overnight in Luton before (and let’s say here, this must be on the bucket list of any wannabe traveller), but I had an early morning flight from the airport and I also needed to get an LFT test the afternoon before to be allowed into Poland, so this airport hotel seemed a sensible option. It’s not cheap, it was showing as £65 per night on IHG’s site, but I had another free rewards night (so many hotel offers at the moment), so this was all without a charge to me. There was also the option of the Holiday Inn Express down the road about 50 metres, but I wouldn’t have been able to have the free breakfast as I needed to leave early, and missing out on something would have annoyed me (although I think they might offer an earlier takeaway breakfast at the HIE, but I didn’t want to overthink things).

The standard Holiday Inn interior and the bloody windows that don’t open. There’s no excuse for this sort of short cut, the Holiday Inn Express has windows that open so if it’s good enough for them…. The temperature in the room was OK, but the air conditioning isn’t good enough to get my ideal temperature (which is similar to the chiller room in a fast food chain). Otherwise the facilities were all working and the room was clean and organised, although the television wasn’t one of the smart ones that seem to be so common in Accor properties now. There’s a gym somewhere in the hotel, but I forgot to use it.

I will give credit to the staff giving me the room furthest possible distance away from the lift on the top floor, which is my favourite room in a hotel (unless there’s a bigger one, or a room with free beer in it). I noted that the signs in the hotel to get to the room take guests a slightly longer way than possible, but then I realised that no-one really cares that another route saved three seconds. I need to get out more…. Oh, also, there’s a 24 hour bar at the hotel, which is no doubt useful for those wanting a drink after a late night flight (or indeed a pre-departure tipple).

The decoration in the restaurant and bar, with all the staff being friendly enough as well which lifted things somewhat. There are numerous complaints on-line about how guests have got big bills for using the car park, but I suspect a lot didn’t follow the rules which look quite clear. It’s no surprise these rules have to be enforced here, as it’s so near to the airport and they charge drop-off fees and don’t allow stopping.

A perfectly adequate welcome drink, it’s not going to be stocked in Goose Island, but it’s sufficient for a hotel bar. I will comment on, rather than complain excessively, that the hotel didn’t bother provided the promised snack (ie, crisps or nuts) listed on the drinks voucher. I have no idea why hotels try and make shortcuts with things like that for the sake of 20p given the huge costs they have with the rest of their operation.

There was a little internal noise from the air conditioning making odd noises, which I wouldn’t have noticed if I could have had a lovely window that was open. The obsession that Holiday Inn have with sterile rooms, fortunately a relatively rare occurrence when I stay in Accor properties (I’ve realised I’ve started to go on about Accor more, sorry).

The reviews for the hotel are adequate, although not as high as the neighbouring Holiday Inn Express and that’s odd, as I think Holiday Inn should be rated higher. I was amused at this review:

“An employee brought our beers to table that were 2/3rd’s beer 1/3rd foamy head. Again, just a training issue I would think. My dinner guest happily showed the employee how to pull a pint.”

I bet the employee wasn’t happy, but there we go…. One customer complained that the taxi fare cost £10 to take them to the airport, but that must be a one minute journey and I can’t imagine the driver wants to wait in the long queue for many trips like that.

I think I’d be more inclined to use the Holiday Inn Express if I live the dream and stay again in Luton as they appear to have windows that merrily open and close to the heart’s delight of the average guest, and there’s also a free breakfast.

January 20, 2022
Luton – The White House

I wasn’t in Luton for very long today, but I had chance to pop to the JD Wetherspoon outlet as it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide. The company did have two pubs in the town, with the London Hatter being open between 2011 and 2016, but it couldn’t have done well for them given the short amount of time that it was open. The venue is still closed, clearly it doesn’t tempt any other operator either.

But back to the White House, which I think is a marvellous name for a pub given my surname (I’m easily pleased). It’s a cavernous venue with two different bars, both of which were staffed when I visited just before lunchtime. As for the reason for the pub name, this is what the company say:

“In the late 19th century, the Crown & Anchor Brewery stood on the site of this Wetherspoon pub, a short walk from the site of Luton’s first brewery. Founded by Thomas Burr, in 1780, it stood next to his family home, known as The White House.”

The brewery isn’t noted on this map from the late nineteenth century, the pub is located just above where the PH is indicated on the map, so it’s nice that the site is still used by a beer selling venue.

This is an odd JD Wetherspoon insomuch that the toilets aren’t upstairs, as they’re usually tucked away in the furthest corner of the pub. Despite being a modern building, there’s been some effort with decorative features and I liked the number of power sockets that were available. Plenty of books on the shelves upstairs as well, they add character to pubs and I approve.

I went for a half a pint of the Devon Darkness from Hanlons Brewery who are based in Exeter, the same place that Tim Martin lives (I mean the city, not that the owner of the company lives in a brewery). The beer was well kept and at the appropriate temperature, and keenly priced at £1 for a half so there’s nothing much to complain about there. There was nothing of particular note about the beer, but it was an acceptable enough dry stout.

The pub has about the same review score as the average JD Wetherspoon outlet, so it seems to be running as efficiently as most others, and I felt that the staff were friendly enough. There was a good choice of real ales, seven different ones across a variety of beer styles, all keenly priced. There’s nothing exceptional that I can note, but the pub seemed to be well managed and I can see why it’s been listed in the Good Beer Guide.

January 19, 2022