NEWCASTLE - 7

[CentreFix25]

I find it hard to believe that anyone anywhere would stand and laugh at a woman struggling with a pram, baby and stairs, were they really standing there and laughing?

[inglebyboro]

yes, when my wife saw them she felt gutted. If it was not for the bag she had checked in, (not knowing how to get it back), she would have turned around, got in the car, and drove to the South West. She is dreading the trip back early next week.

I feel bad too, she was willing to drive in the first place, but I talked her into flying down, saying it would be a lot easier for her with travelling by herself.

We had booked with Easy to go from Newcastle to Paris later in the year, but after this morning whe will not fly with them again, so just paid out £434 for 5 of us (including the little one) to fly with Air France from Manchester.

Cheers easy

[transwede]

Having been part of customer service teams in the past, I find it astounding that staff would not help the lady in question. Although staff from many airlines and GHA are asked not to hold or carry children - carrying a folded pushchair is not a problem. They are light and groundstaff frequently have to do this in order to get them loaded onto the aircraft.

I find this the basic of customer service, to help a passenger of this nature. If I were you, I would write a harsh letter of complaint to the station manager of the handling agent. It is totally unacceptable and for them to laugh, makes my blood boil. Had I of been a passenger I would of had no qualms at all in helping, but then again is this not the sign of todays society?! On the part of the groundstaff, the levels of customer care have dropped, but wages for GHA staff are poor - not that it should interfere with service.

On a different note, anyone know what went wrong with the OHY last night?

[CentreFix25]

inglebyboro

You should write letters to NCL Airport, the airline and the handling agent, let them know you'll be making alternative plans in future. Like transwede says the ground staff are poorly paid and not treated all that well, however this should not have been a factor in your wifes case.

On another note Flybe have moved 3-5 based engineers into their new office on the pier, a good sign for the near future.

[ncleflights]

inglebyboro - As has been said before this is not easyjets fault but the handling agent and the gate agent can't leave the gate unattended. Luckily my children are not young but fear you may have wasted your money booking with AF as when they were I received a much poorer service from the full service boys than from EZY.

[SWBKCB]

When I worked for Servisair many (many!) years ago, it was the job of the dispatcher to take pushchairs from gate to hold and vice versa - the skills developed came in useful in later years...

[HH6702]

(i am hh6702's wife but id like to say my bit!)i would like to say in the defence of the handling agent in question i have worked for them for 4 and a bit years now as a dispatcher. it isnt the job of the dispatcher to help passengers down the stairs with pushchairs.it isnt the job of a pax agent either, a passenger should be prepared to carry whatever they have brought with them. dispatchers will carry buggys from the gate to the aircraft. i find it hard to believe that any one from passenger handling would stand and laugh at someone struggling with kids. it could be that they were laughing at a completley seperate incident but the passenger was frustarated and mistook it that they were laughing at them. in all honesty i dont know whether pax agents are told not to help but i do know that it is common sense not to help as if an accident were to occur you are then liable to alsorts of 'where theres a blame theres a claim' situations.imagine if a pax agent helped your wife carry a buggy with your baby in it and they slipped or let go of the buggy and someone got hurt, who would you be blaming?!? as for being told at check in, check in staff dont usually know at that stage what parking stand is being used for the aircraft as the airport dont allow it to be put on boarding passes, they now use the watch the screen excuse. the airport is badly in need of being redesigned as most of the gates have stairs down to the apron and no lifts... this is a problem i came across time and time again as a dispatcher as passengers with kids ask for pushchairs at the aircraft then realise that they have to carry bags buggies and kids up alone. i as a rule tend to fold buggies for pax at the bottom of the aircraft steps instead of holding babies even though i have a two yr old myself and another one on the way just incase anythng happens. in my experience (not saying i dont believe your wife) once passengers get onto a rant about something they exagerate the minor details as ive had people complain about me saying i was rude when i simply stated the truth!! at the end of the day i wasnt there im just saying what i know, we dont get paid very much money and we have a lot of responsibility but i havent ever seen this affect staff being helpful or professional with pax. we do get some charvy seasonals every year but they dont last long and are far outweighed by our permanant staff. at least 7 of the pax handling staff our pregnant so know what ya wife is going through!!!
dont tar everyone with the same brush as our passenger agents and dispatchers put up with a load of crap and abuse and deserve a hell of a lot more praise then we get. as for travelling with a different airline i doubt this makes much difference as the rules will be pretty much the same across the board.
i would like to add that if your wife folded the buggy and carried the baby herself i see no reason why the agents couldnt carry the folded buggy down i was meaning i wouldnt help someone carry a buggy with a child seated in it incase of accidents.
also the onur air was tech last night had a problem with its toilets in dlm..

[Robert William]

• You should write letters to NCL Airport, the airline and the handling agent, let them know you'll be making alternative plans in future.

