#913917 by honey lamb
02 Dec 2015, 00:10
BA 435 - NOT!!

BA437

My original booking had been cancelled and I was now booked on a flight leaving an hour later but still with plenty of CH time.

What a shambles! A total shambles!

After a perfectly acceptable flight to Amsterdam I overnighted in the Hyatt Place hotel near the airport. Prior to this I had stayed in the quirky Citizen M hotel which was within walking distance of the terminal but on this occasion I felt I wanted a proper hotel room complete with separate bathroom and after sussing out this hotel, I booked it via the Shops Away portal, thus gaining some miles. On arrival in AMS, I followed the signs to the hotel shuttles only to find that I needed to go to a desk inside the terminal who would then call the hotel to send the shuttle. This didn't augur well, especially since I initially went to the wrong desk. However I finally fetched up at the right one but there was someone being dealt with who was taking up a considerable amount of time. There was a bus outside but the logo (in Dutch) said something like "Meet and greet". It certainly wasn't a hotel logo but I was edgy that it might be mine. After a short while, a young women fetched up beside the line. She was smartly dressed in a uniform and I hoped she would be the cavalry and open a second desk, but no, she just stood there waiting patiently. Eventually the lady manning the desk move on to the second person whom she sent away with a flea in her ear and then dealt with the next person who was also summarily dismissed. No it did not augur well for me. However, as soon as I humbly proffered my request, she pointed out to the bus outside and to the lady waiting beside the line and told me that was my bus! The lady was the driver. Once I was on board we headed off. Obviously she had been told there was a mad Irish woman looking for the bus to the hotel.

On board the bus were a party of Dutch and Italians who were heading to the same conference and who conferred in perfect English about "road maps" and "action plans" and other kinds of business jargon!

The hotel was very good and comfortable although, in the style of Citizen M there was a wall where snacks and soft drinks were available for purchase. However at the bar a G&T was €12!!!! Oh and the breakfast, which was part of the deal was meagre as far as the cooked breakfast was concerned. There was no bacon!! In heaven's name, who has a cooked breakfast without bacon! :-O

Anyhow, back to the trip report. I took the shuttle back to the airport, having joined in the minute's silence for the Paris victims at 12 noon and fetched up at the Club Europe desk at 12.14pm when it all went pear-shaped! A young man cut in front of me to the line but as there was only one other waiting while someone was being dealt with at the desk, what could possibly go wrong? What, indeed? The someone being dealt with was extremely smartly and trendily dressed and I envied his style but that’s as far as it went as he struck poses at the counter in a “notice me” manner. Yes, darling. We all did, but it didn’t make up for the fact that you kept us waiting for yonks! He was looking to change his flight to one going to LGW and I beseeched the heavens to accede to his request in case he was sitting next to me but the Almighty seemed not to be checking his messages as nothing was happening. The poor agent (who was the only one there for Club Europe) tipped and tapped away at her keyboard - and to my annoyance, kept on hopping over to the economy desks to resolve this or that problem for the agents there. People joined the economy queue and were quickly processed while we waited and waited! In the meantime, yer man continued to pose and the agent continued to tip and tap away as the line behind me continued to grow and I continued to seethe! Eventually a seat to LGW was secured but was that the end of it? Oh no! He proffered his credit card for whatever additional costs and we waited as someone took it away to be processed and the boarding pass to be issued. And the economy line continued to flow! Finally, finally everything fell into place and yer man vacated the area some twenty minutes after I had joined the queue.

The next person also took some time and by this time the mood of the crowd behind me was restless. The family behind me was a lovely couple of Middle Eastern origin with a delightful (and quiet) 18 month old baby, who queried the meaning of Priority Check-in (the family, of course - not the baby!!) Eventually the person who had cut in front of me was called forward and he too, wanted a change to his ticket. At this stage, I was like an anti-Christ! I had been 30 minutes in a premium line which was serviced by one agent, who from time to time answered queries from the economy line agents and I had watched a procession of people from that line pass me on the way to security. OK, before anyone who doesn’t know me gets the wrong idea and thinks that I am a complete prima donna, a DYKWIA, I take the rough with the smooth (and by God, have I known rough!!) but this was verging on the ridiculous! Especially as there was someone in an apparently supervisory role (such as dealing with Mr Gorgeous’s credit card payment) who seemed not to notice the growing premium line.

Finally some 40 minutes after I had joined the line, the supervisor-type person decided to open a desk and called me forward. Of course that meant that I had to wait till her computer had booted up with the result that the the family behind me were called up and processed before me but I didn’t really care. I was just glad that they had decided that the Priority line needed to be serviced accordingly! But really! 45 minutes from start to finish was no joke!

Once through I headed for security and found the Fast Track Lane. At Passport Control there was a longish line which seemed to be controlled but there was a bit of a delay for whatever reason. We watched as people approached the Privium line only to realise that it didn’t mean them and watched as they sheepishly returned to the end of the Fast Track line. However a couple of guys, on realising the they were not eligible for Privium, tried to crash our line. However, instinctively the line huddled together and refused entry (and I directed a few of my patent glares which says “Don’t mess with me, or else!”). What happened after that, I have no idea as I was through in the blink of an eye and on my way to the lounge.

Ah, yes the lounge! AMS is undergoing a makeover and at times the passage to the lounge was via a building site, albeit blocked off by plywood! It had also changed. Gone were the nice nooks and crannies and my first impression was that of a motorway cafe! However, forging my way to the end of the area, there was comfortable seating, except it was difficult to find the same as there was a large party occupying most of the seating. And they were loud! But they were harmless! The butt of their conversation was one of their friends who had overslept and missed his flight!

