Which EU airports /airlines are NOT a mess?

[BarbWire]

I've gotten the opthamologist "all clear" to flee the country in mid-September.

I would depart the US from: AUS, or IAH, or PHL (or somewhere I could Amtrak from Philly). Nonstop is ideal.

The general idea for a 6-7 week trip is UK (3 weeks) and then Eurostar to NL, working my way down toward Switzerland-ish through BE, DE, FR. Maybe swing over to western Austria. I'd return to the US from one of those.

But ....

(1) Heathrow is a mess. BA and AA are a mess. I could take the Singapore nonstop from IAH to MAN ... but is MAN a mess?

(2) Or I could take Aer Lingus to Dublin, recover from jet lag there for a couple of days, and then take the ferry to Wales, which is my target destination for a week or more in the UK.

(3) or perhaps from the US to Scotland if there is a nonstop?


For the return, AMS and FRA are a mess. Lufthansa is a mess. Any other airlines or airports in central Europe to avoid as I search for US return flights?

BTW, flights to/from Euorope will be on points, so open-jaw is quite feasible. I'd consider using the United Excursionist perk (one intra-European flight) but honestly trains seem simpler.

Suggestions? I'm a carry-on only traveler; my travel planning skills are very very rusty. ;-)

 

[Teacher Terry]

Are Lingus has been canceling flights to and from Dublin like crazy unless something has changed in the past month.

 

[athena53]

Pay your money and take your chance!

I'm not great at predicting these things; heck, I thought COVID would no longer be a problem by now. But, I'm here in Albania on a tour paid for by credits from a curtailed trip to South America in March, 2020, originally scheduled for June of last year. I re-scheduled again (waiting for COVID to be over) and finally I'm here.

See the AA/BA thread for more details but I flew AA from home through DFW, BA to Heathrow , overnighted near Heathrow and then BA to Tirana yesterday evening. Max delay was 45 minutes on the DFW-LHR flight. I'd hedged my bets (and rested my body) by staying overnight in London but would have made the connection to Tirana easily the same day. Carry-on only. Heathrow didn't seem any crazier than usual.

My unscientific guess is that things will calm down a bit by September as they add more staff and school begins. It sounds like you won't have any mission-critical flights (to meet a cruise, for example) so a delay won't be catastrophic.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

I think Heathrow has been in a league of its own in terms of problems.

Tend to agree that September should bring some relief.

Be prepared for the Eurostar to be messy as well. We went London to Paris in June and almost missed our train even though we got in the security line two hours before departure. Brexit made the security/border process an absolute nightmare. Some passengers did get locked out of the train after waiting in line behind us for two hours as well. Once on the train, Eurostar was its usual & pleasant experience.

We went through Amsterdam, Marseille, Barcelona and Athens airports in June as well as Heathrow. Those were busy but nothing seemed overtly broken.

YMMV

 

[BarbWire]

Thanks, all. I think I'll just gamble on airports, as I will not have any "critical" connections.


I haven't looked atmid-range hotel and B&B rates in Europe in two years. Yikes!


My days of being able to pull together a trip within 6 weeks of departure may be over.

 

[brett]

We are considering a flight to London Gatwick in mid September. Not booking anything yet.

Not even considering LHR. Our least favorite even in normal times.

We flew in to Lisbon in late May. It was fine other than the long lines to clear customs/immigration. Our connecting flight to Madeira was fine-ten minutes late leaving, on time arrival. Same for our Easyjet flight a week later from Madeira-Lisbon. Airport seemed less crowded than the previous week.

We are looking at a flight to Athens that connects in Munich.

 

[tulak]

I’ve flown through Heathrow four times in the last few months. The last time was a few weeks ago. It was busy, long lines to get through security, but otherwise fine. It took a bit over an hour to get through security.

I took Eurostar from France to London in July. Nothing abnormal for me. They tell you that the gate closes 30 min before departure. Passport checks in France for both leaving the EU and entering England. Nobody missed the train as far as I know, at least not due to long lines.

My advice is to show up early and give yourself lots of time in case of delays.

 

[Bigdawg]

We have had good luck with Dublin. Love that airport actually. We flew Norweign but I think they are shuttered now. Flying home from Dublin is nice also because you go through US customs IN Dublin so nothing to do when you land in the USA.

 

[brett]

I believe the challenge is timing.

Airports that may be a mess now may not be in Mid Sept or Oct.

Conversely if we pick one that is good today it could be a mess next month.

Luck of the draw. Slightly different for us because we only do carry on. Part of the current issues relate to missing or delayed bags.

 

[Bamaman]

We flew into and out of London from the U.S. in June--no problems at LHR or Gatwick.

But I would be looking to fly into Munich or one of the Swiss airports or even Frankfurt.
We also like Madrid & Barcelona.

Right now, AMS is out as they're having employee shortages. It's usually one of my favorites.

 

[NW-Bound]

Thanks, all. I think I'll just gamble on airports, as I will not have any "critical" connections.

I haven't looked atmid-range hotel and B&B rates in Europe in two years. Yikes!

My days of being able to pull together a trip within 6 weeks of departure may be over.

Speaking of hotel reservations, this is the first time I take a trip without all lodgings pre-booked. My departure is in early September. I have been doing a lot of research to know my stays but am afraid of committing.

