London Stansted Airport Reviews 

Having booked flight, fast pass and long stay parking through Ryanair I was expecting a smooth trip.
Arriving at the long stay the automatic barrier failed to open. No actual staff just an intercom and not a very clear one at that. Explained I had a booking and gave my registration to be told I must have entered it incorrectly or the barrier would have opened "not a polite start" - having established then my booking number I'm informed I have booked Fast Pass security (yes thanks I know) but no car parking. I must be mistaken. Having confirmed that I had downloaded a receipt (on home PC) that confirmed payment I was still denied entry and redirected to the mid stay car park. Delaying me to the point of almost missing my flight (BTW Fast Pass is not really - they just shove you in earlier in the queue and then delay you).
Having raised the issue with Ryanair (useless just directed me to Stansted) on the same day and with Stansted customer services the next day.
Initial reply said they did not have any record of a booking but "but we do understand there is some IT issues affecting some bookings which they are currently investigating". 11 days later and exchanges back and forth but no resolution. So I email again on the morning of my flight back. Excellent I receive a response days after my return saying they hope my concerns had been addressed.

Well actually not because I was denied exit from the car park (because nobody in 11 days could be bothered between Stansted and Ryanair to confirmed I'd paid for parking).
I'm then confronted with a payment request for £540 - Vs the £67 I'd paid already for the same period.
To add insult to injury via another poor intercomm link I'm advised that they quite often have this type of problem and I should book directly.
Having explained the saga I'm asked to email proof to the longest most difficult to type address possible. Havin eventually managed to get a copy of the receipt and ryanir response saying I had parking I'm informed that "I can see you think you booked parking" as a good will gesture I'll open the barrier on the occasion. It's not B***dy good will if I've paid in advance and collectively Ryanair and Stansted can't manage a booking confirmation.
As my frustration was starting to show (having now been delayed bu 20-30 mins) some sort of apology form me appears to be required to open the barrier.
To add insult to injury I'm again informed that this is a good will gesture and if "I make this mistake again" I'll be subject to a penalty charge.

So so sum up, blame the customer for your mistake, if they are not prepared with proof of the error charge them an extortionate fee for the privileged, while being as uninterested as possible into the bargain.

To add further insult, the nice lady at customer services, replied to the email I sent the morning of my return to say "she was sorry for the delayed reply but hoped that my concerns had been resolved". Well frankly no they had not been because nobody could actually be bothered in 12 days to do anything about them.

While I'm on the subject Stansted really should be a national disgrace. the Condition on the facilities in arrivals if appalling , consistently dirty. Embarrassing that this is visitors first impression of the UK. Especially after the standards of European airports.

Avoid like the plague! 4th world airport,the shame of Europe. Unbelievable this can be allowed to happen in the UK. Animals treated better. Queues for everything, no seats, no way finding. Security from dark ages. It's handling many times more passengers than it was designed for. The saving on Ryan Air, which was actually very well run to be fair, is not worth this hell hole.

Avoid Stansted. They'll make you miss your flight, unless you arrive many hours in advance. One thing is that they are upgrading the luggage scanners, but the scanners are not able to make a good image of your bag. Your luggage has to be checked by a rude staff on many occasions.
I would recommend Luton , Gatwick , Heathrow instead. More clean facilities, friendlier staff.

I arrived at midnight from Morocco and not having been to Stansted Airport in many years, I was utterly shocked at the current extremely poor condition of this so called International airport. In Arrivals literally hundreds of people sleeping on the hard marble floor as there is no seating other than some purposefully uncomfortable bench seating near the food court which was full of contorted bodies trying desparately to get some sleep waiting for connecting flights. This is one of the so called wealthiest countries in the world and we can't even afford comfortable seats at our airports, its truly shocking. The Airport looks tired, dirty and broken like most of Britain these days. The smell in the only mens WC that was open, was absolutely appaling. It genuinely made me gag...utterly unforgiveable condition. Those in charge of this airport need to be sacked and replaced with human beings who respect the travelling public who pay their no doubt grossly inflated salaries. The whole place needs shutting down and to be completely refurbished to an acceptable modern standard....its a really good reminder of why I decided to leave the UK...in decline and no sign of that changing....disgraceful...!!!...hard working Brits and visitors to this country deserve far better.

This is a poor excuse for an airport. Booked on a 7.40 flight.. due to an ATC told to get to airport and allow 3 hours to go through security... Downside when traveling from London the last train is 23:30 and first train is 05:00... I decided to get the 23:30 got here nothing open, told cannot go through security until 03:00... There's hardly any seats and the only retail is a Costa, Burger king and a pharmacy. I don't see why they are opening security so late when all passengers have been told to get to the airport early. You need to provide better seating and more retail IE a pub would be fantastic!!!

