I never went into the JD Wetherspoon operated London Hatter in Luton, long since closed but the pub name is still visible on the building.
The building was formerly used by Legends nightclub until 2011 and then JD Wetherspoon spent just under £1 million converting it into a pub. It’s in a location just out of the city centre, so I assume that they were looking for the student trade or similar. It didn’t last long as the closure decision was made in February 2016, which suggests that a fair sum of money was lost here.
The pub took its name from the Londoner who was involved in building the first hat factory in Luton in the early nineteenth century. There were soon over 500 companies making hats in the town and it was an important part of the local economy in the nineteenth century.
As for the pub, it seems from photos inside that there was a professional job with the conversion, despite the rather glum external look of the place.
[Apologies I published this early if anyone saw a half finished post!]
I was connecting at Katowice Airport to fly to London Luton, although there was no airside connection available. I also discovered that the security area at Terminal A wasn’t open for thirty more minutes, so the process was hardly rushed.
Mine was the 19:45 flight and I had the advantage of popping to the airport lounge, but I wrote about that separately.
The boarding process was all efficient, but there was a particular focus on checking bag sizes on this flight. The lady was walking down the queue and she spoke to me briefly before telling me that my bag was fine, but a fair few were being stopped and charged extra money. One guy was charged four times for his family, so around £320, so it was a profitable exercise for Wizz Air. Although, the rules are very clear, so the customers took a risk.
This lady was charged £80, she might have been a little unlucky. It’s fair to say that she wasn’t very pleased and she asked a couple of us whether we’d been charged as well.
The aircraft is 9H-WAD, yet another one that I haven’t been on before and this has been part of the Wizz Air fleet since 2022.
Everything was smooth and well managed yet again, although the seating Gods had given me a middle seat which wasn’t ideal. However, the flight was only two hours so it’s hardly traumatic. The flight cost the usual £8.99 with my Multipass and the aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly and everything worked as it should.
We landed into London Luton on time and I had a hotel just a short walk away from the airport, which is always something that I look forward to. This marked the end of my one week stay in Poland, Romania and Germany, another successful trip that was made a lot easier with my cheap Wizz Air flights.
After the train journey from Norwich, I had managed to arrive five hours early for my flight. So, that’s just right, no point in rushing these things. The security process was well managed and only took me a few minutes. I was slightly amused as a woman pushed in front of me, which didn’t concern me as I had five hours spare, but I was directed to another security line which had just opened so I went through much quicker. Karma and all that.
There’s a new menu at Big Smoke, this is the sort of exciting drama that keeps me inspired during travel…..
And very nice, the chicken tenders with hot honey sauce, alongside a non alcohol Stella. Definitely a menu upgrade.
Coffee acquired….
The food selection in My Lounge, which does seem to be getting better. They had the usual dirty cutlery there though, I’m never entirely convinced about their food hygiene standards, although I’d note that they hold a five star rating.
That’ll do as a snack, with a tea and a non alcohol Heineken which tastes of ditch water. A completely pointless beer, but I won’t go down that rabbit hole at the moment.
The lounge was pleasant enough, it was quite quiet, but all of the power points worked and there was food and drink.
That’s my flight at 19:45.
And safely at the gate where everything was clearly signed as usual.
The boarding process was smooth and efficient, with a friendly welcome from the cabin crew. As usual for Wizz Air aircraft, it was all clean and looked in a decent state of repair. The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat, but they also gave me an elderly lady in the seat next to me who fidgeted far too much and spent the flight tearing up bits of the in flight magazine so that she could keep the articles. It would have been easier to take the in flight magazine rather than leave the mutilated copy that she did.
One person clapped as the flight landed, but I was pleased to note that other passengers just looked annoyed at him and so hopefully he won’t do that again. The flight was otherwise as usual for Wizz Air, no drama and no delays, with the crew being friendly and efficient as they completed their service.
The aircraft was HA-LGI, yet another one that I haven’t been on before. This is an Airbus A321 which Wizz Air has had since early 2024. I could have done without the bus gate as I had just 32 minutes from landing to get the last train. This took longer than I would have liked if I’m being honest.
The border was relatively quiet, although there was a problem with the passenger in front of me and his European Entry System arrangement. Fortunately another desk was opened up and I was asked if I was aware I could only spend 90 days out of the last 180 days in the EU. I’m very aware of that and it annoys me, but it’s nice that the border control staff remind people. I did think for a while that the delay would mean that I missed the train, but I was fortunate on this occasion.
