WHBM
13th Jul 2005, 14:51
Yes, I know that AA&R is not really the place for whining complaints, but I just have to describe this one, complete chaos.
Paxing LCY-IOM on the morning flight with Euromanx. Wake up to see on the LCY page on Teletext that the inbound IOM was cancelled. Onto the web, nothing about ops on the Euromanx site at all. LCY site shows inbound at 0915 cancelled, outbound at 0945 nothing shown yet. IOM airport site is showing the 0800 outbound as leaving at 1310 and my flight, due at 1045, expected at 1605. Both these new times were actually the times of the next arrival, ie the first rotation was cancelled without actually saying so. They presumably got this information from Euromanx ops. I also noticed that the Euromanx timetable for the route on their website is still completely screwed as it has been for a long time, even showing the wrong number of rotations per day.
Go over to LCY not knowing what to expect. Terminal pretty calm except for one desk, desk 22 with a huge queue back across the concourse. Euromanx have two flights leaving in the morning, IOM and Galway, both at 0945 and both were being checked in at the same desk. Other desks staffed with no queues at all. Can’t really blame Euromanx for this as it’s their handling agents KGS (alias KLM Ground Services) who do this, and much of what follows.
Well I queue from 0910 to 0950, 40 minutes, until well after the flight departure time. Queue is going down at absolute snails pace, each party takes several minutes to be handled. There are two KGS supervisory staff who spend much of this time standing looking at the queue from a slight distance, but most of their time is spent gassing to each other about last night’s boyfriends and similar. Not once did they speak to anyone in the queue. Meantime the departure screen had counted down from Wait, to Go to Gate, to Final Call without there being any attempt to tell the queue what was going on.
At desk finally, I find the computer link to Euromanx was down and everything was manual. My e-ticket was solemnly ticked off against a telexed passenger list and the boarding card written out by hand in a most time-consuming manner, the agent attempting their best copperplate handwriting. So finally I run up the escalator, through security and down to the gate.
The doors were locked, though all the pax were inside. The agent inside looked at me then looked the other way. I politely knock on the door, then another pax inside draws his attention as well. In a reluctant manner he slowly comes round, unlocks the door, and looks at my boarding card.
�Huh. Where’s da coupon� ?
�It’s an e-ticket� (wonder how many other pax could give a meaningful answer to his question). “Haven’t you seen one before� ?
�Not on dis flight�.
There was then an uneasy speechless standoff as we looked at each other, until he finally shrugged with a “Huh, OK�.
So I join the packed throng in the little gate area, and discover the reason for such a passenger load. Last night’s flight to IOM had gone tech and been cancelled, the pax being put in the nearby Ramada Hotel. That had been attended with much farce as well, as they were eager to share, eg they were told to assemble at 0830 for a bus to the terminal, but no bus appeared and when the hotel were asked to chase it up the reply was that no one at KGS knew of any bus requirement. Eventually, and very late, they were collected. But their baggage was retained in the baggage hall overnight, and there were many unshaven men in the crowd.
Eventually it is announced that for security reasons they would have to re-identify all their hold baggage, which was drawn up on a truck outside. They are taken out, stood around for a while, then came back inside shaking their heads. It seems the wrong set of baggage had been presented to them. After a further interval another truckload of baggage was drawn up and we were all just released to the aircraft. Incidentally seating allocations had been abandoned, all boarding cards just had “Open seating� written on them (in hand of course).
Surely, surely the LCY management, normally very business pax-focussed, can give KGS a huge one up the rear for such stupidities, which I have encountered from them before. In fact ever since they got the handling monopoly it has gone down the tubes. The staff are certainly in place, in quantity, it’s just they have employed useless ones.
Well we are all sat in the 146 and there is still disorganisation about the baggage which cabin crew and FO have to go out to repeatedly. Eventually, nearly an hour late, we set sail. Finally.
Wouldn’t want to make a comment on the crew on this forum, except to note that the commander, the one in charge, only made a few perfunctory announcements about the weather etc without any reference at all to the various delays.
Flight attendants. Well, I presume they were. They were in civilian clothes rather than any uniform, not even a lapel badge to identify them in any way (the website shows a red and white uniform on the news page). Quite how they expect to be identified in their role by passengers if an emergency develops and they have to give commands I am not quite sure. Actually you could see the poor girls were quite embarrassed about the whole nonsense and were doing what they could.
Mid flight a significant harmonic noise suddenly starts up from the air con ducts above the seats and drones on until we reach top of descent. It is straightaway excused as “just loose panelling�, which seems to imply it was being carried forward from previous flights. Perhaps Euromanx engineering needs to invest in a screwdriver.
Now before anyone starts up about low fare carriers, this is £325 return for a 60 minute flight time, so not low fare at all. And on top of that you normally have to pay £2.50 for a Styrofoam cup of coffee and a chocolate bar (we were given free refreshments, the one concession to all the hang-ups). But it was a plane full of “never again’s� who disembarked at Ronaldsway. And when I finally reached my business meeting in Douglas, held back for me, as soon as I said “Euromanx� there was a chorus of “We needn’t have asked�.
