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.
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.
Safely at Luton Airport nice and early, as usual. The security process was smooth and efficient, taking less than five minutes from when I scanned my boarding card.
I popped into Big Smoke with my Priority Pass card and had the usual delicious chicken tenders and a slightly less delicious alcohol free Stella. The service is always friendly and efficient here, with plenty of power points to ensure I didn’t have to stress about that.
And then into Nolito for a healthy snack with pineapple juice. It’s quite pricey and I’m not sure that the quality here quite justified the price, but as it was free, I decided that I’d cope.
By then, it was getting nearer the time when boarding started, with my flight being the penultimate out of the airport that day. I rather like days such as this with an evening flight, I get a chance to get on top of everything work wise and nothing feels rushed.
The boarding process was smooth, well managed and everything was clear. The staff here were friendly and personable, it was all efficient and organised.
And then the boarding, I was towards the back of the aircraft and boarded via the rear doors.
The aircraft was HA-LGM, which is yet another one that I haven’t been on before. It was newly delivered to the airline in July 2024 and inside everything was clean and in a decent state of repair.
I have little to report about the flight, as once again, it was operated by Wizz Air with professionalism and efficiency. The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat with no-one next to me, the announcements were clear, the crew were friendly and it was all peaceful and organised. We landed on time and the pilots kept us informed of what was going on.
The one negative, which wasn’t the fault of the airline, is that they had expected steps to be brought to the back of the aircraft in Wrocław, but they instead used a jet bridge. That meant it took a bit longer for me to disembark with a wait of nearly fifteen minutes on board. This isn’t a problem, but there’s one bus an hour that departs the airport at night and I didn’t really want to miss it as it was already late enough.
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the advantages of flying on Wizz Air as a passenger with a British passport is that there aren’t generally many of us (and that is obviously a generalisation). Indeed, despite disembarking almost last, there were only two people ahead of me in the queue at border control. This meant that I was able to get through the border quicker than most holders of EU passports, a rare treat, although I’d still quite like an EU passport once again…
Anyway, the efficiency here meant that I was outside the airport with fifteen minutes to spare before the night bus turned up. Another rather lovely flight and a bargain for just £8.99. And it’s lovely to be back in Poland.
For the first time in a couple of years, I flew British Airways (BA) on my trip with Richard to Gothenburg. I had some Avios to use up, which meant that the flight cost £40 return and it gave me a chance to use Richard’s guesting rights to experience the lounges at Heathrow T3 once again. As a disclosure, I used to do work for BA and so I still feel quite an affinity to them.
And then there’s Wizz Air, who I’ve flown with extensively over the last year because of their All You Can Fly pass which I very much like. They’re a budget airline who have a dreadful reputation, although, as a disclosure, I’ve flown them a lot and have now got something of an affinity to them as well.
So, as I don’t get out much, I thought I’d compare the two using a series of artificial headings that I’ve created. I’m not including lounge experiences and I can’t take into consideration IRROPs (when things go wrong) which BA might be better at dealing with.
All are out of five and I’m making this up as I go along, so at this point, I don’t know who will win this riveting competition. And so….
