Gibon2
24th Oct 2008, 13:13
A story for amusement only - although if there's anyone from QR on here, I would be curious to know what the hell was going on...
I recently flew Geneva-Newark and back on Qatar Airways. It's a fairly new service that goes from Doha to Newark with a stop in GVA. Very handy for those of us sick of Swiss and Continental. Nice plane, decent legroom in economy, good food and friendly service - I'll use them again.
But... On the way back, while descending into Geneva, chief CC comes on the intercom and says "Ladies and gentlemen, when we land in Geneva, first and business class passengers may disembark, but we ask economy class passengers to remain on board."
Que? But I'm ending my voyage in Geneva - as are about 80% of my fellow economy class passengers. I guess she just forgot to say "transit passengers".
OK, we land, taxi to gate, engines off, sealtbelt sign off, doors open. In the cattle class cabin we wait dutifully behind the curtain for the first and business class folks to get off. They do. Nothing happens - curtain remains shut. Some fidgeting and restlessness, then an announcement: "Would economy class passengers please sit down for the headcount."
What? Muttering and consternation, but passengers dutifully sit down. Chief CC appears with counting gadget and starts moving down the aisle, clickety-click-click. Suddenly, QR groundstaff lady runs up behind her and says, "no, no, you have to do the headcount after the Geneva passengers are off. You have to let the Geneva passengers off first!"
There was some urgent muttered exchange I didn't catch, but it appeared that chief CC conceded that, yes, perhaps it would be a good idea to let the GVA passengers get off.
So we did - with some relief. I mean, I'm sure Doha's nice and everything, but still...
I recently flew Geneva-Newark and back on Qatar Airways. It's a fairly new service that goes from Doha to Newark with a stop in GVA. Very handy for those of us sick of Swiss and Continental. Nice plane, decent legroom in economy, good food and friendly service - I'll use them again.
But... On the way back, while descending into Geneva, chief CC comes on the intercom and says "Ladies and gentlemen, when we land in Geneva, first and business class passengers may disembark, but we ask economy class passengers to remain on board."
Que? But I'm ending my voyage in Geneva - as are about 80% of my fellow economy class passengers. I guess she just forgot to say "transit passengers".
OK, we land, taxi to gate, engines off, sealtbelt sign off, doors open. In the cattle class cabin we wait dutifully behind the curtain for the first and business class folks to get off. They do. Nothing happens - curtain remains shut. Some fidgeting and restlessness, then an announcement: "Would economy class passengers please sit down for the headcount."
What? Muttering and consternation, but passengers dutifully sit down. Chief CC appears with counting gadget and starts moving down the aisle, clickety-click-click. Suddenly, QR groundstaff lady runs up behind her and says, "no, no, you have to do the headcount after the Geneva passengers are off. You have to let the Geneva passengers off first!"
There was some urgent muttered exchange I didn't catch, but it appeared that chief CC conceded that, yes, perhaps it would be a good idea to let the GVA passengers get off.
So we did - with some relief. I mean, I'm sure Doha's nice and everything, but still...