The Dublin Airport experience

jayzee

My experience in Dublin airport is that the toilets stink and are rarely clean - such a basic bought in service and the first experience of many who arrive here.
Having said that it prepares them well for what they will encounter in the rest of the country

Boxcar_Willie

What I struggle to understand is why will they confiscate a nail scissors then after security you can get a metal knife & fork at any of the food outlets ?

Spanish Eyes

jayzee wrote: »

My experience in Dublin airport is that the toilets stink and are rarely clean - such a basic bought in service and the first experience of many who arrive here.
Having said that it prepares them well for what they will encounter in the rest of the country

Ah but like most airports Arrivals do not spend money in the shops/cafes etc. So not much thought put into their comfort I reckon.

The Departures in Dub is not great in either T1 or T2, but true to my cynical self I only ever have a coffee or a juice, and grab an Honesty Water and am on my way.

goingnowhere

The male jacks in T2 baggage hall was a disgrace until recently.

That said the toilets in Terminal C at TXL are the worst I've seen in Europe

mikemac2

I´d like to add to the deserved praise for Gatwick that's already on the thread

Security staff are so friendly and I've only had excellent experiences in that airport

Stansted on the other hand....

Kev11491

Found the staff excellent this evening, was a tad busy, but they were efficient and friendly. The good stories should also be posted I reckon!

circular flexing

Boxcar_Willie wrote: »

What I struggle to understand is why will they confiscate a nail scissors then after security you can get a metal knife & fork at any of the food outlets ?

Usually knives/forks airside are blunt.

Davidth88

Dublin seems ok to me , T1 is a little bit of a rabbit warren, the arrivals is a bit ' shoehorned ' in and a bit of a mess.

The only thing that struck me recently was the prices of a sandwich ... 6 25 , and it was the same in every outlet ( that I found ) .

That's a crazy price , in contrast in T5 at LHR i got a very nice sandwich at Pret for about half that price even taking in currency differences.

Paris CDG was always my least favourite airport , T1 is utterly horrible in every sense of the word there the prices are really high even by airport prices.

My abiding memory of CDG T2 is arriving and having 1 hr to make a connection I had to rush rush rush with the buses seeming to go around in circles until they disappeared up their own .... , then I arrived at the next aircraft hot and sweaty just as the gate closed and it was all of 50 m from the aircraft I arrived on !

At least as I looked out of the window I watched the baggage handlers take my bag off the other aircraft and walk over and put it on my aircraft so I knew my bag had a nice relaxing connection.

One last question about airports and Dublin in particular ( although you see the same at LGW ) is why do people have to have a pint at 05:30 , it actually makes me feel a bit queasy :-)

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Your post makes you seem very entitled OP. Why would the agent pack your stuff the way you packed it? The fact that they packed it at all is fantastic, you won't get that anywhere else, especially at xmas. Does she need your permission to check your bag? Why would she ask if there was anything sharp or dangerous in your bag? She's not the NYPD. Wasn't the bag already scanned? Wouldn't it worry you more that this question was asked after a scan? It seems that you are looking for something to be annoyed with and taking out your frustrations on the ASU employee.

I doubt she was "aggressive". I imagine you just got out of the wrong side of the bed. ASU are fantastic to work with. Always polite and friendly and very helpful. After many many flights in and out of Dublin, I have never once had an issue with ASU. Far superior to German airports anyway.

Tenger

I can agree with the OP regarding the tone of the ASU individual. However this tone is not a DUB issue. Airport security worldwide have this tone. I'm guessing dealing with the public can erode your cheer and goodwill.
I've also witness really good security staff in various airports (DUB included)

The issue about seating at their fare is a bit entitled. How dare those Qatar B787 passengers take the seats belonging to "my" flight!!

LiamaDelta

Ramiro Wonderful Gearshift wrote: »

Your post makes you seem very entitled OP. Why would the agent pack your stuff the way you packed it? The fact that they packed it at all is fantastic, you won't get that anywhere else, especially at xmas. Does she need your permission to check your bag? Why would she ask if there was anything sharp or dangerous in your bag? She's not the NYPD. Wasn't the bag already scanned? Wouldn't it worry you more that this question was asked after a scan? It seems that you are looking for something to be annoyed with and taking out your frustrations on the ASU employee.

I doubt she was "aggressive". I imagine you just got out of the wrong side of the bed. ASU are fantastic to work with. Always polite and friendly and very helpful. After many many flights in and out of Dublin, I have never once had an issue with ASU. Far superior to German airports anyway.

