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Tag: Luton Airport

Gdansk Trip – Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

Ready to go through the Schengen gates, I was pleased that the random seating Gods had given me an aisle seat. King Sigismund II Augustus, the former Grand Duke of Lithuania, would have no doubt been pleased for me.

Passengers piling up at Gate 31, the wait here often feels like a tragicomedy of sorts, a drama of human existence.

Ready to board and listening to the usual symphony of sighs and slightly impatient shuffles from other passengers. And once again, I gazed slightly bored at the floor and wondered how the tarmac that my friend Liam helped put down at Heathrow twenty years ago is getting on. Indeed, I bet I’ve thought more about this than he has.

Another airline nearby. I had to look up which airline this was, it’s Smartwings who are a Czech airline with 37 aircraft.

And off we go. The aircraft is 9H-WNE, an Airbus A321 which was only delivered to Wizz Air in March 2024 so it’s still nice and shiny. Once again, the flight itself was without any particular note, everything was efficient, I was comfortable in my aisle seat and the cabin crew were polite although seemed a bit stressed on the flight. It was likely their third or fourth flight of the day, so I imagine that I’d be a bit stressed as well if I was doing the same job. The flight was particularly notable for me as I needed to arrive on time, but more on that in the next riveting post.

October 1, 2024
Gdansk Trip – Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Gdansk)

This was smooth in terms of customer handling, I arrived at the gate and had a wait in the queue of only around five minutes before boarding. I almost felt as if I had purchased priority boarding with this level of efficiency.

Boarding underway.

Aircraft registration SH-WDO, I don’t think that I’ve been on this Airbus A321, but it’s only just over a year old so that’s not entirely surprising. Out of interest (to me anyway) I looked up how many aircraft that Wizz Air have had and they had 55 planes in 2015 and 120 just before Covid struck. It’s now 215 aircraft, so they’re nearly twice the size that they were four years ago. Ryanair have 605 aircraft though, so there’s some way for them to go. British Airways have 244 aircraft in their fleet, so it’s likely Wizz Air will soon catch them up.

The hopeful passenger next to me declared at this point that it looked like a quiet flight. I was privately sceptical, Wizz Air and Ryanair usually have very good occupancy and so it transpired when the second wave of passengers boarded, filling just about every seat. As with most flights, it was uneventful. The random seat Gods had given me an aisle seat and the flight was under two hours and there were no issues that I remember, so that’s just how a flight should be. It’s all very formulaic, they’ve got this really well sorted now in terms of their operation.

Safely in Gdansk. I had hoped for a smooth border control as the hotel that I was going to was so near the airport and it was late that I just wanted to get there. The not being in the EU is slowing things down somewhat, if I had been an EU citizen I would have likely left the airport within ten minutes of the flight landing. It took me 29 minutes, which is hardly a disaster, but it’s a little bit of a faff.

And finally leaving the airport. The flight cost £10, it’s hard to fault the value offered from Wizz Air. And, I have to say, it was great to be back in Poland.

September 24, 2024
Gdansk Trip – My Lounge at Luton Airport

Well, this is sub-optimal, I’ve got behind once again with this blog. I shall have a posting burst today to catch up. Talk about surprising and delighting my two loyal blog readers and the three people who stumble on here every now and then. I once again wasn’t confident that I’d get into My Lounge at Luton Airport, but they said there was no queue and I was welcomed in with my Priority Pass card. I found a seat at the rear of the lounge, next to one of the plentiful power points, and collected my average beer and a heap of nachos. I would personally prefer proper seating at a table than these low chairs, but each to their own and I’m sure others will differ.

Focusing on the food this time. Well, who would have thought? It’s average, I think we should point towards that and I mentioned that last week. At the end are some jacket potatoes which can go with baked beans, coleslaw and butter. It’s not decadent, this is the cheapest hot food I suspect they could think of. It might be transformed by a decent chilli or something to put on the top, but this is a weak offering for a lounge. They kept it topped up, even though I was there until nearly the closing of the lounge at 21:00.

The lounge authorities then seemed to sit and work out what the cheapest cold food option they could have was, going for nachos. I actually like these and have no complaints, but it’s not going to win many prizes on the creativity scale.

