London City you've finally lost me

Old Jul 24, 2015, 2:27 pm
  #1  
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London City you've finally lost me

I've been a long time user (8+ years) of London City airport, but after 5 flights in the last two weeks I've decided it's inbound only for me from now on.

The fact that I'm sitting on a delayed LCY-GLA flight which is waiting to take passengers from the next (cancelled) flight may have coloured my opinion today, but I wonder - has LCY become a victim of its own success?

Cons:
1. Horrendous bag drop / general hall - full of too machines and snaking queues in too small an area
2. Terrible, terrible, security. No logic to the queuing systems and security staff who don't want to be there
3. No lounge - wasn't ever an issue before but with constant delays to flights, and over capacity departures hall I'm done with the scramble over space
I'll still choose City as my inbound as I live a few minutes away, and landing to DLR can still be achieved with hand baggage in under 15 mins.

Am I alone in my rant? :-)
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 2:53 pm
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not alone - I made that decision over the last weeks too for similar reasons

Always fly into City as, even with bag, can be in office in 30 mins after landing (at which point I would still be waiting for bag at LHR...or half way through the waiting time at Gatwick!)
delays a couple of weeks ago meant the "waiting area" was standing room only with people having to find bits of floor to sit on...not comfortable at the best of times
Coupled with the fact that (despite travelling at different times up) Edinburgh Airport seems to find it amusing to bus you to the furthest part of the airport at gate 17 for you to have to trek all the way back (given that there are no flights leaving from the far away gates that time of night you would think they may, at least, reverse the travellators but instead they just turn them off...At least the LHR will go on a stand with a jetty) and not leave you walking for miles.
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 3:23 pm
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Even in the redeveloped LCY there still won't be a BA lounge.
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 3:26 pm
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Originally Posted by UKtravelbear
Even in the redeveloped LCY there still won't be a BA lounge.
Probably for the better. I would hazard a guess that about 60% of passengers on each BA flight ex-LCY is lounge eligible, making any (likely small) lounge space horrendously cramped and busy.
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 3:33 pm
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Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 8_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0 Mobile/12H143 Safari/600.1.4)

BACF have serious timekeeping issues. They really are institutionally late.

Does anyone have access to punctuality figures versus say WX?
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 3:36 pm
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I've had a few less than easy journey's through here - tend to go hand baggage only now as even the Club Europe desk has queues with customers who have issues (15 minute wait is not uncommon). I was astonished when I heard a radio advert boasting pax could turn up 20-minutes before their flight left. No chance in my experience - esp if you have checked luggage.

I once forgot I had a bottle of water in my bag and only realised when I got it through after security screening! Lax or what?!
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 3:38 pm
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Originally Posted by Dicksbits
I once forgot I had a bottle of water in my bag and only realised when I got it through after security screening! Lax or what?!
I hope you were not tempted to execute any mischief with your forbidden and dangerous item!
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 3:39 pm
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Originally Posted by Genius1
Probably for the better. I would hazard a guess that about 60% of passengers on each BA flight ex-LCY is lounge eligible, making any (likely small) lounge space horrendously cramped and busy.
And that has been stated several times on here whenever the issue of an LCY lounge has been raised.

An issue where FT and BA agree ??? *shocked*
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 3:40 pm
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Originally Posted by Genius1
Probably for the better. I would hazard a guess that about 60% of passengers on each BA flight ex-LCY is lounge eligible, making any (likely small) lounge space horrendously cramped and busy.
Maybe just remove the shops and turn the whole place into a lounge?
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 4:50 pm
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London City you've finally lost me

Though I get what you say, ex LHR is hardly a pleasant experience on a short domestic hop to Scotland even with lounges. I hardly have any issues with my EDI flights but find LHR very different and much more stressful than the LCY "turn up and go".
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 5:56 pm
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Originally Posted by chris1979
Though I get what you say, ex LHR is hardly a pleasant experience on a short domestic hop to Scotland even with lounges. I hardly have any issues with my EDI flights but find LHR very different and much more stressful than the LCY "turn up and go".
Its certainly hard to believe the experience can be worse than a Tube trip across London and out to LHR AND then the experience at LHR!

I've only ever arrived into city, so can't comment!
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 6:43 pm
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Originally Posted by Cap'n Benj
Its certainly hard to believe the experience can be worse than a Tube trip across London and out to LHR AND then the experience at LHR!
Why fly? Ok the trains have their problems, but flights have plenty of delays too.

Trekking across to Heathrow leaving enough time to be sure not to be trapped by BA's disgusting "conformance", you'd be no faster than the train anyway
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 7:56 pm
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Originally Posted by harryhv
Why fly? Ok the trains have their problems, but flights have plenty of delays too.

Trekking across to Heathrow leaving enough time to be sure not to be trapped by BA's disgusting "conformance", you'd be no faster than the train anyway
Have I been redirected to traintalk.com or something?
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 8:36 pm
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Originally Posted by harryhv
Why fly? Ok the trains have their problems, but flights have plenty of delays too.

Trekking across to Heathrow leaving enough time to be sure not to be trapped by BA's disgusting "conformance", you'd be no faster than the train anyway
I keep hearing that conformance on domestics is likely to be cut to 20 minutes. Not sure if this is a rumour.
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Old Jul 24, 2015, 8:43 pm
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Originally Posted by Calchas
I keep hearing that conformance on domestics is likely to be cut to 20 minutes. Not sure if this is a rumour.
Is "gate closing" still officially 10 mins? Or 15? Or even 20?

Problem with LHR is that such a big place with so many people and shops in the way of things etc.

Though I never cut it that fine, the whole 15 mins at LCY is doable even though I'm often on board at T-15
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