They usually ask you to confirm that it's your bag and they quite often (though I haven't noticed it as much recently) will ask if there's anything sharp or dangerous in there so that they don't put their own hands in and injure themselves.

ebbsy

I usually use Fastrack, for a few Euro more it is worth it.

Odd time my bag has been selected for a random search, but that is ok. The security staff are usually courteous.

Rubberchikken

we used zurich airport recently and tbh id live thete.
efficient, scrupulously clean, efficient and calm.

dublin by contrast is a noisy messy hole.
i didnt have to deal with the unpleasant woman checking bags in dublin, that was the experience of the unfortunate one in front of me. but a loud aggressive and unpleasant a creature as you'd never wish to meet.

yes maybe their job is 'tough', though gid help us checking bags is hardly a science, but no excuse for the rudeness and unpleasantness they feel seems justified.

blackbox

The amount of people who can't follow the simple rule of putting liquid containers in a plastic bag is unbelievable.

If I was an ASU I'd be totally exasperated.

It's bad enough being in the queue behind these people.

Spanish Eyes

blackbox wrote: »

The amount of people who can't follow the simple rule of putting liquid containers in a plastic bag is unbelievable.

If I was an ASU I'd be totally exasperated.

It's bad enough being in the queue behind these people.

That liquids rule needs to go. Unless someone can convince me it is vital for our safety.

Chris_5339762

Oh... one thing that Dublin really needs to sort out. The travelators are ridiculously short. Clear costcutting there, they are barely worth using.

They should be along most of the Ryanair corridor in T1 ideally. Now, I realise the corridor is curved due to the restrictions in building caused by the old terminal(?) but surely they could fit some in somewhere along the walk, as it stands they are barely useful because they are so short.

Mebuntu

The amount of people who can't follow the simple rule of putting liquid containers in a plastic bag is unbelievable. If I was an ASU I'd be totally exasperated.

A person who is not able to cope with stupid people shouldn't apply for a job that has to deal with a lot of stupid people every day of the week.

ASU are fantastic to work with. Always polite and friendly and very helpful. After many many flights in and out of Dublin, I have never once had an issue with ASU.

DUB, like every other airport, is not perfect and they are not always polite, friendly and helpful. The vast majority are but, sadly, there are certain types of people who join organisations that bestow on them the right to bully people whilst being answerable to nobody. The Gardai, Airport Security and Customs Officers are high on their list of desired organisations to join. From a citizen/passenger viewpoint if you are unlucky enough to encounter one of these and have a bad experience there is nobody to turn to as they are 100% supported by their colleagues and superiors, regardless. Now, that's exasperated.

shanec1928

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

That liquids rule needs to go. Unless someone can convince me it is vital for our safety.

They just need to upgrade the equipment. You don’t have to take anything out of your bags in a few airports.

yer man!

shanec1928 wrote: »

They just need to upgrade the equipment. You don’t have to take anything out of your bags in a few airports.

Exactly that, Amsterdam have those new scanners so you don't have to take anything out of you bag. Was through security and border control within 5 mins on Friday. Well impressed.

trellheim

hey just need to upgrade the equipment. You don’t have to take anything out of your bags in a few airports.

Thats not exactly the same thing

There is a requirement currently for two things

1) no liquids above a certain amount
2) the need to take laptops, liquids etc out of the case and displayed separately

Only one of those is deal with via new machinery currently. For example you still cant bring a bottle of Scotch in hand luggage through screening even with the CT or MRI scanners - that is still a few years off I think

In the past year or two I’ve noticed a couple of instances of some Dublin Airport security staff being frankly rude, as rude as you can find at USA airports. One instance was appalling, a man directly accusing a passenger of being thick. I was at some distance, but would otherwise have given him a little mouthful myself.

Once at Newquay Airport, Cornwall, which is/was a training centre for security staff, they pulled a hat off my 87 year old mother’s hair, pulling out a handful of her sparse hair in the process, leaving her screaming in pain. I gave out stink to them, “how dare you assault passengers. Would you do that to a Sikh?” Left the security personnel stunned into silence. The airline gave us lots of little goodies, seeing how upset my mother was.

They have every right to search bags, and do what us necessary to keep us secure on our flights, but they don’t have a right to abuse passengers. It can, at times, be a fine line getting it just right. Good training is so important.

argentum

Recently travelled from Dublin to Birmingham and back with a 500ml bottle of water zipped into a compartment of my hand luggage that I forgot was there.
No one stopped me which amazed
me when I found it after I got home

Inquitus

argentum wrote: »

Recently travelled from Dublin to Birmingham and back with a 500ml bottle of water zipped into a compartment of my hand luggage that I forgot was there.
No one stopped me which amazed
me when I found it after I got home

Aye this has happened to me on a few occasions as well, purely accidental but not detected.

