Passenger Assistance - comparison of airports
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Maun, Botswana
Age: 37
Posts: 424
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I worked in passenger assistance for around 2 and a half years and it can be pretty tricky to satisfy every customer.
I worked for AirNZ in Auckland. We provided a service for all of our passengers, along with service for Qantas, Thai, Korean, Malaysia, Aerolineus Argentina, LAN Chile, Air Pacific, Air Vanuatu and Air Calin.
When flying out of a hub Airport, you will find the passenger service for that airline should always be better than in a foriegn company, as in the foriegn company the service has to be contracted out to generally the lowest bidder.
This doesn't mean that you will be getting poor service, in fact, as in our case, we probably looked after the customer companies with a higher standard as to ensure we will retain the contract in the future.
In a perfect world, we could provide service to every single passenger without keeping a single client waiting. Unfortunately that would require either very few passengers requiring assistance, or a huge amount of ground personal which would make the business unprofitable.
When a plane comes into AKL, the aircraft would call ahead before landing and let operations know that they have a certain amount of passengers on board that required assistance. Somehow magically during the flight, either passengers would lose or gain their legs and the amount of passengers that left on that aircraft requiring assistance was never the same as those that got out at the other end.
Planning for this was always difficult.When usual amounts of assistance is required,we would have to either pull employee's from check-in or boarding to assist us, slowing down our operation in other areas.
Our usual planning would be around 3 wheelchairs for a short haul aircraft, and around 6 for the long haul flights.
Then on top of that would be the people who would decide they need wheelchairs when they see them, and either just take them, or sit down and pretend to not speak english when you ask them if they had booked a chair.
After getting our passengers, a good 50% of them would have goods to declare which would tie up that assistant for a long time as they have to wait in the queue for a baggage search to be conducted.
Then add to this a plane or two arriving late, another arriving early, with two or three departures going out, two of our assistants tied up in customs, employee's calling in sick (very common in early morning shift work) and all of a sudden there is just no physical way to get everyone where they want to go as quickly as possible. When we get into these situations, we just have to deal with the passengers departing in the near future first so they do not miss their flight.
We would always do our best but a lot of travellers do not see the issues that are going on behind the scenes or in other parts of the airport.
In regards to child push chairs, it all depends on where the push chairs were loaded. If at all possible we would retreive them, but for the most part, the baggage guys do not have the time to be getting into the baggage holds to get them. We did at one time provide push chairs to passengers, but after one child was injured on a supplied push chair, they decided to sue the company.
To stop this from happening again, we stopped this service.
We would assist mothers as much as possible who were travelling alone with children, but health and safety regulations would not allow us to hold or handle small children.
You will find that service in America is good because there is a Department of Transport requirement to do so. If they do not provide this service they can be fined, and fined a large amount. As a passenger, you need only to pass through America as a stop over to be subject to this requirement.
Buggee's have their own issues. Some airports have very strict rules regarding these, in terms of who can drive them or how they are driven. In AKL, due to the airport layout, we can only have a buggee on the arrivals floor, and only between the certain areas.
When you book on a codeshare flight, you have to check in with the carrier that you will be flying with. While you can be through checked onto a different carrier, the intial check in has to be with the company that you will be flying with.
Its something that should made a little clearer with the intial booking, but now you have learnt from that experience.
While you do have a right to expect good service on your travels, sometimes the stars align that it cannot be given as you would expect. As it is an extra service that is being provided free of charge (as one would expect), I would hope that a bit of leeway is given where everything cannot be dropped straightaway.
I worked for AirNZ in Auckland. We provided a service for all of our passengers, along with service for Qantas, Thai, Korean, Malaysia, Aerolineus Argentina, LAN Chile, Air Pacific, Air Vanuatu and Air Calin.
When flying out of a hub Airport, you will find the passenger service for that airline should always be better than in a foriegn company, as in the foriegn company the service has to be contracted out to generally the lowest bidder.
This doesn't mean that you will be getting poor service, in fact, as in our case, we probably looked after the customer companies with a higher standard as to ensure we will retain the contract in the future.
In a perfect world, we could provide service to every single passenger without keeping a single client waiting. Unfortunately that would require either very few passengers requiring assistance, or a huge amount of ground personal which would make the business unprofitable.
When a plane comes into AKL, the aircraft would call ahead before landing and let operations know that they have a certain amount of passengers on board that required assistance. Somehow magically during the flight, either passengers would lose or gain their legs and the amount of passengers that left on that aircraft requiring assistance was never the same as those that got out at the other end.
Planning for this was always difficult.When usual amounts of assistance is required,we would have to either pull employee's from check-in or boarding to assist us, slowing down our operation in other areas.
Our usual planning would be around 3 wheelchairs for a short haul aircraft, and around 6 for the long haul flights.
Then on top of that would be the people who would decide they need wheelchairs when they see them, and either just take them, or sit down and pretend to not speak english when you ask them if they had booked a chair.
After getting our passengers, a good 50% of them would have goods to declare which would tie up that assistant for a long time as they have to wait in the queue for a baggage search to be conducted.
Then add to this a plane or two arriving late, another arriving early, with two or three departures going out, two of our assistants tied up in customs, employee's calling in sick (very common in early morning shift work) and all of a sudden there is just no physical way to get everyone where they want to go as quickly as possible. When we get into these situations, we just have to deal with the passengers departing in the near future first so they do not miss their flight.
We would always do our best but a lot of travellers do not see the issues that are going on behind the scenes or in other parts of the airport.
In regards to child push chairs, it all depends on where the push chairs were loaded. If at all possible we would retreive them, but for the most part, the baggage guys do not have the time to be getting into the baggage holds to get them. We did at one time provide push chairs to passengers, but after one child was injured on a supplied push chair, they decided to sue the company.
To stop this from happening again, we stopped this service.
We would assist mothers as much as possible who were travelling alone with children, but health and safety regulations would not allow us to hold or handle small children.
You will find that service in America is good because there is a Department of Transport requirement to do so. If they do not provide this service they can be fined, and fined a large amount. As a passenger, you need only to pass through America as a stop over to be subject to this requirement.
Buggee's have their own issues. Some airports have very strict rules regarding these, in terms of who can drive them or how they are driven. In AKL, due to the airport layout, we can only have a buggee on the arrivals floor, and only between the certain areas.
When you book on a codeshare flight, you have to check in with the carrier that you will be flying with. While you can be through checked onto a different carrier, the intial check in has to be with the company that you will be flying with.
Its something that should made a little clearer with the intial booking, but now you have learnt from that experience.
While you do have a right to expect good service on your travels, sometimes the stars align that it cannot be given as you would expect. As it is an extra service that is being provided free of charge (as one would expect), I would hope that a bit of leeway is given where everything cannot be dropped straightaway.