BOARDING CARD ACQUISITION
WIZZ AIR : Acquiring the boarding card on the Wizz Air app is an easy process, although it’s limited to just 24 hours before the flight (unless you pay extra, which I obviously don’t). There are quite a few screens to go through, but the process is easy and the boarding card stays saved in the app for months. Seating is random, although only on around 20% of occasions am I put in a middle seat. 4/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was a slightly disappointing experience, the app didn’t work (I got it working, sort of, for the return although it was very slow) and so I was forced to check-in on a laptop. This was the case for the outbound and inbound flights, wasting a fair chunk of time getting it resolved. There was the advantage of being freely able to select seats in the 24 hours before the flight, which was a benefit so it wasn’t entirely random. BA’s IT is, by their own admission in the past, sub-optimal and I’ve found them erratic before, but they have the advantage that you can print the boarding pass out at the airport for free which Wizz Air don’t offer. 3/5
PRE-BOARDING
WIZZ AIR : Wizz Air are impeccable about this and I note this on just about every flight, it’s clear where to stand and they work through the priority and non-priority queues quickly and effectively. It’s customer focused, it’s efficient and it’s quick. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : This felt just slightly muddled, there was no defined queueing area which led to customers milling about in the way of others. There was no obvious time that the boarding desk would open, so customers couldn’t relax or at least wait in the appropriate queue. The process didn’t feel customer focused. One bonus to BA, I did like that I wasn’t concerned about whether my bag fit the bag sizers, which is always a slight concern when flying with Wizz Air. 3/5
BOARDING
WIZZ AIR : Impeccable, on my last 60 or so sectors there have been no delays or issues with boarding. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : Particularly on the outbound flight, the crew were stressed (I know this as I was on the last row and the crew were talking to each other about the potential need to get bags moved to the hold), some passengers were stressed and it was just a little chaotic. Passengers were faced with searching up and down the cabin for space for their bags. The passenger in the middle seat next to me was one of those, so I ended up standing in the aisle for a few minutes whilst she found space. I don’t mind that, but she was unnecessarily stressed and could only find space some considerable distance away. I like my bag under the seat in front of me, which is what both BA and Wizz Air require me to do (if I had a big bag with BA I could put it above for free, which doesn’t feel entirely fair for those with small bags). 2/5
SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENTS
WIZZ AIR : The safety announcements are often ignored, but I always watch them out of politeness. All very professional. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : I have no issues with the safety processes of BA, but I was disappointed that the flight safety demonstration was so far away from me down the cabin that I could hardly see it. As an aside, BA crew should probably check that lockers are shut (although they were trying to manage bag reshuffling for a long period of time) as an overhead locker went flying open during the take-off. 4/5
CREW
WIZZ AIR : The crews are always helpful, personable and polite. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : And no difference with British Airways. 5/5
FOOD ON BOARD
WIZZ AIR : There is nothing free, but I like their noodle pot things which are reasonably priced. 2/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : I’m going to be overly fair here to BA as the food and drink prices were overly expensive, but economy passengers do get a free biscuit and bottle of water. This allows for more crew engagement, which I think is very positive. 4/5
FLIGHT COMFORT
WIZZ AIR : I find Wizz Air flights as comfortable as I’m going to get on a budget airline. The seat pitch is fine for me, although only for flights of under four hours I’ve discovered. 4/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : BA declares their seat pitch to be nearly the same as Wizz Air, although I struggled more with leg room for reasons I don’t understand. I’m giving them the same score as the seat pitch is similar and I was comfortable enough. 4/5
FLIGHT CLEANLINESS
WIZZ AIR : Given their very fast turnaround time, the cabin is generally always very clean. I’ve never had a dirty tray table, although there’s sometimes a little litter in hard to reach places on the floor. 4/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was disappointing, my tray table was dirty on the return flight so it hadn’t been cleaned at all. There’s no excuse not to do at least some basic cleaning for passenger comfort. 2/5
PILOTS
WIZZ AIR : The pilots have always been impeccable. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : Again, professional pilots. 5/5
ENTERTAINMENT
WIZZ AIR : There is a magazine in the seat pocket which has a map of their destinations I like to look at, as well as some articles to read and also their list of on-board purchases. I have enough things to read on my phone, but I like paper magazines for some variety. That’s the limit of the entertainment though. 2/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : There is no provision for printed material. 1/5
INTERNET
WIZZ AIR : There is no on-line provision, even a paid for one. 1/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was a strong advantage for British Airways, their free wifi for all passengers is limited to WhatsApp and email, but it worked well and was very useful. I was impressed at how well this worked. Very pleased. 5/5
DISEMBARKING
WIZZ AIR : There are too many bus transfers, although this isn’t something limited to Wizz Air by any means. Disembarking from front and back is efficient and passenger focused. 4/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : On the outbound flight I was first off, but on the inbound the disembarking took too long. Jet bridge only disembarkation when passengers are trying to scuttle around the cabin heading in the opposite direction to find their bags is just a little frustrating. I do have a comment relating to accessibility below though. 3/5
TOTALS
This gives Wizz Air a total score of 46 and British Airways a score of 41. This feels just a little unfairly skewered to Wizz Air and not entirely fair to British Airways, although the more I reflect on it, the more I realise just how poor some elements of these British Airways flights were. I did find the wifi to be useful, so that probably deserves a bigger uplift here, so the results should perhaps be a little narrower.