Can i just say that all of the above will replyt the same, firstly it is inexcusable if the afore mentioned members of staff were laugthing at ANYONE struggling,
And secondly the reason they were unable to help is unfortunitly down to health and safty and insurance.
I must admit though in the past there have been occasions where ppl i work with and myself have helped paxs with buggies etc however if caught we do get into bother.
There are stairs at all the gates at some point and most agents will advise/remind pax of this at point of check-in

[ncleflights]

I was going to keep clear of the regular New York debate but eventually gave in to temptation. I am not to sure that even given the 'credit crunch' this latest rumour can be dismissed out of hand. Three reasons:-

1. this time the rumour is allegedly from the local development agency

2. CO have been monitoring the EK figures and are more than impressed with the figures on this one and only long haul sched route from NCL.

3. CO are experiencing a massive slump in the domenstic market and quite a few international routes. The one market though that seems to be weathering the storm is their routes to UK regional airports, ie BRS and BFS still showing steady growth. They may well conclude that NCL could provide then with same.

[ADTRANGER]

Eurocypria

As a regular NCL-LCA flier on the Saturday night service, i am more than hacked off with the continual delays. Fortunately i was not using last nights once again delayed flight but will be next weekend. Does anyone in flight scheduling know why this flight seems to be habitually late?
I did try to change to the Sunday morning service but this appears to be operated by the same aircraft returning from Larnaca and is also delayed.
This problem ran throughout last years operation as well, surely they need to change the operating times ?

[skyman771]

inglebyboro

We had booked with Easy to go from Newcastle to Paris later in the year, but after this morning whe will not fly with them again, so just paid out £434 for 5 of us (including the little one) to fly with Air France from Manchester.

I note your comments and whilst I agree with earlier postings and sympathise with your wife, I do find your response rather hard to believe. What you have in fact said is that you cancelled your booking with EZY to CDG (thus suffering a canx fee from EZY) then paid out to AF to travel at what was in all likelihood a much more expensive option (EZY CDG options to Oct 08 range currently range from £48 - £90 return) & with 4 paying pax even with additional luggage then the EZY option would have been a cost no brainer let alone the travel to MAN. However I do note that you live in Cleveland and that an oportunity arose to perhaps to embelish on an issue 'up the road'.Alternatively your actions are commendable if not futile in extracting any recompense

[Ops Guy]

Eurocypria delays

I dont have or know of the exact reasons for the continual delays to this service. However the LCA-NCL-LCA service is probably that aircrafts last rotation of the day, therefore any delays experienced throughout the day would have a knock on effect on your flight.

[transwede]

Eurocypria LCA

I believe last nights service was one of the longest delays experienced on the saturday night service, generally it is anything upto 1 hour. However in their defence, all airlines are now struggling to make ends meet and therefore to maximise financial return will work their aircraft to the max, particularly charter operators. Also bear in mind that we are nearing peak summer and at times, at some airports, flights are subject to ATC slot delays - so it is possible that any small delay earlier in the day could have an affect on the rest of the days schedule. Also bear in mind that airlines do experience tech delays once in a while, this could also have been a contributing factor. I am not 100% sure, but I believe the aircraft does a GLA rotation before its NCL run. Lets not start targeting specific airlines for delays before we know the reasons behind them. ECA have passed through NCL for a number of years now and so far have been pretty reliable.

[ADTRANGER]

Eurocypria

Transwede,
"pretty reliable" ,
I am well aware of possible tech difficulties and knock on effects, but these do not appear to be solely tech but more likely as you suggest an over optimistic scheduler. I am extremely happy with the service when they do turn up, i just wish it was more punctual.

[HeathrowDictator]

Golden Rivet

Quote:
The TOM PUJ suffered a double generator failure after pushback
Factually Incorrect.

Regarding the TOM PUJ delay on 1st June. I was on the aircraft in question and this is the information that was told to us by the relief crew when we finally started up at 1755 local. If it wasn't a double generator failure then what else caused the strobe light effect on every toilet light on board?? I would be very interested in finding out, especially since it wiped out half a day of my expensive holiday and Swissport gave us very little information (I'm guessing probably because they were kept as much in the dark by TOM?)

-HD-

[Golden Rivet]

It was a technical delay. Why do passengers presume knowing the finer details will help matters ?

[ash666]

"It was a technical delay. Why do passengers presume knowing the finer details will help matters ?"

Because we get tired of being treated as second class citizens that should just pay the money and shut up and not complain about anything or ask any questions.
The people that keep the airlines and airports in business should be treated with a bit more respect.

[HeathrowDictator]

Thank you Ash - and in addition, being placed in a cold, unheated coaching gate for 45 minutes with no word as to an estimate for departure or any communication whatsoever is less than satisfactory.

I note that Golden Rivet still hasn't quantified his/her "Factually Incorrect" comment???


-HD-

[fl dutchman]

Ba Lhr

Note a few cancellations in the last few days. Today its the second last inbound and the last outbound again.
No canx to any other LHR domestics to ABZ, MAN and EDI although one rotation to/from GLA was cancelled today. But there are many more alternative flights LHR - GLA but not from NCL.
So are we seeing more evidence that if there are any problems then the first choice for cancellation is the NCL service. (Understand the problem was in connection with a visitor from the USA.)

[timmy2shoes]

Because they are the poor sods paying the bill and without them
it would be pretty pointless having an airport or airline

Unless of course someone sets up an Operation called
Mushroom Air