Ryanair Crews using Gerona Take Note !
Not Sure where this post really needs to go ?
I travel into Gerona at least twice a month - I always fly Ryanair and have never really had any problems untill december 2008 which i thought was a one off !
However yesterday an incident occurred ( FR 1945 Liverpool ) which further confirmed to me that there are things going on airport side that the Ryanair crews flying in and out of Gerona need to be aware of ?
There is a very over zealous spanish lady with a seriously bad attitude problem causing ructions at the boarding gates ...
yesterday there was a near a riot at our boarding gate because of this ladys actions .. which to tell you the truth delayed boarding by at least 15 minutes and upset a lot of boarding passengers ..including 3 elderly ladys who where left in tears .
It was apalling . Seriously !
Previously she had swooped like a vulture at the bottom of the stairs checking the size of everyones hand luggage . Those whose bags failed to make the grade where promptly sent to the check in desk and made to pay 30 + euro's to put the bag on the aircraft . Fair enough ..thats the rules but she has such an apalling manner about her ...do your job but do it in a polite manner !
There was a 20 minute window of oppurtunity when she left battle stations to go for a break ....
There we where all happy travellers...
Our aircraft had arrived , change round , refuelling etc completed .
Ready to board in orderly que's pilots waiting patiently for passengers and then SHE appeared dragging the metal cage which measures the size of your hand luggage with her - she took it right up to the gate door ?
It was like something out of a horror movie ....The whole que went silent watching as the metal screeched along the floor .
Then she proceeded to board passengers ..
The next thing i know she is screaming at everybody " you must check your bags fit in the cage and if they dont fit stand to the side " which to everyones credit they did do- me included .
The que was building up , boarding gate getting blocked , people trying to ram bags into the cage . People running off like frightened school kids , stuffin suitcase up jumpers etc
Then it kicked off big time as she physically man handled 3 female english pensioners to one side and told them " if your bag dos'nt fit then you are not flying "
I was incredoulous .. So the old dears got very upset and said in a very polite manner " look if we owe you for the bags cant we just pay you its not a problem " .
her attitude stunk " its too late your not going to board this aircraft . you will have to get another flight tomorrow " ..
well as soon as the others in the que who had been waiting patiently heard this bedlam ensued .....
we had the ridicolous scenario of people emptying bags , clothes everywhere and layering said clothes on their bodys in order to get their bags to fit in the cage !
Half the passengers looked like mitchelin men ...
which surely isnt a good thing shud an emergency occur as none ov them would fit thru the doors !!! and impede everyone elses exit whilst we are at it !.
we even had the stupid scenario of some poor guy who had already had his bag checked in the cage downstairs and it fitted perfectly yet he had foolishly purchased some duty free and rather than have the bottles rattling round in a plastic bag he had put them inside his suitcase !! So now the bugger wouldnt fit in the cage !!
big , big , mistake ...he was trying to explain as to how his bag had incresed in size and she was screaming at him " where is your receipt ? where is your carrier bag i want proof you purchased these items here "
Meanwhile our crew are waiting for us to board not having a clue what was going on the other side of the boarding gate ...
It was a total farce and crews should be made aware of what is going on and pass the information to the powers that be at Ryanair . This is definatly affecting turn around and also passenger confidence in the airline .
In the end the boarding passengers turned hostile and people where shouting and swearing ..it got pretty scary ...she relented , very reluctantly and allowed people thru ...we still had to wait over ten minutes before the three elderly ladys where allowed to board ...they where kept like hostages untill said bags fitted !
All arrived on board very upset and all over dressed !
My own bag didnt fit perfectly in the cage but when i took my rather large book out of the front pouch it fell into place...she glared at me with evil eyes..i walked away book in hand triumphant !
The mad thing is that only a few people had any difficulty getting their hand luggage in the over head lockers .my own suitcase glided in effortlessly .
What a crazy situation .
I luv Flying Ryanair ... but someone has to do something about what is happening at Gerona Airport because it is effecting everyone not just us passengers but the crews too ...only they won't be aware of what is really causing the delays in boarding their flights !!
Please pass this info on .. cheers