One important element I haven’t considered in the above headings is accessibility. As BA often uses jet bridges, this makes it much easier for those with accessibility requirements. It’s right to give credit to BA for that.
PRICING
I now need to make an adjustment based on the average price charged for a flight. I had expected when I planned this post a few weeks ago that BA would be better, so I was going to mention the more expensive prices.
Anyway, I’m going to use the headline fare for the flights we took to Gothenburg as these were the cheapest flights we could find for BA when we book, so that makes them £50 for a single.
It’s unfair to note that my Wizz Air flights are £9 each as I pay extra for the all you can fly pass, so taking that into account, all of my single fares are around £20. This means that BA are usually significantly more expensive.
CONCLUSION
This is easier than I expected. I would still fly British Airways, but only if their flights were cheaper than Wizz Air.
RESULT
Wizz Air have got their processes to be efficient and they are in line with what I need from an airline, so my results are inevitably biased in that way. I like a budget airline for cheap prices and Wizz Air is very good at that, it’s all that they do. BA has to have a broader appeal across a much larger operation and they also fly from airports with higher costs, although for my own travel, I’m happy with London Luton airport.
For those with bags, more complex needs, a requirement to fly from larger hubs or those with status, there is much to be said for BA. For those who want budget travel without stress, I certainly think Wizz Air is worth considering here. I’d add that I think both BA and Wizz Air are better than Ryanair for anyone interested in that perspective, I don’t tend to fly with Ryanair.
But, taking everything into account, for short haul flights, it’s Wizz Air who I prefer over British Airways, which I’m not sure I expected to write when I started this.
I think I’ve posted this before, but these are some of the new routes from Wizz Air and this surprised and delighted me, some new cities for me to explore there (well, Debrecen, Cluj and Targu Mures).
Which? have released their annual airline survey with a relatively small number of responses far too low to make any reasonable useful statistical analysis, but from this they claim that Ryanair and Wizz Air are the lowest rated in their survey. Even by their figures, Wizz Air has one of the best punctuality figures.
They like to point out that when all costs are added together then Wizz Air are no cheaper. This seems to be forget that something around just over half the passengers boarding Wizz Air flights are going with one free cabin bag and evidently don’t want to pay the costs that airlines like British Airways force upon them. I don’t want a headline price that includes a bag as I, and seemingly around half of every flight, don’t want a bag.
Which? seem outraged that Wizz Air and Ryanair dismissed their report, although that’s probably because it’s ridiculous and nearly everyone will dismiss their report until they actually make it statistically useful. EasyJet rejected it too, but in an attempt to show their relevance Which? said:
“We’ve repeatedly found that airlines that include baggage and seat allocation in their fares can actually work out cheaper overall. Fly with anyone else, if you can.”
Same old tired claptrap, at least Ryanair and Wizz Air are transparent and give customers the chance to actually pay for what they want. I don’t want baggage and seat reservations, so why have I got to pay more? So even though BA would be over four times the price and offer me nothing more, they want me to fly with them?
It’s not clear to me why Which? don’t just suggest that if you want reserved seats, a three course meal, champagne, baggage, lounge access and a VIP tour of the cockpit from the pilot then go with a full service airline and fly a lot to get the benefits of the loyalty schemes. If you want to get to Poland for £10 then fly with Ryanair and Wizz Air which is what tens of millions merrily choose to do every single month. Choice, it’s quite powerful….
I booked a taxi to the airport which picked me up from the Euro Hotel at 03:00, which is earlier than I would have ideally liked. Indeed, this was so early that my friend Julian was still in the pub in Norwich to keep my company via WhatsApp during this little journey. Excuse the blurred photo, but I rather like it in a strange way.
