British Airways is very British if you live in London – less so if you live in the provinces and the only place you can fly on them is London. So I decided to review one of those feeder flights into London and I picked BA’s shortest flight – or at least their shortest bookable flight – I explain in the video! And I booked to travel in Business Class to see whether a meaningful service is possible on a 34 minute flight…
And I chose to fly from Manchester – widely regarded as Britain’s worst airport and officially awarded that title by Which Magazine. And BA operates from Terminal 3 which Which magazine rates as the worst terminal in the worst airport.
The things I do for you, dear viewer….
⭐ #flightreview #BritishAirways #MattsPlanet ⭐
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⏰ Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
2:56 – The Manchester Experience
9:47 – Boarding? Not Boarding?
12:00 – The Flight
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43 Comments
Don’t think it’s the worst airport tbh there are some that are far worst and also is not like for like comparing Manchester to city or another airport when facilities/ size and capacity varies!!
Thank you for another great, insightful video. I was looking at making this return trip myself purely for the tier points to get me to silver but maybe I should look elsewhere provided it's cost effective?
Hi Matt, really interesting video. I've never flown from Manchester and I don't think I will be adding it to my list, lol! I flew back from Gibraltar on BA yesterday and noticed Club Europe was changed to 3-3, thought this was quite odd. It didn't seem like a last thought either as the middle seats had the head covers on. Seemed to take away one of the primary benefits that CE offers! Have you found this seating arrangement before? Thanks, Tom.
Hi Matt, having just been caught in the air traffic control episode at Heathrow Airport and having had to make our own way back to Jersey via train and ferry and also having had my flight previously cancelled on the 25th of August meaning we spent an extra three days in the wonderful island of Ischia, could you do a video on how to make a compensation or expenses claim on the British Airways site? I have completed the said online forms today but wasn’t able to upload all the receipts as apparently you can only load 10. I have no idea what address to send the paper copies to and any guidance for those of us who have been affected this week would be very much appreciated. Thanks, James
I totally agree with your comments on Manchester Airport. I live in Manchester and so use it whenever I go on holiday. What you experienced in T3 is the same in T1. It’s dowdy gloomy and just downright shabby. I notice it each time I arrive back from holiday plus the scruffy staff. And don’t start me on the baggage reclaim! Thankfully you didn’t have to endure that.
I use Manchester airport often and think it’s fine. All terminals have been crammed in and it’s lounges are not great but don’t believe you can call it bad when compared to the utter chaos encountered at the likes of Stansted and Heathrow. It’s easy to move through
Hi Matt. Ross from the WhatsApp here – only just got round to your video. Just to say that I haven’t flown from MAN but had the displeasure of flying out of LTN a few weeks ago and found the same problem with security. I spent almost an hour in the security hall having my bag screened. They were selecting a very high number of bags to be searched by only one person working on the scanner, and the whole process was really inefficient (staff having to wheel bags back and forth on trolleys as no automated system). The bags waiting to be hand searched backed up all the way to the X-ray which caused a further backlog.
After 20 minutes of waiting with other passengers for our bags to be searched I found a supervisor and asked politely if they could get someone to help out on our lane, to which he obliged, but only for a few minutes. When my bag was searched they said a cigar cutter wasn’t allowed (I’ve taken it on many flights before but whatever) and they said the bag had to be rescanned. After which it was selected again and was swabbed for explosives. They rescanned it again and on the third time it got selected yet again!!! At this point I said I’ve been here an hour and I’m going to miss my flight if you scan it again.
Never been at an airport before where they refer so many bags to be searched, or where they rescan every bag that they search. Was madness.
I wrote a complaint to the powers that be at LTN about my experience but got nothing back yet.
Great video as always.
Took me over an hour to get through security 2 weeks ago – shocking!
