Tag Archives: travel

A guaranteed way of avoiding airport baggage check-in queues

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What’s the most tedious thing about travelling by plane?

Is it the security search? There are some mornings when I think I might as well go to the airport in my PJs and get dressed after the search. They seem to make me take everything off before letting me through anyway. But most airports are quite efficient at security and barring the odd power hungry individual barking orders it is usually tolerable.

No for me it is the baggage check-in queues. Doesn’t your heart just sink when you see those endless zig-zagging lines of miserable people pushing cases big enough to fit a kitchen sink inside?

avoiding airport baggage check-in queues

When I travel British Airways my Silver card means I get to use the Business Class desk which can be quicker than being stuck with the masses in the Economy line. But when flying Jet2 or whichever low cost airline there are no such perks.

For years we’ve put up with it. A hour to check-in a case (for which I had to pay an extra check-in fee of course) from Edinburgh to Palma. 70 minutes wait on the return flight in Palma’s chaotic sauna of a terminal. Even the “Bag Drop” lines (when you have already checked-in on-line) don’t seem to move any faster.

So this year required innovative thinking for our week in the sun. How could we avoid starting a relaxing week’s holiday with a stressful stew in the check-in sin bin?

The answer was obvious of course. There is one guaranteed, foolproof method of avoiding airport baggage check-in queues. It came to me when I was about to click the box on Jet2’s website asking how many items I wanted to bung in the hold. I stopped myself before parting with another forty quid for two of them.

My guaranteed method of avoiding airport baggage check I queues is……. not to check-in any bags. Go hand baggage only.

I know what you are thinking. It can’t be done. Where will I put my 20 pairs of shoes? There won’t be enough room for all my outfits.

avoiding airport baggage check-in queues

It is possible though. Yes you can get three day outfits and three evening outfits into a cabin bag and still have room for a couple of pairs of shoes. And most hotels and villas have laundry services don’t they?

What was the result of this approach?

  • Got to the airport only one hour, not three hours, before each flight
  • Walked straight past the thronging thousands in the endless zig-zag mazes in both directions
  • Didn’t have to wait an hour at baggage reclaim at the other end so we beat everyone to the car hire company. Similarly on the way back we were first out through customs (and quite telling that we were obviously the only 3 people from a plane load of 150 that hadn’t got bags to wait for)
  • Saved £40 on hold baggage fees

For a week in Europe this is the surely the modern way to travel.

Over to you: For many I guess the thought of going away without the comfort of several heavily laden bags is unthinkable. What do you think?

One question I’d like an answer to after the Edinburgh trams disaster

The Crazy World in which we Live, , ,
Edinburgh is such a beautiful city. But every day as I walk up from Waverley Station I see the on-street building site that has tainted that beauty for so many years. The council started tearing the roads up in 2008. They erected signs telling us that the trams would be “taking us to the shops in 2011”.
Edinburgh Trams Disaster

Well here we are in 2012 and there are two more years of construction pain before the trams start running. The tram units themselves wait sadly unloved and without passengers in their little play pen at the Gogarburn Depot.

This has been a vanity project. Nothing more. The route is well served by buses already.

Here are some of the highlights of the Edinburgh Trams disaster:

  • Original plans were for three lines. One serving the airport to the city centre; a second loop down through Leith and back to the city centre through Granton; and a third out to Musselburgh in the east. Only the first line is actually being built.
  • The cost estimate was £498m. The final bill will be just short of £1 billion. And that’s for 1 line not three remember.
  • The trams were to be running by summer 2011. July 2014 is now what we are promised.
  • The tracks on Princes Street have been laid three times necessitating the closure of this famous thoroughfare. The tarmac was already crumbling and dangerous before a single tram had ever run on them.

The green agenda is often used to justify building the trams. I wonder how much extra pollution has been created by the building work, the delays, the re-routing of traffic and the heavy machinery. How long will the trams have to operate in order to pay back this carbon debt?

And when the construction is finally finished and Edinburgh cab drivers will have to find a different topic to talk about, there is one question which I would love to know the answer to.