I booked the taxi with Uber and it was there within three minutes, which did surprise and delight me. The cost quoted for the 25 minute journey was just £3.05 which very much pleased me.
We arrived before terminal one, where I was flying from, had even opened.
I walked the 25 metres to Terminal 2, where there was a bit more going on. Not much more to be fair, but they had lights.
It was a little frosty outside, just the sort of temperature for my temperament.
Terminal 1 was dark, empty but warm.
I had arrived around two and a half hours before my flight, which I already thought was cutting it fine.
Once the lights finally flickered to life, the transition from a dark warehouse to an active terminal was almost instantaneous.
This was not a busy terminal, there was a grand total of one flight departing for the entire day. At this point, I went through security and all was well, before getting a chance to pop into the lounge, but I’ll post about that excitement separately.
And waiting to board. The boarding process didn’t feel very organised in terms of priority and non-priority passengers, but I’m not sure that it made much difference in the grand scheme of things.
After the plane had been de-iced, we were able to board and we were on schedule. The aircraft is HA-LYF, not one that I’ve been on before although they do all look quite alike….
I had enjoyed my three nights in Timișoara, the first time that I’d been there. I wasn’t keen on the early morning flight, but at least it allowed me to get back to London Luton at an early hour.
The seating Gods had given me a middle seat, but I was pleased to board and find that a group of lads wanted to sit together and one politely asked if I would take his window seat a few rows forwards. This was a very agreeable situation, it meant that I was able to sleep for just about all of the flight.
The cabin crew, who were polite and helpful, kept the cabin dark for about an hour. I was aware that they did a trolley run, but they were quiet and efficient, so they were able to sell what they needed to without disturbing everyone. I find that Ryanair can be just a little less subtle.
And safely into London Luton Airport, always a delight. Well, sort of. Because of the time difference, we landed at around 07:00, which gave me the day to get back to Norwich thanks to the car share arrangement that I have with my friend Liam. Anyway, another bargain flight for just £8.99.
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 Jonathan had left Yerevan for Milan after our two week trip, I had a wait at the airport before flying to Prague. Here’s a rather lovely artwork that was recovered from the Spitak earthquake in 1988.
There was a large seating area at arrivals which had comfortable seats, tables and power points. It wasn’t clear whether this was part of the seating area for the restaurant, but I thought that if it was they’d come over and I’d buy a coffee. One hour and twenty minutes later, a staff member came over asking what I’d like, so I requested a menu. Twenty minutes later the menu was delivered to the table, and as no-one had returned for another forty minutes, I left for my flight.
It’s not possible to use a digital boarding card as in most airports, so I had to wait for the bag drop desk to open to collect my boarding card. This is a free process and it was all suitably efficient.
After a lounge visit, which I will return to in another post, it was time to board.
Boarding the aircraft, which was registration HA-LDH, an aircraft that I don’t think that I’ve been on before.
Waving goodbye to Armenia, after a really fascinating trip to the country.
In the background is the Government’s aircraft, an Airbus A319-100 which the Republic of Armenia has used since 2007.
I had been a little disappointed that the seating Gods had given me a middle seat, but with some rearrangement, I was able to move to an aisle seat.
The airline’s planned new routes and I hope to go on some of these.
The flight was, yet again, without any incident. It was over three hours, which is about as much as I can cope for in a Wizz Air aircraft, but the crew members were professional and it was all clean and comfortable. I have very little to comment on here as Wizz Air really have everything done to a fine art and nothing was of note. The pilots gave useful updates in their announcements, including an update en route and also details of the weather and other such things.
After having arrived in Prague, the introduction of the EES system was causing delays at the border for, mostly, UK residents from other flights. I’m already registered on the system and I was at the desk for just twenty seconds, but there was a wait whilst others were processed.
And safely through border control and ready for a couple of days in Prague.
I had just enough time to pop into My Lounge at Gatwick Airport before the flight. It was busy when I entered but they were happily letting Priority Pass customers in without a queue, although it took me a little time to find a power point to ensure I was fully charged for the journey ahead.
