Afternoon all, thought I'd do a quick report of our recent trip which was a typical package holiday with Thomson/TUI, our first trip with them in quite a while.
TUI offer day before bag drop at Birmingham which we intended to make use of so we headed to the airport with our bags on Friday 25th. The TUI website has three little words missing (or at least I didn't see them) that you see written on the screens when you arrive at the airport, "Subject to availability!" We picked up the phone and dialled the number quoted on several occasions but there was no answer. We kept calling for quite a while and then decided to give up, especially with the airport parking clock ticking, in fairness the TOM check in area was absolutely heaving. Being only 10 mins drive from BHX it wasn't too much of an inconvenience for us but for those who live further away it may be worth a call in advance.
So back we were again at T2 in the wee small hours of the 26th, TUI had 5 or 6 flights checking in with a steady stream of people arriving, the staff managed the queue well never letting it build up too much. I had a quick wander round and saw huge queues at Monarch (massive), Jet2 and Thomas Cook which was nice to see. As said elsewhere, being a busy weekend we had booked the security express lane and am so glad we did. From joining the back of the small queue to entering World Duty Free must have been 5-6 mins, I'd definitely take advantage of this again. The departure lounge was heaving but we were lucky to get seated in Wetherspoons fairly quickly for breakfast. I didn't manage to catch Mr Dempsey on this occasion, maybe next time.
Boarding was on a bus from gate 50 which is in the new bussing area, accessed by the stairs opposite Costa in the pier. I can't comment on the new area as we got to the bottom of the stairs, showed the boarding cards then got straight on the bus. The bus pick up was almost under the nose of a recently arrived Qatar 787, I would have got a picture but all of the service vehicles were doing their thing so there wasn't really a decent angle.
We were on 757 G-OOBE heading out with a departure from remote stand 81. Boarding was completed with the doors shut pretty much on time although we actually departed RWY 33 approx 35 mins late, this was due to ATC restrictions into Mahon and nothing to do with BHX, in any case we made up some time en route and landed only 20 mins behind schedule. There was one row blocked off but other than that I didn't see any empty seats.
Arrival at a very hot Mahon saw us park on a remote stand, after disembarking the bus we saw the queue for immigration was reaching out of the arrivals corridor. It moved very slowly and must have been 40-45 mins to get through. Despite the queuing we still had to wait another 20 mins or so for our two bags. In fairness Mahon is not a huge airport and there were quite a few arrivals, the usual TUI, Jet2, Thomas Cook, Monarch etc along with some Iberia Regional.
Check in for the return flight this morning was painless and security moved quickly. The departures area at Mahon is not the biggest and got rather hot and crowded, we found a little cafe and had a (very expensive) bite to eat. The inbound flight was scheduled to depart Birmingham at 07:40 this morning but actually departed at 09:24 meaning it landed in Menorca 1hr and 20 mins behind schedule. The aircraft was 757 G-OOBB which parked directly in front of us and it looked a very healthy load getting off. Boarding was pretty quick although once we were all on and ready to go the Captain told us there would be another 20 mins until engine start, this lead to quite a few groans up and down the cabin but it's just one of those things. Eventually we pushed back with a Vueling A320 to the left of us and after a short taxi we were on our way. I had a quick walk up and down the plane and as far as I could see there were no empty seats at all.
We landed today on RWY15 at 14:52 after a flight time of 2h 26m (the scheduled time of arrival was 13:30). EK40 was holding (amongst others) as we landed giving us a great view of it's departure as we taxied to the gate. We parked on stand 54L, again with a Vueling A320 on our left and were lucky enough to get a jet bridge. After a walk along the pier and a brief comfort stop we were greeted by a lengthy queue at UKBF and after spotting a PIA 777 taxiing in I feared the worst. As it was the queue moved continuously and were we into the baggage area in around 15 mins. The real bonus though was our first suitcase coming through in around 5 mins with the second only 3-4 mins behind, after the usual bread and milk stop we were on our way to the car in no time at all 👍
I usually look forward to going through BHX but after recent events and this being peak school holiday time I have to say that I was dreading it. Thankfully it turned out to be the complete opposite and everything flowed as it should, BHX a it's very best 👍 It may be that our delay meant missing the lunchtime rush so it could have actually been a blessing in disguise. The 757 is one of my favourite aircraft and it's been quite some years since I've been on one so this was a real treat. There are reports out there about horrendous leg room but I can't say that I found it any worse than Monarch, Norwegian etc. Overall they were nice flights and the crew on both were great 👍
This was our second trip to Menorca and it is still as beautiful as ever. It was our first time to Cala n' Bosch and it really is a great resort, very family orientated with all of the restaurants catering for the kids as much as the adults. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone with little ones 👍
One observation I made whilst there is just how wide the Jet2 Holidays net is being cast. Upon arrival we spotted a huge Jet2 Holidays advert on the side of the Mahon Airport terminal building with more Jet2 Holidays advertising on the little fun train that toured our resort. When waiting in reception this morning there must have been 25-30 families heading home, when the first (double decker) coach for the Jet2 flights pulled up all but two got on, there was only us and one other family waiting for TUI. During our stay the Jet2 Rep was at our hotel every day and seemed to stay for quite a while, I think I saw the TUI Rep twice (although I can't say that I was particularly looking so it's possible that they were there more often), Jet2 were definitely more visible though. Checking in at Mahon this morning there were several Jet2 staff marshalling the queue to keep it flowing, at the TUI desks there was one woman stood at the back talking away to one of the check in agents. Even in the departure lounge there were numerous Jet2 staff overseeing their departures. From what I saw I was very impressed with their operation, as was Mrs F who said 'Jet2 Holidays seem really good, we should look at travelling with them next time.' This is not a slight on TUI as we found them great but the Jet2 machine must be working as it's not like Mrs F to take any interest in that sort of thing, she just gets on whatever plane I book the seats on 🙂
Anyway, if you've managed to stay awake and have got this far thanks very much for reading 👍
