Ten Most Annoying Things About Airports
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Belt 7
Posts: 86
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by Laarbruch72
It’s to check your entitlement to buy. Airport staff aren’t allowed to buy cigarettes or alcohol (though some try it), so this check makes sure you’re genuinely a passenger.
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Sussex,UK
Posts: 469
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It’s to check your entitlement to buy. Airport staff aren’t allowed to buy cigarettes or alcohol (though some try it), so this check makes sure you’re genuinely a passenger.
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: dublin
Age: 64
Posts: 394
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Pet hate
All and any routine airline tannoy announcements,
Eg For all intending American Airlines passengers check in is no open .
Aimed at AA pax
Result is all delta us air united and others go to check in desks , they are American Airlines after all !,,
Eg For all intending American Airlines passengers check in is no open .
Aimed at AA pax
Result is all delta us air united and others go to check in desks , they are American Airlines after all !,,
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: South of France
Posts: 1,035
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I started really travelling on business when I was twenty eight. Somehow, that's thirty years ago...
God but it was exciting. The sense of anticipation of arriving, the indirect flights that left you sitting at a remote US airport watching people going about their business. People paying quarters to watch TV's bolted to their seats. Shoe-shine guys. Pretzel stands. The gate lounge sports bar.
Now? I don't know about TEN things..just being there is annoying enough.
Maybe I'm just being old and cranky though and there's twenty-eight year olds out there just loving it.
One thing was for sure. A bad day at the airport was a hell of a lot better than a good day at the office!
God but it was exciting. The sense of anticipation of arriving, the indirect flights that left you sitting at a remote US airport watching people going about their business. People paying quarters to watch TV's bolted to their seats. Shoe-shine guys. Pretzel stands. The gate lounge sports bar.
Now? I don't know about TEN things..just being there is annoying enough.
Maybe I'm just being old and cranky though and there's twenty-eight year olds out there just loving it.
One thing was for sure. A bad day at the airport was a hell of a lot better than a good day at the office!
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: UK EAST COAST
Posts: 322
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Getting the length of a delay drip fed hour by hour.
I went to pick a mate up at East Midlands, he was coming from Alicante on a Thomson flight. I got there at about 0900 and the arrivals board said Delayed..My mate phoned me and said they hadn't left but kept being told that they would board in 1 hour. I went to the Thomson desk and asked if they knew when the flight would arrive, They said that they didn't know and i said that my dilemma was do i go home, a three hour drive each way or do i wait..The lady took pity on me and said she would phone engineering but they usually wouldn't tell her anything. This day she was lucky. She was told that an engineer was leaving Luton that evening with a part which would take about about 30 minutes to fit and then the plane would leave. The earliest arrival at East Midlands would be about 0030 the next morning. It was 0115..
I rang my mate and told him, he was trapped airside but when he arrived at EMA he said they only stopped saying boarding in 1 hour about 2030 when they gave a departure time.
I knew the facts about 1030 so why couldn't the passengers be told?
I went to pick a mate up at East Midlands, he was coming from Alicante on a Thomson flight. I got there at about 0900 and the arrivals board said Delayed..My mate phoned me and said they hadn't left but kept being told that they would board in 1 hour. I went to the Thomson desk and asked if they knew when the flight would arrive, They said that they didn't know and i said that my dilemma was do i go home, a three hour drive each way or do i wait..The lady took pity on me and said she would phone engineering but they usually wouldn't tell her anything. This day she was lucky. She was told that an engineer was leaving Luton that evening with a part which would take about about 30 minutes to fit and then the plane would leave. The earliest arrival at East Midlands would be about 0030 the next morning. It was 0115..
I rang my mate and told him, he was trapped airside but when he arrived at EMA he said they only stopped saying boarding in 1 hour about 2030 when they gave a departure time.
I knew the facts about 1030 so why couldn't the passengers be told?
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: England
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
ALL UK airports are horrible places, and the foreign ones i have been to are not much better. No fresh air, extortionate prices for everything, passengers treat like cattle, queues queues and more queues. Airports seem to think that they have a god given right to rip off the travelling public, and as long as people keep paying, they will keep doing it.
Fortunately i don't travel too often, and don't go too far, just down to Malaga 5 or 6 times a year to see my dad, and that airport is not much better even with the new terminal.
