Dublin Airport: Early start very long queues at T1 and T2.

I hate Dublin airport. It's a cattle mart at the best of times. Aer Lingus are notorious for having very few staff on during the night so early morning flights (incl the one I was on to go get married) were a case of approx 1000 passengers queueing for 2, then 3 and finally 4 desks.
Scurity isn't too bad, but customs can be bad as has been said when they have 1 or 2 Customs/Immigration officers on for the evening.
I'm a much bigger fan of smaller airports. Derry and Belfast Int are the 2 I mostly fly from and the whole "10 mins from entry to gate" thing suits me great.

On the whole though, airports suck. I love the drive/bus to/from the airport and obviously flying is still a chore (esp on long-haul cattle class).

BUT the actual time spent in the airport, be it queueing to bag-drop/check-in, queueing for security, paying extortionate prices for anything, having to use the loo (Bleugh), waiting for flight, queueing to board, queueing to unboard, queueing for immigration, waiting for bags, queueing for bus....

Jeez, is there a more unpleasant way to start/end a holiday ??
 
emaol said:
That's all of a 150m walk from the exit of T2 to the bus-stop,isn't it?
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Considering that 600m was spent on it and they were able to start from scratch you'd expect the bus to be outside the door in fairness.
 

Last year I decided to holiday at home to avoid all of this. Got in my car, packed it up, and went south to Lsimore, West Cork, Kerry etc. It was so much more pleasant.
 
I agree about the hassle of flying. I travel a fair bit with work and find that by the time, holidays come around I can't face airports! As airports go, Dublin is actually one of the better ones despite it's many flaws. Anyone who spent time in a UK, Italian, French or US airport will recognise this! In Europe, I find the best airports to be Zurich and Frankfurt. Singapore and Hong Kong are probably the best airports I have seen.
 
Pique318 said:
Jeez, is there a more unpleasant way to start/end a holiday ??
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Agree completely. This year we're taking the ferry - it's a heck of a lot longer but hopefully more enjoyable and relaxed. Hopefully somebody soon will just invent the teleporter so we can bypass all this!
 
horusd said:
Last year I decided to holiday at home to avoid all of this. Got in my car, packed it up, and went south to Lsimore, West Cork, Kerry etc. It was so much more pleasant.
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Yes. But I still need the injection of the €10 Menu Del Dia, sitting in the sun watching the locals going about their business a couple of times a year.
 

Fully agree on Singapore and Hong Kong, there is such an air of calmness especially in Singapore. But found Frankfurt not so good, maybe just because of its size and where I happened to land at the time; ended up walking miles. One of the most pleasant airports from a staff perspective has been Lisbon. Security staff all had a smile on their face and greeted me with "Good evening sir, please place your bags and coat here. Did you enjoy your stay? Have a nice flight and hope you visit again soon." I was so amazed at this that on my second time in Lisbon I asked the security guy why their general manner towards people was so different than in other airports. He said that passengers were treated as customers and that the friendly approach proved to reduce levels of agitation at security desks. I think a lot can be learned here.
 

Interesting...I was only reading "Business Stripped Bare" by Richard Branson yesterday and he introduced this policy for hiring security staff at his V Festival concerts in the UK & Australia for the same reasons.
 


Thanks Chris, just lookin at Lisbon for a short break. Pleasantness at the airport sounds like a joy. I hate the fuss and messin at airports. It really does put me off going anywhere.
 
lou2 said:
Flew from T2 a week ago. 45 mins in a huge queue to check-in. Not impressed.
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But that's not the DAA's fault is it? That's the airline operator's fault for either not having enough desks to deal with the specific flight or some other complication - where were you flying and who with?
 
Flying with Aer Lingus obviously. I'm not blaming the DAA...just stating a point. There were no specific check-in desks for specific flights. All were open to all flights. But it was absolute chaos. They kept having to put the call out for passengers whose flights were closing to move to the top of the queue because the queue was just so long. I was flying with a young baby who was getting extremely restless. Perhaps this was just a bad day as overall I have heard good reports about T2.
 
I can't even remember the last flight I checked in for. Do the vast majority of people not use web/kiosk check in?
 
horusd said:
Thanks Chris, just lookin at Lisbon for a short break. Pleasantness at the airport sounds like a joy. I hate the fuss and messin at airports. It really does put me off going anywhere.
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You won't be disappointed with Lisbon, it's a great place. Let me know if you need some recommendations.
 
Lads I think this post is moving off my original point. I'm looking for others to have a moan and complain with me about Dublin airport early on weekday mornings.... It will make me feel better, make me feel like I'm not the only victim..... My only consolation is that at least I'm there because I have paid work to do in the UK
 
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