At midnight they close 3/4s for cleaning now there's old people and children sitting on cold dirty floors. This will be the last time I travel via Stansted.

Horrific security queues! Worst i have ever experiemced in the world and i am a regular traveller.

I would give negative rating if I could. I’m flying today, 20th Dec, and I spent nearly 2 hours queuing for security – no bins and no bathrooms. The bins where you usually dispose of liquids etc were in a different area which was made into fast track, meaning not only longer waiting times for anyone who’s not “priority”, but also that you’d practically be forced to buy priority/fast track in order not to miss your flight!!!

On top of that, the escalators are broken, the bathrooms are dirty and there’s no personnel, there are extremely long queues even just to fill up a water bottle (tap water is always super hot which I’ve always thought was a way to make you buy bottled water). This airport is a nightmare and although nothing works they’ll try to charge you for EVERYTHING. I know flights are cheaper from here but if you can please avoid (and consider all the extra expenses you’d incur if you were to fly from here)

This airport is a complete shambles, and I will never fly from there again. Having spent nearly 2 hours in a queue for security snaking around the whole airport, there was no information, not one explanation, apology or any contact from any member of staff. Many people will have missed flights because of this. We have previously experienced similar issues with passport control at arrivals.

Having finally made it on to the plane, we were due to depart when it was discovered that a catering truck had broken down behind the aircraft causing more hours of delay. Apparently it is beyond the wit of man to tow the vehicle out of the way to allow departure. Instead we are forced to wait for who knows how many more hours while an engineer travels from off site to deal with the issue. If it takes the engineer as long to get through security as the thousands of beleaguered passengers who spent all morning queuing, I dread to think when we will ever depart.

There are signs around the airport stating £1.1 billion is being invested in the airport. I would suggest knocking this hell hole down and starting again. Easy to see why Jet2 are looking to increase their number of routes out of Gatwick, as Stansted is a complete joke in all honesty. I don't expect this level of incompetence and lack of customer service. Completely unacceptable. Avoid this airport at all costs.

20 dec, ridiculous queues at security. Why sell so many planes slots if you cant deal with the inflow? Such bad management.. horrible experience

The staff were rude and very disorganised, and I felt there was a lack of respect towards customers. I would not recommend this airport.

Stansted plumbs new depths of utter sh1te. If you don’t know your way round, it’s a nightmare.
If you don’t have fast track then you’ll be a queue for aeons. If you don’t like walking, you’ll be disappointed. If you want anywhere quiet - sorry!
Basically it’s a poorly run excuse for an airport that is 100% focused on the £££ and has zero interest in customers. The one positive used to be on arrival from inside the U.K. you could walk out of the place or walk thru to your connection. Clearly that was too much like useful. So now you’ll be herded into a bus and dropped a good 5 mins walk from no where. Just in case !!

Drop off charge. Another reason to loathe UK and capitalism

Shocking airport. Over an hour to get through security and no connecting flights. Have to leave building on arrival from Edinburgh where I had cleared security in less than 5 minutes and had been declared safe to travel. No way of getting to my connecting flight to Murcia without re-doing security. Massively overcrowded and very poor service from the airport staff.

This airport is so bad, i remember i was alone some meters away from my parents. Then this black security women came really mad at me and scolded me. First of all the airport is too packed, second of all security and sitting places is nowhere. This airport is jus hell but yeah

Flew from Stansted Airport and found the staff very rude and unhelpful. Long delays getting through security. The staff were in no rush to help get people through even some people were going to miss their flight. No pleasantries from security staff although the staff at duty free were lovely.
The airport is dirty and badly signposted.
Would not fly in or out of here again.
Would advise against using this airport if possible.

I am almost sure there is a health and safety issue here, as the amount of people in such a confined area for a protracted period of time is tantamount to reckless endangerment.
Also I would not like to rely on the competence of staff in an emergency based on todays observation.

So new security screening machines, same 100ml rules , fast track took one hour, as they figure out how to use the machines which during my sojourn crashed , lengthening an already abysmal experience

What a mess. I arrived at Stansted two hours before my flight, as instructed, and the security area was absolute chaos. The queue was enormous — not because of passenger volume, but because several security lanes were closed. People were waiting for over an hour, with no clear communication or urgency from staff. To make matters worse, some of the security personnel were noticeably rude and dismissive. A really poor experience overall.

Now one of the worst uk airports. Security was unexceptionable slow with very long queue. Security staff were rude and obnoxious and when you land as a domestic arrival you are now herded on to busses like cattle, taken to a small arrival area with uncovered walkways, leaving you soaked if it raining. A terrible experience that won’t be repeated. Luton airport in future

1 hour of queues for security, staff shrugging shoulders, broken lighting, dark departure gates, dirty floors, information screens not working or displaying the wrong information. Thought we caught Stansted on a bad day, but it looks like this is business as usual at Stansted.