Safely at Luton Airport, I had the excitement of staying up overnight whilst waiting for my early morning flight to Lublin. A cheap filter coffee at Pret was in order, which also allowed me to keep my devices fully charged. I do wonder, as an aside, whether this Pret might need to be more proactive about people who aren’t customers occupying several tables and preventing paying customers from finding a seat. Arriving early means I don’t have a problem here, but I notice that some potential customers do.
I’m not sure that I’ve ever noticed before how early security opens at Luton Airport, as I saw numerous passengers going through at 02:00 which is much earlier than somewhere like London Stansted. I decided to go through at 02:30 to help keep me awake and it was suitably quiet and peaceful.
The security process was efficient and the staff were kind and helpful as usual. No shops were open airside at this time, but there was plenty of seating.
A couple of hours after I took this photo, the terminal was packed and there were hardly any seats available.
Mine was the fourth flight of the day out of the airport.
Big Smoke is meant to open at 04:00, but this well-run venue seems to routinely open shortly after 03:00. They’re the first main food outlet that passengers see, so this seems a sensible call if they can get their staff members through security this early. I arrived at 03:30 and received a friendly welcome.
I get an £18 credit to spend at Big Smoke with my lounge pass and this cost exactly £18. A latte alongside avocado, eggs and sweet pickle on sourdough toast. This is actually really decent, there’s a depth of flavour and taste to the food, with the coffee having the required caffeine in it. I’m not in the market to spend £18 on breakfast, as I’m not decadent, but for those who are, this isn’t a bad option.
I thought that I’d pop into the lounge as well to get more coffee. And I managed to get another little breakfast.
Very nice. I’m not sure it would be worth paying £30 for access to this lounge, but my lounge pass means that I don’t need to be burdened with that decision.
I thought that it would be a little busier than this, but everything was clean and they had remembered to polish the cutlery this time. It’s normally caked in dry food which is entirely sub-optimal.
The gate was called a little early and so I meandered over there. The boarding process was clear and well managed, with the staff members ignoring the numerous passengers who seemed to be pushing their luck with large bags. It was a busy flight and there weren’t many free seats left on the aircraft.
Boarding the aircraft, which was G-WUKT that had taken me to Bratislava in June 2025. The seating gods had given me an aisle seat near the front which I was pleased with as it meant I could disembark quickly and I wanted to make a connecting train. The passenger in the middle seat asked me to switch with her boyfriend who was sitting around fifteen rows back. Although I am endlessly helpful, I refused this request as this seems to be happening on over half of flights now. The passenger was shortly afterwards moved by someone else as it transpired that she was in the wrong seat herself, so I was pleased that there wouldn’t be any awkward moments.
We had a wait at Luton Airport due to a lack of slots, but the pilot said he planned to push back anyway and see what happened. It transpired that we had just a short delay before we took off and all was well. The crew were professional and helpful, although they didn’t have much to do as the majority of the passengers were more interested in sleeping than buying food and drink.
I was delighted that by efficient speed walking I was able to be the second person at the border desk which sped things up. I’ve mentioned before that on Wizz Air, it feels that most of the passengers aren’t British in the way they often are with Ryanair. That meant I was through the border quickly and faster than many Poles who were using the electronic passport gates, with the member of border control deciding not to ask me what I was doing in Poland.
It was my first time back in Lublin in nine years and as we had arrived without any significant delay, it meant that I could catch one of the few train services of the day that departed the airport. My flight cost £8.99 and, once again, Wizz Air delighted me with their service.