there appears to be one train an hour without changes the rail terminal is under the main concorse seestanstead web site

wizard

sadiejp
station is directly below airport. off train ,on to escalators, easy.
going back you have to walk down ramp to get to the station

Can anybody tell me how much it costs to park in the Short Stay car park at Stansted ? My brother works at Stansted and tells me that you need a mortgage to park there

Short stay is around £21.50 per day.

For shorter stays the charges are £1.50 for 15mins, £3 for the first hour, then around £2 per hour thereafter untill the daily rate kicks in.

Definitely expensive.

Blimey CIMMN!!! Mega bucks then. It may be cheaper to stay in a nearby hotel overnight, then get the shuttle to the airport and then back again when daughter has gone through customs." I think I'll have to think it out again!!"

3 years ago, hubby and I got delayed on a Belfast-Stansted flight. Dad had already left home by the time we found out how late we were going to be. He went over the 2 hours in the short stay by a matter of minutes even though we legged it as fast as possible from exiting baggage reclaim to the car. That was expensive. lesson learnt from that was that we phoned them just before getting on the plane and then they left home as they live about 1hr15 mins drive from Stansted. We don't use Belfast anymore as it's cheaper for us to travel to Dublin.

Another idea. If we stayed overnight in a nearby hotel , would I be able to get her to the airport on the hotel shuttle, see her through customs at about 1pm and leave my car at the hotel until I got back on the shuttle to return to collect it. Would this incur a days parking at the hotel ontop of the overnight room rate which I presume includes parking?
Secondly, any good recommendations for a hotel. I have been told about the Hilton, Radisson SAS and Express Holiday Inn although I don't really know anything about any of them.

Flew for the first time with Ryanair last weekend from Stansted to Pau in France. We parked in the Mid Stay Car park which was only a few mins from the main terminal. Check in was quick and we were also through security in a matter of minutes - despite being body searched and having to take off our shoes. This meant we were in the main departure lounge at 4:40am, an hour before boarding was due (1 hr 40 mins before take off).

This was when our problems began! We went straight over to Weatherspoons to order breakfast. There were only 3 people serving on the bar so I had to queue for 30 mins to order our food, only be told that they had run out of pancakes so I had to get my friend a cold muffin instead. I decided to go and buy magazines etc while my food was being cooked, only to find that the queue in WHSmiths snaked round the entire perimeter of the shop. So I went back to Wetherspoons where my friend had just finished her muffin and asked if she would mind queueing in WHSmiths while I waited for my food. Literally just after she left, the departure board said 'Final Call' for our flight! By this point, it was about 20 mins before we were due to board, but I was still very worried that we might miss the plane. My food took another 5 mins - whe it came I bolted it down and went to look for my friend, who by this time had been queueing in WHSmiths for 15 mins. We then ran to the departure gate, only to find out that it hadn't even opened yet.

After this experince, I wouldn't fly from Stansted again unless I had no other option! I can understand why they would want to encourage passengers to get to the departure gate early, but not that they allow their outlets to be so understaffed. It was a really stressful start to our trip!

Hi all
We are flying a week on Saturday, and we are travelling by train from the Midlands. Never been from Stansted before. What is the station like and the access to the airport?
We are going to Ibiza with Easyjet, what are the queues like we fly at teatime? What desks do they use, any advice or information would be helpful.
Thank you in advance
Dawnie-Rob

Hi all
Returned from Ibiza last Saturday.
We hadn't flown from Stansted before and had never visited before. What a chaotic airport. Badly laid out. Check in Desks opposite one another and not enough clearance. Queues running into each other from opposite directions. People cutting across you if you walked across the terminal and they were coming through the main doors, when there was inches between members of your family who were following close behind. We got separated from our 12 year old son a number of times because of this, don't know if it was bad location of the doors or pig ignorance of people cutting in between parents and children.
Regarding train station, if you are coming or going from London you are looked after, but if you are arriving and going from other places like the Midlands where we live the platform is open to the elements and you get wet. What a disgrace, surely they could have extended the roof over the platform.
Immigration and the passport control is a joke, we were there about half hour queueing on our return. It was like the bank, if you picked the wrong one you were had it. The one we were in was so slow the other queues were fast, people on our flight who went in the other queues were long gone by the time we got to the desk. We don't know how long our suitcases were going round the carousel by the time we got to them.
The arrival area is too cramped as you come out you are suddenly into hoards of people, The main entrance hall should have a bigger area than this.
The designers of this airport certainly didn't think it out properly, they don't need an extension on the runway, its the terminal that needs to have an extension.