As a lounge it’s comfortable, but I wouldn’t pay for it with my own money if it wasn’t on Priority Pass, as the drinks offering is weak, the food offering is weak and it’s not actually that quiet in the lounge. One reviewer noted recently:

“Don’t waste your money unless you’re a party animal who wants a party vibe. If like me you want peace and quiet, ability to work or just relax. This one isn’t for you.”

I have some sympathy to their complaint. However, there are plenty of power points and I like those, with the snacks being entirely edible and the drinks not a disaster, but I wonder whether they could take things upmarket just a little bit here and there. Although I suspect they’re limited by the number of customers who are trying to get their money’s worth by hammering the free alcoholic drinks. It’s usually £34 to pay to go in, that feels like quite a lot of money to me.

The staff here are friendly though and the welcome at least feels authentic. They were pro-active about the closing process, a staff member went around and told everyone at 20:00 that they were closing the bars at 20:30 and then the lounge at 21:00. I like a bit of clarity in my life. There are plenty of staff going around the lounge and clearing tables, with the whole arrangement feeling clean and organised. I did wonder whether it was entirely prudent when two staff members were talking to each other about how they were hammering the lounge company for overtime money at the moment, which might explain the cost cutting that’s going on.

And far be it for me to comment on this, but the lounge promises “enjoy premium beers”. It has one beer, which is Birra Moretti, which isn’t premium. It’s like saying that Aldi own brand Jaffa Cakes are premium. I mean, they’re fine, but they’re not seen as a premium option. What the lounge could do with is a delicious pale ale, preferably a hazy one. I might be too focused on beer though, that has been commented on before by a high percentage of my two loyal blog readers. But, I digress. At this point, it was time to meander over from the lounge to the Wizz Air gate for Gdansk to get this little adventure started.

September 24, 2024
Gdansk Trip – Avalon at Luton Airport

This week’s arrangement at Avalon thanks to Priority Pass. I didn’t try and buy this much, but once again the staff members suggested topping up my purchases to get the maximum benefit. I’m not sure that the scheme is designed for this, but that’s what they offer and so that’s what I had. The mango and granola thing was delicious, although veering on being slightly healthy. The BLT sandwich is quite heavy on the tomatoes and the bread gets quite soggy, it’s an interesting arrangement. There are also smoothies, coffees, cakes and toasties available at the outlet, which only has around eight tables although the turnover is quite fast.

Without going off on a tangent, I find customer behaviour quite intriguing. Avalon is one of the first food outlets that is visible airside and the number of customers I’ve seen here who say something along the lines of ‘here’s a coffee place, let’s sit here’ is much higher than I might have expected (not that I’d given it much thought in advance). My customer behaviour (when not bouncing around lounge options) is to meander around, find the best value and then check Google Reviews about the matter. I don’t think that I could live my life with the amount of jeopardy of “let’s sit here” without weighing up all the alternatives. I accept that some customers are not price conscious, are tired and don’t have time to faff about, but I’ve once again digressed into irrelevance.

September 19, 2024
Gdansk Trip – Big Smoke at Luton Airport

Thanks to my new Priority Pass card, I started my time at Luton Airport with a visit to Big Smoke. After last week’s little debacle, I was seated at a more traditional table and the team member kindly found me one which was near a power point. I felt that the service was always efficient, but I suspected before they ordered food that they were going to have trouble with a customer who was seated nearby.

The chicken tenders, they’re a little expensive at nearly £10, but that keeps me under the £18 Priority Pass budget. Tender with a crispy flavour, they’re perfectly competent efforts, although I accept unlikely to send the venue into the Michelin Guide.

The beer is the Medicine Man from Big Smoke Brew Co, it was hoppy with a tropical edge, but the flavour didn’t much linger.

Anyway, to add to the excitement of my meal, the customer next to me got her meal and she then called a team member over as she wanted vinegar. Then she called them over again as she wanted salt. Then she called them over again as the chips were cold. Replacement chips in a bowl were brought over promptly. Then she called them over for vinegar for the new chips. Then she called them over saying they had left her with the original cold chips, so the team member said he’d bring another bowl. She then asked how she was expected to eat her meal half off a plate and half out of a bowl. The team member said he’d bring a plate. She said she didn’t want two plates. The team member asked what she did want. She wanted the manager. The manager came off and was initially beautifully direct about the situation, but then the customer told her to shove the meal and the manager thought she’d better be polite. The manager said she’d replace the whole meal. The meal came over. The customer called the team member over for vinegar. I left at this point, I had seen enough drama but could I just give a comment of great thanks to everyone working in the hospitality industry.

