TRIP REPORT: Older Yes, Wiser? No – To Euroairport Basel and The Queue from Hades

To Euroairport Basel and The Queue from Hades
Older. Yes, Wiser? No.

• Age is a social construct. Frequent flyer programmes, doubly so.
• Morning coaches. Coach Fun and comedies
• British Airways Galleries North Lounge, Heathrow Terminal 5 
• BA772 London Heathrow to Zurich (Eurotraveller)
• Into Zurich
• Experiments in photography: The Canon EOS R50
• Back to Zurich Airport and a dreaded Text message
• IC3 Zurich Airport to Basel Hbf
• To EuroAirport Basel and The Queue from Hades
• The Skyview Lounge, EuroAirport Basel 
• BA749 Euroairport Basel to London Heathrow (EuroTraveller)
• Little Britain at its worst
• Older yes. Wiser? Dear deity… of course not!

You join me as darted off the train and into a new environment – with a little knowledge in hand too about how to get to the airport. I was on the lookout for Bus Number 50 which would take me there.

That’s good, but it was 1) raining and 2) I was lost. The train station is in a lovely part of the city and looks pretty for the minimal amount of seconds I was looking at it,

Out we go

Thankfully, I found the bus stop on Centralbahnstrasse  – and checked the wonderful clock-face timetable.

Rides

Pretty much all I saw of Central Basel. One time, next time maybe? 

Clockface timetables are wonderful. This is not up for discussion. 

Bus!

The bus was a multiple-segment segment bendy-bus (which some ex-dear leaders would have nightmares over… they had a nightmare over a two-segment bus. This one had three segments).

Long bus is long. 

The 50 is a limited stop service, acting more like a tram on rubber wheels than a bus – considering this is the main link to the airport, it’s appreciated.

What wasn’t was some local children who were giggling for most of the trip.  Children will be children – no matter where you are in the world

As the bus got closer to the airport the children vanished, as did some of the locals as we entered the thin corridor that connects Switzerland to the airport.

Europort Basel-Mullhouse-Frieurg is an oddity in aviation, as it is controlled by both the Swiss and French Authoeiries  – even though it is entirely in French territory (and I found that out when my phone switched network, whilst trying to catch a Pokemon).

Eventually, I was dropped off on the Swiss side of the airport, and I made my way in.

Inside EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Frieburg

Editors note: If you think I’m typing “EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg every time, you’ve got another thought coming. For the sake of my typing sanity, reading flow and my refusal to press Ctrl+C/Ctrl-V multiple times, I’ll refer to this as EuroAirport Basel for the sake of argument, as I came in via the Swiss Sector).

Arriving at the airport, it was reasonably busy – well, one queue was spanning a lot of the check-in area.

And you’re correct, it was the British Airways queue that was stretching across the terminal.

As usual for an outstation, one queue was dedicated to Club Europe, whilst the other was dedicated to Euro Traveller. Thankfully, my Silver privileges come into play here, allowing me to cut down some of the queues.

I say some, as the queues moved horrendously slowly – it seemed that the check-in staff were fighting various systems and queries at check-in.

I stood in line – as whilst I had been rebooked for the flight, I was fighting with the check-in systems myself, which were thoroughly confused about where I was travelling.

Making it to the head of a queue, a flustered mother let me through as she was trying to assemble her family. Never fun,

I was seen to and confirmed I had a seat on the flight to Heathrow, and I had a window seat for this flight back to London. It was at the back of the aircraft – but honestly, at this stage of the game, I was happy enough for that.

With my boarding pass printed, I was informed I could use the Fast-Track security, as well as the lounge a the airport. With a planned limited limited time in the lounge, I could do with that point to relax.

I didn’t know how much relaxing there would be ahead – but that was beside the point.

With the pass in hand, I headed upstairs to the departures level.

To the Abflug!

At security, my boarding pass didn’t want to scan, so I was let through manually. I thought it was just my pass was broken – but it seems that everyone’s fast-track pass was broken when attempting to use it.

I can live with that.

Clearing the security control, I exited into a bunch of shops – and towards Duty-Free.

Wonderful. 

After passing through that, both the Swiss and French sides of the airport combine into one airport.

And it felt… small – I won’t lie. In the past, a SwissAir AIrbus A310 used to ply trade back and forth between Basel and New York. These days, the airport is home to easyJet Switzerland and a smattering of other airlines that operate seasonal and regular flights.

Interestingly, it makes easyJet Switzerland the remaining Swiss airline based at the complex.

The airport features six jetbridges – with the remaining gates split between bus and ground boarding. Not the biggest airport – but I was glad that was able to head home

Whilst a night in Zurich was tempting, the costs were something I couldn’t stomach out of pocket. At least this flight would get me in the right direction and I could hop onto whatever to get home.

The terminal itself felt very empty.

Eventually, I made it to the intersection of the terminal – where one side allowed to you exit Schengen, the other side for further Schengen flights – and in the middle was the EuroAirport Basel lounge

Next: The nicest European Louge I’ve been in? Maybe.

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