Strumms

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

That liquids rule needs to go. Unless someone can convince me it is vital for our safety.

It is vital, still, very vital. If 6 terrorists take 2 liters of flammable liquid onto a plane. That’s 12 liters in total.

That amount of flammable liquid ignited at altitude in an oxygen rich atmosphere...only one outcome.

There are still plenty of people with grudges, political fundamentalists / terrorists who will relish the carnage, headlines and loss of life.

What we don’t need to do is enable them and make things easy.

It’s inconvenient, it’s a pain in the rear end but it’s the reality of the world we live in. The rule needs to stay sadly, it won’t ever go away.

Credit Checker Moose

How comes many airports don't have the liquids rule?

goingnowhere

Since they have the next generation CT scan machines

Strumms

goingnowhere wrote: »

Since they have the next generation CT scan machines

Precisely, this in addition to other techniques such as ETD detection is pretty fail safe.

Pat Dunne

Strumms wrote: »

It is vital, still, very vital. If 6 terrorists take 2 liters of flammable liquid onto a plane. That’s 12 liters in total.

That amount of flammable liquid ignited at altitude in an oxygen rich atmosphere...only one outcome.

There are still plenty of people with grudges, political fundamentalists / terrorists who will relish the carnage, headlines and loss of life.

What we don’t need to do is enable them and make things easy.

It’s inconvenient, it’s a pain in the rear end but it’s the reality of the world we live in. The rule needs to stay sadly, it won’t ever go away.

In theory your 6 terrorists can legally bring on 1 litre of liquid per person. As that is the capacity of the 20cm x 20cm, 1 litre bag, provided all the containers within are 100ml or less in capacity.
6 litre (1.3 Gallons) of flammable material and some Thermite will bring anything down.

TimeToShine

I want to add to the LGW praise, I fly to Dublin monthly and it's such a tight operation that I have my arrival time down to 20 minutes before the flight departs. Wouldn't dare chance less than 90 minutes in Dublin.

Chris_5339762

TimeToShine wrote: »

I want to add to the LGW praise, I fly to Dublin monthly and it's such a tight operation that I have my arrival time down to 20 minutes before the flight departs. Wouldn't dare chance less than 90 minutes in Dublin.

Also to add to LGW, Wondertree in the South Terminal has become my go-to, as the food there is better than food in an airport has any right to be. Their Ramen bowl is glorious, as is the Chicken and Prawn Pad Thai.

cson

Took about an hour at 8.50am Sunday just gone to get through to 51st & Green.

1. Aer Lingus Check In: Queue was huge but to be fair to the desk agents they moved it quickly enough, took about 20-25 minutes

2. Dublin Security: Had Fast Track courtesy of Vodafone, too about 8-10 minutes, regular queue looked long, like 20+ minutes long.

3. Pre Pre Check: I kind of get why they scan your boarding pass before you go down the stairs space wise, but then checking ID and boarding pass again downstairs (no scanning, just an eye test) is crazy to me. Do them at the same place. Took about 8 minutes total for this.

4. Pre Check Security Top Up: Shoes off so we comply with TSA Security Theatre requirments. Goes relatively quickly to be fair - only took like 5 minutes.

5. US Immigration: Took about 20 minutes. Give DAA credit they staff this well so it moves as quick as it can.

yer man!

What's the T2 plan for upstairs in the departure lounge? Those two fenced off areas near burger king and the restaurant?

One thing I see in this airport flying out today is that there's very limited seating. The board waits until an hour before your flight before giving you a gate for EI anyway and there feck all seats available. I wish they could use those empty areas upstairs as a seating zone with comfortable chairs.

trellheim

yer man! wrote: »

What's the T2 plan for upstairs in the departure lounge? Those two fenced off areas near burger king and the restaurant?

One thing I see in this airport flying out today is that there's very limited seating. The board waits until an hour before your flight before giving you a gate for EI anyway and there feck all seats available. I wish they could use those empty areas upstairs as a seating zone with comfortable chairs.

t1 and t2 post screening is given over to retail space mostly until you get to the gates. The 300 gates have a lovely open feel to them whereas t2 400 gates is extremely sterile and unfriendly feel as there is no shops and very few cafes. This is even worse for preclearance area, which is very much that ryanair shed feel to it unless you go into 51st and green.

