My husband and I have a 6:30am flight out of Stansted Airport to Bayonne (FR) on RyanAir and RyanAir's website recommends that you get to the airport two hours in advance. However, we are staying in London and the earliest train we can catch from to Stansted is 4:30am. Will it be ok if we catch the 4:30 train or should we spend the night at the airport?

I wouldn't risk it. There are National Express coaches that run all night.

Many of the budget airlines are ABSOLUTELY adamant about check in times. Do not risk losing your tickets. Be sure to get there early enough to check in at the desk (not just arrive at the airport) when they tell you to. (There's a reason these tickets are so cheap.)

Agree with the others. You need to give yourself plenty of time to check-in.
Stansted Express takes 45 minutes to get to the airport. This is under the best of circumstances, if there is no track work going on.
Then you have to get from the train station to the check-in desk, add another 10 minutes minimum. You are already looking at 5:30AM by the time you arrive at the desk.

Check-in closes 40 minutes before departure time (5:50AM for you). You MUST have boarding pass in hand by check-in closure time. They are very strict about this. Otherwise you forfeit your ticket and must buy a last minute ticket (expensive) for the next flight. The money spent on the other ticket will not be refunded or applied to the new ticket.

Either stay near the airport or take a National Express bus that will get you to Stansted 2 hours ahead of departure time.

I'm flying from Montpellier to Stansted at 2:30 pm. Does anyone know whether we can check in 4 hours before departure just to be on the safe side. The airport is only 10 minutes away from the city so we'd like to check in and drive back to have lunch in Montpellier instead of the airport.

Dax, if you're flying RyanAir, simply do your own homework and check their website.

I did, but there is no Q&A for earliest time to check in. I can't check in online as we have luggage to check in.

Dax,

The answer on their website is under "travel questions" and then "airport check in". The real answer is 2 hours.

Get there as early as you can, because the lines are often very long, so if you get there 1 hour before, you might not check in before they close. You can only check in starting 2 hours before. If you have a non-EU passport, I don't think you can use on-line checkin.

Thanks so much for your feedback! Relieved to hear there's a bus line to Stantsed that runs 24 hours though I don't look forward to taking a bus at 3am!

We stayed at The DeSalis Hotel Stanstead www.activehoels.com they will pick you up & take you to the airport for 2 pounds each . the rooms are all on the 1st/ground floor a nice restaraunt ,very helpful staff we took the bus from LHR or they go from Victoria www.nationalexpress.com they have senior fares..after you have checked in go to the gates & work your way to the back of the line as the the lines get mxed up at the entrance , we nearly missed our flight because of this.

All this information is on the www.stanstedairport.com website under a section confusingly called "to and from our airport"

AHHHH!

That scream was the horror I feel knowing that there is another human out there (You) that has to go through the same hell that I went through... which is sleeping at Stanstead.

I too had a flight out of Stanstead on Ryan Air at 6:30 in the morning... mine was to Venice.

However, you may as well just sleep there. Everyone does it... literally everyone. I have pictures of probably 300 people camped out at Stanstead waiting for their crack-of-dawn flights. The smart ones break out their sleeping bags and find a nice corner or wall to sleep against... the unlucky ones (me) just trying to catch some sleep sitting in those aweful chairs. For the 6 hours of hell that I spent there wavering between light sleep and wakeful misery, I wished so badly that I had paid a bit more to fly out of Heathrow on a "non-Ryan Air flight"...

That bus ride to Stanstead (I took the same one but around midnight) will likely cost you just as much as your flight to France... Transportation to that airport is incredibly unreasonable.

However if you only imagine how tired you will be forcing yourself to wake up at 2 in the morning to catch a bus in to Stanstead and how that will effect your time in France... I still suggest sleeping at the airport trying to get whatever sleep you can.

You just need to do what the smart travelers do and invest some energy at the airport in finding a good place to settle down for the night. There aren't a lot of places to sleep at that airport... but invest some energy into finding someplace that you can strech out... I even saw one lady sleeping on the backs of the chairs where they come together. I envied her the entire night.

That night was my most miserable in my 100 nights in Europe.