Paxing LCY-IOM on the morning flight with Euromanx. Wake up to see on the LCY page on Teletext that the inbound IOM was cancelled. Onto the web, nothing about ops on the Euromanx site at all. LCY site shows inbound at 0915 cancelled, outbound at 0945 nothing shown yet. IOM airport site is showing the 0800 outbound as leaving at 1310 and my flight, due at 1045, expected at 1605. Both these new times were actually the times of the next arrival, ie the first rotation was cancelled without actually saying so. They presumably got this information from Euromanx ops. I also noticed that the Euromanx timetable for the route on their website is still completely screwed as it has been for a long time, even showing the wrong number of rotations per day.
Go over to LCY not knowing what to expect. Terminal pretty calm except for one desk, desk 22 with a huge queue back across the concourse. Euromanx have two flights leaving in the morning, IOM and Galway, both at 0945 and both were being checked in at the same desk. Other desks staffed with no queues at all. Can’t really blame Euromanx for this as it’s their handling agents KGS (alias KLM Ground Services) who do this, and much of what follows.
Well I queue from 0910 to 0950, 40 minutes, until well after the flight departure time. Queue is going down at absolute snails pace, each party takes several minutes to be handled. There are two KGS supervisory staff who spend much of this time standing looking at the queue from a slight distance, but most of their time is spent gassing to each other about last night’s boyfriends and similar. Not once did they speak to anyone in the queue. Meantime the departure screen had counted down from Wait, to Go to Gate, to Final Call without there being any attempt to tell the queue what was going on.
At desk finally, I find the computer link to Euromanx was down and everything was manual. My e-ticket was solemnly ticked off against a telexed passenger list and the boarding card written out by hand in a most time-consuming manner, the agent attempting their best copperplate handwriting. So finally I run up the escalator, through security and down to the gate.
The doors were locked, though all the pax were inside. The agent inside looked at me then looked the other way. I politely knock on the door, then another pax inside draws his attention as well. In a reluctant manner he slowly comes round, unlocks the door, and looks at my boarding card.
�Huh. Where’s da coupon� ?
�It’s an e-ticket� (wonder how many other pax could give a meaningful answer to his question). “Haven’t you seen one before� ?
�Not on dis flight�.
There was then an uneasy speechless standoff as we looked at each other, until he finally shrugged with a “Huh, OK�.
So I join the packed throng in the little gate area, and discover the reason for such a passenger load. Last night’s flight to IOM had gone tech and been cancelled, the pax being put in the nearby Ramada Hotel. That had been attended with much farce as well, as they were eager to share, eg they were told to assemble at 0830 for a bus to the terminal, but no bus appeared and when the hotel were asked to chase it up the reply was that no one at KGS knew of any bus requirement. Eventually, and very late, they were collected. But their baggage was retained in the baggage hall overnight, and there were many unshaven men in the crowd.
Eventually it is announced that for security reasons they would have to re-identify all their hold baggage, which was drawn up on a truck outside. They are taken out, stood around for a while, then came back inside shaking their heads. It seems the wrong set of baggage had been presented to them. After a further interval another truckload of baggage was drawn up and we were all just released to the aircraft. Incidentally seating allocations had been abandoned, all boarding cards just had “Open seating� written on them (in hand of course).
Surely, surely the LCY management, normally very business pax-focussed, can give KGS a huge one up the rear for such stupidities, which I have encountered from them before. In fact ever since they got the handling monopoly it has gone down the tubes. The staff are certainly in place, in quantity, it’s just they have employed useless ones.
Well we are all sat in the 146 and there is still disorganisation about the baggage which cabin crew and FO have to go out to repeatedly. Eventually, nearly an hour late, we set sail. Finally.
Wouldn’t want to make a comment on the crew on this forum, except to note that the commander, the one in charge, only made a few perfunctory announcements about the weather etc without any reference at all to the various delays.
Flight attendants. Well, I presume they were. They were in civilian clothes rather than any uniform, not even a lapel badge to identify them in any way (the website shows a red and white uniform on the news page). Quite how they expect to be identified in their role by passengers if an emergency develops and they have to give commands I am not quite sure. Actually you could see the poor girls were quite embarrassed about the whole nonsense and were doing what they could.
Mid flight a significant harmonic noise suddenly starts up from the air con ducts above the seats and drones on until we reach top of descent. It is straightaway excused as “just loose panelling�, which seems to imply it was being carried forward from previous flights. Perhaps Euromanx engineering needs to invest in a screwdriver.
Now before anyone starts up about low fare carriers, this is £325 return for a 60 minute flight time, so not low fare at all. And on top of that you normally have to pay £2.50 for a Styrofoam cup of coffee and a chocolate bar (we were given free refreshments, the one concession to all the hang-ups). But it was a plane full of “never again’s� who disembarked at Ronaldsway. And when I finally reached my business meeting in Douglas, held back for me, as soon as I said “Euromanx� there was a chorus of “We needn’t have asked�.