Dawnie-Rob

I'm going to be booking a flight out of Stansted at 8:05 in the morning. Would I be able to make it in from central london, if I caught the first stansted express train? Or would I be cutting it too close? According to the travel times on the stansted express site I could make it, but I wanted to hear if maybe they are delayed often or what other people's advice would be.

Hi there

I posted this on another thread but it may be useful here

We have just recieved our Harlow Herald free paper which has an article regarding Stansted.

In that article it says that people arriving in cars should use the short stay car park as a drop off / pick up point until further notice.

I've looked on the website for BAA Stansted & that doesnt show much information.
It does give prices of the car parks though the cheapest being from 0 - 30 minutes costing £1.00.

Bit of a cheek to ask that for a two minute drop off but I totally understand its better than the worst scenario of a repeat Glasgow incident.

I think that everyone needs to add time for their journey to accomodate the extra security measures, in and around the airport and on transport to the airport.

Elaine x

Hi

My son picked my husband up from Stansted on Sunday {1.7.07} and although he had to park in a short stay car park due to heightened security the barrier did not close and no tickets came out of the machine.On enquiry he was told there was no charge for parking there to drop and pick people up while people where unable to stop outside the airport at the normal drop off/pick up points.

Thanks for that Jackie

Its annoying when the media (local paper) and the website / Airport cannot be consistant with their information.

It would help so many people if they did

Elaine x

Hi all
Returned from Ibiza last Saturday.
We hadn't flown from Stansted before and had never visited before. What a chaotic airport. Badly laid out. Check in Desks opposite one another and not enough clearance. Queues running into each other from opposite directions. People cutting across you if you walked across the terminal and they were coming through the main doors, when there was inches between members of your family who were following close behind. We got separated from our 12 year old son a number of times because of this, don't know if it was bad location of the doors or pig ignorance of people cutting in between parents and children.
Regarding train station, if you are coming or going from London you are looked after, but if you are arriving and going from other places like the Midlands where we live the platform is open to the elements and you get wet. What a disgrace, surely they could have extended the roof over the platform.
Immigration and the passport control is a joke, we were there about half hour queueing on our return. It was like the bank, if you picked the wrong one you were had it. The one we were in was so slow the other queues were fast, people on our flight who went in the other queues were long gone by the time we got to the desk. We don't know how long our suitcases were going round the carousel by the time we got to them.
The arrival area is too cramped as you come out you are suddenly into hoards of people, The main entrance hall should have a bigger area than this.
The designers of this airport certainly didn't think it out properly, they don't need an extension on the runway, its the terminal that needs to have an extension.

Dawnie Rob. I can sympathise with you. OH and I have never had that problem although we don't have children. Age 12, in crowded places I always stayed close to Dad and if I thought we were going to get seperated would catch onto his coat or anything I could hold onto. Never failed. As for the train station, I agree with the platform that is open to the elements, even in May, it was cold waiting for our train. It is partially covered though (the part above the track is covered but not the platform if I remember correctly). The other thing is thsat when Stansted Airport opened, it was big enough but the number of airlines and passengers using it has increased and now the airport is too small. I thought an extension to the terminal was in the expansion plans.
If you want to see a good expansion plan check out http://www.dublinairport.com It's costing them a big fortune and is already looking impressive.

already posted this on ryanair site, but not yet got reply.
can anyone help with this

if i use the check and go facility at stansted -i've paid for this for the first time to fly to gerona - do i have to queue at check-in as normal or can i just go straight to the security gate.
i believe at gerona i still have to go to the check-in, is that right as well.
i know that you get to be in the different queue so you get boarded first, but what is the difference between check and go and priority bookings.
thanks
jim

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Can't help you about check-in as I've never bothered with it so didn't actually notice.

One good point about Stansted however is that they have big piles of the plastic bags available for you to just help yourself, so any of you who haven't managed to get one elsewhere can stop panicking It was such a pity I didn't actually need one when I flew out to Toulon last week, but I picked up a few as a matter of principle. Security was very tight and we even had our shoes x-rayed, but there were no big delays and everything seemed to run fairly smoothly.

A bit of a daft worry, but here goes

On Tuesday 14th Aug were flying out to Mallorca at 07.25am. (First choice airways)

According to the met office website, we are due some pretty disgusting weather, rain and gales.

How likely would we be delayed ?

I know no one can say for sure, but im worrying myself silly here

Elaine x

I've been on flights during rain and heavy cloud which haven't been delayed or if they have it's only been a few minutes which has been made up on the way to destination.