I guessed as much Pippa. Not to worry I am still pleased I booked it will feed back on my return.

Stansted is a very busy airport and in my opinion, not in the least "passenger friendly". There is very little in the way of comfort in the airport, long walks to gates, no moving walkways, little or no comfy seating, crowds everywhere, and an acute shortage of nearby/close accomodation. last week my daughter & I had to jiggle heavy luggage and an infant in a pram down several flights of stairs because the lifts were for "staff only". It's the worst airport I've been to, getting through departures. The women staff are bolshy, aggressive and very impatient. They must remember too that not all passengers speak fluent English, especially spoken with fast Essex accents. I witnessed a black woman and her child being harassed as she evidently did not understand fully what she was being told. The female worker ridiculed the black woman by almost spelling every vowel and consonant in her face. I know we are living in terrible times regarding airport safety, but a bit of courtesy doesn't cost anything, but means so much.
So come on training staff, make courtesy top of your agenda next time you train up a new employee.

Sorry, couldn't disagree more. Stansted is brilliant. I would rather fly from Stansted than any other London airport and do if possible as it is the nearest to my Essex home.

Pray tell me what is a fast Essex accent?

I agree Jackie, Stansted is a great airport. Being only 55 minutes away in rural Suffolk we try to use it if at all possible.

We have flown at various times of the day but mostly in the morning when it is at its busiest. We have always found plenty of seating in the departure lounge - it is usually clean and the seats are as comfortable as you will find in an airport - what do you want - sofas??

Yes, there can be some longish walks to the gates but we always say that we are going to be seated on a plane for a while so some exercise ois good!!

Re accomodation. There are a lot of b&b's very near to the airport which are usually a lot cheaper than the airport hotels. All you need to do is a little bit of searching on the internet. The newish Raddison Hotel is right by the terminal but is a little expensive.

We have never had a problem with staff - but like most jobs people do have off days. It is certainly not a job I would want. Despite the constant warnings about what you can take on board and what you can't some people still seems to be very ignorant about this and try to take everything on board with them. No wonder some of the staff get a little fed up.

We will continue to use Stansted although we have the delights of Gatwick in May - North Terminal though which is reasonably quiet.

Pippa

Also agree Stansted is a great airport , never had any problem with seating once in the satellites, there is normally loads of seating & always clean. There is also not a long walk to the gates if you are using the satellites that are connected to the terminal by the people moving trains. Although this year we are using Norwich ( to go to Memphis & LA via Amsterdam), we will always consider Stansted as the best London airport.

regards,

Nigel

Must admitt it is my prefered airport as well. If I can get it without paying a huge flight supplement I will book it every time.

I'm suprised staff at airports manage to stay as cheerful and pleasant as they do. I would imagine they are on the end of some of the worst customer behaviour known and are probably paid very little into the bargain.

I'm from Essex and have no idea what a 'fast Essex accent' is, thought we spoke at the same speed as everyone else.

Hi all

We are going from Stansted for the first time, I was wondering what it was like to go through it. Any tips out there? I normally use Birmingham and used Luton last year. Noticed that the London airports websites don't have a interactive map like the Birmingham site has.
I found when I went through Luton, I found that the departure lounge didn't seem large enough for the number of passengers. I saw lots of people sitting on blankets on the floor because there wasn't enough seats.

Dawnie-Rob

Lifts are available at Stansted and I have often used them. I think Stansted is the easiest Airport (of all the London ones) to use. Over the past few weeks I have used Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and found the amount of walking from/to gates a lot less at Stansted. I am origionally from the North of England where we are no strangers to regional accents but I don't find the 'fast'? Essex accent any problem. Unfortunately people can be rude, which is unexcusable, especially when the rudeness is directed to a person with a limited amount of English but having travelled through Stansted a minimum of 20times over the last few years I have yet to have a bad experience, apart from long waits for luggage a couple of years ago. So I would say the rudeness you encountered was definitely a one off experience.

Hi! I'm flying from Stansted Airport for the first time on Sunday. What can I pack in my hand luggage? I've been told so many different things I don't want to have to leave things behind at the airport

Hi Helen ... for hand luggage info and restrictions specific to Stansted Airport, please click here.

David

Thanks for that David.

Sadly it would appear that the very favourable Pink Elephants 'book 30days in advance but you can't get you money back if you cancel' option has gone.

Update : It appears to be only for bookings of a certain length - tried 2 weeks in June and didnt want to know but mid June for 5 days it did work.

Returned from Sharm yesterday and wanted to feedback on the BAA Valet parking at Stansted, that Pippa recommended. ( Pippa)

We thought that for an early flight it was excellent.
Our check in opened at 5.15am for a 8.15am flight, so we arranged to drop off the car at 4.45am. This was too early as the whole process took about 3 mins.

You drop the car at a designated area, a person is waiting for you, checks your car for damage, mileage etc you sign and hand over the key. I assume they take it to the long stay car park. It's brought back to short stay for your return. We rang to confirm we had arrived back while waiting at luggage reclaim.

Pity it costs so much as I would be tempted to use it for 14 nights as well.

Glad you found the BAA Valet parking as good as we did.
It is cheaper the further in advance you can book but for 14 days it would be quite expensive. We would only use it for 7 days as it works out similar to getting a taxi and cheaper than a hotel.

Thanks for your feedback.

Pippa

Yes we thought it was excellent. Our next two holidays are from Gatwick the first of which we have a 6am Easyjet departure so I would love to find something of similar quality there.

We would now always consider the BAA valet parking at Stansted for an early departure time.

We are flying from Gatwick on 8th May.

We are using Tudor Rose meet and greet. You have the option of meeting them at the airport or driving to their depot which is less than 5 minutes away - same price for both. They have been mentioned on here with good reviews. Has cost us £55 for 10 days - which is very good.

Worth taking a look. http://www.tudorrose.co.uk

Pippa

Thanks Pippa. I will.

We are flying from stansted on wed and plan to get a direct train from melton mowbray to stansted airport can anyone tell me where in relation to the airport the station is dont wanna be struggling with bags with kiddies

Thanks
SJP

where from... there is a loop line to the airport but without checking i cant tell which trains go in