Having snagged a place for myself, I helped myself to cheese and biscuits and decided that, to assuage the discomforts of the morning, champagne was the only remedy. However I had long since learned from this site, that one has to request champagne from the staff in BA lounges and so, cap in hand, I headed to the concierge and humbly proffered my request. He looked me up and down disdainfully and rather snootily told me that they did not serve champagne in that lounge, only prosecco. At this stage I was truly fed up with BA but I wasn’t going to let him know that, no sirree! That would just have confirmed his opinion that I was an upstart who shouldn’t be allowed into the lounge. I merely thanked him and he said he would deliver it to me, which he did. The large party continued to be loud and the truth to tell, I was glad when they were called to the LGW flight which was due to depart 15 minutes before my flight. At this stage I decided that a visit to the Ladies was advisable and to my surprise, I found that it was necessary to go back into the main area as there were no toilets in the lounge area! Shortly after my return, people started gathering up their bits and bobs ready for the LHR flight and at that moment, the microphone clicked on to announce the departure of the flight. As I was leaving the lounge, guess who was still swanning around? Mr Gorgeous from check-in, in spite of the fact that his flight had been called some 15 minutes previously!

Anyone who has gone through AMS will know that there is a long walk, not only from check-in to the lounge but also from the lounge to the D gates which are used by BA, Aer Lingus and other non-Schengen airlines. You need stamina to navigate Schiphol - or else I’m getting old. Either way, I made it to the gate where it seemed boarding was about to commence - or perhaps not! There seemed to be something wrong with the boarding pass scanner and the staff were trying to fix it by the time-honoured method of switching it off and on. For the next several minutes I watched as they switched it off, walked away for the count of about ten, returned and switched it on again and repeated this four or five times. A couple of times they went to the phone and spoke to someone before trotting back to the scanner to do the same thing but to no avail. The scanner wasn’t going to co-operate. By this time departure time had arrived and I was beginning to seethe (as I’m sure all V-Flyers would) since this was beginning to encroach on my CH time. Bad enough that they had already docked an hour of that by cancelling my original flight but this was getting beyond the beyonds. Fortunately, someone somewhere deemed that a Plan B or C should be put into operation and boarding was called. It proved to be a lengthy process as, when each passenger approached the agent, the name and seat number was called out and another agent confirmed the booking. “Smith 31C” “Check” “Jones 15A” “Check” “honey lamb 2F” “Check”!! Oh God, this was going to take forever! The upside however was that it acted as a bit of crowd control in the sense that the slowness of processing people through the gate meant that there was no major build-up of people on the jet bridge,

Finally everyone was on board and we pushed back from the gate some 15 minutes late. Of course Sod’s Law determined that we were to take off from the distant runway which make one feel that we are driving to LHR rather than flying there! I’m all in favour of multiple runways in airports so long as I’m not taking off or landing in the furthest one. Eventually we made it to the runway and took off some 45 minutes behind schedule. Well at least we were on our way.

After the shambles of the lead up to this flight, I have to say in all fairness that the flight itself was fine. It took off; there was a selection of three finger sandwiches comparable to those on VS; I requested and received champagne much to the delight of the cabin crew who up till then had been proffered with requests for tea, coffee and Coke - here was a serious premium cabin flyer!! It landed slightly late because of the time difference between Europe and the UK/Ireland still within time to enjoy the fruits of the Clubhouse and it was a contented honey lamb who made her way to T3 and the next leg of her adventure.
#913919 by Hamster
02 Dec 2015, 02:08
Thanks for the TR HL!

Truly highlights the issue BA have with its European outstations, there seems to be no service level agreement in place with the companies that do their check-in/boarding! Have had some similar issues in other locations! Do let BA know of the issues, don't expect much from them, but it will push them to improve things.
#913921 by hiljil
02 Dec 2015, 08:21
Thank you for the TR. I was beginning to worry, as the story progressed, that you were in danger of missing your next flight. Thank goodness that, at least, didn't happen.

And have I missed the candle incident !?
#913933 by tontybear
02 Dec 2015, 13:48
Avoided the BA sausage then !
#913935 by buns
02 Dec 2015, 14:16
HL

Thanks for the engrossing TR.

Your experience at check in served to remind me of a little incident on our return from ATL. There a young female DYKWIA had occupied the toilet for a good half an hour before landing procedures were announced - much to peoples chagrin - only to return and wanted to push past Mrs Buns who had been waiting patiently in the line. Mrs Buns left the DYKWIA in no uncertain terms as to her place!!

What is it with passengers who think they are the only ones travelling and have no respect for others??

Glad you had some much valued CH time

buns
#913939 by pjh
02 Dec 2015, 15:43
Another HL first - a Queue Report!


buns wrote:What is it with passengers who think they are the only ones travelling and have no respect for others??


Low self esteem. More seriously, they have probably never heard the word "no".
#913940 by Bretty
02 Dec 2015, 18:41
Another great TR Honey Lamb, and I loved the building tension re the queue, but agree for a "premium" line it's disgraceful.
I also know what you mean about the Citizen M hotels as I had occasion to stay in one in Glasgow earlier this year. We'd stayed in a similar hotel in Krakow last year; the rooms are quirky to say the least, and the bathrooms even more so. However I did find the public spaces in these hotels to be excellent, and at the Citizen M Glasgow the staff are outstanding and mix some pretty mean cocktails :cool: :cool:
#913951 by ultreen1
02 Dec 2015, 23:35
Great TR from our very own "serious premium cabin flyer"!!!
Hope it goes smoothly from here for you!
Virgin Atlantic

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