Flying: The make-or-break of any holiday

The cornerstone of all travel journalism has always been destination advice: from familiar favourites to hidden treasures, consumers can gain trustworthy advice on where and where not to go. Even social media, though less highbrow, now offers travellers fairly valuable insights that can influence their next trip abroad. Therefore, if you’re aware of what you want to get out of a destination (and what you want to avoid) then it’s very hard in reality to have a less than decent holiday experience, ruling out any unavoidable complications. However, the process of actually getting there is far more of a minefield: whilst it may seem that travel options are endless, there are significant limitations on what companies offer flights to specific destinations as well as what airports you can fly from or feasibly travel to. Nevertheless, some choice still remains and while it may not necessarily matter where you land, the quality of flying, I believe, can ultimately determine that of any holiday experience.

To make this easier, I want to start with a hypothetical: a typical resident of a West Midlands town, let’s say Leamington Spa, someone with multiple options to weigh up when choosing where to travel from. In this case, Birmingham International would make most sense, due to its direct train links to Leamington, Coventry and, most crucially, Birmingham New Street. Yet, even if it’s certainly well-connected the range of destinations on offer can also be disappointingly limited, mostly catering to the family holiday market, and though it may appear theoretically equipped for a modern Britain it often feels dated and fairly depressing – both not ideal for inspiring a holiday atmosphere. The regions’ other major airport, East Midlands, is guilty of much the same also. However, unlike Birmingham, it is solely designed for a car driving nation, conveniently situated at the junction between the M1 and A50; whilst this may suit the family holiday market, it alienates other travellers.

What this all adds up to is that travellers will have a vastly different experience depending on which airport they choose to fly from

As a result, West Midlands residents and those from other areas of England often find themselves restricted to London’s major airports instead. Here, you will find far more than the run-of-the-mill flights to Greece or Spain on offer: Britain’s largest airport, Heathrow, acts as the major international gateway for the country. For many travellers it is unavoidable that they will have to fly from Heathrow, and its underground connections to the capital make it sufficiently accessible for them to do so.

Nevertheless, for other travellers, London’s more noticeably budget airports, Stansted and Luton, can appear far more tempting. I strongly advise against this sort of mindset. Though Luton is surprisingly relatively easy to reach from London, the airport has virtually nothing to it (there isn’t even a Wetherspoons) and its security queues are the stuff of nightmares. That said, out of my two visits, I have had one decent experience at Luton, and one that makes it worthy of its poor reputation. That reputation may be at times somewhat exaggerated but still bear in mind that the budget prices will always come at the cost of quality. Stansted, on the other hand, deserves the sort of reputation that Luton gets. The process of travelling there through Cambridgeshire’s backroads is equivalent to the journey to Mordor and upon arrival, you find that it’s nothing more than a warehouse-style pop-up airport, albeit this time with a decent Spoons. Still, it hardly offsets the sense of drudgery in the air. Especially in this case, the budget prices in no way warrant the inconvenience. What this all adds up to is that travellers will have a vastly different experience depending on which airport they choose to fly from. Although it may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, there is an incredible discrepancy between, say, Heathrow and Luton compared to Prague and Krakow.

I think it’s easy to overlook how much flying shapes the whole travel experience, particularly if it’s a bad one

Flights themselves also vary in quality, although that goes without saying. Of course, passengers are well aware of what they’re getting into when it comes to such budget airlines as Wizz Air or Ryanair. However, in a similar fashion to how passengers tolerate the likes of Luton, I think it’s easy to overlook how much flying shapes the whole travel experience, particularly if it’s a bad one. I’ll admit I’ve also been guilty of forgetting this too.

Henceforth, I propose that travellers should be far more concerned about flying rather than just choosing the cheapest or seemingly easiest option. If anything, consumers should work backwards whenever they book trips: as opposed to finding a destination and then being directed toward limited options for flying, travellers should start with a desired airport and airline and then see where that takes them. This way, you’d be more likely to guarantee a decent trip rather than setting yourself up for disappointment. In essence, a good quality flying experience could be the difference between memories made and those best forgotten.