Airline/Airport/Travel questions and queries

Not sure about now, but I got caught unable to check in from abroad a few years ago - I was on a two-legged flight home from Spain, and couldn't check in for the second leg. Rang Aer Lingus, and they cheerfully said "oh no, sorry, not possible"!! I didn't have enough time to go out and check back in at the transit airport.

I checked in using my passport number instead, and it didn't cause any problems, but I don't know if that's just because I was lucky or what.

Now that's at least 3 or 4 years ago, so maybe things have changed. It might be worth contacting Aer Lingus on twitter to check.

Nearly gave me a heart attack at the time!

Due to fly to France next week on ALingus. Return leg has a “online check in available on X date” but first leg from Dublin has “online checkin unavailable” any ideas?

It used to be 30, it's 48 hours now.

Does anyone here know what is going on post pandemic with the security? I've been using the airport throughout and it seems that they simply do not have the staff in T1 to handle the number of passengers going through. I was 31 minutes the last time from starting the Q to loading up my tray.

It's really not good enough that they don't have enough staff to deal with the peak periods. The Fast Track is nothing but fast in name and now a complete rip off at peak times. It seems that it comes as a surprise each day and particularly at the weekend that it is a surprise that so many people are booked to travel through the airport, when they know exactly how many are due through.

This has been going on for weeks now. It's just extremely poor management from the DAA. They knew there would be delays in processing staff airport ID'S so they should have started their recruitment much earlier.

It always seems to be a T1 issue. Can they not move staff from T2 to T1 at peak times? I'm thinking of going through T2 next week for a T1 flight which I'm told is possible.

Thanks yes. But the issue is that it’s flagging that I won’t be able to checkin at all for that flight but simultaneously telling me when I can check in for the return leg. So it’s not that. AL customer support admitted it was not the timing but couldn’t tell me what it was

Birmingham airport (bhx) security:

How fast is fast track security at Birmingham airport? E.g. 5 mins? 20 mins?

Or, how faster is fast track security compared to normal security? E.g. Twice as fast, 10 times faster?

Yesterday's statement from DAA saying that they were, like airports everywhere else working very hard to solve the security staff problem was a disgrace, Of course our lazy journalists did not question this nonsense.

What are the delays in other major European airports?

Why are DAA taken unawares by traffic volumes? They had high volumes last Autumn, which I personally experienced.

They say they let 1,000 people go in 2020 when the pandemic hit. Did they expect that air travel would not recover: why not furlough staff in order to retain them?

What's the DAA CEO's name? Is it Rip Van Winkle?

1 in 25 people in the country currently have Covid.

It's not easy when people are ringing in sick every morning. I've had 2 different hands on jobs during Covid no possiblity of working from home and every days was a lottery as to whether you had a full team that day.

Both problems exist, one wouldn't be as big an issue without the other.

There have been several other posts which tend to excuse the DAA. With respect to rameire, experience in Manchester seems to be irrelevant, as the story now centres around the role of enhanced EU requirements for security vetting of airside staff. It seems that this process was not adequately prepared for the the DAA or other agencies (including the Dept of Transport).

Are there EU-wide reports of delays due to staff vetting issues? Any journalists prepared to get off their backsides an investigate this? Or do they content themselves by cutting and pasting DAA excuses?

Do you have to print off your passenger locator form or is having it on your phone sufficient? Flying Dublin - Faro with Ryanair. Cheers

I looked at our Ryanair one there. It says it below the Gate Closes time.

Ryanair doesn't do return flights. Each flight/leg is a separate booking.

Every leg will incur that charge.