With that, I scuttled off to buy a 24 hour day ticket for the public transport in the city and meandered quickly to the railway station at the airport.
With around five minutes to spare, I made it, the last train into Warsaw city centre. This saved me faffing about with night buses…. And for £8.99 for the flight, I was once again pleased with the whole Wizz Air experience.
This wasn’t a rail journey of any great note, but sometimes the mundane still needs to be recorded. After a rather lovely few days at Beer Con, I departed early on Easter Monday morning from Norwich railway station. It was quiet, people were focused on their Easter eggs.
There’s the Greater Anglia train to Ely at the back of the platform.
This service was only going as far as Ely due to engineering works that prevented it from reaching the promised land that is Cambridge. That meant that most sensible people were going to London directly arriving into London Liverpool Street, but that was more expensive and so I wasn’t. Although there were points failure and sadly a suicide on that line, so it might likely have been a slower option anyway. It did at least mean a quiet and peaceful train service, as this line can get rather busy.
And arriving safely into the beautiful city of Ely.
Then the exciting bus replacement service from Ely to Cambridge. I was the last person to board this before they thought it had better get going and everyone else behind crowded onto what looked like a nicer bus. This one was far too hot, I’m surprised passengers didn’t get heat stroke, but the driver was quite chirpy although it might have been delirium caused by the heat.
After a quick visit to the new Tesco opposite Cambridge railway station, I meandered to the platform with around thirty minutes before my train. For reasons I’ve never quite understood, Thameslink trains seem to sometimes depart one minute before the scheduled departure time, which caused an argument as one passenger ran to the train to try and board before being shouted to stand back as it was about to depart. I was restricted by what train I could get with an advance ticket, so I had less need to rush.
I thought I would embark on my meal deal at this point and very unusually I didn’t go for the prawn mayo option as I felt that this was a chicken day. I should probably get out more….
The Thameslink train thundering into the station.
The Thameslink service, which left one minute before the departure time, remained relatively quiet, although as there are twelve carriages it’s not exactly limited for space. And, as part of my survey of global trends, I noted that a passenger had his feet on the seats. Not that I go on about this….
Farringdon station where I was changing for another Thameslink train to take me to Luton Airport Parkway. I’m not sure why the route took me through London St. Pancras to get to Farringdon, then went back that way, so I went to a station further south than I needed. There were some young football fans shouting something about “we are the blues, we are the blue army, who are we?” as if they’d forgotten. They were ignored by everyone, which I felt was positive.
And onto the next Thameslink train which was heading to Bedford. This was relatively quiet and everything was on time, so I arrived into the delights of Luton Airport Parkway station which is slightly less annoying when leaving it than arriving into it.
And the walk to Luton Airport, which is around twenty minutes as I refuse to pay for the shuttle as it’s too expensive. The ticket price for Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway was £22 and as it was on time, annoyingly, there was no Delay Repay…. The ticket didn’t work at the Cambridge or Luton Airport Parkway station barriers, but there were gateline staff to let me through. So, one Greater Anglia train, one Greater Anglia bus replacement and two Thameslink trains….
Luton Airport Parkway is one of the most bizarre railway station operations that I’ve experienced. On two occasions now over recent months, the staff here have launched into quite direct attacks about the management of the railway station at a local level. As I’ve never asked a staff member about their thoughts on the management (nor indeed their thoughts on anything), it seems like there are issues and I’m not sure that customers should be bearing the brunt of this.
There’s a problem at the railway station that the waiting room is not accessible to anyone on a timed ticket. Initially I was told that customers can’t enter the station more than twenty minutes before the train and then I was told it was fifteen minutes a few months ago. It’s been on those occasions that the, likely harassed by endless passengers, team members explained the problems they’ve had enforcing new rules.
So, with the comfortable waiting room out of bounds, passengers have to wait here. I just waited without saying anything, but when I tried to put my ticket through at the barrier fifteen minutes before the train left, it failed. There was a staff member sitting down nowhere near the barriers by a heater who managed to get called an “a***hole” by one passenger he ignored, although he didn’t come and help me.
I got the attention of another staff member and she was very friendly and let me through. She said that the rules had changed again and that customers couldn’t enter the railway station with a timed ticket until the previous train had departed. It’s to stop them boarding it with a timed ticket…..
The train arrived on time and it was hard not to miss Poland, where I had just returned from. They have the radical idea that passengers on their services can always use their waiting rooms to wait in. It’s all a bit sub-optimal from Thameslink, especially given the huge sums of money invested in this railway station over recent years.
