[RichHI1]

Becky you have hit the mail on the head. Harrods is a fine store and one can choose to shop there or to shop at Aldi if it is your preference. An airport however has a captive market (arguably there is choice in London), so you have no choice but to pay for the carts.
Businesses work best in free markets and British airports offer the worst of both worlds neither the service first approach of municipal airports or the effcincy and quality of private enterprise in a free market.
Luckily I have no reason to visit Manchester but I still think rushing forien visitors for the cart does not exactly welcome people.

Maybe they should make the airport access road a toll road?

[Cedric_Statherby]

Of course airports that are now mostly privately owned need to make money to survive. But they used to do that via charges on the airlines. This mania for charging passengers for everything in salami slices is a real sign of the times (personally I am only amazed the security checks don’t have a fee as well – and as for collecting one’s hold luggage off the carousel, surely a huge missed opportunity for more charging…). It does not generate much more money, but it does create a lot more annoyance and inconvenience for the passenger.

The culprit is airlines who wish to have headline fares as low as possible. So they baulk at airport handling fees and demand that these are passed on to the passengers direct.

And the REAL culprit is stupid passengers who demand low fares and simply cannot see that a £100 fare with all costs included is actually a much better bargain that your budget airline fare of £50, plus a charge for this, plus a separate charge for that, plus charges from the airport and so on. But you won’t change that alas, and so the airlines and airports deliver the service the average penny-wise, pound-foolish person deserves.

It is just a shame that intelligent passengers such as those on this forum suffer because of the stupidity of the masses …

[AMcWhirter]

Cedric writes “Of course airports that are now mostly privately owned need to make money to survive.”

But Manchester is not privately owned. It is owned by 10 local authorities in the Greater Manchester area. It has been this way for decades so that is all the more surprising that such a charge has been introduced.

[RichHI1]

Well they want to buy Stanstead or Edinburgh so they have got to get hte money from somewhere. The passengers are the easiest marks.

[David61]

Passengers just get treated with more and more contempt by the Airport authority each year

[LuganoPirate]

I so agree with you Cedric about the real culprits.

Here are a few money making ideas.

After the toll road and parking, you need to go through a turnstile to enter the airport. A £2 coin releases it.

Off to security, a £1 coin releases a bin for your jacket. Extra bins available at £2 each unless travelling F or C, then you get 2 for a £.

Through the scanner you beep. Off for the pat down, that’ll be £5 sir. Why? Only 5% of pax get a pat down and it’s unfair the rest of the traveling public have to pay for your pat down sir!

[KeaneJohn]

It wouldnt worry me as I rarely use trollies but I think it is certainly unfair. as bad as airports charging up to £1 for the liquids bag. I always grab a couple when going through a BAA airport and reuse until them until they fall to pieces.

[RichHI1]

Interesting they charge for the plastic bags. I can see argument that this contravenes the security legislation in terms of breach of duty.

[KeaneJohn]

Quite a few airports charge for the liquids bags..

On the trolley front thinking about it again its quite scandalous really if you are a family or elderly it is difficult enough to get from the train station to the terminal buildings with family and luggage in tow but now to charge extra is scandalous.

[RichHI1]

The answer is for all elderly people to request special assistance, which they are duty bound to provide. WOuldn’t take long for the train to come off the rails if every elderly passenger, pregnant mother or anyone with any form of mobility limitation requested assistance.

[Publiship_Flyer]

When I landed at Manchester last week, following a trip to the Far East, the trolleys in the baggage area needed either a pound coin or a euro. I had neither, which is where the inconvenience comes in. I tried a Singapore coin in the slot and, luckily, it worked!

When you return the trolley to the parking bay, your coin is returned, so there’s no charge really, just a nuisance if you haven’t got a coin.

[watersz]

Which is contrary to thier web site info!!!!
given by the O.P hmmm…

[skyguy79]

Funnily this thread can’t be posted on the MAN Facebook page, but have they wondered what international passengers will do if they don’t have change ? This really doesn’t show MAN in a good light and what if you don’t have a coin, do the elderly and families with kids lug heavy bags around after doing a longhaul flight ? Maybe all airlines arriving into MAN need to make an announcement onboard advising of this ludicrous rule ? Come on MAN , you need all the business you can get, stop penalising those that use you over Heathrow !

[SimonRowberry]

I don’t know about MAN, but the charge at BHX is definitely non-refundable.

Yesterday I had to wait in the short-stay for a while for my wife to arrive. I noticed that traffic problems were being caused by people stopping just short of the barriers to drop people off, thus avoiding the drop-off charges. BHX have introduced a Red Route on the access roads and yet this wasn’t being enforced (a Red Route means no stopping at any time – unlike double yellows). There is a significant fine attached.

IMHO BHX should be enforcing the Red Route restrictions and fining people, due to the very real traffic circulation problems even a single abuser can cause, rather than imposing inconvenient baggage trolley charges which penalise arriving passengers in particular, as skyguy says above.

Interestingly, and not surprisingly, there is now a very low level of baggage trolley use at BHX compared to before the charge was introduced.

Simon

[LuganoPirate]

I find it incredible that BHX charge you to drop people off. I find this unbelievable. So you’re forced to take a taxi or fork out?

Milan charges €1 for a trolley – non refundable. I hear many people complaining as they don’t have a coin and of course there’s no way to change from foreign currency inside the baggage hall. So with a lot of cursing they carry their bags out by hand.

The other side is that those who do have a coin, but don’t get it back, just leave the trolleys anywhere, in the road, in the parking area wherever. I saw a bus backing into one and virtually destroying it.

It’s amazing how this small coin, when refunded, will make people take the trolleys back. Supermarkets are good examples of this.

These airports are becoming less and less passenger friendly and yet it is us, the inconvenienced passenger, that provides their lifeblood!

[Author]

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