re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.
OXF (train station) – BHX – STR AB9119
I was keen to avoid the London airports, especially LHR. I also had a day up my sleeve before my return flight from FRA to CMB, so decided to fly to Stuttgart and then take a train the next morning to FRA. Even better, Hotel prices were much lower in Stuttgart than in Frankfurt for the night I wanted.
I booked on Air Berlin having noticed that they were “now flying” from BHX-STR. Actually, they are not flying that route at all. It was a codeshare on a Flybe aircraft. For some reason I can’t figure out, it has earnt 0 QFF status credits or points. I probably need to follow this up. It was an AB flight booked through AB on the AB website, with an AB number. I don’t see any AB fare classes that don’t earn on Qantas. Maybe I’ve missed something, though.
The train from Oxford arrived and departed on time. I had a seat booked and luckily no one else was sitting in it yet. Plenty of people were sitting wherever they felt like. The reservation system on board consisted of a little slip of paper stuck behind the head rest. It isn’t that easy to tell what part of the trains journey a seat is reserved for. Often seats seemed to be reserved, but never occupied.
It was a short journey on a very crowded train. When we arrived at BHX station I had to push through a throng of people all boarding without waiting for others to get off. They seemed very surprised to see someone alighting, with luggage, at the airport station.
From the train station it is an easy and very short walk to the airport terminal. The two buildings are connected.
As it was a Flybe flight there was no priority check in or any status benefits at all and BHX is a bit of a LCC zoo. My advice would be to use LHR. I joined the queue and waited patiently for my turn. Oh, you have to wait in a line to check in like most airports, but when you get to the desk there is no person, it is an automatic kiosk! The kiosk read my passport and then told me it could not process my boarding pass and that I should ask a staff member for help. I did and he just snapped at me “insert your passport as shown” and then walked off. I went and asked him again only to be told I’d just have to wait. To be fair, I can see why he was cross. The person I had to wait for didn’t understand how to put his bag on the conveyor/scales.
Finally the nice man came and inserted my passport and told me “it can’t process your boarding pass”. Oh, thanks Sherlock Holmes. “What should I do?”. Luckily he took the rejection slip that the kiosk printed out and came back after about 5 minutes with a boarding pass. Phew. Those auto kiosks sure do make it so much more efficient. Hundreds of people have to line up to use five or six kiosks? WTF?
Security was pretty slow too. If you fly out of BHS leave time for other pax to phaff around more than seems necessary at security.
There seems to be two lounges available at BHX. Neither One World lounges, both contract lounges but they did accept Priority Pass. The first one I tried was the No. 1 Traveller Lounge. It looked very full and, indeed, the dragon said “sorry, we’re fully booked”. Not quite sure what fully booked meant in a lounge but supposing that it is a thing, I moved to the much quieter Aspire Lounge. Got in with no problem. There were tables in there with “reserved” signs on them though. It seems odd.
Main terminal waiting area at BHX airside:
Not much in the lounge to speak of, some drinks and some bread rolls. Don’t think there were even toilets in there. It was better than the main terminal, though, which was very busy.
As I was leaving the lounge the “go to gate” message against my flight changed to a “delayed” notice. Went back to sit down for another hour.
The Flybe flights left from a distant pier. You have to go there and gather around info screens to see which gate your flight will leave from (A,B,C,D, etc). My flight got more and more delyed. Eventually we left a couple of hours late. The morning flight to STR out of BHX had been delayed by bad weather. It had been a foggy morning.
The flight was non-descript, like normal domestic Y. Better legroom than MH Y though.