Worse, when you get near the gates mostly there isnt enough space, and dublin airports being what it is, most people want to sit down and forget the poor experience they just had. ( try and sit near UA22 gate for how not to do this, and then of course bang into 1000 other people in that narrow corridor )

T2 had a fair amount of seating more than it currently does in the concourse and it was removed for the duty free extension.


Gatwick while a star in other ways, also has a problem here, the new domestic/ROI departures area sucks big time as it the gate areas can only seat half a 320/738 so everyones crushed in

road_high

Dublin Airport is pretty good while not perfect compared to most. It’s not cheap but neither is it an excessive rip off either.
Most security staff are grand but I find a major issue is they stand around talking to each other a lot rather than fully focusing on the job which would speed things up immensely.
Remember one guy last summer in particular berate a foreign guy for not answering him clearly enough ( it was way OTT, like something from school days rather than a professional) and then after that gave an elderly couple a right going over for not having the correct type of plastic bag (it was clearly a struggle for them already without the added burden of the unnecessary attitude and shouting) - that was T2, tall guy mid 50s clearly likes to push his weight around.

VG31

road_high wrote: »

Dublin Airport is pretty good while not perfect compared to most. It’s not cheap but neither is it an excessive rip off either.

I often hear people complaining about prices in Dublin Airport but I don't think it's that bad really. For you example can get tea for €2.50 in Dublin Airport. In Munich Airport it's €4.90 everywhere. It's almost as a bad a cartel in Vienna where it's €4.50 everywhere.

It's great that water is only €1 also. In Amsterdam and Vienna it's impossible to find water for less than €3 past security. In Vienna arrivals I only paid €0.44 for water recently which shows much they rip you off!

While WH Smith's prices are above what you'd pay in most shops, they're not that bad either. I have never noticed any difference in airport prices with chains like Butler's and Boots either.

UK airport prices are generally ok in my experience as well.

jesus_thats_gre

Cheapest you could buy a bottle of coke zero in Amsterdam 2 weeks ago was 3.80. I do resent how expensive WH Smith is in Dublin relative to LHR but it's still somewhat tame relative to some European airports. Starting to figure out why I see so many Europeans with pre-packed sandwiches.

cson

trellheim wrote: »

This is even worse for preclearance area, which is very much that ryanair shed feel to it unless you go into 51st and green.

They're going to have to do something about that if transatlantic keeps expanding, I almost always go to 51st & Green but it looks hellish from 8.30am -1pm outside of it.

Strumms

Pat Dunne wrote: »

In theory your 6 terrorists can legally bring on 1 litre of liquid per person. As that is the capacity of the 20cm x 20cm, 1 litre bag, provided all the containers within are 100ml or less in capacity.
6 litre (1.3 Gallons) of flammable material and some Thermite will bring anything down.

No.

Think about it... an aircraft right now, flying above your dwelling is a body of mass, containing possibly 20 tonnes or more highly flammable liquid....fuel, lubricants, dangerous goods etc... cargo aircraft even transport munitions and explosives etc.. ALL being carried safely and in accordance with IATA DG regulations... both in terms of the shipments being pre checked at the point of acceptance paperwork, packaging, potential damage etc, at the point of loading for damage and proper restraint and loading....

If a bunch of people want to cause havoc on a passenger aircraft to bring anything through to enable this it would need to pass an x-ray check, yes in small quantities doable... need to pass ETD scanning... doubtful, need then to be assembled... an explosive device needs... an explosive, container, charge, detonator, power source... not impossible but extremely improbable to be made possible... it hasn’t to my knowledge been done yet.

Beechwoodspark

It’s a tale of 2 terminals for me

T2 is ok. Seems roomier and more space. The airside experience is decent enough. Healthy options available.

T1- huh. Where to Start. Out of date by approx 20 years. Claustrophobic. Narrow corridors. Very expensive unhealthy food options.

Inquitus

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

It’s a tale of 2 terminals for me

T2 is ok. Seems roomier and more space. The airside experience is decent enough. Healthy options available.

T1- huh. Where to Start. Out of date by approx 20 years. Claustrophobic. Narrow corridors. Very expensive unhealthy food options.

I usually go through T2 regardless of which terminal my flight leaves from, its barely a 5 min walk between the 2 terminals, and for a morning flight T2 is usually quieter and more efficient. Obv when I do this I have carry on only so it causes me no issues. Unless travelling for more than a week, carry on easily does me fine.

