Touchdown, Immigration and Hotel One Transfers

Touchdown

23:49 (Hong Kong) –> 06:41 (Manchester) local times
14 hours 52 minutes, even with a fold down seat/bed, you don’t get that much sleep inflight

For this trip Manchester Terminal 2 is not a regular for me, so the taxi time to the gate and airport layout are not familiar, even though I have done researched.

So, the end of the flight, while removing stress and fear some may have from flying, signals the start of more stress, when you’re in an undesirable mental state

A little groggy if a short or single media haul flight, due to cabin air
A little sleepy from long haul or multiple flights

For this trip, I’m a sleepy and the plane parked up at a gate with a significant walk to the main terminal area.

Immigration & Baggage Pick-up

While I’m arrive in the country that issued my passport, that doesn’t remove the stress of the passport document check.
And even when arriving in countries I travel to often, there is always stress while queuing at immigration.

On this occasion the UK Passport holder automated channel wasn’t working, though I didn’t spot this for a while as there was a long queue and some confusion as airport staff tried to direct people as European or Non-Europeans for the correct immigration checks.

After getting past immigration, the next stress point is baggage claim with three key issues

Finding the baggage reclaim belt
On one trip I found the single belt, then had an hour wait as technical issues with the aircraft prevent the baggage being unloaded
Being able to see your bag(s) and collect them
Many people gather close to the one location with trollies and block others, I try to find a quiet area, after all the bag is traveling around until you pick it up
The wait
When you’re traveling overnight or long haul, it always feels like your bag is the last one

One of the few Covid era benefits, from the arrival health checks, your bags arrived before you.
That said, such health check processing or extra immigration checks, had different stress affects

Transfer to Hotel One

Finally on UK soil and baggage collected, it’s time to go to my hotel.
The first challenge is getting out of the airport.

For me, this is from Terminal 2 Arrivals to the Airport Station for a rail transport.
Luckily the ticket office accepted credit cards and the staff helped to identify the next suitable train, so I was soon on my way.

The next hidden challenge is hotel check-in.
For me, on this trip, a two part process

Bag Drop, in this case my hotel, otherwise a station locker
After check-in opened, returning to the hotel to check-in and get some sleep in a proper bed

When traveling, it’s worth remembering to check bag drop options and not just late check-out time.

Some Personal Time

To get the best of my long haul trip I arrived early, on the Saturday, so I could spend time with family in Manchester before traveling on to Newport.
If you would like to know more, tough, some things are private.

Arrival Summary

Touchdown may bring some relief to fearful fliers, though it’s not the end of the travel stress.
While internal travel may remove immigration checks, you still need to collect baggage, leave the airport and get to your hotel.

With long haul flight, overnight (red-eye) travel or in my case both, there is additional confusion due to lower mental capacity. being tired or even jet-lagged.

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