Hello everyone,
this time I´m coming up with a rather low-cost report with a flight dating few months back to October 2014. During summer me and my father decided to go to London to spend there two days with some city exploring and of course - some spotting, which we later decided this trip would be his birthday gift. I managed to find some really cool fare and we chose Wizzair for flight from Brno to Luton for a great fare of 10€ + another few euros for priority boarding and standard cabin baggage.
Ryanair was an airline we selected for our return leg, Stansted - Brno, still at good price of 20£. As I previously posted a report with both BRQ-LTN and LTN-BRQ flights, I decided not to write one about our first leg this time. The whole experience was very similar to previous one, just the cabin crew was not only good, but simply excelent.
Having been to Myrtle Ave two times in past I had to admit once again that Heathrow really is an aviation paradise. During the two days we spend maybe 8 hours around airport spotting all kind of traffic.
As well as with spotting at Heathrow, London too is well known by many aviation enthusiasts so I´ll skip right to the returning flight.
We opted for Easybus to get to Stansted leaving Gloucester place some 3,5hours prior to departure. We managed to get soaked wet during a heavy rain which hit us about hour before leaving London. The travel with Easybus was pretty painful then, simply due to being in wet clothes and cramped in an uncomfy bus (you know Easybus, right?).
At least the journey to the airport was quick and we soon arrived at London Stansted airport.
This is the place where all buses arrive at Stansted. You can still opt for a Stansted express train, but last time I checked for the price it was like 22£ one-way which is pretty crazy price provided the fact Stansted is a lowcost airport.
Last time I was at Stansted it was 2 years ago and my feeling from airport was positive and I felt very good there. This time during a daylight, I felt like being at one dirty, crowded and simply not nice place.
Only these FIDS were pleasant to my eyes, but it´s way too little
I was very surprised to see these kiosks around and I quickly went to reprint my boarding pass. Just until I saw they charge 10€ or something for priting one BP.
As we agreed there is nothing to do at this airport we decided to go to security which took us around 15 minutes.
We went to buy some souvenirs in this nice looking shop.
First outside views showed the weather changed significantly during the last hour and there was worse weather to come.
There simply wasn´t anywhere to take a seat airside.
En route towards our departure gate.
At this time I started feeling our take off would be pretty bumpy as the weather continued to get worse. And I was very excited about that.
One of FR birds before the storm arrived.
And this one is after it all started. Heavy rain with strong winds arrived. I found those conditions close to the limit, but everything seemed to operete untouched.
It was already very crowded when we arrived at our gate. Fortunately Ryanair features allocated seating since 2014 so no stress about the seats.
Weather got better until it was our turn to board but still it wasn´t the most positive experience.
Hidding inside. At the door I was offered an inflight magazine. Oh no, I forgot there is no seatpocket in FR 738s.
Sneak view into cockpit.
Classic FR seats.
Legroom was as expected, not very generous but still fine for 2hours flight.
I took a middle seat while my father seated himself at the window. It was about to be dark in 10 minutes so nothing was visible outside.
We departed on time and the weather was much better than at the time we arrived at gates area. The flight was pretty uneventful since take off to landing.
FAs came into the action 20 minutes into the flight, I ordered myself fries and a coke during BOB service. Crew on the flight was simply excelent, mainly one 20-25 aged male. He was very relaxed and attended everyone in a great manner. I paid for my order in pounds and he returned me a pound and told I gave him too much. I asked him if he is sure at which he replied yes. After he counted coins again he started to smile and I gave him back the pound as I knew I gave him a correct amount. He apologized that it was his first flight on that day. I asked him where does he continue then and he said he was flying only STN-BRQ and back that day. What a short shift!
The whole crew was just great when I compare it for example to my Turkish Airlines experience.
Also interior felt fine. At least when I consider it´s an unfamous Ryanair. In the end, maybe there are only 2 things I don´t like about Ryanair: lack of a seatpocket; and safety card attached to the seatback.
..Yeah and maybe I would be thankful for little less of yellow color inside.
But still, the flight was fine and I enjoyed my stay onboard.
Time quickly went by and soon we were descending towards Brno. Everything was set for western arrival over the city at night at which we both looked forward to. We left the clouds just at the Brno suburbs and enjoyed the great views on our little bumpy approach. One minute to landing we overflew my house where my girlfriend noticed our arrival (there are usually not more than 2 flights per day at Brno). We touched down and after powerfull reverse came to a stop and taxied to the terminal.
After disembarking we enjoyed last nice views of our bird and headed into the terminal.
Immigration was quick and in no time we were in the public area awaiting arrival of my brother who we arranged to take us home.
There is really not very much more I can say about this flight to my hometown so I would like to thank you for your attention and see you next time.
Michael
Great report, thank you !
Great pictures, despite (or because) of the bad weather. The narrative is very detailed too. Thanks for sharing !
Thanks for sharing this interesting report with lots of good pics as usual! As nice as the pics are...I still don't want to fly Ryanair :-P
Yes, London is a spotter's paradise. I certainly wouldn't mind if you added some planespotting pics from your London trip as a bonus to the end of your report :-)
Would love to see them!
Hello and thank you everyone. Alright I might try to upload some during the weekend.
In fact I was not going to write about this trip just until I saw the bad weather arriving as it made me super-excited.