I like this venue, it’s clean, comfortable and fast. It’s not really the greatest value going, but airports aren’t cheap and it seemed competently delivered. I’m very pleased with my £18 dining credit with Priority Pass every time I visit, I will eventually work through most of the menu I suspect (well, the bits that won’t involve me going over £18).

September 19, 2024
Gdansk Trip – Getting to Luton Airport

I can crunch all this into one post as it’s the same route that I took last week on my little trip to Belgrade. I’ve also had a cold this week, although it’s obviously an aggressive version of it, but I’ve been very brave about it. However, I mention that not as I like telling people I’ve been brave, but just as an excuse as to why yet again I’ve got behind with posting about things.

Slightly blurry, but Liam once again drove me to Hatfield to stay at the Travelodge overnight before my onward journey. It’s always handy to get gossip fitted in on these journeys and it is quite handy getting a chauffeur driven ride straight to the hotel. Nothing much to report here about the Travelodge, the room was clean and there were no noise issues internally or externally. It seems a reliable hotel, I suspect I might be staying here a reasonable amount.

The view of Hatfield. I’m not sure that even my two loyal blog readers need to see a view of Hatfield out of a hotel window, but yet here we are.

As my flight was later on in the day, I popped to Harpsfield Hall to have several hot drinks for £1.56. Things looked problematic at first as the team member thought that the card machines were down but she said I could try, but I’d likely need to go and find cash. I wasn’t going to go and find cash, but I didn’t mention that and I was preparing to just move straight to Luton. However, to her surprise and considerable delight, the card payment went through and I went through a few hot chocolates. It reminded me that I really should restore the emergency £5 note to my wallet that I rarely remember to replace following the very occasional occurrence that I’ve had to use cash. It’s usually to get chips, but there are few places now which don’t take cards.

It’s quite metallic to say the least. I’ve visited here before, but I appear not to have ever written anything about it. I will use the history that Wetherspoons provide:

“The original Harpsfield Hall stood nearby and was approached by a long driveway, across open fields. It seems to have been built in the early 19th century, when it replaced a larger, older house of the same name, described as ‘a commodious residence with pleasure grounds’. The later hall was demolished in the 1930s to make way for the main runway of the new Hatfield Aerodrome. This pub stands at the corner of the old aerodrome site.”

This part of Hatfield is all quite modern, the old village is known as Bishop’s Hatfield, but the bulk is part of the post-war New Town programme.

Clicking on this map will make it larger and shows the difference between the 1860s and today (copyright of image to the right is the Open Streetmap project). The cursor on the left hand map is where the JD Wetherspoon outlet is today.

Given the aerodrome link, there’s an aircraft related theme to the pub and it also has Boeing 747 engine cowlings which have been turned into booths. I’ll find my old photos as I sat in one of those before, all very decadent.

Whilst I was at the pub, a customer demanded that BBC News was turned off and GB News was turned on. I was privately a little unimpressed when the team member agreed. It would never occur to me to be so annoyed at the news channel that I’d go and get it changed to make a political point. Each to their own I suppose.

Off to the 610 bus to Luton, a bargain £2 but it turned up 25 minutes late. I’m not sure that it’s the most reliable of bus services but I’m forgiving when I’m not in a rush and the service is cheap.

And off we go, passing the Galleria in Hatfield. As an aside, this is the exact point where the Hatfield and St Albans Railway used to run.

Safely in Luton, I went to the town centre this time and I’m always interested in these sort of ghost remains of buildings. I’ll have to come back to this one another time though.

Full of originality, I went to JD Wetherspoon for food and drink. This is primarily as I wanted to sit in a quiet venue and get on with typing away on my laptop, with the chain being particularly good at providing an environment where this is achievable. Again, I’ve visited before and I’ll use the chain’s history:

“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 meal and drink cost just over £6 thanks to the Luton Wetherspoons being in the lowest price band that the chain has. And I was able to look at some books whilst I was there. Cheap, cheerful and reliable. This is one of the Wetherspoons which seems to have a queueing system, something of a throwback to Covid, which always seems slightly odd. I paid using the app, but I’m yet to get used to queues in pubs, although there is an innate fairness about them that I like.

