Cheers Al

It's ok....the room is at the end of Holiday, the plane gets in 1 hour before our last train so I've booked the room for the night so we can get a earlyish train home the next day as I don't think we would make the last train

BBilly

It's not really walkable. The map may say it is 0.5 miles, but that is probably as the crow flies. To get from the Travelodge to the airport is a more circuitous route and a lot longer.

When we stayed there a few years ago, it cost the same in a taxi for 2 people as the hotel's shuttle which I think was about £7 each way.

luci

Thanks Luci

I've browsed google street map and there is a pavement to walk along when you come out of the park that exits onto Runger Lane

BBilly

We are flying out on Xmas Day at 6am from M/C Airport so we have booked the Radisson for night before, can anyone tell me what is open for food etc. Also we want to do the night before check in for Thomsons - any comments good or bad would be appreciated as we are travelling down from Scotland and are newbies for M/C.

Hi, I can't help re your food query but in your circumstances, I have found the night before check-in to be a real boon. As long as you remember to keep what you need for overnight in your hand luggage and means that you can get rid of your big cases as soon as you arrive down from Scotland and then in the morning just head straight for departures. I too live in Scotland and so often have to stay over the night before an early departure from an airport down south and always use thie facility if it's offered.

In particular it means that you can snatch a little extra sleep before your flight, especially if it's a longhaul flight where you are advised to check-in 3 hrs beforehand. I'm not a great one for airport shopping and would always prefer that extra hour in bed whilst still having plenty of time to get through security to the gate. Also, I've never had to queue for the night before check-in either because most people will leave it until the morning unless they live very close to the airport or, like you, are staying over at one of the airport hotels.

SM

The Radisson have the Runway Brasserie and the Phileas Fogg restaurant, where they serve breakfast as well, but it doesn't start till 6/6.30am though.
We ate in the Brasserie and the food was very good.

Thanks for the info, we will definitely be doing the night before check in! Just a bit worried that because it is Xmas day and so early in the morning there may be no shops/cafes open at T2.

Walk with all your luggage??

Billy

the front door from T3 to either Travelodge or Premier Inn (they are next to each other) is almost 1 mile in a straight line - which is impossible to travel by any means. It's over 2 miles walking/taxi. During the day there are some bus routes from the main airport interchange (but not the terminals) to the stop at the junction of Runger Lane/Hasty Lane which is slightly closer than the car park exit that you mention - any route to Cargo Centre or Altrincham will do. The car park you mention is not walkable from the terminal either, some of the roads shown on the Google map are private and have security controls. Even the pavement along Runger Lane is only available on one side of the road and the bus stop to return to the airport is quite dangerous and has no shelter.

The decision by Manchester Airport to scrap the free shuttle bus was discussed at length some pages back in this thread, they won't even provide one between T3 and the transport interchange so you have to walk outside in the rain to the side door of T1 and use the walkway from there.

As for the Border Agency management at Manchester - the words pompous, arrogant and utterley useless don't really convey how bad they are. As a welcome (!) to the UK they have been a disgrace for years - the may as well put a sign up saying "Sod off foreigners, we don't want you money here!". I arrived back at T3 yesterday on a flight from Zurich - for the benefit of Border Agency staff - that's in Switzerland. The welcome to UK for Swiss tourists didn't start well thanks to incorrect advice given by the Easyjet cabin announcement although luckily that was done so badly few people heard it. So 120 people turned up at the border line staffed by 2. There were two queues, one clearly marked "Other Passports" which would have been good if the other queue was also clearly marked - but it wasn't! It has a little sign on a post saying "EU passports" but over the desk in lights it said "EU + EEA passports". So which was right? Well accordingly to the Border Agency website neither because the Swiss passport holders with all their valuable foreign currency should have be included with EU and EEA. The result was that some got in the right queue, some got in the wrong one (luckily an airport worker spotted them and got them out) and some even filled in landing cards before getting in the wrong queue. The 2 staff were quite quick, helped by the fact that the useless e-readers have never been installed at T3 - I always thought that machines were supposed to be faster than the staff they replace!

Just heard on Smooth Radio that the bomb squad are at Terminal 1 dealing with a suspect package. Hoping it's just somebody who's been careless and left their baggage

Just heard it's all clear and back to normal now in Terminal 1

Good morning Steve,

Thanks for the replie's, to be honest it looks closer on the map, think I'll have to order a cab when we return then

Any advice on using the airport lounges at T2, will be arriving about 6am.
What snacks will be available, will seating be a problem at that time of morning, is it value for money?

Thanks
gc

We recently used the Escape Lounge at T2. We also used it from around 6am. There was available individual boxes of cereal, hot toast with butter and jam/honey, there was also a poster advertising hot porridge although I didn't see anyone get any. Plenty of biscuits, flaphacks, muffins, cheese and crackers, peanuts, fruits etc. Help yourself tea and coffee (all kinds) orange and other breakfast juices. And of course all manner of spirits, bottled beers and cans of coke, lemonade etc.
There were plenty of newspapers/magazines and one half of the lounge has a TV. It was about half full when we used it. Thought it was worth every penny. HTH

Went from T1 yesterday and security was a nightmare - the longest queues I had since trying to get onto 'Back to the Future' ride in Disney ! and similar 'lines' strategy ie when you think you are near the front they take you off on a long detour.

Not sure if its always this bad 'while they are making improving the T1 security area' but please consider getting the 'queue jumping' priority service if you want to retain your sanity !

Regards, Chris

what do they mean improving it? They only built it from scratch a couple of years ago!

And you wait till you get back to T1 immigration - there's no priority queue there!

what do they mean improving it? They only built it from scratch a couple of years ago!

Clearly they either got the design/layout very wrong or they have increased passenger numbers so much it needs 'improving' - no idea what the improvements are.

Perhaps some plans on the walls showing what they are doing would give us some clues and help pass the time as you go on your snake like journey to the scanners etc.

I hope they have got it right at T2 as Monach move to that terminal around November this year and they move lots of passengers - me on Monday being one of them !

We come back late November so hopefully immigration will be a little quieter than during this period, maybe we will arrive at T2 - cant wait !

Regards, Chris

Very odd. When it opened it worked well, they had a special lane for people not able to self scan a boarding card at the automatic gates. I think it was meant for disabled people but there was a huge queue of the plain thick - which meant the rest of us had a choice of queueless gates to use and could get past them! There must have been 30 in the queue whilst I had a choice of 4 gates one day. Going out was never a problem it was the coming back. Immigration at Manchester seem to have a variable staffing policy which means they are always at "not quite enough", not come back into T2 for years but T3 is just as bad.