I would rather drive to southern spain than fly, but for all of its faults flying will always be cheaper and quicker, so its put up and shut up unfortunately.
Cheers..........Howard
Fortunately i don't travel too often, and don't go too far, just down to Malaga 5 or 6 times a year to see my dad, and that airport is not much better even with the new terminal.
I would rather drive to southern spain than fly, but for all of its faults flying will always be cheaper and quicker, so its put up and shut up unfortunately.
Cheers..........Howard
Paxing All Over The World
strake I remember your pain! Fortunately I no longer travel on biz the way I used to. A genuine story I use to convey the problem is:
Looking out of the taxi window and seeing a vaguley familiar shape. After a moment, I worked out - the Eiffel Tower = Paris! I had: Got up; driven to LHR; boarded; had something to eat; deboarded; taxied; and was dozing when I was jerked awake at traffic lights and needed to know where I was. It was 08:00.
Like you, I have other stories if you wish to be bored ...
In summary - some days LHR could be great and the next day NOT. What irritates me is these blasted '10 Things' lists. Or the lists of supposedly successful people
. If you make it to retirement without having killed anyone - that's a success. 
Looking out of the taxi window and seeing a vaguley familiar shape. After a moment, I worked out - the Eiffel Tower = Paris! I had: Got up; driven to LHR; boarded; had something to eat; deboarded; taxied; and was dozing when I was jerked awake at traffic lights and needed to know where I was. It was 08:00.
Like you, I have other stories if you wish to be bored ...
In summary - some days LHR could be great and the next day NOT. What irritates me is these blasted '10 Things' lists. Or the lists of supposedly successful people
. If you make it to retirement without having killed anyone - that's a success.
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: ZRH
Age: 43
Posts: 152
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
5. Being told your flight was delayed ‘due to its late departure’
This is really irritating. The standard text is trotted out in most EU airports 'The reason for the delay is the late arrival of the inbound aircraft'.
There would be uproar if train companies started with 'The reason for the delay is the late arrival of the train' and bus companies said 'the bus is late because its running late'. DHL then could roll out 'Your parcel is late due the late arrival of the parcel'.
This is really irritating. The standard text is trotted out in most EU airports 'The reason for the delay is the late arrival of the inbound aircraft'.
There would be uproar if train companies started with 'The reason for the delay is the late arrival of the train' and bus companies said 'the bus is late because its running late'. DHL then could roll out 'Your parcel is late due the late arrival of the parcel'.
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Edinburgh
Age: 39
Posts: 642
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
5. Being told your flight was delayed ‘due to its late departure’
This is really irritating. The standard text is trotted out in most EU airports 'The reason for the delay is the late arrival of the inbound aircraft'.
There would be uproar if train companies started with 'The reason for the delay is the late arrival of the train' and bus companies said 'the bus is late because its running late'. DHL then could roll out 'Your parcel is late due the late arrival of the parcel'.
This is really irritating. The standard text is trotted out in most EU airports 'The reason for the delay is the late arrival of the inbound aircraft'.
There would be uproar if train companies started with 'The reason for the delay is the late arrival of the train' and bus companies said 'the bus is late because its running late'. DHL then could roll out 'Your parcel is late due the late arrival of the parcel'.
I always told the truth when I made such calls, so why would I make up some kind of elaborate story just because the truth was so dull.
Sometimes flights are just late. They may be ready to leave the departure airport on time but can't push back due to another aircraft in it's way or maybe the tug broke down and a new one has to be found. Sometimes a slight diversion on the way or perhaps an elongated holding pattern will occur, both of which result in a later landing time. Once it's on the ground a long taxi to the stand or a wait for a stand once it's there can all add extra time too. For any airline I ever handled, all of those constitute a late inbound, which will obviously affect the outbound departure time. Not every delay is something exciting. There is a need to keep tannoy announcements clear and to the point. If you start droning on about holding delays, long taxis or aircraft waiting for stands most people either have no idea what you're on about or simply don't care. "Late arrival" is a catch all term which is nice and simple and doesn't really have any other meaning.
I would sometimes expand on it and explain that the aircraft was held up elsewhere during the day and had failed to make up time, but the simple matter remained that it was late landing and that's why it's going to be late taking off!
So sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if they say it's due to a later inbound arrival then it really is just that!
I'm afraid I just grin (or should that be grimace?) and bear it. I've been flying for about 60 years - started on Silver City Bristol 170s from Lydd to Le Touquet so I suppose I've simply adapted as I've gone along.
The whole experience has, of course, changed. I can remember arriving in Vienna with my mother at the age of about 6. We had flown from London, my father had been away for about 3 months in Australia and had flown in from somewhere like Delhi (he had stopped in several places on his way home) and arrived about 10 minutes after us. We had cleared immigration and were waiting for our bags when my father appeard in the queue for immigration. NOTHING was going to get in my way, I just ran back through immigration to greet him and nobody batted an eyelid.
Possibly the best airport was Baglung in about 1978. In those days there was no road to Baglung. It was 2 days walk from Pokhara which is an hour by plane from Kathmandu. The airstrip (3 hours walk from the village) was grass and the terminal was a hut with 2 rooms. You went in from the grass outside, checked in, walked through into the other room, got frisked (no electricity, all manual) and back out onto the grass outside. Simples! No airport mall, no police trying to move the cars on outside the terminal, no magnetic arch.
Unfortunately, no plane. "It went to Lukla and the weather closed in so it didn't come back. It will come tomorrow". Everyone laughed (well, all 15 of us, it was a Twin Otter) and just headed off on foot to walk back to Pokhara. Even then the game wasn't over. We spent a night en route and got back to Pokhara to find we could get back to Kathmandu that night on another Twin Otter. Pokhara airport, it could handle an HS748, was better but it was still a grass strip and the "airport hotels" (yes, more than one) were just over the road. The Twin Otter didn't go that night and next morning we watched as it was loaded with sacks of salt. It headed off towards Jomsom but failed to get in so they unloaded the salt and loaded us instead. Security at Pokhara was a little better than Baglung and I remember this rather loud American who had several Buddahs in his baggage (they searched checked as well as hand baggage) saying "They're just cheap Boooodaaas" because the authorities were rather hot at making sure people didn't steal their heritage so they were a bit suspicious of multiple Buddahs.
And, on the same trip possibly the worst. Delhi. I'd checked my bag through from London to Kathmandu. No airside transit so I (eventually) entered India and when I got to the RNAC checkin the man looked at me pityingly and took me through emigration and security without stopping and in the departure lounge said "can you see your bag". Happily I could so we retraced our steps, checked in and I found myself on a 727 with a freight compartment up front and very badly balanced tyres (I think) causing a tremendous vibration as we took off.
<grumpy old man mode> Some of you just don't know how good you have it these days! <grumpy old man mode\>
The whole experience has, of course, changed. I can remember arriving in Vienna with my mother at the age of about 6. We had flown from London, my father had been away for about 3 months in Australia and had flown in from somewhere like Delhi (he had stopped in several places on his way home) and arrived about 10 minutes after us. We had cleared immigration and were waiting for our bags when my father appeard in the queue for immigration. NOTHING was going to get in my way, I just ran back through immigration to greet him and nobody batted an eyelid.
Possibly the best airport was Baglung in about 1978. In those days there was no road to Baglung. It was 2 days walk from Pokhara which is an hour by plane from Kathmandu. The airstrip (3 hours walk from the village) was grass and the terminal was a hut with 2 rooms. You went in from the grass outside, checked in, walked through into the other room, got frisked (no electricity, all manual) and back out onto the grass outside. Simples! No airport mall, no police trying to move the cars on outside the terminal, no magnetic arch.
Unfortunately, no plane. "It went to Lukla and the weather closed in so it didn't come back. It will come tomorrow". Everyone laughed (well, all 15 of us, it was a Twin Otter) and just headed off on foot to walk back to Pokhara. Even then the game wasn't over. We spent a night en route and got back to Pokhara to find we could get back to Kathmandu that night on another Twin Otter. Pokhara airport, it could handle an HS748, was better but it was still a grass strip and the "airport hotels" (yes, more than one) were just over the road. The Twin Otter didn't go that night and next morning we watched as it was loaded with sacks of salt. It headed off towards Jomsom but failed to get in so they unloaded the salt and loaded us instead. Security at Pokhara was a little better than Baglung and I remember this rather loud American who had several Buddahs in his baggage (they searched checked as well as hand baggage) saying "They're just cheap Boooodaaas" because the authorities were rather hot at making sure people didn't steal their heritage so they were a bit suspicious of multiple Buddahs.
