flarmip

I would have to disagree. It's a bit of walk from check-in to security and then you have some potentially horrendous queues to negotiate if you don't have Fast Track access. Having one of your bags rejected for secondary screening can cost you an extra 10-20 minutes depending on how understaffed they are on the day.

Boarding rarely seems to start on time but if it did, and it closed at T-20, you could be cutting it fine.

Suffice it to say, HBO and Fast Track is definitely the way to go if you're forced to endure the purgatory that is MAN T3.

KARFA

I was replying to peter3102 who would be in fast track.

it may not be apparent from my previous postings, but i am not a MAN apologist. your post does not match my experience. on the worst case with a wait for secondary it hasn't taken more than 15-20 minutes. on monday morning they had three people doing secondaries in the lane i went down, and an extra person arranging bags in preparation including taking them off the belt so the whole thing wasn't blocked. i do not think there is an understaffing issue now. yes there is still the stupidity of too many trays being pulled for silly reasons, but you are not waiting for an hour to get it cleared.

so no i don't agree that a check in opening at 2 hours is a problem and you would still have plenty of time to negotiate security and get airside well before boarding. I fail to see how you could end up cutting it fine if you were at check in when it opened at 2 hours.

BA or bust

My recent experience (see post 1783) was 71 minutes from starting to queue at the CE check in to getting out of (Fast Track) security. YMMV.

Did not leave that much time to enjoy the pleasures of the lounge.

flarmip

That's consistent with my experience of MAN on the one occasion I have checked something in there (bag too big for hand luggage). Slow and inefficient even with the benefit of the CE checkin queue and FT security. Whilst on that occasion you would have had in theory 29 minutes until the gate closed if you had arrived at T-120, that figure would no doubt have been even less if you were in the 'normal' queues. Bearing in mind that you need to be on early to guarantee getting your hand luggage in the overhead lockers, that's not great.

So no, I'm afraid I have to agree to disagree with @KARFA on 2 hours before departure being sufficient. At most airports that would be plenty, but not at MAN T3 since everything is run about as inefficiently as you could possibly make it.

KARFA

So you were through with 30 minutes to go before boarding even started. I am not sure your evidence aligns with your conclusion.

BA or bust

I certainly don’t want to get in the middle of a disagreement between both of you.

But I can see both sides. To me (having experienced MAN for the first time recently and doing it again in a few weeks) it seems the difference is all about your respective appetites for risk. My risk appetite is normally normal (if that makes sense). But albeit based on a sample of only one trip, my risk appetite is going to be lower next time. So for my next trip I will be aiming to get in that CE queue some time before it opens at T minus 2 hours to be on the safe side. As before… everybody else’s MMV.

strowger

My last MAN-LHR, which is recounted somewhere above, had people guarding the check-in queue to prevent people joining it until 2h before the departure time.

We were almost first to check-in for our flight, were detained by secondary at security, and only just in time for boarding. Several people were off-loaded from the flight because they hadn't made it through in time. We had Fast Track but not CE check-in (the queue for which was also substantial).

You *must* go early if you need to access the check-in desks.

booogle

I was in the fast track queue recently at T3, queued for 15 mins, got to the front, reaching for the gray tray, the security guy jumps in and says all in fast track go to the other station to the left and starts letting the non fast track people use the fast track spaces, so as I am at front of fast track I have to walk back to the other station behind all the other people and find myself last in that queue.. Got to the front of that queue after 15 mins and it ground to a halt with no baggage moving, security guy there says to me, just go to the fast track (fast track empty now), so I go there, go to grab a gray tray again, and the initial security guy jumps in, blocks me, and says stand back, starts letting non fast track people through, then says go back to the station to the left again. I tried to explain I've been sent round in circles, he said, "I'm not in the mood for arguing, I'm doing as I'm told, if you don't like it, go and complain to the white shirts". The security guy at the station to the left then came over and told the security guy at fast track to let me use fast track as I'd been waiting a long time, which he did. Then my tray was snagged for another pass through the scanner, because "the machine didn't read the tray". I'm a regular at Man and I'm sure security is worse now than I can ever recall.

cheshirepete

Wish Manchester would open Premiair to the general public again asap, it’s the best £50 you’d ever spend…..

flarmip

Yep, had that "tray not scanned" excuse too many times to count. Unbelievable how incompetent they are, this is really basic stuff...

Confus

Not that it helps the OP (who wanted same day here) but MAN T3 doesn’t have an early bag store, only T1 and T2, so BA can’t be part of twilight even if they want to.

Arctic Troll

My most recent data point was 90 minutes from joining the queue at check-in to getting out of security and into departures. Assuming boarding starts at T-30, that's cutting it fine.

The group of passengers behind me were being absolutely screamed at by the troll guarding the BP scan, they were at T-45 and rightly worried about catching their flight. The troll was screaming that they should have been at the airport three hours in advance and anything less than that wasn't the airport's problem.

As always YMMV. Mine certainly does, and if humanly possible I try and use Liverpool for the jump across the puddle back home to the rock instead. At least Liverpool's security give the vague semblance of knowing what they're doing.

Never Stansted

Completely agree. I live in JER but need to be in MAN regularly. I now almost invariably use EZY to LPL (rather than EZY MAN-JER or BA MAN-LHR-JER).

col747uk

If you are on the BA1371 at 06.20 to LHR with Hand bagge only what time would you need to be at the airport. Have Fast Track as in CE.

KARFA

I was there around 0430 and was through within 20 mins even with a secondary - so I don’t think you need to be there too early. If you really want to just walk to the gate and be there 5-10 mins before boarding - maybe 0515-0530.