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Recent flight experiences

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2020 5:03pm
34 replies2438 views16 members subscribed
Steve57

Posts: 14

3 helpful points

Location: Torrevieja

Joined: 23 Mar 2019

Thank you for the feedback so far, please keep it coming especially people travelling back to the uk since the uk reintroduced quarantine for travellers from Spain 

Hi, I am interested to hear feedback from recent air travellers from Gatwick to Alicante.. 

Is Gatwick managing social distancing?
What’s it like boarding and disembarking the aircraft ?

Does it feel safe travelling?

Thanks 

Poppy7

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 8:48am

Posts: 15

21 helpful points

Location: Alicante City

Joined: 5 Feb 2020

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 8:48am

Hi Steve,

We flew to Alicante from Gatwick on 1st July, came back on 9th July - Easyjet  - All good, will add some points here:

Flight Gatwick to Alicante :  Face masks in airport, no coffee/refreshment shops open at Gatwick.  In general smooth trip.  Face masks on flight - apart from when drinking water that Easyjet staff provided.  Flight arrived 20 mins early.  All in all an ok experience considering COVIT.  

All good at Alicante airport, police everywhere - they looked at us when we came through arrivals to see if they could see any signs of sickness etc, we had to complete forms before we left (not sure if you still need to, but check).  I had our forms with passports and they collected them at Alicante.  A form saying where you would be staying etc.

Flight Alicante to Gatwick :  Alicante Airport coffee/refreshment shops open, which was nice.  Nice experience all in all. Easyjet were now serving limited food/drinks, few alcoholic drinks.  Flight arrived 20 mins early (probably not much air traffic).

The only issue we had is the following:

Before we left to fly back to UK, I checked on Easyjet website and Gov.uk to see about self isolating regulations in UK, I knew that they had been lifted, but we had been away 9 days, and needed to check.  The isolation rules when arriving in UK had been lifted.  BUT.  When we arrived at Gatwick, we were all stopped and asked to complete an ONLINE FORM ONLY, no paper copies available.  You also MUST have an email address (some elderly people on our flight did not know what an email address was) !!  You could not enter the UK without having completed this online form, receiving a reference no. to your email address, and showing this reference number at passport control.

If we had of known this, we would have completed the forms online before travelling, so do check this.  The form was basically where have you been, where are you staying (in order to track people if anybody on the plane had CV19).  We were there over an hour completing these forms and obtaining the reference number.  I felt so sorry for the people who did not have an email address, the police assisted and helped the elderly couple set up an email address.

And so, all in all, a very smooth flight there and back, just the online form, as we had no prior knowledge of this. Do complete the form before flying back to UK and ensure you get your reference number to show at Passport control.

It is now 18th July, and so not sure if the form is still necessary, but please check.  I will check later as we are flying out again at end of month.

Hope this is helpful,

Best Poppy

cp

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:06am

cp

Very helpful member

Posts: 552

529 helpful points

Location: La Mata

Joined: 13 Jan 2018

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:06am

I flew from Gatwick to Alicante with Easyjet on Monday 13 July at 5pm.  
Took almost empty train to Gatwick .  Airport almost deserted , all flights using North terminal.  Only one channel open in security but with so few people and flights didn’t have to queue so was in departure lounge within minutes.  

Duty free was open ( but with no samples to try) , together with Boots , Smiths and Starbucks.   Only a few flights on departure board so no problem with social distancing.  
Plenty of Easyjet staff at the boarding gate to ensure distancing while queuing to board.  Called people forward in groups of rows from rear of plane. 
Plane was only 1/3 full and Easyjet had just restarted offering a restricted onboard trolly service of cold items only. Disembarkation was row by row from the front. Only allowed to stand and take items from overhead locker as your row was called.

Ours was only flight in Arrivals at Alicante.  Sped through passport control and my pre completed travel form was scanned. Paper forms were available for those who hadn’t already completed one.

All in all experience was fine.  Everyone wore masks throughout. Of course social distancing will become trickier when there are more and fuller flights.  
I fly back to Gatwick this afternoon 





GCfromVC

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:54am

GCfromVC

Very helpful member

Posts: 798

520 helpful points

Location: La Marina

Joined: 18 Jan 2018

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:54am

Thanks for sharing this valuable information.

Helps people to feel a little more at ease in difficult and perhaps unknown territory.

