Originally Posted by
flyslow
Just back from a weekend in Belgrade and let me start with apologising for the sacrilege of correcting CWS, but there is an airside smoking area in BEG between gates C2 and C3.
I arrived on BA888 on Friday, long walk to immigration, fast moving queue, helped along with lots of shouting from border officers, strictly in Serbian.
Cash points in arrivals hall charge 600 RSD for withdrawal, coffee machine in arrivals hall gives out c****y coffee, but no change, no TP (don't mean tier points, the other TP) in toilets.
I decided to use public transport to get to Fontana, buses leave right in front of arrivals, just don't make eye contact with taxi drivers on the hunt.
Fastest would have been A1 shuttle (400 RSD, payable in cash to the driver), but that's just a minivan with 20 seats and about twice as much people waiting for it at any point. Queue is formed, but when the shuttle arrives it's basically BA boarding, you can be left behind even if you were almost at the front of the queue as it happened to me.
Other option was city bus 72, I asked airport information desk about where I could buy the ticket and got very helpful 'not here'. The driver wasn't interested in passengers and what I understood from the signs inside the bus, the only way to buy a ticket is via text and only with Serbian SIM card. So I got a free ride to town.
Took almost 1.5 hours to reach Fontana due to traffic. Word of caution to others who want to take the bus, there were no screens and no announcements about the stops. Bus stops had names printed on them, but on only in Cyrillic. I can read it, but if someone doesn't then better familiarise yourself what the name of your desired stop looks like in Cyrillic. Street signs seemed all to be in both Cyrillic and Latin script.
FLew BA889 back today. This time booked a private transfer, took about 15 minutes from town to airport.
There were two people checking boarding passes before entering the secure area. One of them didn't want to let me through with BP on BA app, but her colleague told her it's OK.
I didn't even attempt to enter priority lane, about 35 minutes to get through immigration and security in regular lane. As CWS reported, liquids and electronics stay in the bag, despite numerous signs telling to take them out.
Spent some time in smoking area and got carried away in Duty Free, so didn't have much time left for the lounge. Don't miss much. Only popped in for a quick bite and drink and to use the toilet, which I learned is outside the lounge.
Arrived at the gate when 'Final call' was displayed but boarding hadn't even started yet. Announcement was made that boarding will start by business class passengers only, followed by pax with small children. 'Business class only' was repeated several times. Flight had six rows of CE, after about 50 pax had boarded I walked through unchallenged.