Why has everything gotta be a shade of grey , floors , ceilings, walls , desks , concrete is naturally grey but paint it or clad it such depressing places , coming home from sunny places and transiting through these places is miserable and you come out the terminal to a grey sky and see a grey Prius taxi and you realise your back in grey United Kingdom, I think Manchester airport is a great example of the uk as a whole Drab and grey
Terminal 3 was built as a dedicated facility for BA in the 1990s, when the airline had an extensive European network out of Manchester plus a few long-haul services, with plans for more. A decade later BA withdrew all services except the London one, leaving Manchester with an expensive white elephant. BA were heavily involved in the design. Gradually the terminal became used by the low cost Ryanair and others. It remains the only terminal at MAN with facility for UK domestic flights, which is the main reason BA still uses it. Eventually BA will move to T2 when it gets domestic capability under Phase 2 of the transformation. I worked for Manchester Airport for 40 years and saw the change in business ethos since the days of the original T2, when good design and passenger experience was a top priority, to today, where profits, bonuses and dividends are the priority. By 2025, T2 will be a decent facility handling the bulk of traffic, but not world class. T3 will remain a dog pit for Ryanair.
No Matt your completely correct I worked at Manchester for over 10 years 8 of them at T3 if only you could experience how security treated staff it was unbelievable everyday going into work you were made to feel like a terrorist. I think you should make it your mission to expose what’s going on at this airport. I won’t even fly from there anymore
I wouldnt fly on such a short distance trip.. Why give yourself the nightmare? Go 1st class on the train…
..at least your flight operated Matt. I had the misfortune of booking the last flight back to Heathrow last Thursday evening and shortly after arriving at the aforementioned and truly horrid T3 received a text message informing me that my flight had been cancelled (no reason given). No check in staff, no sign of a BA desk anywhere so I tried to call them. Yes, ever the optimist me. No answer. Needed to be back home in London the following day for a hospital appt so was left me no choice but to dash back to Manchester Piccadilly to catch an Aviva train to Euston (a journey I had been dreading and actively avoiding since they picked up the franchise from Virgin service of which I was a regular). Well, what a delightful surprise that was. Quiet carriage was actually QUIET, train left and arrived bang on schedule despite picking up a couple of minor delays en-route. Staff were pleasant. Train was spotless. New seats comfortable. The 2 hours 8 literally flew (no pun intended) by. Overall a very positive experience despite having to traverse the centre of town via tube, etc to get back to the Heathrow area where I live. Finally managed to get through to someone at BA when I got home at 23:10 to inform them that regrettably I wouldn't be taking advantage of their kind offer of a seat on the 07:00 departure from T3 the FOLLOWING morning and to request a refund. So far, I've received my £14.99 seat reservation fee back but no sign of a refund for the cancelled flight… A real shame given that the outbound was a very pleasant and stress-free experience. BA really do need to do better when things go wrong.
Not built for today's travelling public. I work in it, It IS abysmal . PS it's a NON SMOKING terminal so if you use it, be aware of this fact . Ryanair is a victim of its own success as they take off every 10 minutes during peak time to various destinations
Terminal 1 is supposed to be demolished in the future,I'd recommend keep that and demolish this instead!
I worked at Manchester for over 20 years ,a maintenance engineer once told me that the Air Con is mostly turned off during summer because whilst passengers swelter in the oven like temps more cold drinks will be sold oh and also to save money .
I came through T3 this week on Ryanair. Security was very quick, the downstairs area was extremely busy for seats but the overflow seating upstairs was an oasis of calm in comparison. Boarding at gate 52 was very narrow with very few seats though it was quick. Manchester Airport is privately owned so unlike many worldwide airports it has to cut costs to make money. In the case of T3 it’s mostly used by Ryanair so if my ticket is dirt cheap due to cost cutting by the Airport I am fine with that. If I am flying from T2 it’s usually long haul and I am at the airport earlier so I want a better experience and T2 offers that and will improve further when fully complete. Millions of people travel through Manchester without an issue I think people see the likes of Dubai and Singapore and want Manchester to be like them, As for BA I think they treat their provincial customers with contempt and I won’t fly with them. If they choose to use the budget terminal, don’t charge premium prices.
Manchester airport is awful. Hate going there. Much prefer East Midands or Birmingham even. However, there used to be a fantastic airport serving the north of England – DONCASTER! This need reopening asap! #SAVEDSA
Even though I am a frequent flyer from Manchester Airport, I have never flown from T3. From the points and issues that you have raised in the video, I can't help but agree with you. That being said, the renovations and improvements that are being made throughout T2 & T1 are exactly what the airport needed and I must say from recent experiences, It's been a much more pleasurable experience. I would be keen to know if you have intentions of returning to Manchester to use the new terminals once all renovations are completed??
