Back to Hamburg Airport and the Hamburg Airport Lounge
Aircraft Interiors Expo 2022: Back in Person
- Redemption seats exist for a reason
- Off to LHR, Terminal 5 South Lounge
- BA0974 London Heathrow to Hamburg (Club Europe)
- Into Germany and IBIS Hotel
- What you might have missed from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2022
- What do I get up to on the off-hours? (or “Do you have a life?”)
- Back to Hamburg Airport
- BA0957 Hamburg to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
- There’s a coach around here, I swear…
- Innovation continues
Back to Hamburg Airport
With the show done and dusted and a late flight in the offing, I left the Messenhallen with a full rucksack and suitcase and began trudging my way back to Hamburg Airport.
To the Ausgang.
Considering I was travelling at peak time, this was… not my best idea. I knew I should have used a FreeNow cab, but I wanted to milk my €9 properly.
Press to start
Messenhallen Station
Whilst the U-Bahn was busy enough, but enough not to worry. Getting off the U-Bahn at Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, it was obvious that the local trains were going to be busy – just by looking at the queues.
Unbuilt lines under the Haputbahnhof
It also didn’t help that the S1 had been cut back to a train every 15 minutes.
Yikes.
It gave me a little time to compress my stuff into the travel bags I wanted to, but it was not perfect – a full repack would need to be done at the airport.
A wild ICE4 appears.
An S1 finally turned up.
Boarding the train, it was pretty much crush-capacity by the time the train left the Hauptbahnhof, with only a few people getting off at intermediate stations.
It was only at Ohlsdorf that things thinned out, with the locals either trying to cram into the rear three cars of the train, or switching to other modes of transport to get home.
With that, I had a seat for the final 5 minutes of the ride to Hamburg Airport.
Arriving at the airport, I headed to the arrivals area, as there is plenty of seating there. Perfect to re-pack my luggage in peace.
Although I made a fatal mistake here. I’ll get into that in a bit.
With my bags mostly rebalanced and things ready for travel, I headed upstairs to the check-in area, with the British airways queues being rather massive (and full of the UK aviation industry heading home).
I lined up in the Club Europe queue, for all the good it was – as there were only two people to clear a check-in queue that was full for an Airbus A320‘s worth of passengers.
With the earlier flight having been cancelled weeks ago, it seemed that everyone had switched flights to this late flight.
It took 20 minutes to clear the queue, but eventually, I was seen. My passport was checked, and my bag was accepted for travel.
With the paperwork done, I foolishly made my way to the fast track lane, to find it was shut. I, therefore, joined the regular queues.
It took another 20 minutes to clear the security queues (including the time it took to send my electronics through a second time).
With that done, I had a thought- -where the hell was my front door keys?
Uh oh.
A massive scramble resulted in me finding nothing. I fired up Tile and found it wasn’t at the hotel (Thank various $deites) and was last spotted at the airport. Given that I checked the area where I was sat was clear when I left when I repacking, there was only one place the keys could be.
The checked bag. Commence silent swearing.
British Airways had better deliver that bag tonight. Although given the chaos at Heathrow, it was getting close to a 50/50 chance that the bag would arrive in a good time at the airport.
At this point,I couldn’t do anything about the issue, so I headed to the lounge.
Well, what else can I do at this point?
Hamburg Airport Lounge
I headed up to the lounge, as one does and checked in. With my ticket validated for lounge access, I wandered around to find 1) a seat and 2) a vodka and coke.
It had been a long week so far.
The lounge hasn’t changed a lot in the past few years I haven’t frequented it – and that’s no bad thing to be honest, as I could find my way around the venue.
As usual, there was a mixture of salad items, desserts, snacks and chicken sausages.
I also took the time to go to the small room and get changed out of “work” clothes into “travelling” clothes. Because I was pretty much bushed with trousers and a button-up shirt for the week.
I found a spot facing the windows in the end and consumed chicken wurst and sipped on cola.
easyJet Airbus coming in.
Air Baltic Airbus A220-300
It had been a long week. And it wasn’t helped by me in “work” outfit still. I decided to remedy that with a quick trip to the gents to become a little more me.
With me being a lot more comfortable in a polo shirt and tracksuit bottoms, I headed back to my seat. It’s at this point I pulled up the tracker and saw where the Airbus A320 was.
With the airplane on final approach to the airport, I decided this would be a good enough time to leave – least of all, there’s all the paperwork to do.
Hamburg Airport hasn’t changed much in the past few years – bar a few closed shops. Otherwise, it is still pretty easy to navigate to find your gate. For me, I knew that would be towards the non-Schengen B gates.
Eventually, I made it to the passport booths and lined up at the Non-Schengen passport line. After a short wait, I was seen. A few questions and my passport was thumped with an exit stamp.
Thanks, Boris.
Entering the gate area, it was obvious that there were a lot of impatient people waiting as the plane was running late. This bode well for later on. As I arrived at the gate, people were getting off the aircraft, as it was turned around for the return trip to London.
I just found somewhere to sit, as parts of the UK aviation industry were watching their clocks.
Fresh in from London.
Eventually, boarding for the flight was announced – and to say it was “premium heavy” would be an understatement, with most of the passenger aircraft seeming to have some sort of premium status.
I eventually made my way to the head of the queue. With my passport and boarding pass beeped, it was time to head home.
Well, it would have been if the crew were ready for us. Instead, we’re all made to queue in the jetway.
Eventually, we were allowed to board. It was time to make tracks homeward.
Next: BA957 Hamburg to London Heathrow.
Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, featuring in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.
Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates! You can follow me on Instagram too!
Also remember that we are part of the BoardingArea community, bringing you the latest frequent flyer news
