If you really want to know what makes me tick, take a look at my website: www.lizzie2.co.uk
If you really want to know what makes me tick, take a look at my website: www.lizzie2.co.uk
Member since:26.09.2000
Reviews:189
Members who trust:14
In January this year I flew to Cyprus from Manchester airport. Even before the plane took off we underwent a bit of an ordeal.
The first problem was that when we got to Manchester airport I received a text message from my holiday company telling me that I had incorrect airline tickets and that I should go to information and ask them to sort it out.
I couldn't find a kiosk that was open for HeliosAirlines (see my op on this if you want to know more about Helios). Information at Manchester told me to go to Hurculean Airways. They said that they didn't know where that was and couldn't direct me. I attempted to ask for more information but was ignored by the person behimnd the desk who was more concerned with ordering what she wanted for her coffee break.
There was no Herculean Airways. By this time I was frantic. There was still an hour to go before the Helios desk opened and I didn't relish the thought of worrying about my invalid tickets for another hour. Nobody seemed to know anything or even want to help.
An airport cleaner eventually came to the rescue. He asked if I needed help and then advised me to go and have a coffee until the kiosk opened. He had seen the same thing happen many times before, he told me, and I shouldn't worry. He promised to come and find me when the desk opened and he did. He even had the Helios representative with him. Everything was sorted out very quickly but the man had gone before I got chance to thank him.
He was the one person who made Manchester airport a hit!
We eventually went through into departures expecting a three hour wait but ended up waiting for seven hours. This, of course, can't be blamed on Manchester Airport. They can, however, be blamed for having no facilities open on a saturday night. It was 7pm and all the shops were shut. There was one coffee bar open and nothing else.
We had to content ourselves with window shopping and playing cards for ten pence pieces! It was the longest seven hours I have ever spent and it would have been so much more pleasant if the shops had been open. At least we could have gone shopping. If we had know that everything was closed in departures we would have stayed in the lounge on the other side where the shops were open!
So, if you fly from Manchester on a Saturday night, in winter, don't expect anything to be open in departures. If you are relying on duty free shops for cigarettes or a bottle to take with you, get them before you go through, or at least check if the shops are open before you go through.
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As a regular user of UK airports, Manchester is far and away the best "proper" airport in the country (the small provincial ones simply don't count,) and the facilities are now excellent in the two main terminals irrespective of your flight time.
tom_knowles 25.06.2001 00:25
Great op on a not so great airport, it seems.
sue.51 25.06.2001 00:15
Good op - sounds like a bit of a nightmare - we had a 4 hour wait in Cardiff in the middle of Winter but during the daytime/early evening and that was bad enough - will bear this in mind with future bookings - hope the holiday went OK
Sue
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Jun 24th, 2001
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