It's always a nasty surprise to realise you're flying from T3 at Manchester, it truly is awful! T2 on the other hand is very good, could arguably say the amenities there compete with the south east airports on a good day.
Manchester airport. My god I hate it. And I haven't seen the travelators work in 3 years. I'm sure you know Terminal 3 used to be the domestic departure gates for Terminal one. Many an enjoyable trip on a British Caledonian 1-11 to Gatwick from there.(Yep I,m that old). Now as you saw it is truly awful. Now, however I would like to take issue with your dig at the railways. Piccadily has a service now (post covid) it is reliable again. Runs every 20 minutes for most of the day and has an average journey time of 2hrs 6 mins. And you actually arrive in London not miles away. I use it at least weekly. And one little moan please don't call us the provinces, we have manged running water and electricity. Oh and we split the atom as well. Sorry for the moan, but I really do love the down to earth honesty of your video's so keep em coming.
Couldn’t agree more with all your points… On top of this, TPExpress trains never actually serve the airport since Covid started
T3 and T1 basically need bulldozing and rebuilding into something more modern and welcoming. However they need their operations looking at as the management is dire.
As a manc I am ashamed of our airport. It is disgusting
When Virgin Trains took over the Manchester London rail route they all but killed off the BA Shuttle, which previously had almost all the business traffic on the route so awful was British Rail's unreliable service.
Now that DfT (who seem to want to drive folk away from rail) gave the franchise to Avanti, that trend is probably reversing yet again back to air.
When I was working (I retired in 2008) I experienced that first change; BR was just not reliable enough if you had to be in London for a certain time for a meeting, so we went BA. There was a Shuttle flight every hour and it was pleasant and reliable (not much security in those days and seating on the Trident or 1-11 or latterly 757 and even the A319 was roomy). There was a snack and drinks service during the flight and coming home in the evening I often managed to blag 2 G&Ts which meant I was still drinking the second one as we flew down final into Manchester, seat back upright, table stowed.
Then Virgin transformed the train service. 3 trains an hour each way, 1 hour 47 minutes Wilmslow to Euston, reliable and fast. 1st class was about the same price as BA Business, and you got a full breakfast in the morning and a meal going home in the evening. No security hassle, no turning up ages before the departure time, and door to door.
From my limited experience of Avanti, the trend may well be back to Air soon!
Hate to say it Matt, but as a local, Manchester airports reputation as the countries worst is a reputation well deserved. It is simply not fit for purpose. I've flown out of all three terminals in the last 10 months and it is never a positive experience. Too many passengers crammed into too smaller space, the less said about the security experience the better. Rude and sarcastic staff who clearly see passengers as an occupational hazard, (believe me arrivals is no better) and your absolutely right about the walkways, they haven't worked in years.
You can experience very long queues for the bars and restaurants once in departures, which are grossly overpriced and understaffed, oh and if you do find yourself in terminal 2 , make sure you have your hiking boots on, as if your unlucky enough to find yourself on a flight at one of the gates at the end of the extended part of the terminal, its a hell of a long walk.
The fact is that Manchester airport has failed to keep pace and adapt to cope with the sheer volume of passenger numbers. It really needs another new terminal developed and built to go alongside the existing ones, as the experience of flying out of Manchester, can literally be hell on earth, and very stressful.
Flew Manchester to Brisbane return on Emirates last September (a trip I have done many times over the last 20 years) First and last time from this excuse for an airport. I could go into detail but shabby, tired, 1970s concrete bus station, understaffed, appalling service, made to wait outside with no seating before being let into this hellhole, terrible security, queues etc etc. Compared to the paradise of Changi, Dubai and professional calm of Brisbane I would describe Manchester Airport as "the pits". I understand the CEO is paid a fortune and patted on the back with bonuses for this travel nightmare. Avoid at all costs. Manchester and the North deserves so much more. Start with a bulldozer and wipe it from the face of the earth.
