V-Flyer

Another Ryanair bargain had tempted me... this time 5 for flights to Belfast City - unusually for Ryanair they've picked the closest airport to Belfast City Centre...

...would this be the flight where I would see how bad Ryanair really are? Read on... in COLOR!

BTW this could be a seriously boring trip report... I'm venting a bit during it.

TO STANSTED.... and BEYOND!
An adventure in how not to do it.



Stansted Airport is a pain to get to from South London. Please remind me of that next time I see another bargain low cost flight. The Stansted Express is a joke, with the punchline being a very loose definition of the word 'express' but more on that later.

...TICK TOCK...
I awoke at 500am, and aimed to leave the house at 530am, having had everything prepared the night before. That give me almost two hours to get to Stansted, and still have an hour to spare - having checked in online. However, as you read on, those of you familiar with my previous attempt at the timely boarding of a certain Eurostar service to Paris will be forgiven for thinking that there's a pattern emerging...

We left the house at an unreasonable hour into a hostile and biting cold. Thankfully, my local bus route was playing ball and after a few minutes we boarded a freezing service that took us halfway to Brixton, for the warm and 'friendly' Victoria Line. The connecting bus to Brixton was just behind ours so no real delays there. At Brixton, I had decided to take the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus and change for the Central, as my usual route via Kings Cross to Liverpool Street was experiencing severe delays. At 0555hrs on a Saturday morning. But the Victoria Line, ah! the good old Victoria line, was running a good service.

The Victoria Line. The one line that kept running during all the snow of last week. Why were the platforms empty? Where was the train? A mild panic started. We were there at 0555hrs and there was no train. Still, the boards did say that a good service was operating.

...TICK TOCK...
At 0600hrs I was anxiously pacing up and down the platform. At 0604hrs a train trundled into the platform. At 0605hrs the driver slowly made his way up the platform. At 0606hrs we left Brixton. Did I say that we were to meet our friend at Liverpool Street at 0615hrs? (Of course, we never had a chance of meeting our friend at 0615hrs even if the train had left at 0555!)

Changing trains at Oxford Circus for the Central Line is rubbish. Don't do it. Unless you have to and it's completely unavoidable. And probably never with luggage.


...TICK TOCK...
The Central Line train took four minutes to arrive, and we arrived at Liverpool Street Station at 0638hrs. I called my friend who was nowhere to be seen. She called me and said 'Get to Platform 1, I'm on the 0640hrs train... we ran across, got through the barriers... just to see the train pull away.

...TICK TOCK...

The next train was at 0655hrs, just enough time for a coffee and a croissant, and to buy the exorbitant train ticket which even with my Network Gold Card discount was almost 13.00 each way.


Welcome to Britain, tourists!


Sorry! We didn't have time to clean the train, this being, erm... one of the first services of the day


This is the 0655hrs service to Stansted Airport. Please keep your luggage with you at all times, and whatever you do, don't touch anything


As I sipped my coffee on a dirty train, my friend called. She had to bring some things that wouldn't fit or be allowed on the overhead lockers. She would have to join a queue to pay for checked luggage at the airport. As this information sank in, I studied the timetable. I noticed that our train would arrive at Stansted at 0742. Our Ryanair flight was at 0815.

TO BE CONTINUED

Sounds like a journey and half already and you are not at the airport yet!!! Hope you made your flight.

Dominic

OMG! Hope you made your flight!

I await the follow up with interest...I'd say a half hour to get up the ramp from the station, through security and then to the gate would be a bit tight.

Paul

I have had the Stansted express first class experience and I must say it would probably have been more hygienic and even more comfortable on the roof.

PART TWO
As we approached Stansted, the train starting to slow... I have been to the airport before and the train was slowing way before it should have, clearly due to the single track section (this was a cost cutting measure that was imposed on British Rail when the Stansted link was built).... I couldn't quite believe it as I had, in my head, decided that we would make the flight but here we were, at a red signal.

...TICK TOCK...
Thankfully, the stop was momentary, and we were actually in Stansted as per the timetable. Another couple shot passed us at speed, we made our way up the escalators and into a decidely empty terminal building. I found this interesting - my first flight to Stansted was back in the mid 90s when AirUK were still about, and the airport was a dream. My last few trips from there have seen it bursting at the seams but today, it had that lovely air of calm.
Our friend was nowhere to be seen, she had queued for ten minutes to pay for baggage, but in the end Ryanair said that she didn't have to put in the hold after all. Our flight was, typically, on time and the screen showed 'FINAL CALL'.

...TICK TOCK...
By this time we had made an executive decision for each of us to make our own way to the plane, so we joined the queue for security. How can an airport that was so quiet suddenly become so busy? The security queue was interminably slow... I hadn't even reached the scanner and it was 755am. Thankfully... we didn't go buzz and we passed through quite quickly, so we looked back, saw our friend edging forward in the queue and told her we would find the gate.

There are no departure screens just after security, presumably to keep people moving... and we eventually found one which showed the Belfast flight as Gate 86. That sounds very far away, I thought.

To get to Gate 86, you go up a ramp and across a walkway... probably not too far too walk, but of course with an added sense of urgency... and it seemed to take forever.


We reached the gate, and called our friend. Security had decided to do a big search, and her hand luggage was being searched, seemingly randomly.

We asked the Ryanair staff how long the gate would stay open, and were told a for about five more minutes. We nervously joked that if they saw a Spanish girl running towards them that it was our friend, and to tell her that we'd boarded.

The flight wasn't that busy, we got a row of three two thirds of the way back, thankful that the Ryanair 'Mister Superfly' ringtone was not playing. It was a typical Ryanair craft - no reclining seats, no seat pockets and in that garish blue and yellow colour scheme. But for £5 I really don't care. And we were on board!

...TICK TOCK...
The cabin staff were walking the length of the plane, checking everyone's seatbelts were on, checking the overhead lockers, when our friend appeared at the door. The gate staff had kept the gate open for her, because we had forewarned them that she was on her way. And so she got to her seat, we sat down and the flight started.

FR6123
An usual flight for me in many respects, the first time I have been seriously late to board, but as the train taxied to the runway it immediately roared into life. Normally there is a bit of wait for take off but we literally turned a corner to face the runway and VROOM! we were off.

The flight was uneventful, with the staff efficient but seeming just a bit rushed.

I was looking out the window when we landed, thinking about my first visit home for a few years, so didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but both Matt and our friend Su said that it was a seriously bumpy landing. The Ryanair fanfare did announce another ontime arrival... and with that, I added yet another Ryanair flight to my list. That's 7 since last June, and they have been... well.... good.

Glad you and your friend made it. Have a good time,

Dominic