The Dublin Airport experience

LiamaDelta · 28-12-2019 6:05pm

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 · 28-12-2019 6:12pm

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 · 28-12-2019 6:17pm

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 · 28-12-2019 6:19pm

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 · 28-12-2019 7:01pm

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 · 28-12-2019 10:15pm

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 · 28-12-2019 10:37pm

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 · 29-12-2019 11:42am

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! · 29-12-2019 12:24pm

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 · 29-12-2019 2:19pm

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

29-12-2019 2:39pm

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 · 29-12-2019 2:47pm

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 · 29-12-2019 2:49pm

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 · 29-12-2019 5:07pm

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 · 29-12-2019 5:36pm

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

goingnowhere · 29-12-2019 5:42pm

Since they have the next generation CT scan machines

Strumms · 29-12-2019 7:59pm

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 · 30-12-2019 3:18am

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 · 30-12-2019 3:31am

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 · 30-12-2019 9:58pm

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 · 31-12-2019 3:20am

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! · 31-12-2019 1:11pm

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 · 31-12-2019 1:34pm

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 · 31-12-2019 1:45pm

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 · 31-12-2019 3:49pm

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 · 31-12-2019 6:51pm

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 · 31-12-2019 7:03pm

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 · 31-12-2019 7:26pm

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 · 31-12-2019 7:29pm

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 · 31-12-2019 8:20pm

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.

The Dublin Airport experience

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