And, on the same trip possibly the worst. Delhi. I'd checked my bag through from London to Kathmandu. No airside transit so I (eventually) entered India and when I got to the RNAC checkin the man looked at me pityingly and took me through emigration and security without stopping and in the departure lounge said "can you see your bag". Happily I could so we retraced our steps, checked in and I found myself on a 727 with a freight compartment up front and very badly balanced tyres (I think) causing a tremendous vibration as we took off.
<grumpy old man mode> Some of you just don't know how good you have it these days! <grumpy old man mode\>
I think - although I am happy to be corrected - that it's also something to do with whether the retailer will have to pay VAT on it. I don't think they do if the item is to be taken out of the EU. That's why even WH Smiths and Boots etc will ask for your boarding card. It's all about destination, destination, destination. But as said, I may be wrong......
By the looks of it blaggerman would rather find out by himself in future though rather than have people help with his question.
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 69
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I think - although I am happy to be corrected - that it's also something to do with whether the retailer will have to pay VAT on it. I don't think they do if the item is to be taken out of the EU. That's why even WH Smiths and Boots etc will ask for your boarding card. It's all about destination, destination, destination. But as said, I may be wrong......
Also if I buy a beer on the plane I pay the amount mentioned in the brochure for all flights of that UK based aircraft, but if I'm travelling outside the EU (i.e. Switzerland) why am I paying the VAT inclusive amount?
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Aberdeen
Posts: 49
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
1 US immigration
2 US immigration
3 US immigration
4 US immigration
5 US immigration
6 US immigration
7 US immigration
8 US immigration
9 US immigration
10US immigration
We are not dogs, some of us HAVE to travel there, sorry for daring to enter Mr Immigration man, ill be as quick as i can have no fear of that !!!
2 US immigration
3 US immigration
4 US immigration
5 US immigration
6 US immigration
7 US immigration
8 US immigration
9 US immigration
10US immigration
We are not dogs, some of us HAVE to travel there, sorry for daring to enter Mr Immigration man, ill be as quick as i can have no fear of that !!!
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: UK
Posts: 89
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Couldn't agree more! I have travelled to the US on several occasions and found the vast majority of the people I met and dealt with to be extremely helpful and amenable. The only exception to this on every occasion has been the immigration officers who are often abrupt and rude to the point of being obnoxious. I fully appreciate that they have a job to do but customer service is a part of that job!
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
Age: 63
Posts: 1,257
Received 167 Likes
on
102 Posts
Strake / Pax boy
It must be something in our age group !, as we obviously crossed the Rubicon between flying being an unusual event, to be, as we all know on this web site, a small trial in the nature of things, but now much used, though I do agree annoying sometimes
.
Regards
Mr Mac
It must be something in our age group !, as we obviously crossed the Rubicon between flying being an unusual event, to be, as we all know on this web site, a small trial in the nature of things, but now much used, though I do agree annoying sometimes
. Regards
Mr Mac
That said, I have spent quite a few delayed hours at T5 watching the landings and taking offs.
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Lewes, UK
Posts: 52
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
1. The way that airports are more shopping malls than places of departure. I don't want to shop, I want to catch a plane, so just provide clear directions and keep the damned shops out of the way. Heathrow, are you listening?
2. Security - it's a farce whose main purpose is to make people feel safer
3. Internet access - WiFi or whatever - should be free as it's a common service like electricity these days
4. Rip-off prices - when you do have to shop, paying slightly below high-street retail prices (which themselves are a rip-off anyway) from chain stores who boast VAT-free pricing. It's pure cash in the bank, for them. So more independents needed.
5. UK passport control - you get off the plane quickly only to be herded into a cattle pen to wait half an hour while some droid takes five minutes to say OK. Or wait about as long for the queue for the slow, slow electronic passport gates as people are too stupid to figure out how to work them. Bring back IRIS!
6a. US immigration - see above, but with added f*ck-you aggressive attitude from the herders
6b. US immigration - whose bright idea was it to search people on the way INTO the country (eg Atlanta, Miami)? I could buy lethal weaponry just down the road from the airport so just what is the point??
