From one grumpy ‘old’ man to another. I agree! With the prices they charge for parking we should expect a free decent cuppa and free wifi.

Let us know what it’s like on the other side…

If you’re in Edinburgh, visit the Metropole café in Newington Road. Fantastic food and coffee, as well as reliable, free wi-fi. Nice cakes too.

Yep, find a coffee shop, atleast places like that have the decency to not do something stupid like charge for it!

The problem is that there’s no coffee shops near Bristol airport! There’s not a lot there at all

Don’t get me started on Bristol Airport .... too late!

I once spent about 11 hours in Bristol Airport. I’d just checked in to fly home when there was a bomb scare. They got everyone out of the terminal onto the margin of the runway where we stood around. Then they eventually shipped us by bus to the old terminal building at the other end of the field where we were packed like cattle until the terminal re-opened hours later.

They did give out bottled water but there weren’t enough chairs or toilets. Fortunately they opened up a conference room they use for press briefings so I got a seat in there and someone hacked the DVD/Projector and put a movie on.

When they eventually let us out we had to re-queue for the check-in then re-queue for security. By the time the flight took off (after midnight) Belfast City airport was closed so we flew to International then got a bus (40 mins) to get to the City to find my car and drive another 45 mins home.

At the start of the ordeal I wondered why anyone would want to blow up Bristol Airport. By the end of the night I understood completely.

Decent tea is getting easier to find at US airports (they’ve always had good coffee, but the tea selection in the past consisted of a wide variety of tisanes and a few satchets of black tea that tasted like cobwebs), but I’m amazed at the spotty availabilty of wifi, even in major airports. I often travel to Washington DC and have had no luck getting wifi in National Airport, at least not in the departure lounge where I’m usually waiting for my plane back to Canada.

Wifi in US airports is spotty and unreliable at best. The greatest success I’ve had is in the lounges private lounges, waiting for international flights. T-Mobile wifi isn’t bad, but that of course it comes with a price. And it can’t be easy for airlines to create good wifi when you have the airports fighting against it.

http://wifinetnews.com/archives/007102.html

I assume you paid for the wifi there. That’s probably the reason it will remain crap. Unfortunately, they just don’t have to do any better.

Have had the same problem with Bristol airport myself. Like you it was an early start for a client meeting in Spain - but I stayed a few days and got some work done in the beautiful sunshine, rather than flying straight back.

I refuse to pay for wifi at airports on principal - it should be free, even if limited only to email. I could have connected via my phone, but instead I chose to do a little photoshop comp work whilst I drank my coffee.

I’m pretty sure the BA Lounge at Bristol has free wifi, if you can stand their prices and ridiculous stance on religious symbols!

Wi-fi should be better in airports, and it should be free, too. Those points I wouldn’t argue with. But I have to say, I kind of enjoy it when I’m not able to log onto the net in situations like that. It’s a nice break from the grid of being online. My theory is that I really don’t need to be wired all the time.

I agree, small things like that make a huge difference to the experience and it’s relatively cheap to fix. Well, relative to replacing the runway every 5 years at a cost of £19M !

Anyway, as they’re a client of ours I’ll take it up with them.

Google are ment to be testing free internet in airport but i’m guessing the tea might be to much of an ask

As someone who has put over 100K miles into business travel this year, let me add another voice to this cabal of grumpy old men:

Any airport construction since, oh, the late 80’s to early 90’s should really take into consideration AC power everywhere, particularly at gates. The only outlets one finds in some airports are the ones in the middle of long hallways, probably placed there so that janitors would have a place to plug in vacuums and floor polishers. The end result is vagabond business travelers setting up camp in the most ridiculous locations, just to get another hit off the ol’ electron pipe.

If I can’t find AC power, I don’t bother with the wifi in the airport, since it just takes away computer time from my flight.

Don’t get me started on DC power availability on airplanes…

Welcome to Bristol Airport. I used to think Cardiff Airport was terrible but at least it doesn’t make aspirations to being a major airport.

And only you could complain about going to a client meeting in Spain ;-)

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