He's clearly never been to Gatwick! This is also incorrect. BA and it's partners fly all over the place. What a load of nonsense. Why shouldn't this route exist? What utter rubbish this video is! Poor understanding. Why would anyone book business from MAN lol. Don't listen to this guy's 'consumer advice'! Stayed in the IBIS budget lol – then can't work out why it's miles away? Why do you want an airport to be inspiring? It's a functional building, like a tax office. On the one hand this guy slates air travel from Manchester then whinges about security checks? Bizarre. Because this plug has been around other airports Matt thinks he should be exempt? LOL. Security is classed as 'petty'. Worrying. How is BA 'Britain's National Airline'?- what does this mean? The shop was no use because he was flying domestically- close it down! What's this rubbish about where the planes come from? What's the problem? Did the plane take off and land? Did it? How foolish to redeem avios for a MAN LHR flight! What a shame he didn't manage to stuff his already full face ! The problem is with all these guys is they don't understand that to be a Stanley Kurbrick takes a little more than just pointing a phone and talking BS. The amount of skill and artistic ability that goes into every shot in a professional film is rather more than these guys all think. 99% men of course, thinking the world is going to watch their personal opinions about a service at a given point in time. Fascinating to watch though, as they are all identical and unbelievably boring- a lesson on how not to make an engaging film! Hilarious that because Matt thinks the authorities should review security- they best get on it! Glad all the time effort and money was worth me making it 22,001 views! Great stuff…..
We fly through Manchester and totally agree avout the overzealous security. Worst in the UK.
Bristol Airport is absolutely awful. Passengers often have queue up outside to get to check in and security. The departures area is ridiculously overcrowded. There aren’t enough seats and not enough space for the huge volume of passengers. It’s absolutely crazy early in the morning. People sitting and lying on the floor. When you’ve been awake since 3am and spent over an hour queueing for security, you just want to sit down and have a cup of tea, but thats not possible at Bristol. Cafes and restaurants are extremely busy and again not enough seats so after half an hour queues you’d have to stand or sit on the floor to drink your tea.
The problem with the airport is that it was opened in 2000 with about 8 boarding gates. Now there are umpteen boarding gates and yet they just keep adding more and more flights which means more and more passengers while the departure area has never been expanded, creating extreme overcrowding. Not only that, Bristol is the only airport of its size with no jetways to the planes, and very long walks to gates with NO moving walkways and one part you have to go down stairs then 8 metres further- back upstairs. It’s probably the only airport with such a huge passenger volume that’s no where near a motorway or dual carriageway. The nearest motorway is around 15 miles away along rural roads!
Bristol Airport is a fine example of how NOT to design or run an airport!
Have you though about flying out of Leeds Bradford?
Fly to Dublin from t1 quite regularly and have honestly never had an issue.
I live on the North East coast of England and have decided to see Istanbul ( Byzantium / Constantinople ). Having seen this, not by flying out of Manchester Airport. As soon as issues of Security were mentioned, I was out of the class of passengers. I hate flying at the best of times. I`ll not fly from any airport with poor security.
I`ve paid for holidays and not turned up at the airport on the grounds that I dare not fly ( from safe airports ) and have given up on being flown around Europe, hither and thither, for free ( even been given money to spend ) on the same grounds.
I`m a bloke – by the way, not a `pro…`
Hi Matt, I really enjoyed your video not least becasue I flew MAN to LHR with BA just last Thursday evening (Aug 31st). Much of what you observe rings very true but I disagree with your comment at 1:33 re: the UK's railways which came across, if you'll forgive me, as a little too dismissive. Of course, we can only ever talk from personal experience and my experience of trains, across the UK, including a regular commute from my home in east Surrey to Greater London, is that they are generally excellent. On Thursday, before flying home, I had to travel home to Newcastle and Carlisle and caught a total of seven trains with four different operators. Every one on them was clean and comfortable, the fares were reasonably priced, the staff were professional and courteously staffed, and the trains all arrived on time (I would happily have returned home by train had time allowed). As for MAN, as I said above, everything you said is true. My main gripe is the distance from the station to Terminal 3 (no working travelators for me, either). The flight was fine (I was in Economy) and I was even given several extra packets of pretzels when I asked the FAs if they had any spares (the flight was far from full, which always helps). Anyway, thanks for the interesting and (mainly!) accurate video, consider me subscribed!
