Obviously some of the posters here don't understand the 'unique' operations to major U.S. airports.
The grd controllers do not assign gates or give instructions to taxi the a/c to the bay, rather they will instruct the said a/c to the entry point for the respective said terminal.While all this is going on, the Capt. has to taxy & mantain a good lookout, & the F/O has to find the time (while monitoring the Capt.!
) to contact 'ramp control' for his clearance to dock at the gate.This is due to the seperation of gnd controllers area of responsibility & the respective owners of the terminal (usually grd handling agents of airlines....eg AA,Continental etc.)Now, just imagine the high workload while working in a foreign environment.That's what they are in now.
I can symphatise with the said pilots because if the controller was a little bit patient, he would just say....."Air China, call ramp control at (assigned freq.) for your clearance to the ramp/bay."Instead he waste valuable time & R/T chatter in getting his point across in a rounabout manner.
Sometimes when things do go wrong it's best to
K.I.S.S..A little patience & understanding works a long way in getting your message across.
