"Although, at least next time I have a pax complain about having to show a boarding pass WHILST ACTUALLY BOARDING AN AIRCRAFT, I will have a nice little story to tell them as to why it is done"


It always surprises me that it ISN'T done on most flights in the US.

Real Airlines [American Airlines, Southwest] over here have machines at each gate that read your boarding pass. The SWA machines will read the boarding pass you can print out at home within 24 hours of departure. Surely the info on the pass includes the identity of the pax as well as flight. The machines make a ruckus if you are trying to board the wrong flight.

The US system involves the airline "owning" the gate and not sharing it with a different computer system. However in this day and age, a small scanner such as used for retail UPC attached to a laptop computer plugged into an airport-wide network would be adequate. It's not interstellar rocket science.

Edited to add: Radeng, I don't think I've ever boarded an airliner in the USA without having to show my boarding pass. It happens as one enters the boarding "bridge" at all major airports or at the bottom of the stairs at minor places. Where / what line did you find the lack of checks?

It's usually the Americans who complain loudest about showing their boarding cards!

If there was an anouncement that the gate had been changed from one to three where would you go?

I go to three but I'd double check with the gate staff when I got there.

In May this year SWMBO and myself went to Prague for a few days to soak up the culture. We flew by EJ from Stansted. The boarding was chaotic to say the least... After showing our passes we ambled down the stairs with our fellow travellers and then at the bottom it became unclear which door was to be used for our flight. I simply went out and looked at two aircraft; an Easy Jet A319 and a holiday operator Boeing (Think it was a 757 so prob T.Cook)., It was obvious to me which aircraft was ours. However as we were making ourselves comfortable there was a commotion behind and several passengers shot out of their seats saying they were going to Paphos ! Several minutes later a group of people boarded looking most flustered and telling all & sundry that they had boarded the Paphos plane !! All very amusing but I have to say that there were insufficient people in the right places to ensure that passengers went to the right aircraft. Ok for us who know which is which.

Seacue, I think there's a little misunderstanding. Boarding passes are checked at the gate here in Europe too, but many operators here have their FAs check the boarding pass again as the pax enters the aircraft. That last bit is what I believe radeng is refering to re the USA.

I once boarded an AF aircraft, in France, to fly to Paris CDG. As far as I could tell, I was the only passenger, out of 100 or so, who was not of the French persuasion.

As I reached my seat, there was a CC announcement, in French, of course, welcoming us aboard this flight to Paris Orly. Everyone seemed to accept this without problem, and I tried to convince myself I was actually on the right aircraft, and the CC had made an error. The announcement was then repeated, in English, and the destination was still Orly, and still the other pax were quite happy with that.

Then, as I decided I would have to clarify the situation, there came a correction on the P.A. It was CDG, after all. But now all the other pax were confused, and demanded further explanations.

Having been in the business of making the announcements myself, I really thought I had come across some pretty stupid characters, but I think the above episode just about took the biscuit. You really can't win, chaps and chapesses.

When I left Bristol, Easyjet had just installed a new computer system where the boarding cards were scanned with a barcode reader. You had one gate agent manually checking the cards then one scanning them. If they were not on that flight and the manual checker missed the card the computer would reject the card and the punter wouldn't get on.

With regards to the passengers, if I saw a different destination above a gate I had been called to I would ask about it. It's called common sense. Unfortunatly passengers fail to display any the second they walk into an airport.

Unfortunatly passengers fail to display any the second they walk into an airport.

Ferdnando, your comment is not only arrogant and rude, but is also inaccurate.

Answer me why passengers get confused when the airport infrastructure often provides confusing mixed messages, for example at STN, when the FIDS in the main terminal and the piers don't provide the same status information, e.g. "final call" in the main area and "wait at gate" in the terminal, when the inbound aircraft has not even arrived.

I did confront the BAA duty manager about this on one occasion (of many) and she confronted the airline gate staff whereupon there was an argument and finger pointing about who was to blame for totally confusing a whole bunch of people, many of whom were running down the domestic pier as they were concerned about missing their flight.

And you criticise passengers for being confused

Passengers get confused because they don't use common sense. Common sense would dictate that you either ask someone or go to the gate. Not sit in the bar quaffing another beer or waltz through Duty Free!

There are also clues on boarding cards as to what airline you are flying with, what your flight number is, what time the flight departs, what gate it is going from, where you are sitting and where you are going.

So punters really should have no excuse when they say the didn't know what time the flight was due to go or if they are flying with Easyjet or IOS Skybus.

If two and two don't add up, show some common sense and ask.
The old saying, "Too many cooks spoil the broth" springs to mind. Leave the gate agent to make all the announcements and update the FIDS and things will work. When you have to go through someone else to call a flight or update two seperate FIDS' wires start to get crossed.

Again I go back to my point of passengers displaying very little common sense. If they can see that all the information is not adding up all they have to do is use some common snese and ask.

I always use common snese .

(just jesting)

Can you imagine stansted with all the pax. asking staff about gates.

Airports are confusing and passengers getting lost/going on the wrong plane happens to even the smartest of folks, especially when you add in jet lag.

Yes airports are confusing, but that brings us back to asking again. Better to ask and get the right information than try and fly to Alicante on a plane going to Rome.

Avman, you're right.
Seacue, on BA, the machine at the gate reads your Boarding Card, the gate staff check your photo ID. Then the CC check the Boarding Card again at entry. Now, you would think is a waste of time and energy, and a lot of the time, in some ways it is, although it helps the CC direct passengers who aren't at all au fait with aircraft to their seat. But I've seen people get as far as the cabin door before it's found that they're on the wrong aircraft. I saw it happen to one family of four bound to Johannesburg earlier this year get as far as the cabin door of an A320 going to Stockholm! Don't ask me how........

Fernando Covas

what gate it is going from,

In the UK, due to stand constraints, it is quite normal for boarding passes to be issued without a gate number.

You display ignorance, as well as arrogance.

Leave the gate agent to make all the announcements and update the FIDS and things will work.

The gate agent was entering the information directly onto the system, you do obviously do not understand how the system works at STN.

And Stansted is a no calls airport, so you haven't grasped that either.

Again ignorance and arrogance on your part.

You are the one showing no common sense by making assertions when you plainly do not understand what you are talking about.

Correct I do not know about Stanstead. Thats why I included Bristol in my original post.

Well at least we agree that you do not know about Stansted

Well done. Bravo. You worked out that I don't know about Stansted.

Fernando

There is an old saying that it is sometimes better to say nothing at the risk of appearing to be a fool, rather speaking and confirming it.

Ferdinand

It isn't just Stansted, many major international airports do not print the gate numbers on boarding passes, nor are many flights announced. Large international airports can be chaotic places.

I often fly from FRA and normally the gate number does not appear on my boarding pass, on occasion the check in agent has not been able to tell the depature hall either (FRA terminal one being made up of three main depature areas - A, B and C all with a separate entry point (sometimes more than one per area depending on the gate))

I've never flown from Bristol but would I be right in assuming it's a fairly smallish regional airport with a limited number of flights and not really comparable with the likes of Stansted or Frankfurt ?

Lucky man....