Originally Posted by thijsseh

I find LGW a better airport to depart from. OK, no direct boarding from the lounge, but the priority boarding at the gate works well. It's quite a walk from the lounge to the gate, including the long escalators up and down the 'bridge'. There are elevators as well if you prefer these.
The LGW lounge is good, no tarmac views (no views at all, actually), but I find the food very good (was there last Thursday for EK16) and the staff is pleasant and efficient. You get a special silver sticker on your BP which lets you into the priority security check. Then the walk though the Duty Free shops is just as annoying as at LHR. But overall, LGW is not the zoo that LHR is.
And although it is a single runway airport, you will find you spend a lot less time waiting for a take off slot. Arriving is even better, I have never been in a holding pattern at LGW (on any airline).
Avoid the Gatwick Express, which is a ripoff but use a Thameslkink train if you want to go to London Bridge or a Southern train to London Victoria (of course there is Chauffeur Drive as well, but I was in Y (Gold member) last time, so did not have that benefit).