Given that the tram units themselves will each carry 250 passengers. That’s 78 seated and 172 standing. If you were a passenger arriving at Edinburgh Airport after a long journey, would you choose to stand up for the ride into town, or would you select the guarantee of a seat in one of the superb airport buses, or the privacy of a cab direct to your destination?

Over to you: Are you looking forward to the completion of the Edinburgh Trams? What do you think of the scheme? Would you choose to travel to the airport in a car, a cab, a bus or would you take the tram? Please leave a comment and let me know.

3 ways to improve hotels – The Indigo Experience

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Whilst I am prepared to pay for a luxury hotel when I go on holiday (or at least use rewards points to bag an upgrade), I am not so fussy that I demand, diva like, to receive white doves and rose petals when I travel on business. I have a simple rule. The hotel must at least be up to the standard of my own home.

The mattress in my home bedroom is not made of stone. I do not buy rough toilet tissue and my towels are not made out of bleached iron wool. So I don’t want these features when I’m travelling.

Unfortunately these days a grubby hotel with spartan furnishings may be all the corporate travel budget can bear. If I do get landed with a grim hotel I usually console myself that it is only for one or two nights. But it’s not a hard bed and lack of fluffy towels that upsets me most though. My three main gripes with hotels throughout the world, but mainly in the UK, are as follows:

  • Extra charges for WiFi
  • Cold, congealed breakfast buffets
  • Outrageous charges for mini-bars

In addition I am also put off by sprawling mega-hotels with endless check-in and check-out queues, which teem with masses of humanity fighting for space in the bar or the restaurant.

ways to improve hotels

So I am delighted to have found a hotel chain, Indigo, which hits the spot in almost every way and succeeds in these 3 ways to improve hotels. Indigo Paddington, for example,  is a flawless diamond hidden down a street about 2 minutes walk from Paddington station. This makes it a perfect base for business and pleasure trips. It only has 60 or so rooms so it feels intimate and cosy.

3 ways to improve hotels

The rooms are quite small but they are brimming with lovely colourful fabrics, pictures and decorations. The bed is liberally covered in throws and cushions and is delightfully comfortable. In the bathroom is one of those showers with a head the size of a plate so you feel as if you are standing in the rain. If this is too much for you just use the second hand held shower head.

All rooms have free WiFi and soft drinks from the mini-bar are complimentary.

At breakfast you order from a menu and your plate is prepared fresh and brought to your table by the waiter. This alone would set Indigo above the majority of hotels in London. And they are appearing in other UK cities.

Over to you: What are your hotel grumbles? Have you found a hotel or chain that provides a great service at a good price. Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

How the other half travels – BA FIRST Class review

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First Class and Business Class air travel is a very expensive luxury, all very well if your company is paying for it, your name is Simon Cowell or Victoria Beckham, but for most of us, is usually reserved for honeymoon treats or lottery wins,

In my earlier blog  “Why I am in debt to frequent flyer websites” I explained how I had learned how to earn enough airline points to travel in big seats for just the cost of the tax as opposed to the very high fares. I signed up for a British Airways Amex card and use it to buy everything. And every year I build up enough points to earn a “companion voucher” which means that I can buy two posh seats with Airmiles.

This year’s destination was Phoenix, Arizona. I knew that British Airways were installing brand new seats in their FIRST class cabin – the so called “New F”, but the chances of travelling on an updated aircraft was still quite low.

BA First Class Review

Hence why I was utterly delighted to see the aircraft pictured above – the gap between every second window in the nose section tipped me off that this one had the new seats installed.

So I decided to make a little video of the experience. Please click on the picture below to see my BA FIRST Class review, including the lovely “Concorde Room” at Heathrow, fine dining silver service at 35,000 feet, snazzy window blinds and, of course, fully flat seats.

Over to you: What is the most luxurious way you have ever travelled. I would love to see your pictures or videos. Please leave a comment or post a link. If you liked this video please Tweet about it by clicking here.

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