I’ve already mentioned that there was a bit of a delay getting to the Etiuda lounge, but it was peaceful and calm when I got here.
The food selection which was all looking nicely presented and appetising.
Delicious.
With all my devices charged and having had enough food and drink, I departed for the gate. The bad news is that it was a bus gate.
The good news was that I was nearly the first to board the second bus to the aircraft, which meant I had some space to stand in the corner. Little victories and all that.
There was a group of quite loud British people who were excitedly telling each other what marvellous drugs they’d taken in Poland and they were going to get drunk on the plane. More of that soon.
Anyway, the aircraft was 9H-WNY and I haven’t been on it before, but it’s yet another new aircraft having only been delivered to Wizz Air in 2025. Their fleet is certainly mostly new and shiny….
The flight was smooth and, yet again, free of any issues. The seating Gods gave me a middle seat, but the people either side were both quiet and didn’t fidget about, so it was a smooth flight.
Back to the lads who claimed that they were going to get drunk on board…. They didn’t expect the Polish crew to reject their demands. Impeccably handled by the crew, the whole arrangement felt safe, well managed and professional.
And back at Luton Airport….. Wooo. We were actually slightly early and there were minimal delays at the border, which meant that I was rather early for my train.
The flight cost £8.99 and Wizz Air didn’t let me down here. A clean aircraft, efficient boarding, a friendly crew and everything felt well managed.
After visiting ten pubs with Roy and Jen, it was time to plan the week’s adventure which was to work out how to get to Warsaw Beer Festival. This will be my third time going and my first challenge was to find a £8.99 with Wizz Air’s Multipass. Fortunately, there was a flight to Wrocław on Monday evening and Liam kindly agreed to take me to Luton after I had a quick hour rest in Norwich which gave me time to think about packing.
And the journey was suitably luxurious with Liam’s decadent car ensuring that my seat was chilled, whereas his was heated for reasons unknown. Safely in Luton after faultless driving, although I could perhaps have done without the ten minutes standing at the reception desk waiting for a team member to come and check me in. I also had a strong suspicion, for reasons I won’t go into here, that the team member had been asleep, but, I can’t imagine being the night porter at a Travelodge in Luton is always the more inspirational place to be.
Anyway, there were no issues with the hotel, it was a cheap Sunday night room and I woke up ready for the three mile walk into the heart of Luton.
This was pretty much the highlight of the three mile walk, it’s not really the most scenic. Listening to podcasts makes it just fly by though.
Then, after a quick free meal and also a heap of coffee at the White House, which is the JD Wetherspoon pub in the town, it was time for the forty minute walk to the airport. Arriving five hours early for the flight felt just right in terms of timing….. Another adventure begins.
There’s my friend Liam departing after kindly dropping me off at Luton Airport and it’s always a delight being back here. Well, it isn’t, but travel is about being positive.
I decided to just stay at the airport overnight, it’s not worth the faffing about leaving the hotel early to get here. And, it’s a more thrifty option. Here’s the airside area shortly after it opened.
My usual visit to Big Smoke with my Priority Pass card and it’s not often that I’m here early enough for the breakfast menu. The £18 allowance doesn’t allow a huge amount of decadence here with prices ever rising.
The poached eggs on avocado with sourdough bread served alongside a pineapple juice was a suitable breakfast for 04:00. It’s half-term this week and the airport was very busy, with Big Smoke being at capacity for much of the time that I was there.
Orange juice, latte and granola at Nolito, where I merrily waited until I got an alert on my phone with the gate number.
Coffee acquired. I’m not sure why the Wizz Air app mentioned the gate number before it was announced, as it led to several customers arriving to see no gate information and then asking staff members for help. It’s handy to get extra time to arrive at the gate though.
With the gate now announced I managed to be the first to queue up, with boarding commencing nearly immediately. This was one of the flights where Wizz Air had mentioned that there might be €100 in Wizz Air credits for volunteering not to fly. I have little interest in this, it would deny me getting any UK261 compensation if they were planning to refuse me.
There’s the aircraft positively glimmering in the morning sun.
The turnaround on these flights is something to behold, we were boarding within fifteen minutes of these passengers disembarking.
Boarding the aircraft, which was registration HA-LWQ, an Airbus A320 which Wizz Air have had in their fleet since 2012 and that I don’t think I’ve been on before.
This is one of the older aircraft in the fleet and these are the old fashioned seats that I haven’t seen in some time. I was pleased that the seating Gods had allocated me an aisle seat as the flight was just about full.