There was some fruit for those who like that sort of thing.
And some reliably dreadful tasting Cruzcampo beer, but that’s fine as it’s meant to taste like that and wasn’t a serving error (although it is self-pour).
Our 13:05 flight was delayed by 80 minutes which was a little sub-optimal, but not critical to our travel arrangements.
I don’t entirely trust My Lounge food, but this looked safe enough as a little snack.
Boarding at the gate was, once again, efficient and well ordered. There were some passengers pushing their baggage limits somewhat, but they came unstuck as they were checking some bags. It’s an expensive extra cost for those who thought that they’d get away with it.
Boarding the aircraft which was registration G-WUKS, an aircraft that I don’t think that I’ve been on before. There was another ten minute delay whilst an engineer came on board to tape up a tray table was broken, but then we were good to go.
Jonathan and I had been randomly allocated middle seats which I had been slightly dreading as it was a four hour flight. Fortunately, when I boarded the row of three a couple of rows in front was evidently empty so I made a run (well, brisk walk) towards it. Another passenger mentioned to me that she was also moving there with her husband, but she suggested that I had the aisle seat, which is the one that I wanted anyway.
Jonathan had equally good news in being able to move to an aisle seat. The flight was actually three and a half hours, not four hours, but it’s a lot more comfortable when not wedged into a middle seat. The aircraft was clean throughout and as usual, the cabin crew were friendly, engaging and efficient.
And safely into Istanbul Airport which had no working wifi (I mentioned this a few times to Jonathan), but it’s a grand looking airport and the largest privately owned one in the world. It opened in 2019, replacing Ataturk Airport, and seems to be rather a long way from Istanbul. Anyway, on the positive side, the border control process only took fifteen minutes and we could then plan on getting to the hotel. Design wise, it looks an impressive airport and I’m sure that I’ll be back here again at some point in the future.
Although by this time we were around an hour behind schedule, the whole arrangement from Wizz Air surprised and delighted me, especially since I wasn’t trapped in the middle seat. Coping without wifi for another two hours wasn’t what I expected after landing though, but that’s not the fault of Wizz Air.
I decided that it wasn’t worth leaving the airport as my inbound flight from Madeira reached Warsaw at around 22:45 and my outbound flight to London Luton airport left at 06:00. I would have only reached a city centre hotel by 00:00 and then had to leave it at 03:00, which felt a little wasteful.
There was an hour left in the landside McDonalds before it closed, so I used that opportunity to get a little snack and charge my devices up. Although, it transpired that there were numerous power outlets dotted around the landside area of the terminal.
Very Christmassy.
It was all a bit decadent for me, but they’d certainly made an effort with their Christmas decorations.
I had a little meander around the airport to pass the time, watching an Irish passenger having an argument with the armed airport police after they told him not to leave his bag unattended. They won that argument with their line “would you like to discuss this in an interview room?” in perfect English, which I felt was suitably friendly and he backed down.
I bought these from the shop as breakfast as the lounge didn’t open until 05:00 and it’s the other end of the airport from my gate, so I didn’t want to risk it.
I was one of the first people through to the airside area.
Who needs sleep when you can explore a mostly closed airside terminal?
I found a seat with a power outlet and made a determined effort not to fall asleep and miss my flight. There were clear announcements from the gate staff and the boarding process was once again clearly signed and operated efficiently.
The aircraft was around a five minute bus journey from the terminal, it wasn’t the most pleasant of transfers given how many people they’d shoved on the bus. It felt a little endless and I’m sure we went via the city centre.
It was aircraft registration 9H-WNW, another new plane for me. The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat and I decided that I would now have a little nap on the flight home. Everything went to plan with the flight, with helpful crew, clear updates from the pilots and the aircraft was clean and tidy.
With that, it was a walk to Luton Airport Parkway railway station, the one that I’ve decided is the worst run in the country, before getting a train to St. Alban’s, confusing the gateline staff, then returning to Norwich via London, Cambridge and Ely. All really rather lovely and that was the end of my travels for the year…..
