Living where we live we have we tendency to fly a lot. While the flights are generally short, never more than an hour and a half end most around an hour, and the planes are small, 30 to 40 people, it means we end up flying in and out of various airports up and down the country. Off the top of my head the list includes; Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester, Exeter, Gatwick and Heathrow and in our previous life we could add Newcastle, London City and Southampton, to name a few.
So what has all this thought me? Every airport seems to have a very different idea of the rules. Obviously, so rules are pretty universal, no knives on the plane for eaxmple, that's a standard one across the board, but what drinks can you take through security for children or what id do you need for them? Stuff like that seems to change at every airport.
With every journey we have to fly through the local airport, not a lot of choice here as there is only one on the island, and its about as pleasurable an experience as you can get going through an airport. All the staff are friendly and happy pleasant people, who sound genuine when they apologize for having to go through your bags. The little man likes going through the metal detectors, as he gets a sticker the other side. The staff have even held the young lady for my wife when she was traveling with both the kids alone. Granted, when you get the otherside of security there is only a small coffee counter and a duty free that is never open (opens for the flights to Norway which happen about 1 a week in the summer), there is a nice view of the runway.
In contrast, flying through London is one of the most stressful things I do these days, if not the most, and everyone there seems miserable and grumpy and on some sort of permanent power trip, unwilling to bend any rules even if it means massively inconveniencing the travelers. We've been moaned at because the little lady won't got through the metal detectors on her own and so they have had to do a manual search after, while acting like this is the biggest pain in the arse. We've be challenged over bringing drinks for the kids, despite the fact that were transiting through and have already been through one airport with no problems.
Traveling through Glasgow and Edinburgh are better, the staff seem less grumpy and don't act like everything is a major effort, but the experience is never what I would call pleasant. We've had a few incidents traveling through these airports but they haven't been as bad as in London. Most have been about the kids drinks, however, I've found away around this one!
When we were away with my parents, mum brought some squash for the kids and had some of the Robinson's Squashed bottles, which as it turns out are only 66ml, well under the 100ml limit and fit in with all the usual changing bag related items in one of those clear bags that they have. This means that turning those bottles of water back in to squash after security is simple.
The main thing though that prompted this post was traveling through Manchester the other week when we got stopped at the security desks just before the x-ray machines. They stopped us and asked for our id, at which pi t the wife and I handed over our driving licenses as we always do. They then asked for the kids id's, something we've never been asked for, apart from traveling to America with the little man. At this point, we were a little shocked, having flown down no problems and the only id we had was the young ladies birth certificate to prove she's under two (she was 22 months and she's quite big for her age) and thus doesn't need as seat but that was for check in purposes only and had been checked with the baggage. After some phone calls and some discussions, some of which I misses due to an emergence dash to the little boys room with the little man. When I returned I was informed that it was alright but we'd have to have our biometrics taken, a bit of a pain but not a major problem. Well, that's not what the kids decided! Trying to get pictures taken of children when their not playing ball is not easy! Lucky we got everything sorted and were still in pleantly of time for the plane. Having traveled with the kids about 1 every 2 or 3 months, this is the first time I've come across this problem and I would have thought that a major airport like Manchester should know what there doing. Anyway we made it home but we'll have the kids id somewhere to had in the future!
