Calchas

I usually stay in the lounge until the "Final call" appears on the screen

chris1979

I think that's the Jamier45 approach to missing flights.

I didn't think screens in lounges had much to do with what happens.

And now that you (and others) have convinced me to do HBO, I have to rush onto plane to get my stuff stored.

orbitmic

Welcome to the dark side!!!

wemyss

Generally not the quick, alt airport it once was...
Issues re expansion being limited; general overcrowding often now; no lounge...this was the airport where you turned up 20-30 mins before the flight and walked on....days are gone.
Think there will be a total re-vamp of purpose, what/who it is serving esp if noise & environmental controls get any stricter....

simons1

Agree with the general sentiment. Mercifully I have managed to avoid LCY for over a year now.

Markie

It is much easier from my office than LHR but I have to say the security experience is very mixed. Last week they decided to 'test' all of my liquids by squirting them on to a stick of some sort.

DocWatson

Almost all my flights are domestics and I agree the LCY arrivals experience is still the best. If steps are attached in unison front/rear I can do plane door to front door in under 25 minutes by taking my preferred seat 24A (because the last row, 25, has crew gear above on both sides so slows HBO exit by needing to fetch luggage).

Departure used to be LCY all the way for me but it's not a simple decision any longer. LGW is always cheapest (especially the 7.25am to GLA) and from The City/South London the 30 minute train from London Bridge (when running) or Victoria means it's still more convenient than LHR and only a bit longer than LCY. But if you think LCY is bad for domestic punctuality LGW is horrendous. Arriving at LGW is miserable, it's more convenient for BA to put domestic arrivals at international gates for a swift onward departure, meaning an epic amount of faffing about waiting for bus transfers. Luggage is awful if required. If non-HBO and unlucky with trains it can be almost 2 hours from doors open to reaching London proper.

Now I'm a GCH I like using LHR especially if my day is flexible - if I have a 45-60 minute gap in my schedule I travel there and work from the FLounge (but without food in next to the printers and without wandering round on the phone ). I usually get row 1 and travel with a laptop backpack so if there's no convenient overhead locker the crew typically accommodate my bag in the wardrobe.

LCY is still a bit simpler and quicker overall. Certain flights seem to have punctuality issues. In my experience the 17:00 LCY-GLA and return 19:00 GLA-LCY do alright, but others do struggle. The e-Jets seem to be struggling a bit, I've had G-LCYN's starboard engine fail on startup 4 times in 18 months resulting in an hour+ of delay. On the other hand evening arrivals to LCY are usually comparable in price to LGW.

So what was a simple LCY-GLA-LCY decision is now a toss up between LCY-GLA and LHR-GLA with LGW becoming an option at late notice when it's the only option my FD will accept. But only LCY for arrivals.

paul4040

I also try to do LCY inbound only. Inbound, it's a breeze. Outbound, I'm usually greeted with big security queues and the departure lounge is like a zoo on weekday evenings. It's just not for me.

corporate-wage-slave

The key problem really relates to how crowded the airport can be. Thursday and Friday evenings, with a few things getting delayed or cancelled, and the whole place rapidly turns into a zoo, and very crowded/unpleasant.

The check-in hall is tiny for the number of passengers involved. I've got a small barn here, but it's actually bigger than that hall and I would never put as many sheep in it as LCY puts humans! It gets kind of messy. When the cancellations start the tensas go up and the queues go from OK to terrible. They even stop people entering the airport and queue them back from the front door down the DLR corridor, if necessary. I would actively avoid LCY if I needed to check baggage or couldn't OLCI, in those circumstances. If HBO with boarding pass then you can sail down the middle and up the escalators, not looking left or right.

Middle of the day, middle of the week, Saturday mornings out of the school holidays are wonderful - you can slide through very well and it's a great departure experience.

I guess LCY is a victim of its own success in a way.

Cap'n Benj

To IBZ?

Doubt it!

deccoo

LCY is still my airport of choice for doing the AMS route outbound and inbound - after doing it weekly for 3 months have only had one cacellation (and actually got on an earlier flight!)

Agree that sometimes security can feel harder work than it should be for the size of airport and the staff could do with turning down the power trip a notch or two.

jacobitetraveller

I have always tried to travel off peak as much as I practicably can so have found LCY pretty good on the whole

yes at peak times its busy but no worse in my opinion to LHR

I usually arrive 45 minutes before flight but have done 30 mins at peak times without issue

one time I was concerned as security was very busy but have been told more than once both by BA and LCY that if I am at bag drop 30 minutes before departure time I will never be denied boarding. how true that is I have yet to find out

Kevlondon

I was a frequent user of LCY for well over a decade, beginning back when it had just 9 gates and no redeveloped mezzanine, and you had to grab a bus from Canary Wharf to get there! Back then, I was shuttling to & from Paris on AF every week. The lack of a lounge was well compensated for with a food voucher and free parking pass - even these perks were long gone before the place doubled in size. Unfortunately, what was once a super convenient and very quick airport used exclusively by experienced business travellers has become a scaled down version of LHR, with suits and tourists rubbing shoulders, quite literally, in its cramped spaces.

Departure is still a relatively smooth affair, although security is still (under)staffed by clueless windowlickers who don't apply common sense to their work. Arrivals has been horrendous the last few times I've come in - queues back to gate 5 on one occasion. The automatic gates seem to have improved matters slightly, but there's a real bunching of incoming flights in the evening especially, and the immigration staff are as clueless as security - seriously, can you not process a bunch of EU passport-holding suits any quicker?? Luckily I rarely have cause to go from LCY these days, and even though I live close by, a trek to LHR to enjoy the lounges often seems more worthwhile.

KeaneJohn

I live 12 mins away for LCY on a direct DLR route.. I tend to use for arrivals only due to mainly no lounge and the fact that you have to take out a second mortgage if you want anything to eat unless its a Boots meal deal. That said it was nice to leave home 40 mins before take off heading to Dubai via Frankfurt in J with Lufthansa.

chris1979

Though again I agree with the comments, I also still think that the alternatives are hardly attractive.

LHR on Friday evening rush hour is no fun at security, no fun in the lounges (apparently), no fun boarding, no fun trying to get airborne on t time etc etc etc.