Walking to the railway station, I passed by a Vauxhall Factory, the home of the Vauxhall Vivaro. There are around 1,500 workers here so it remains an important employer for the area.

And then by the printing works of the Daily Star. There used to be a large sign for the Daily Express and the Sunday Express, but either they’ve fallen off or they’re no longer printed here.

Here we are again, the delights of London Luton Airport. I was just five hours early for my flight, which I thought was reasonable. Excitement was certainly growing, it meant that I was returning to Poland for the first time in over a year.

September 19, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Getting Back from Luton Airport

I had a slightly (very) sub-optimal arrangement to get back to Newmarket from London Luton Airport, although I’ve realised if I can get slightly earlier flights back then I can get a National Express bus straight back. Unfortunately, the final leg of that service isn’t operated a night, so I had a few hours wait at the Pret landside with a 99p filter coffee. They have power and seating, that’s all I really required. I was suitably productive though, so the time wasn’t wasted.

The coach can arrive at any of these gates it seems.

As a slight side issue, why are they being that precise that a coach will be leaving one minute late? And I accept there are more important things to worry about in the world, but when you’re meandering around outside an airport at 04:30 these things provide at least a modicum of amusement.

Here it comes.

Four of us boarded. This route just flits between Luton Airport and Cambridge, obviously much busier later in the day taking passengers from the airport. They need more legroom on these coaches, that’s my summary of the service.

Morning Cambridge!

Then a 20 minute walk to the railway station.

It’s all happening now.

There’s the Ipswich Rocket at platform 5 that took me back to Newmarket.

After a quick sausage roll at Greggs waiting for Wetherspoons to open, I then had the £3 breakfast and £1 unlimited coffees. I quite a few coffees to stay awake, but as Tony Blair said, “that is that, the end”. Well, for the Belgrade trip anyway. I’m conscious I’ve skipped great chunks of the history, food and culture that I thought I’d write about, but there we go, maybe I’ll get back to it another time. Oh, I didn’t mention, that was one of the better Wetherspoons breakfasts so all was well with the world.

September 17, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Wizz Air (Belgrade to Luton Airport)

The delights of check-in started with having to queue up to get a printed boarded pass, as this is one of the airports where I couldn’t check-in using the app. There was a 25 minute queue here, but it was worth it when the staff member at the desk noticed a queue dodger and sent them back to the end of the line. As a British citizen, I obviously rely on people in power to enforce the queueing system as it’s simultaneously important not to see society collapse into a heap, whilst also not being brave enough to mention anything to the individual directly who might be responsible for civilisation falling by not respecting the queue.

The flight was on time, always a delight. The airport is in two bits, the rickety old bit and the more shinier bit which they’ve constructed. They call it Terminal 2, but it’s all joined together, but the budget airlines go from the more rickety bit of Terminal 1.

And another queue to board. But, a golden opportunity to stare at my phone, something I always try and take advantage of. I’m not one for monitoring my screen time, other than to sometimes ponder that it isn’t enough. However, I digress.

If you boarded from the front half of the aircraft you could use the air bridge. If you were in the back half of the aircraft you were despatched outside to walk up the rear steps. I was randomly given a decent seat once again, this time an aisle seat near the front. I don’t pay for seat reservations, but if I did, then I’d go for an aisle arrangement. I boarded the aircraft and some old woman was in my seat in what appeared like a bid to sit next to her friend. I suspect they were about to ask me to swap seats, but since they didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Serbian, I was sitting where my boarding pass told me to. Without sounding middle aged and grumpy, of which I’m only one as frankly I still identify as a millennial, if it’s important enough to sit next to someone then just pay the bloody seat reservation fee. The woman spent the entire journey with her head in her hands propped on the tray table. The guy by the window seat looked as confused as me as to how that appeared to be comfortable. However, each to their own. The fare was again around £10, ridiculous value for money and I had no complaints about any part of the service. Wizz Air don’t have a great reputation in some quarters, but as yet I’ve not experienced any problems. Although, give it time….

This was after landing at Luton Airport, it’s a bit blurry unfortunately but it’s important to show willing….. The aircraft was an Airbus A321, registration code G-WUKV, which had already been to Istanbul and back earlier on during the day. They certainly work these aircraft hard, but it’s not yet a year old as it was delivered to Wizz Air on 29 September 2023.

With that, I just had the expedition to get home and that didn’t allow much time for sleeping.