Steve57

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 10:58am

Steve57

Original Poster

Posts: 14

3 helpful points

Location: Torrevieja

Joined: 23 Mar 2019

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 10:58am

cp wrote on Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:06am:

I flew from Gatwick to Alicante with Easyjet on Monday 13 July at 5pm.  
Took almost empty train to Gatwick .  Airport almost deserted , all flights using North terminal.  Only one channel open in security but with so few people and flights didn’t have to queue so was in depar...

...ture lounge within minutes.  

Duty free was open ( but with no samples to try) , together with Boots , Smiths and Starbucks.   Only a few flights on departure board so no problem with social distancing.  
Plenty of Easyjet staff at the boarding gate to ensure distancing while queuing to board.  Called people forward in groups of rows from rear of plane. 
Plane was only 1/3 full and Easyjet had just restarted offering a restricted onboard trolly service of cold items only. Disembarkation was row by row from the front. Only allowed to stand and take items from overhead locker as your row was called.

Ours was only flight in Arrivals at Alicante.  Sped through passport control and my pre completed travel form was scanned. Paper forms were available for those who hadn’t already completed one.

All in all experience was fine.  Everyone wore masks throughout. Of course social distancing will become trickier when there are more and fuller flights.  
I fly back to Gatwick this afternoon 





Thank you for your excellent feedback 

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Steve57

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:48pm

Steve57

Original Poster

Posts: 14

3 helpful points

Location: Torrevieja

Joined: 23 Mar 2019

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:48pm

Poppy7 wrote on Sat Jul 18, 2020 8:48am:

Hi Steve,

We flew to Alicante from Gatwick on 1st July, came back on 9th July - Easyjet  - All good, will add some points here:

Flight Gatwick to Alicante :  Face masks in airport, no coffee/refreshment shops open at Gatwick.  In general smooth trip.  Face masks on flight - apart from when drinking water that Easyjet staff provided.  Flight arrived 20 mins early.  All in all an ok experience considering COVIT.  

All good at Alicante airport, police everywhere - they looked at us when we came through arrivals to see if they could see any signs of sickness etc, we had to complete forms before we left (not sure if you still need to, but check).  I had our forms with passports and they collected them at Alicante.  A form saying where you would be staying etc.

Flight Alicante to Gatwick :  Alicante Airport coffee/refreshment shops open, which was nice.  Nice experience all in all. Easyjet were now serving limited food/drinks, few alcoholic drinks.  Flight arrived 20 mins early (probably not much air traffic).

The only issue we had is the following:

Before we left to fly back to UK, I checked on Easyjet website and Gov.uk to see about self isolating regulations in UK, I knew that they had been lifted, but we had been away 9 days, and needed to check.  The isolation rules when arriving in UK had been lifted.  BUT.  When we arrived at Gatwick, we were all stopped and asked to complete an ONLINE FORM ONLY, no paper copies available.  You also MUST have an email address (some elderly people on our flight did not know what an email address was) !!  You could not enter the UK without having completed this online form, receiving a reference no. to your email address, and showing this reference number at passport control.

If we had of known this, we would have completed the forms online before travelling, so do check this.  The form was basically where have you been, where are you staying (in order to track people if anybody on the plane had CV19).  We were there over an hour completing these forms and obtaining the reference number.  I felt so sorry for the people who did not have an email address, the police assisted and helped the elderly couple set up an email address.

And so, all in all, a very smooth flight there and back, just the online form, as we had no prior knowledge of this. Do complete the form before flying back to UK and ensure you get your reference number to show at Passport control.

It is now 18th July, and so not sure if the form is still necessary, but please check.  I will check later as we are flying out again at end of month.

Hope this is helpful,

Best Poppy

Many thanks for your very helpful response 

SopFlo

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:03pm

Posts: 26

22 helpful points

Location: Rojales

Joined: 7 Apr 2018

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:03pm

Poppy7 wrote on Sat Jul 18, 2020 8:48am:

Hi Steve,

We flew to Alicante from Gatwick on 1st July, came back on 9th July - Easyjet  - All good, will add some points here:

Flight Gatwick to Alicante :  Face masks in airport, no coffee/refreshment shops open at Gatwick.  In general smooth trip.  Face masks on flight - apart from when drinking water that Easyjet staff provided.  Flight arrived 20 mins early.  All in all an ok experience considering COVIT.  

All good at Alicante airport, police everywhere - they looked at us when we came through arrivals to see if they could see any signs of sickness etc, we had to complete forms before we left (not sure if you still need to, but check).  I had our forms with passports and they collected them at Alicante.  A form saying where you would be staying etc.