Also, it's true that lines will be long and if your luggage is overweight (like mine was) you'll have to get in another line to pay extra money and then get back in the main line to finally check in. (Consider flying EasyJet next time... I flew both and found them leagues better than RyanAir)

"That night was my most miserable in my 100 nights in Europe."

Then why on earth are you advising urbanp to sleep at the airport??? I'd rather have a few decent hours sleep in a bed and get up at 3, than 6 hours of no sleep at an airport! Besides, I'm not a student any more, I don't sleep on floors...

I would say there are 2 clear choices - an aiport hotel, or an early bus.

Or maybe there's a third, if sleep is more important than money. I fly frequently from Stansted and personally opt for a taxi when it's a very early flight. This saves me AT LEAST 45 mins compared to getting a bus, as the taxi is faster and picks me up from my front door. Costs about £50 - but split between two people seems worth the cost, particularly if I've saved money on a budget flight.

Simple...

Because I just did a scan of the very few Motels near Stansted and the cheapest I found was 118$ US. Personally I would pocket that money and spend the night at the airport.

I assume Urbanp is flying out of Stansted because they enjoy saving money (budget flights)... and would LOVE to skip that ludacrisly priced cab ride you suggest.

I don't feel that it is worth it to spend 70 pounds on a room that you are only going to get 4 hours of sleep in. You can easily get that much sleep at the airport for free.

Unless said person lives in London like you do. You have a unique outlook on this because you live in London.


If sleep truely is more important than money then save that 50 pounds and fly from Heathrow.

I met probably 10 other travelers who have had the misfortune of ending up at Stansted and it's always fun to hear other stories of people who have had to fly out of there. It's almost like a rite of passage for travelers...

=)

I really dislike flying from Stansted, but sometimes there is little choice. I had a 6:10 flight to Palermo last year with Ryanair for £3 + taxes. The money saved on another flight was used to stay in a hotel overnight (about £100 with free transfer).

Even with the cost of hotel and tickets it was still much cheaper and easier (no changes) than a scheduled flight.

Our flight back arrived at 11:40pm, and the information desk was advising many of the young travellers to sleep at the airport, and then take an early train to London.

<< That bus ride to Stanstead ...

...will likely cost you just as much as your flight to France >>

£16 return, £10 one way. The taxes & other charges for your flight will be more than that - a lot more in Ryanair's case

"I assume Urbanp is flying out of Stansted because they enjoy saving money (budget flights)... and would LOVE to skip that ludacrisly priced cab ride you suggest."

That may be so. However, Ryanair also flies to numerous small airports that the larger carriers just don't bother with, or if they do, at truly ridiculous rates.

So if I want to fly to Brindisi, Italy ( as I do often) I can either take a cheap DIRECT flight with Ryanair, or take a £300 flight with Alitalia which involves a stopover in Milan or Rome. Add to that the considerable savings with Ryanair (sometimes £25 return, taxes included) and my flight AND taxi fare split between 2 costs £50 per person (or £75 if I take a taxi on my return as well).

As with all these things, it's a balance between money and convenience. Some people are happy to go through considerable discomfort to save a few quid, some people will take the luxury route, money no object, and most of us will find a nice balance somewhere in the middle.

wealth of information on the topic:

http://www.sleepinginairports.net/eu...onstansted.htm

About a month ago we had the same dilemma, flew from Stansted to Berlin at 6:30am. The earliest train arrived at 5:20. We were fine, but we were stressed about it at first, since we didn't know the airport. And as mentioned, they close check in gates 40 minutes before the flight. But, the airport was small and it took less than 5 minutes to walk into the terminal. And since all lines are organized by flight you only wait in lines to check in with others on your flight. That makes it move faster, IMO.

The next weekend we flew to Dublin at a later flight and got there super early, only to find out we couldn't check in until exactly 2 hours prior. So it was all for nothing. But since we were numbers 3/4 to check in we got to board with the 1-90 group.

I dunno...it is up to you and your tolerance for stress and cutting it close. IMO I thought we were fine arriving by train with 1 hour and 10 min to spare. I thought the check in process was super efficient compared to the US.