2. Security - it's a farce whose main purpose is to make people feel safer
3. Internet access - WiFi or whatever - should be free as it's a common service like electricity these days
4. Rip-off prices - when you do have to shop, paying slightly below high-street retail prices (which themselves are a rip-off anyway) from chain stores who boast VAT-free pricing. It's pure cash in the bank, for them. So more independents needed.
5. UK passport control - you get off the plane quickly only to be herded into a cattle pen to wait half an hour while some droid takes five minutes to say OK. Or wait about as long for the queue for the slow, slow electronic passport gates as people are too stupid to figure out how to work them. Bring back IRIS!
6a. US immigration - see above, but with added f*ck-you aggressive attitude from the herders
6b. US immigration - whose bright idea was it to search people on the way INTO the country (eg Atlanta, Miami)? I could buy lethal weaponry just down the road from the airport so just what is the point??
Last edited by liteswap; 4th Oct 2013 at 09:10.
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: .
Age: 37
Posts: 649
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
1. The farce of "security"; being fondled, felt, scrutinized, questioned, having to remove shoes, raking through bags etc. Also being chastised about tools/equipment.
2. The seemingly inevitable rugby scrum when a flight's boarding is announced. Why? The aircraft's not going to leave withot you if you're in the queue. Why the obsession to get on first?
3. Following on from the above, folks who hobble around the airport with their walking sticks, only to miraculously become not so immobile when boarding in announced, lifting the stick and rushing/barging to the front. Miraculously the stick seems to also remain discarded throughout the flight and the two weeks in tenerife.
4. Following on from the above again, people who are wheeled around all over the airport in wheelchairs, get priority boarding etc. and yet have no problem moving around on their own in the cabin of a 757 at 37000 feet, nor during the two weeks in Tenerife...
5. The cartel system of car parking charges. Crass profiteering. Minimum running cost, maximum charges, maximum profit, minimum investment. Good old British business.
6. The cartel system of food, drink etc. especially when past security, where prices seem to miraculously double for everything.
7. Pilots making excuses for delays by blaming it on ATC. "Er, sorry, we got held up because of ATC" is 99% of the time a lie. Tell pax the truth - wether the refuelling truck was elsewhere, the FO slept in, pax on the previous sector were late etc.
8. Airports that have prefectly serviceable runways/parking areas that remain shut for no discernable reason.
9. Airports that make General Aviation unwelcome/expensive.
10. The lack of viewing gallaries. Why? "Security" is not an excuse...
Smithy
2. The seemingly inevitable rugby scrum when a flight's boarding is announced. Why? The aircraft's not going to leave withot you if you're in the queue. Why the obsession to get on first?
3. Following on from the above, folks who hobble around the airport with their walking sticks, only to miraculously become not so immobile when boarding in announced, lifting the stick and rushing/barging to the front. Miraculously the stick seems to also remain discarded throughout the flight and the two weeks in tenerife.
4. Following on from the above again, people who are wheeled around all over the airport in wheelchairs, get priority boarding etc. and yet have no problem moving around on their own in the cabin of a 757 at 37000 feet, nor during the two weeks in Tenerife...
5. The cartel system of car parking charges. Crass profiteering. Minimum running cost, maximum charges, maximum profit, minimum investment. Good old British business.
6. The cartel system of food, drink etc. especially when past security, where prices seem to miraculously double for everything.
7. Pilots making excuses for delays by blaming it on ATC. "Er, sorry, we got held up because of ATC" is 99% of the time a lie. Tell pax the truth - wether the refuelling truck was elsewhere, the FO slept in, pax on the previous sector were late etc.
8. Airports that have prefectly serviceable runways/parking areas that remain shut for no discernable reason.
9. Airports that make General Aviation unwelcome/expensive.
10. The lack of viewing gallaries. Why? "Security" is not an excuse...
Smithy
Last edited by Captain Smithy; 4th Oct 2013 at 09:39.
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 69
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
7. Pilots making excuses for delays by blaming it on ATC. "Er, sorry, we got held up because of ATC" is 99% of the time a lie. Tell pax the truth - wether the refuelling truck was elsewhere, the FO slept in, pax on the previous sector were late etc.