Flight Alicante to Gatwick :  Alicante Airport coffee/refreshment shops open, which was nice.  Nice experience all in all. Easyjet were now serving limited food/drinks, few alcoholic drinks.  Flight arrived 20 mins early (probably not much air traffic).

The only issue we had is the following:

Before we left to fly back to UK, I checked on Easyjet website and Gov.uk to see about self isolating regulations in UK, I knew that they had been lifted, but we had been away 9 days, and needed to check.  The isolation rules when arriving in UK had been lifted.  BUT.  When we arrived at Gatwick, we were all stopped and asked to complete an ONLINE FORM ONLY, no paper copies available.  You also MUST have an email address (some elderly people on our flight did not know what an email address was) !!  You could not enter the UK without having completed this online form, receiving a reference no. to your email address, and showing this reference number at passport control.

If we had of known this, we would have completed the forms online before travelling, so do check this.  The form was basically where have you been, where are you staying (in order to track people if anybody on the plane had CV19).  We were there over an hour completing these forms and obtaining the reference number.  I felt so sorry for the people who did not have an email address, the police assisted and helped the elderly couple set up an email address.

And so, all in all, a very smooth flight there and back, just the online form, as we had no prior knowledge of this. Do complete the form before flying back to UK and ensure you get your reference number to show at Passport control.

It is now 18th July, and so not sure if the form is still necessary, but please check.  I will check later as we are flying out again at end of month.

Hope this is helpful,

Best Poppy

Thank you - we are due to Fly to Alicante from Gatwick soon - so very helpful information. 

Annewalks

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:45pm

Posts: 88

28 helpful points

Location: Benimar

Joined: 22 Aug 2017

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:45pm

We flew with Ryanair from southend to Alicante. Distancing in both airports but not on the plane. We booked seats but still had a person next to me. No distancing getting on:off but everywhere else was good. All had masks but some people taking on/off . Filled in form before we left and handed in at Alicante. 

Steve57

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 11:01pm

Steve57

Original Poster

Posts: 14

3 helpful points

Location: Torrevieja

Joined: 23 Mar 2019

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 11:01pm

Annewalks wrote on Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:45pm:

We flew with Ryanair from southend to Alicante. Distancing in both airports but not on the plane. We booked seats but still had a person next to me. No distancing getting on:off but everywhere else was good. All had masks but some people taking on/off . Filled in form before we left and handed in...

... at Alicante. 

Many thanks.. your experience doesn’t seem as good as the easyJet Gatwick feedback .. 

cp

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:19am

cp

Very helpful member

Posts: 552

529 helpful points

Location: La Mata

Joined: 13 Jan 2018

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:19am

cp wrote on Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:06am:

I flew from Gatwick to Alicante with Easyjet on Monday 13 July at 5pm.  
Took almost empty train to Gatwick .  Airport almost deserted , all flights using North terminal.  Only one channel open in security but with so few people and flights didn’t have to queue so was in depar...

...ture lounge within minutes.  

Duty free was open ( but with no samples to try) , together with Boots , Smiths and Starbucks.   Only a few flights on departure board so no problem with social distancing.  
Plenty of Easyjet staff at the boarding gate to ensure distancing while queuing to board.  Called people forward in groups of rows from rear of plane. 
Plane was only 1/3 full and Easyjet had just restarted offering a restricted onboard trolly service of cold items only. Disembarkation was row by row from the front. Only allowed to stand and take items from overhead locker as your row was called.

Ours was only flight in Arrivals at Alicante.  Sped through passport control and my pre completed travel form was scanned. Paper forms were available for those who hadn’t already completed one.

All in all experience was fine.  Everyone wore masks throughout. Of course social distancing will become trickier when there are more and fuller flights.  
I fly back to Gatwick this afternoon 





Just to complete the trip info  :  Flown  home to Gatwick today. Alicante airport was busier but by no means crowded, duty free, Costa coffee and Eat were open.   Easyjet flight was even emptier than on way out with just 80 passengers so plenty of room on plane.  ( Apparently they were expecting 189 passengers but assumed some may not have been able to get an outward flight??).  Again boarded in groups of rows from rear and disembarked row by row from front, only standing to retrieve items from overhead lockers when row in front had left. Repeatedly reminded by crew to wear masks at all times .  In flight trolly service sold reduced range of cold items.

Landed 30 minutes early at Gatwick.  Only ones at passport control. Had completed on line contact form but was not asked for it nor saw any means for one to be completed in Gatwick.  Perhaps they are no longer required?   

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