Manchester has for a long time been a third world facility yet nobody does anything about it. The administration, if one exists, could help by modifying the behavior of the security company but the larger need to flatten the existing and start again seems to be beyond the authorities capability as is the case with most issues as the country is, and will remain, flat broke. Time to leave the sinking ship. Britain will slowly descend into a similar mess as terminal three
Manchester Airport T2 is really good, Not flown from T3 in a very long time. T1 is no where near as good as T2. Just hoping that they do shut it and revamp to the standard of T2. I am flinging from the very drab T1 in 6 weeks. Think I'll book a lounge as it is not a pleasant experience in the terminal!
What can I say, Matt and posters said it all, no exaggeration, it's rough up North, well MAN is!
Some time ago, when on another horror show of a journey through MAN security a group on Manchester Airport Group (MAG) managers used passes to jump the Q at security. I then invited them to an impromptu focus group with me. They, well, the one that didn't skulled off, seemed genuinely taken aback that I thought MAN was one of the worst airports in Europe. How I would love to have the opportunity to feed back to MAG management in person.
Didn't used to be this way when T3 was a dedicated BA terminal.
you should try glasgow terminal 2 lol
Matt; a couple of extra titbits for your Manchester experience as a former Manchester resident (and Manchester BA frequent flyer in turn)…
Security- Apparently the scanners at Manchester are SO old they don’t have the ability to stop or re-wind, so if the operator doesn’t hit ok fast enough the bag is pulled to the side; hence the chaos.
Terminal 3- BA have apparently stayed here because it was built to be their “home in the north” at one point in time I was told…
Baggage- Just be glad that you weren’t flying in the other direction; having timed it over 10 flights, we ALWAYS took longer to receive hold luggage than the flight itself took…
BA crew- I personally think this flight coats the BA crew in glory, their speed and efficiency on the (locally known) ‘indigestion express’ if second to none.
Value- As a (former) Manchester resident, I’d take a different view on value; we almost always flew club from Heathrow back home as having a bite to eat on the way back, saving making food at home in an evening, seemed to justify 4000 avios.
Final fun fact- If you live in south Manchester you will usually find that travelling to central London by BA shuttle and Heathrow express is about £50 cheaper than the train and about 30 minutes faster at peak times (usually with no change to reliability…)
I flew from terminal 1 in June and it was sweltering … air con wasn’t on and the gates are laid out in an awful manner.
You should have tried it during the pandemic.
BA were the only airline to remain in T3, same gate. Passengers had to check in at T1, use the lounges in T1, and then walk the oldinternal corridor to T3 when it was time for the flight only to find there was no heat or light in T3, all concessions closed obviously and then linger in the area around boots with no assistance from MAN staff to tell anyone what to do until the BA staff turned up to open the gate.
I've flown throught in excess of 100 airports, even 10 hours in the transit area at Cairo with passport taken away and held at gunpoint is a preferable experience to anything related to MAN.
Security – The conversation has been done to death, every time you go through they make up a new rule which doesn't adhere to any published regulations, they just want to get a rise out of you. Like your experience thinks that have comfortably gone through 50-100 airports including the most strict regimes in the world are suddenly an issue at MAN after flying through there 20-30 times without issue.
I travel through it several times a year and it's so bad I now get panic attacks for a couple of days before flying from there. No other airport globally has had that effect.
With reference to the travelators, at least half if not 3/4 were out of order before the pandemic. Various excuses were given, either they couldn't get parts or couldn't afford them. Then they were switched off to save power together with the whole of T3's life support system leaving BA passengers in a dark/freezing T3 as per my other comment.
If you are travelling from T3/T1 stay at the Clayton or Hilton, from T2 stay at the IBIS or HI or Radisson.
You were lucky your flight even operated, I booked the same flight for 26/8 and woke up to a cancellation text message.
Was literally going to try taking the BA flight from MAN to LHR instead of the 2.5 hour train trip into Euston from Preston tomorrow. After watching this, I’m fully convinced of never thinking that again! Thank you!