Thanks for your replys. Another money making scheme by the looks of it, im picking my mum up tomorrow, and had planned to spend a couple of hours there before hand to watch some aircraft in action and to await her flight inbound from alicante, but by the looks of it, i might as well stay at home till her flight is due in with them sort of prices. I use to enjoy spending time there, you really got close to the action around the airfield, there was nowhere like manchester airport for plane spotting.

onetruenutta,

There are plenty more areas to watch aircraft around the airport withut having to pay, and with much better views as well. They just lack facilities and involve a bit of walking. Popular photography spots are listed on TAS Manchester. The 23R approach, the mound at 23L threshold and 05R/23L landing / rotation areas are particularly good. Best of all, all are accessable without any charge and the sun is on your back rather than in your face (when it shines!). I'm on an airport run on Wednesday so will be popping in to the RVP for an hour to have a look at the new Nimrod on display and watch my brothers flight come in, but I'll be timing it right so I'll not be there more than an hour. I'll be at one of the above spots before then. I've not been to the RVP for well over 2 years as there's better options available.

Darren

I flew from Manchester on the 10th June"¦from terminal 1.
I haven't been to Manchester for years, so after using smaller local airports you tend to forget just how big the place is, and I was amazed at the technology in place.
With Monarch having so many check-in desks it was a dream getting checked in within minutes of walking through the doors"¦...it puts the horrendous queues at Doncaster Airport to shame.

However, I have a concern"¦. After placing the hand luggage in the tray to be scanned, I placed the barcode on my boarding pass over the small "window" for the machines to "read" which opened a glass sliding door with illuminated green arrows directing me where to walk .
When I walked through the doors, I immediately walked into the Rapiscan back scatter imaging machine and I had to place my feet on the painted guidelines and do a double salute, then I had to take my shoes off, for them to go through a "tradition" scanning machine....I have no objection to being x-rayed, but it's there before you realise you're walking in between the two "plates".

My hubby followed me, but after placing his boarding card over the machine, he was directed to walk through the glass door adjacent to the one I had walked through and whilst I was standing being x-rayed I watched him walk straight through without being scanned of any description, and he collected the hand luggage as it came out from the scanner on the other side of the machine.
I'm not too alert at 5 am, and not sure if he had a body scanning machine in front of him on his side of the doors, or whether or not he should have taken a few more paces forward instead of walking along side the belt for the hand luggage screening, I'm not sure, but the fact remains that he did walk along side the belt and wasn't scanned at all.
Apart from wearing a gold bracelet/chain which usually sets the scanners off, he was also wearing his Nike trainers with the heels filled with gel.
So, even with all the multi-million pounds technology in place, this is very worrying.
Sanji

Manchester offers passengers VIP treatment

Manchester Airport has opened a new VIP lounge for business and leisure travellers flying from Terminal 1.

Passengers can pay to access the £1.7m Escape Lounge, which has separate areas for relaxing and working, a choice of refreshments and, for a quirky touch, a Scalextric track and Wii.

The airport already has an Escape Lounge in Terminal 2 and it is planning to open one in Terminal 3.

The airport is also planning to turn a vacant control tower into an additional bar for Terminal 1 later this year.

With permission from Travelmole

The Escape in T1 looks awesome and the menu is excellent. Think I will be paying a visit in September.

Hi All

Im flying from T2 in 4 weeks with thomson fly to Malaga at 6.50am on a thursday morn, Ive looked on manchester airport website for eateries in departures as we are gunna need a full english for brekkie, (as we are not paying for inflight meals) and it doesnt look like there is a big place to eat a full english there used to be, a few years ago, there is only a franky and bennys and a couple of coffee shops...anyone know if the Big cafe/restaurant self service place is still there?? I do hope so ,we will be starving..

kazza36,

The big self service restaurant / cafe is still there, or at least it was when I last when through in March!

Darren

I have posted a couple of photos from the T1 smoking area on Icmeler Online, you can see them on the following topic

http://www.icmeleronline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=9240

Dave

HI... I just tried that link.....and my McAfee went red .....with a big red cross......tweetie

Just shows how rubbish Mcafee is really, a perfectly decent website and it says its not, just like it used to say Microsoft's office online website was an immatation

LOL nice pics btw dksbbs

Just a word of warning for anyone booking the new ESCAPE LOUNGE in terminal 1 I have contacted the lounge direct today and although its cost over £1.5 million to create it does NOT have any views over the flight apron & take off areas!!! so anyone wanting to see flight movements before their flight will be dissapointed :

I was under the impression that when you pre book carparking you are guaranteed a space.Not so with Securapark Manchester !! a couple of weeks ago we turned up along with about 20 other cars who had booked and we was turned away,saying they were full we were advised to go to the long stay carpark on airport but that it would cost us, £116 so we spent out a total of £170,Securapark will only refund us the £54 we payed them saying it was not their fault !! Be warned.

That doesn't seem fair Crispy, I would be dammed annoyed if I have prebooked parking and then told there was no space! What do their T&C's say?

Denny

Crispy could you tell me who you booked your parking with? Securapark turning you away for being full after you have booked is absolutely disgusting a full refund should deifinantly be issued but you may get more joy from the company you booked with instead of the car park

We booked Securapark through APH.

I am sure APH would issue a full refund for this debacle

We're off to Turkey (Bodrum) with TC from Manchester in Sept. The flight is something like 10pm or 10.30pm (not got details to hand now - just remember it's an awful time!!)

I envisage we will be at the airport by 7pm and wonder what the check-in queues and security queues are likely to be like? In March we flew with TC through T1 - boy were we glad to have premium cabins with dedicated check in and fast track security passes!!!

We don't have Premium cabin for this flight and I'm now worried that we may spend a long time queueing!

Anyone any experience of being in the departure lounge at this time on a Friday eve? Will it be busy? Trying to decide if we should book a lounge - I think the new Escape closes at 9pm?

Appreciate anyone's thoughts!

Thanks

northern_rose38,

Check-in and security are normally quietish at that time of day. MAN is busiest before lunchtime. The departure lounge will be moderately busy, but not too bad.

Darren