Simon Schus

Och aye - what a palarva my most recent journey out of BA with MAN was.

My journey up from LHR-MAN on BA was uneventful, arriving around 7pm on a Friday evening. Very pleasant Club Europe crew, landed and deplaned into Terminal 3. I had to walk to Terminal 1 to get a taxi as there was no taxi service, nor Uber service available to MAN T3. The walk took around 7 minutes, and it gave me the creepies as it reminded me of some very early (sometimes tipsy) mornings arriving for a flight out of MAN on the National Express when I lived in Lancashire for a little bit. As an aside, the outside walking routes around MAN are riddled with concrete blocks. I hope that these are for traffic flow or impact/crash protection blocks... but nonetheless, they are VERY awkward to navigate around with bags. On arrival to the taxi rank, I was greeted with a scent that I smell at many airports but always seems that little bit more intense outside MAN which is the Eau de Cigarette Smell. The taxi queue was about 5 groups deep, although queue was a little generous given that it was very haphazardly formed with people joining the queue at the front rather than the back (this was not helped by the impact/crash protection blocks, but I guess that they serve a purpose).

My journey out of LHR-MAN on a Monday morning around 7am was mostly just spent going through Security, and walking walking walking to Terminal 3. I arrived at LHR MAN T1 at 5am in a taxi, in the covered drop-off area (which was good because it was raining, and also minimized the scent of cigarettes!). I had to pick up a trolley which cost 1GBP, and I'm glad that I had a couple of pounds in my UK wallet otherwise I would have been wholly unprepared (which would have been my fault for not checking in advance). I arrived to the BA check-in and bag drop desks; the Club Europe was about 2 groups deep, and I got to the front in about 5-10 minutes which was better than I had hoped for given additional document checks. The Euro Traveller queue was about 15 people deep (don't know how many groups) but there were more desks open so I would anticipate it would flow at a similar rate to Club Europe, which only had a single desk open and was not funneling people to the Euro Traveller desks. The Fast Track service is open but was not letting BA passengers through - I queried, but was not let through; instead, a couple who were very late for their holiday were let through but I cannot begrudge that as the couple looked so stressed! I was hoping that MAN T1 Security was better than what I remembered of MAN T3 Security... it was not... it took about 15 minutes to get to a security screening station at which point I got everything out that I thought I needed to get out. I was surprised that one of my two bags went for additional screening, and even more surprised when I was told that the wait was 45 minutes. I thought it couldn't possibly but they were absolutely accurate... 45 minutes later, I find out that my bag has an empty metallic bottle in it (no water in it). Apparently... I was supposed to take the bottle out and put it into its own tray. That was the only mistake I had made. I've never heard of this rule before but I asked my wife and she said that she had been told that before in the USA, so I guess I know for next time. At one point during the 45 minutes wait, I was genuinely just thinking about whether I should just leave the bag at Security but then I realized it had my passport, at which point I started trying to work out other routings to the USA. It was not the best experience.

After security, it took about 3 minutes to navigate the long and winding roads of Duty Free which was not welcome given that my flight was reading 'Final call'. I hot-stepped it for the 10 to 15 minute walk to the BA gate (presumably in MAN T3 but I didn't recognize the gate area so I don't actually know where it was in the bowels of the airport). On arrival to the BA gate, boarding had not commenced. I guess that the 'Final call' is just to get everybody to begin the long trek to the gate. Next time, I will drop by the Escape Lounge because I certainly wanted a gin and tonic after the Security experience (maybe the Security experience is a very creative upsell approach to get people to drink very early in the morning to manage stress and anxiety, and to get people to get to the airport even earlier to spend time at the MAN bars and shops). Eventually, we all boarded up two sets of stairs to the aircraft... and tootled down to LHR where I made a connection.

All-in-all: I've never actually had that bad of an experience at MAN before, and have always wondered what all the bad descriptions was about. I feel like I have some insight now. I'm trying to avoid MAN next time, but LBA isn't an option anymore - and GLA/EDI are too far away to make it reasonable (might as well just train it to LON at that point).

Simon Schus

Just read the wiki - FAST TRACK IS AVAILABLE SUBJECT TO BA RULES????? I went through all of that experience for nothing?????? I was declined access on a Club Europe ticket, with a BA OneWorld Emerald card attached to my itinerary.

DYKWIA

I've not done BA for a while, but they used to put a Fast Track sticker on your BP at check in. Maybe that wasn't done?

It was always a bit of a pain when travelling with hand baggage only, but they always let me through when I explained.

Simon Schus

Alas, I used the BA boarding pass on my phone.

Mr Silver K

I went through end of July with phone boarding pass with zero issues using fast track

Tobias-UK

I’ve not seen a Fast Track sticker at MAN for several years. Fast Track is available at MAN T1 and I’ve accessed it on every visit using either a printed or Mobile BP. I suspect the FT gatekeeper didn’t recognise the Club Europe of Gold status on the BP.

cameramaker

Not used BA at MAN since pre covid. Is it possible to get a decent breakfast at the Escape lounge these days?

Tobias-UK

Yes, the catering is much improved compared to the BA Lounge. The breakfast is quite good, at least as a meat eater 👍🏻

S_W_S

Arrived into a very quiet T3 last night.

Many pax seemingly very confused about ending up at T3 after the email from BA specifically says that arrival will be into T1.
Perhaps BA would be better to reword the email to say that arrival will be into T3, but all onward transportation will be from T1. At least then it would avoid those being picked up making frantic phone calls (of which there were several) to say they were at the wrong terminal.

Unless this is just a ploy by MAG To get more money in pickup fees whilst people are waiting in T1!

Tobias-UK

Their calls would be to no avail. MAN will not allow passengers to be picked up from outside T3, the only option is to walk fought to T1 for all transportation. The MAN experience is very poor and inconsistent at present.

S_W_S

That's what I meant, T3 is well and truly closed, but these people had friends and family waiting for them at T1 arrivals. Perhaps if they knew they were coming into T3 they would have waited a bit longer before parking up at T1 or walked across to T3 to wait there for them (as before, the cynic in me suggests this is to get more money for MAG in parking charges).

I was surprised that not even toilets were available in T3 though!

ThatT1Feeling

Yes you're right - and from memory there isn't even any signage in the baggage area to explain that T3 is closed - all of the signs are outside of the baggage area and at the exit so arriving passengers are none the wiser

I thought toilets were still available though. I am sure I used them in the baggage area a couple of weeks ago. Well, I hope I did

Tobias-UK

Toilets are available in the baggage hall but not landslide T3. You need to go to T1 “to go”.

S_W_S

I must have missed them then, I was HBO so didn't hang around the baggage hall for very long, but I did end up in T1 "to go".

KARFA

from memory there is a set of toilets on the ground floor corridor near when you enter in after coming down the stairs from the jetbridge from 142, and there is another set in the baggage hall so just as you go through the one way doors in to the hall they are on your immediate left.