zanskar

Apologies for long post.

Really tedious journey back from Stornoway to Gatwick yesterday. Was travelling with my dad. My dad’s outbound LGW-GLA flight had been cancelled at the last minute on his way up to the Hebrides a couple of weeks before (we flew up separately) resulting in him having to go to LHR and getting into GLA 4 hours or so late so he was already unimpressed with the whole LGW experience.

Checked into FlyBE/Loganair codeshare at SYY for 9:30 flight and got boarding passes through to LGW. Flight down to GLA on time, so far, so good.

Turned my phone on when arriving to GLA to receive text saying 11:35 flight down to LGW had been cancelled (at last minute). Oh well, cancellations do happen. Went through to lounge where nice guardian said she wasn’t able to help and sent us down to get now diverted bags and go back though to check in area where there was a predicatable zoo. No ability to use priority line despite silver (I tried), and we were the last in line.

After fairly substantial wait, we were told only available option was flight to LHR leaving at 20:05, so over 8 hour wait. Given Ł5 each refreshment voucher which I didn’t think was great for that length of time but at least we had the ability to use the new lounge which is a lovely outstation.

Went through to lounge and did some research finding I could book (for cash) seats on the 17:45 down to LGW despite being told downstairs that flight definitely wasn’t available. Went to guardian and she checked and said yes, you can actually go on this flight and changed it accordingly, implication was flight hadn’t originally been offered as available seats were in a higher booking class than we had paid. This didn’t leave a great impression but lounge staff were at least lovely.

Flight down to LGW all on time, packed to the gunnels as expected, staff pleasant, no problems at all. Issues arose when we went down to reclaim luggage. To cut a long story short it took 1 hour and 20 minutes to get the bags delivered to the carousel during which time there was pretty much no information as to why everyone, including various crotchety, tired toddlers were having to wait so long. The one guy who was able to give limited information said that last Saturday 12 flights had had to wait for over an hour to get their luggage. The implication was that it was due to inadequacy in the ground handling services. Of course, I cannot confirm whether this is true or why we had such a big delay in getting our luggage on this occasion.

Now I do know that cancellations and staffing problems occur and I have no interest in claiming compensation/Avios etc. My point is that for (relatively infrequent) fliers like me and my dad, it all gives the appearances that LGW is seen as the poor cousin to LHR with a fleet of old, unreliable planes, frequent cancellations and inadequate ground operations. This is a shame as LGW is more convenient for me than LHR and I like the check in area, priority security, lounge and staff very much.

Have any of you reached the same conclusions or were we just unlucky?

Fruitcake

I think this sums it up well. But you were also unlucky. When LGW works well it is, in many ways, preferable to LHR, but it is particularly vulnerable to airline (rather than airport) induced delays, etc., with the ageing 737 fleet, and I'm afraid the outsourcing of baggage handling, etc. I still like the 737s though.

missdimeaner

I agree that LGW is the poor cousin, baggage handling is a definite standout for poor performance IMHO.
I now avoid LGW if I can, even though it is vastly easier (and cheaper) for me to travel to.
If I have to use LGW (and I am returning into LGW in a few weeks), I don't check luggage - very long wait times each and every time I took leave of my senses and checked a bag

fiona

We had over an hour wait at the carrousel last week after our flight from Cancun. Some luggage had come right away and then there was nothing. We eventually found someone who told us that most of the flight's luggage had gone to a holding area for connections.

vectismanpaul

Maybe I have just been lucky but I always have a positive experience at Gatwick with BA. Very friendly staff and the planes always seem fine to me.
I do sometimes get the impression that on FlyerTalk there tends to be an anti Gatwick bias. I do travel from Heathrow and enjoy that too, but to be honest find the experience similar.
As for the aircraft, the 737s are being phased out over the next year or so as more airbus aircraft are added to the fleet. Cancelled flights are actually quite rare at Gatwick in recent months. If you check through the BA Source blog you will see many more flights cancelled from Heathrow (Even allowing for the much bigger operation there).
They must be doing something right at Gatwick as Willie Walsh said at the investors conference on August 2nd that they are very pleased with results at Gatwick this summer with both passenger and yield growth.
I expect that most people most of the time use BA at both airports with no problem at all. Some people are harder to please.
Myself I am quite a relaxed person and refuse to get work up or annoyed at delays and other difficulties at airports. All part of life experience.

V.

bafan

I hate having to use the shuttle train to North terminal; the security zone can be chaotic; and the terraces lounge is awful.

For these reasons, I avoid LGW when I can.

BahrainLad

I have been using Gatwick quite a lot recently. It's pretty good. Premium security is always empty, it's far easier to get to than LHR from work (London Bridge) or home (Clapham). F lounge nice, if a bit small, food and beverages fine. Onboard service is always friendly and the catering is better IMHO than LHR. I had a great Caesar salad with loads of chicken in it on the way to Bordeaux on Friday.

