Hooly, there are making a covered walkway from the drop off point which is by jubilee house, and yes it's a fair walk, The only buses that drop off outside the terminal are national express and the buses of on site car parks which drop off/ pick up from there . The extension has made a roof over this area , you enter on the ground floor for arrivals and go in the lifts to 2 for check in and departure area/ security , the extension has a terrace outside and walkway to transit area to south terminal and a smoking shelter which is out in the open and has no roof either!!! If it never rained at gatwick it would be wonderful

Any tips for Gatwick North terminal? We usually fly out of MAN/BHX or EMA but got a cracking deal with flights ex LGW so we are heading down south in a couple of days.

How bad are the Easyjet checkin queue at 9am?
How bad is security at say 9.30am?
Is there anywhere to have a coffee that overlooks the runway/apron?

thanks!

Not too bad last week, but we were on a Thomson flight.

I did see the easyjet queue snaking around a bit, but they had their normal mega amount of check-ins open so I would imagine it goes down pretty quick.

Security was the usual, where you go through & put your valuables, liquids, belts, sunglasses, in my case shoes as I had on wedges, in a plastic tray & your hand luggage next too it.

Flight was earlier though something like 7.40 am, but they seem to have loads of staff who encourage people to be quick to keep the queues moving. I would say security took 15 mins at most. Easys check in will probably be longer than that, although Thomsons was 10 mins and that included 5 at the desk.

Sorry, cant help you about a cafe as I normally go from South Terminal. We arrived 90 mins before our flight so only had time to check in, security & go into Boots for some sandwiches and snacks, before we had to go to our gate, they seem to call you to the gates earlier and earlier these days.

The north terminal is lovely Phildo . Very open and spacious in places and you shouldnt have much of a problem now at checkin because all flights share the one checkin in . EJ have one zone . Normal checkin one side and bag drop the other. plenty desks on each side so the queue moves very quickly

Hi Phildo, as Lyn said easyjet have one side for checkin and the other side for bag drop they are in zones G and H , queues are similar for each whenever I've been there it looks about 30 min max , we've always gone speedy boarding and never had to queue .
Security is normally ok , I've never had a long wait in either terminal , in the dep. lounge there is an upper level with restaurants and cafe Nero and costa coffee , there are windows up there which look out over the apron and taxiways and also pier six possibly , on the ground level it's mainly shops and services .
If you go to http://www.gatwickairport.com and click on At the airport and then North Terminal you can download an airport map which shows the levels over 5 pages and also get lists of shops and restaurants .
And the staff there are really friendly

We actually arrived at the north terminal 1.5 before we were even able to checkin for our EJ flight so we went back downstairs to the pre-security shops/restaurants and had breakfast at the globe I think it was called . Whilst there are no windows it was one of the most relaxed and chilled pre-departure airport breakfast experiences I have had . It was virtually empty too
The pre-departure area is lovely and spacious with lots and light & benches to relax on . If you are a smoker as my husband is you can just nip over and out for a fag too which is a rarity now .

Thank you all for your replies. I just like to know that we'll have an hour or so to chill before the flight and if I know the check in/security takes forever then I'll plan to get their a bit earlier.

andy66 - you mention that you don't need to queue as you had speedy boarding - is their a different queue for speedy boarders as I have paid for it as part of the package, or do you just queue with everyone else?

Sorry for the silly Q's I've never flown easyjet before so don't know all the in's and out's

When we flew with Easyjet in May from Newcastle the speedy boarders were taken through separately, first, Phildo

phildo74 wrote:

andy66 - you mention that you don't need to queue as you had speedy boarding - is their a different queue for speedy boarders as I have paid for it as part of the package, or do you just queue with everyone else?

Sorry for the silly Q's I've never flown easyjet before so don't know all the in's and out's :(

You don't have to queue with everyone else, there is a dedicated checkin desk for speedy boarders I think they have at least 2 desks open , and I have never queued there , it's at the end of zone G , it's all lit up above the desk. When you are in the departure gate waiting people will start forming a queue , they usually have a metal stand with SB on the left and others on the right , they will let speedy boarders go through first then kids & assistance , it is very well " policed" and quite civilised , Enjoy your holiday.

Cheers for that... I assumed the boarding bit would be similar to Ryanair which i use a lot with work but I didn't know about the separate check in desks which is a nice bonus not having to queue.

It'll be interesting to fly Easyjet as a comparison to my more usual Thomas cook/Jet2/Monarch flights, just not looking forwards to the 3+ hour drive down to Gatwick

I think easyjet are pretty good , we always aim for row 12/13 the emergency exit seats and they do have a bit more legroom , everyone else seems to racing to row 1 .
On board I've always found the staff to be friendly and efficient . Any drive around the m25 is nothing to look forward to, have a safe journey.

Will be flying next summer 2013 with Easyjet to Bogona, so which of the hotels is nearst to the terminal for easyjet

Joe. Easyjet fly from both terminals at the moment , flights starting with 5 from the south and 8 from the north

Hilton hotel is connected to the south and Sofitel is connected to the north , although you could stay in either and use the free transit train which takes less than 5 mins to get from one terminal to the other.

Hi andy I think my flight is from the north terminal, but the sofitel look awee bit expensive at this time, so looks like I might book the hilton hotel, and it is alot cheaper

Hilton £60
Sofitel £90

But hey, I got at least 6 months before i have to seriously look at hotels in gatwick airport

Hi Joe , yes it is the north , think Hilton have a 40 % off getaway sale at the moment , there are off site hotels that are not too far away that have transfers that drop you off at the terminal entrance , picking the right hotel depends on your circumstances , like price and how you are getting there and whether you need parking and for how long etc

How ever I decide to get there, its going to be a long day for me, will be traveling from glasgow, so either train or flydown, dont know what i will go with

At the moment both travel plans work out around £100, so looks like I take the train down, and fly home

booking of the hotel gets done through my local travel agent, where I can get all my works 25% discount taken of the price of the hotel

Hi All,

Can anyone tell me the difference between some of the parking options from the Gatwick Airport website please?

For our stay we are looking for a 'non-bus-transfer parking service, the website offers Premium Parking & Security or Short Stay North - both a short walk to the terminal. Anyone know the difference between the two? It doesn't really say much on the website.

(Have used valet parking before but this time we are staying in the Sofitel so will want to drop an overnight bag in the car the following morning, hence looking at the car parks).

Thanks!
Lisa

Hi Lisa,
I think both parking options you mention are in the same car park , as when you follow each link they come up with a similar price ! Obviously it's best to pre book . When I looked at the prices it was £270 a week but down to £104 with pre booking which is about £40 more than the long term parking .
If you need to drop off a bag you could use the excess luggage co. which is at http://www.left-baggage.co.uk they charge £8 per day for an item .

The only difference I can see is that the premium parking is on level 4 car park 6 only which probably means you walk straight across instead of using lifts to get the correct level

Thanks Andy - much appreciated! I guess it does look like the premum is simply a few steps closer to the terminal , which doesn't matter a huge amount to us as on the way out we are heading to the hotel anyway.

Thanks again