The aircraft was clean, but it felt a little rickety in places, as is perhaps evident with those yellow pieces of tape indicating the damaged overhead lockers. As for the flight, it all seemed well managed, although I was asleep for most of it so all manner of havoc could have been happening and I wouldn’t have known. I hope that I didn’t miss out on any drama though….
And safely at Timișoara Airport, a little earlier than expected. It took only around twenty minutes to get through border control, there were few British people on board and they delayed matters slightly because of the EES.
After a peaceful night at the Ibis Styles Bucharest Airport, I decided to walk to the airport which is about a fifteen minute walk. Not all of the pavement was like this shall we say, but it was an easy walk and for those without baggage it’s not worth using a shuttle. Although I might not be the best touchpoint on this as I think that anything involving under one hour of walking isn’t worth getting transport for.
The Gendarme Heroes Monument at the entrance to the airport.
I had some minor issues finding my way into the airport terminal, which is evidently not designed for people walking there, but here’s the main entrance. It transpired that this was the arrivals terminal, but there is a connection via an internal corridor to the departures terminal.
As I had departed too early for the hotel’s free breakfast, they had instead given me a drink, yoghurt, croissant and I saved the banana and yoghurt drink for the airport. There’s no lounge here, so this just had to suffice.
I’m sure that the airport will look lovely when the work is finished, but it feels a bit like a building site at the moment.
The departures terminal.
There’s my flight, the 07:10 to London Luton.
There wasn’t much of a check of my passport at the airport, but the security there were all friendly and I was able to find a quiet spot to wait for my flight. There isn’t a great deal of space here, but the gate staff did their best to ensure that passengers weren’t left waiting.
This photo is from the arrival at Luton Airport, as there was an air bridge so I couldn’t get an external photo. The seating Gods had put me in 34F, which is a window seat, so that worked nicely for me. The aircraft is 9H-WNP and for about the tenth flight in a row, I have to report that I haven’t been on this one before either.
I was asleep for most of the flight, but everything I saw was well managed, professional and efficient. I really don’t understand how people have issues with Wizz Air on such a regular basis, as I find their cabin crew and pilots to be as good as on any other airline.
And that was the end of this trip, which started on my first birthday weekend with Liam, Ross, Richard and I going to Cardiff. After travelling to Italy, Slovenia, Albania, Greece and Romania (albeit the last three quite quickly) I had a train back to Norwich and some happy memories of a very lovely trip, with thanks to Steve, Bev and Susanna joining me in Italy and Slovenia.
For those confused where we are in my riveting blog, I’m now going back a couple of weeks as I had to get from Cardiff to Ljubljana using whatever means possible, but I could only get flights costing £9 with Wizz Air Multi Pass. My first expedition was to get to Rome, then to work the rest out afterwards. There’s my flight, the 21:40.
A quick visit to Big Smoke and due to increasing prices of what is covered by Priority Pass, I’ve cut down to pineapple juice and chicken tenders. All very healthy.
Calamari and pineapple juice at Nolito and I’m never entirely surprised and delighted by their calamari so I’m going to shake things up and change this order up next time. I should probably get out more….
Oh great, it’s nearly Christmas.
The Rome flight was delayed by around 40 minutes, meaning that it was the last one out of Luton Airport in the evening. This means that everyone sitting here was going to Rome, unless they were perhaps muddled up.
It’s all happening now!
Here we are, the last flight out of Luton Airport.
Boarding and this is aircraft registration HA-LGV, seemingly another one (from my extensive records that aren’t anywhere near complete) that I haven’t been on before.
There were quite a lot of sleepy passengers on this flight, which was around 80% full. As ever with Wizz Air, the flight was well managed, the aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly and absolutely nothing went wrong. There’s a lot to be said for uneventful flights. The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat for this flight, so that was handy.
We all disembarked from the front of the aircraft as they wanted to use a jet bridge for this late arriving flight, but then there was no-one to unlock the door. So I stood here for a few minutes.
At this point it was decided that we’d be getting a bus to the terminal and this is always a slight faff. But, I was in no rush.
Safely in Rome and I got to use the semi-automated digital border control system for the first time, as Poland doesn’t seem to be using it fully yet. There was quite a queue for this, but it was all painless.
A helpful service…. I sat here for a while as the baggage reclaim, which I never have a need to use, had some power points and I wanted to be fully charged for my next little adventure. By fully charged I mean my devices, I was not fully charged as this was a sleepless overnight onwards expedition.