The best breakfast option imo is the freshly made omelette you can get in Marquette in T1, cooked to order, wide range of toppings available and very healthy, tasty, and filling.

dfx-

Strumms wrote: »

If a bunch of people want to cause havoc on a passenger aircraft to bring anything through to enable this it would need to pass an x-ray check, yes in small quantities doable... need to pass ETD scanning... doubtful, need then to be assembled... an explosive device needs... an explosive, container, charge, detonator, power source... not impossible but extremely improbable to be made possible... it hasn’t to my knowledge been done yet.

What difference does the volume of liquid make to this? Can an x-ray detect between something like concentrated sulphuric acid from water or shampoo? You still need the detonator etc so what use is the limit on liquids..

Clearly from the thread, the security experience is a major part of the overall experience over cost and waiting and processing times for any airport. Dublin is no better or more pleasant in security than anywhere else and it is mostly staff related.

The fact that T1 and T2 are inter-accessible after security is a large positive, it should not be hard to find another shop to look around or seat to find.

Rodin

Great airport.
Ive been in many worse

Wanderer2010

I have really only had one bad experience in Dublin Airport and I have been using it for years. In general, once you arrive early enough, double check all your luggage and paperwork for correctness and be pleasant to people in security you will be fine. If you arrive late on a busy or hot day then you have to expect some hassle.

The only issue I had was when I was transferred from one exit gate to another last year when going to Heathrow, I was asking this guy who seemed to be working in the baggage carousel area about it and I only got halfway into my sentence "Excuse me I was transferred to a different gat--" and he cut me off "I don't know anything about that, why would that mean anything to me" and walked right off. Ignorant little b$stard is all he was and if I had my time over I would have asked him did he sue the charm school he went to. Apart from that, Dublin Airport is fine.

Strumms

dfx- wrote: »

What difference does the volume of liquid make to this? Can an x-ray detect between something like concentrated sulphuric acid from water or shampoo? You still need the detonator etc so what use is the limit on liquids..

Clearly from the thread, the security experience is a major part of the overall experience over cost and waiting and processing times for any airport. Dublin is no better or more pleasant in security than anywhere else and it is mostly staff related.

.

Volume of liquid explosive will determine the power of the explosion...water and liquid explosive look the same on an X-ray screen.....1kg of Semtex wont cause as much damage as 10kgs...if your bag is xrayed and there is a dark brown mass of organic material they will hand search or etd first. They can also detect liquids.

500 mls of Nitroglycerin won’t cause the same damage as 10 liters... that’s why the limits are set, ie. Not enough allowances to cause critical damage to the aircraft or loss of life.

bennyineire

Mmm expat comes home at Christmas and says how crap things are in Ireland. How novel.

Dublin airport TBF is one of the better European airports and I say this as somebody who travels quite a bit with work.

Would love to see what you think about American airports, lol

Peak times are carp at all airports, my wife came came pack recently from Newark airport and was charged $9 just for the luggage trolley.

Go to Amsterdam airport and you will pay over €4 for a bottle of water, in Dublin it will cost you €1 from the honesty box

glomar

Credit Checker Moose wrote: »

I can tell you one thing that fast track is worth every cent. Use it every time I have to use the airport.

you shouldnt have too though if t was organised correctly

Charles Babbage

glomar wrote: »

you shouldnt have too though if t was organised correctly

I went through the airport 10 days before Xmas, fast track would have been a complete waste of money as there was zero queue.
I have used it at other times.

Boxcar_Willie

Always check the live security times for both terminals on the Dublin Airport app while on the transfer bus from the car park .
If they're excessive , just buy the Fast Track at that stage .

Strumms

Charles Babbage wrote: »

I went through the airport 10 days before Xmas, fast track would have been a complete waste of money as there was zero queue.
I have used it at other times.

Totally..You can get lucky, or unlucky... I’ve done the same where I’ve paid for fast track and on getting there found zero Q in the regular lines and thought... ‘ok, didn’t need fast track on the other hand if I’d been delayed in work, flying out on a Friday night and all the extra passengers it’s at least peace of mind...that you can relax, grab a pint/burger and chill before your flight, after the busy week. There certainly have been times where I’ve been glad of it. It’s a stress remover in the main, god knows airports these days can be hard work... Dublin ain’t too bad..

Chris_5339762

glomar wrote: »

you shouldnt have too though if t was organised correctly

Or like Stansted, where they artificially keep the queues at 20 minutes and have it set up so you can't see the length of the queue, just so you buy fast-track.