September 17, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Belgrade)

Finally, my ‘riveting’ series of posts about this trip starts to have some relevance to Belgrade….. I’ve never been to Serbia before, so this was a new experience for me. The boarding arrangement was smooth and well managed, I had a wait of only around five minutes in the boarding queue before going down the stairs to board the aircraft, I was suitably impressed. I am aware of the negativity that Wizz Air receives, but so far (and this might change at any time, I fully accept that) I’ve not had any problems with them.

There’s the aircraft, looking ready for action.

And boarding. I prefer not to board with an air bridge as it lets me get a photo of the aircraft and work out the registration number and not have to look it up later. Those with disabilities might have a different point of view on this though.

The aircraft is G-WUKO, which I don’t think I’ve been on, but I don’t always record them which limits how useful these sort of comments are. And I’m not sure if anyone is really too focused on whether I’ve been on a particular aircraft before if I’m being entirely honest to myself. The Wizz Air fleet is one of the newest and this aircraft is an Airbus A321 which was delivered to the airline in May 2021.

I didn’t pay for a seat reservation, so I went for a random one and was fortunate enough to get a window seat. There was no-one sitting next to me, so it was quite an agreeable flight. To put this into perspective as well, the flight cost me £10.49, so it would be hard to be too disappointed here. We arrived into Belgrade on time, the aircraft was clean and the cabin crew were professional and friendly. The aircraft was only around 75% full, so despite the low prices, this wasn’t the most popular of services. This is the sort of flight that I think the unlimited flights pass that Wizz Air are selling will be trying to fill up a bit.

Around 15% of customers bought something from the refreshments trolley, a couple seemed tempted by the perfumes that were being sold, it all made a bit of money for the airline. Unfortunately for Wizz Air, I didn’t much help their bottom line with this flight. I had a look at the air passenger duty that Wizz Air have to pay, and for the economy seat to Serbia, they have to pay £13 to the Government. Anyway, I was very pleased again with the airline, everything went smoothly and I received what I considered to be excellent value for money.

September 10, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Luton Airport and My Lounge

This is only a short post (with poor quality photos), as I didn’t really mean to visit My Lounge. I used to visit this lounge a few years ago, but it has been modernised and updated now with a new ground floor reception area. I had assumed that the lounge would be fully booked, but I went and asked if they usually allowed Priority Pass walk-ins. He said that it was normally fine and so I thought I might as well pop in and wait for my flight. You find your own table here, unless you’ve pre-booked, and there weren’t many left, but I found a quiet corner out of the way. Incidentally, note the healthy banana I acquired here. There really is no end to my healthy eating.

I’ve written before about the odd situation with lounges in the UK, and it is mostly the UK, where they are less business lounges and more ‘all you can drink before your flight’ rooms. This is why, I suspect, Priority Pass has had to come to an arrangement with some dining options at the airport, as otherwise there isn’t enough capacity. I can hardly comment on what other people drink (I mean, look at the state of https://untappd.com/user/julwhite…..) but I watched several customer groups here trying to get their value for money by constantly visiting the bar and I think they achieved their aims. I opted for just one beer, not least as it was Birra Moretti, which doesn’t surprise and delight me.

This is a bit hopeless as a photo, but I hadn’t intended to spend much time here, but I was trying to show that the surroundings are comfortable and tasteful in their decoration. I’m not sure that’s evident at all from the photo, but luckily I’ve just written it, so that’ll do instead. It did feel relaxing to be fair and there were plenty of charging points dotted around, with everything feeling clean. There were plenty of staff and so empty plates and glasses were being cleared promptly.

I did like their nachos, but the food offering was highly limited here. It was effectively jacket potatoes or nachos, which is sufficient as a snack, but the usual entrance price here is £32 and that’s a punchy price point. So we get into the situation where some customers will try and get their value from the alcohol, which means the lounge has cut back in other areas to facilitate that. For someone who doesn’t drink alcohol, I’d suggest that it’s probably better value to go to one of the restaurants at the airport rather than visit the lounge.

Although the staff member on the door said that Priority Pass customers are usually accepted, I’m not entirely convinced that’s anywhere near guaranteed judging from the reviews. But, I’ll pop in again if I get chance to try and get some better photos than the random rubbish I’ve managed to get here. I was going to get them during this visit, but then I noticed that the gate for my flight had been called.

September 10, 2024