No complaints here - and I want Gatwick to succeed with a premium leisure offering, as the alternative to get to the sunshine would be EZY.

zanskar

All interesting comments. Maybe I was just unlucky.

I also do really like gatwick and would honestly prefer to use it when possible to LHR. It just seems there are problems- I can't believe that multiple examples of people waiting over an hour for their luggage to make it to the carousel could be regarded as being acceptable for example. Maybe BA needs to look at the performance of the outsourced ground services a bit more closely?

It may also be that the retiring of the 737 fleet will improve reliability as well. In any case I wish BA @ LGW all the best.

Skipcool3

Well we still have the old 'Terraces' style lounges, the short haul aircraft are either 20+ year old 737s or (mainly) former BMI Airbus with extra seats squeezed in (compared to the Heathrow fleet.)
B.A. have taken the commercial decision to contract out their baggage handling and the results are what we experience....
Don't forget you have to even tag your own bag at a booth before dropping it off, too.
None of the Long-haul fleet have the new WT or WT+ products either, and there are numerous threads on FT suggesting that Gatwick is B.A. 'Lite'- particularly around catering.

The one thing that still makes B.A. at Gatwick for me is the staff, both on the ground and in the Air; I have many examples of where they have gone the extra mile cheerfully.

razMJ

Haha even from the North-West if I wanted to travel by train then Gatwick is easier than Heathrow, with Euston-Victoria connections easier and faster than Euston-Paddington. However en large services from LGW are matched by MAN so that is a rare occasion for me :

It's doing pretty well at its premium leisure offering, but due to Heathrow's much more lucrative business offering, if this status quo remains then LGW could still be pessimistically described as Heathrow's 'poor cousin'

A P Yu

LGW is the poor cousin. Slowly and surely trimming bits here and there so by the time it's run by Vueling you'll be considering that move an improvement.

The excellent staff at LGW for me make the rest of the relatively poor experience worthwhile.

BOH

Will be interesting to make the comparison as am using LGW (on BA) for the first time in around 7 years early next week on an LGW-AMS-LGW itinerary.

I always remember the LGW North terminal as being a very welcome change to the hustle and general feeling of overcrowding and long, long queues that seemed to epitomise LHR back then. But that was pre-T5 so anything was better than the old T1 back then. Adn I really liked the BA lounge at LGW, always seemed to tranquil compared to LHR.

Am looking forward to seeing how things have changed...

Skipcool3

They havn't much BOH unless you are using the F lounge which is a very small space.
A 20 year old 737 is the same as a 13 year old 737 re-visited 7 years later(!) some are in better internal condition than others.
It will be interesting to see if the BA Premium leisure market holds as the 34" pitch on the 737s is replaced with the tight bmi 319s (31") and poor baggage delivery makes passengers wonder just why they are paying extra, particularly as Monarch have a good product (particularly in the front) and Easyjet now has assigned seating....

David1963

It's certainly not what it used to be at LGW..

As a MAN based traveller, BA used to operate fairly regular shuttles to and from LGW and I used to find BA's LGW services a useful option to LHR routes. Some of the routes flown from LGW worked rather better for me than some of the ones from LHR... I rather liked travelling through LGW as it meant (back then) a much better solution than T1/T3 at LHR...

The transfer system at LGW was always clunky... Baggage could be slow, sometimes... But I have to say I always found the staff at LGW great (as they are at LHR, to be honest) and I had a favourable opinion.

But then T5 got into swing and it became my preferred option so I started using LGW rather less. As a travel experience, the introduction of T5 certainly was a leap forward for transfer and airside experience (particularly outbound transfer) and cast LGW in a less favourable light.. (IMO)

A few years ago, I noticed that some of the LGW routes that I was still using were swapped over to Heathrow. The number of flights seemed to reduce significantly at LGW (mainly when GB Airways was sold to EZY) and the lounges there were reconfigured (made smaller).. There was a new check in area made but the rest remained the same and, of course, as a transfer passenger, this didn't affect me..

.. and then, in just this last year, BA stopped the LGW/MAN shuttles and so that put and end to that for me...

I did wonder over time if BA were/are changing the emphasis of LGW to one where, for the SW, they were wanting to attract more local one-hop trade to LGW and push wider transit/transfer trade to LHR...

In the times I was using LGW I did find a few more operational delays than I get at LHR these days.. but, I have to say, I never had anything like the experience described by the OP...

One suggestion for the OP would be that if this sort of thing happened again then they could call the Exec Club line for reticketing, rather than queue at the airport desks... (added by edit.. actually, next post said it better.. join queue and call as well... )

KenJohn

When you flight has been cancelled and you are asked to rejoin a rebooking queue, join the queue but phone BAEC at the same time.

Chances are they can sort you out over the phone before the counter finishes dealing with the person in front of the queu once the flight shows on the system as cancelled.

All you have to do is to pick up a new BP, which you can do at a regular check-in desk. Checked bags etc will have to be sorted out at regular check-in desk.