What if the airlines mess up, and I lose all the non-refundable prepaid hotel costs? Quite a few allow full refund only for cancellation way in advance of the stay. And I cannot be sure if I will get there or not.

And just out of curiosity, I check prices of hotel rooms, and it can vary by 1.5x from one week to the next. There must be a holiday or some events that drive the price that much.

 

[gayl]

I’ve flown through Heathrow four times in the last few months. The last time was a few weeks ago. It was busy, long lines to get through security, but otherwise fine. It took a bit over an hour to get through security.

Supposed to land at LHR T2 At 12:45 but it's been 12:15 for the last several weeks. Plane 1/2 full according to seating chart, carryon only.. Haven't bought National Express Coach ticket yet .... 1400 or 1515 ticket?

 

[tulak]

Supposed to land at LHR T2 At 12:45 but it's been 12:15 for the last several weeks. Plane 1/2 full according to seating chart, carryon only.. Haven't bought National Express Coach ticket yet .... 1400 or 1515 ticket?

Can you buy the ticket when you arrive?

That’s what I did and I don’t remember the bus being that full. But I can understand wanting a guaranteed seat.

 

[tulak]

Arrived in AMS 30 min early. So far the next flight is on time and if it wasn’t for the news reports, I couldn’t tell that there are any issues at Schiphol.

 

[tulak]

Arrived in AMS 30 min early. So far the next flight is on time and if it wasn’t for the news reports, I couldn’t tell that there are any issues at Schiphol.

Next flight left and arrived on time. Now to get through jet-lag.

 

[brett]

I believe that airports will get progressively better as time moves forward.

 

[brett]

Supposed to land at LHR T2 At 12:45 but it's been 12:15 for the last several weeks. Plane 1/2 full according to seating chart, carryon only.. Haven't bought National Express Coach ticket yet .... 1400 or 1515 ticket?

The last time we used National Express was to go from LHR to LGW.

We had the same issue...what time to reserve our ride. So we did a best guess. A little easier for us as we had carry on only. We bought on line, seniors fare, in advance.

Got to the National Express stop. The agent glanced at our ticket and we boarded. It was earlier than our reservation. It did not seem to matter as long as we had the ticket.

This was the second that time we experienced this. Unless things have changed it seems to me that this is what NE does. After all, so many others are in the same situation. Some will be early, others late, still others on their reserved coach time.

 

[gayl]

Last several posters in the cruise roll call are stating the Heathrow is not a mess!! Scheduled to fly in next Tuesday

 

[cj1717]

I've gotten the opthamologist "all clear" to flee the country in mid-September.

I would depart the US from: AUS, or IAH, or PHL (or somewhere I could Amtrak from Philly). Nonstop is ideal.

The general idea for a 6-7 week trip is UK (3 weeks) and then Eurostar to NL, working my way down toward Switzerland-ish through BE, DE, FR. Maybe swing over to western Austria. I'd return to the US from one of those.

But ....

(1) Heathrow is a mess. BA and AA are a mess. I could take the Singapore nonstop from IAH to MAN ... but is MAN a mess?

(2) Or I could take Aer Lingus to Dublin, recover from jet lag there for a couple of days, and then take the ferry to Wales, which is my target destination for a week or more in the UK.

(3) or perhaps from the US to Scotland if there is a nonstop?


For the return, AMS and FRA are a mess. Lufthansa is a mess. Any other airlines or airports in central Europe to avoid as I search for US return flights?

BTW, flights to/from Euorope will be on points, so open-jaw is quite feasible. I'd consider using the United Excursionist perk (one intra-European flight) but honestly trains seem simpler.

Suggestions? I'm a carry-on only traveler; my travel planning skills are very very rusty. ;-)

Just went through Heathrow twice. No problems or issues at all.

 

[bigreader]

MUC

Of course it depends on where you are going and who you are going with, but I try to fly through MUC. Smaller, easier connections and no where near the drama of LHR and FRA.

BR

 

[deserat]

Sitting at Premier Inn just north of Manchester airport right now. I got here last Thursday afternoon from Frankfurt-flught was late due to not enough push cart to push planes from gates- otherwise was fine-bag took a little longer to come out but it did. Lufthansa did change my flight back to Frankfurt to earlier in the day today, hence staying overnight at airport.

British trains are OK. The train to Liverpool on Thursday night was a mess...cancellations and jumping about. Coming back today it worked very well-one train with no changes from Liverpool-I was in West Kirby of The Wirral.

Used Deutsche Bahn a lot this summer. They were horrible -never the same train routes that I purchased plus late or cancelled across the board. They've become like the Italian railways...horrible.

Driving around Germany and Switzerland this summer has been challenging as well. Germany did very little road work during COVID and then decided to do most of their road construction this August and September. It took 1.5 times the normal time to drive anywhere. Switzerland just suffered huge staus-traffic jams because there were too many people on the road for the size of their roads-2 lanes each way plus limited lanes for entry into the country-need a Swiss vignette for each year to drive in CH.

I do not know if travel will ease this fall and winter...it may due to probable much higher travel costs due to the much higher energy costs projected due to the energy issues happening here-Nord Stream closure and ever increasing petrol costs...this will ripple through all services here. That may inhibit local travel and other longer vacation travel for many people who live here.

If you have the funds to manage possible price reverberations, you should still have a good time over here. I have had a wonderful year traveling and still have a few more trips planned. Europe is open for tourist business.....