I agree with the above.
I would add to that by saying the service you get upon return from a long-haul flight is terrible.
More often than not, when I have returned to MAN (home base!)the crew bus is somewhere else (not the fault of the drivers I might add)and you have to wait 20 minutes for that to turn up.
If you land early, nobody will be expecting you (caterers, baggage, crew bus, aircraft steps) if you turn up late, they will have given up and gone elsewhere.
We left Sanford 2 weeks ago and were 40 minutes ahead of schedule. We called Manchester soon after departure to let them know, but 7 and a half hours later, nobody was expecting us at MAN!
In my opinion, ground services are too fragmented. How can you expect 4 or 5 different companies to all meet you at exactly the same time and the idea of them co-operating with each other - what a joke!
Replies appreciated.