1P
Jul 9, 03, 4:19 am
July 3
SOU 10:35am GVA 1:20pm
BE 1811
8D
I frequently use Southampton airport for hops to the Channel Islands and Europe when I'm in England, as it's only half an hour from my English address. The airport is conveniently situated adjacent to the M27 motorway and Southampton Parkway railway station. Southampton is rapidly expanding, due to flybe's expanded European flight schedule. Statistics show that it's the fastest growing airport in the UK. Despite that, it's still a very small provincial airport.
Flybe is the trendy new marketing name for British European, formerly Walker Aviation. I suppose they've copied bmibaby and others. Perhaps these names are thought to be "sexier" than the actual name of the airline. At any rate, I've been using British European to fly to and from the Channel Islands for several years without any major problems. (There's something slightly exciting about using an airline whose name is the same as the old carrier BEA - British European Airways.) This was an opportunity to try out one of their new European routes on the expanded network. This is also my first FT trip report, so please forgive any infelicities. I thought a lesser-known carrier might be of some interest. Then I found that UnitedFirst had beaten me to it with his fairly complimentary report on flybe a couple of days ago. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/003862.html
I booked my ticket online (very efficient website) on the Tuesday of the previous week (June 24). The website says that your ticket will be sent to you a maximum of 7 days before departure - surely this means a minimum. Despite this, the ticket had still not arrived on July 2, the day before I flew. I phoned the toll free number to arrange to pick up the ticket at the airport. The CSR informed me that I would have to sign an indemnity form which would effectively make me responsible if someone else tried to use the ticket (that doesn't sound very good) and promise to destroy the ticket if it eventually arrived.
I allowed plenty of time to drive to the airport, as the M27 can often be clogged up from the Hedge End exit at that time of day. In fact there was very little traffic for some reason, and I was parked by 8:48. Went to the ticketing desk (extreme left-hand end as you walk in) and by 9:02 had my ticket. I asked about the indemnity form and was told "Oh, there's no need for that. I just reissued the ticket against your booking reference." I was all checked in by 9:08 and had time to make some phone calls, buy a newspaper, etc..
The departure lounge at Southampton is planned in a particularly foolish fashion. There's the Duty Free shop off to one side, also a small coffee bar. The main part of the not very large room consists of seating for smokers and non-smokers. The problem is that the smoking area is adjacent to the gates, so even if you have managed to avoid the smoke thus far you still have to walk through it to get to the gates. I have been surveyed a number of times in the lounge while waiting for flights and have repeatedly pointed out this stupidity, but nothing has been done yet.
Although boarding was scheduled for 10:05, the incoming plane did not arrive at the gate until 10:12. We finally began the boarding process at 10:18, and I was sitting in my seat by 10:22. It's amazing how many people, when told please have your passport out and open at the photo page as well as your boarding pass, fail to register this and then can't find their passport when they reach the head of the line..... Southampton is an airport where you walk to the plane and climb the steps. I was not so pleased to see that I was flying a BAe-146-300, G-JEAW, since I've read a lot about incidents in the UK and Australia with noxious fumes filling the cockpit. Just hoped it wouldn't happen to on my flight.
The interior of the cabin has a pleasant appearance, with comfortable mid-blue leather seats arranged in a 3-3 configuration. Pitch is about 34". Although flybe advertises Economy Plus, I could see no special seating anywhere in the cabin. Because the 146 has wings sprouting from the top of the fuselage, rows 6 to 8 and part of 9 only have very narrow overhead lockers - my carry-on would not fit and so had to go under seat in front. The other rows have full-size lockers. Female cabin staff (we had two) have smart red jackets and skirts with navy blue blouses and shoes, and an attractive multicoloured striped silk scarf around the neck. Males FAs (we had one) wear pale blue short-sleeved shirts, navy blue trousers, and a multicoloured striped tie matching the females' scarf.
Doors closed at 10:45, the plane was only about 3/4 full, and I moved from 8D to 9D as 8E and F were occupied by two rather large pax. The man next to me had been coughing and belching. Well, this is a low-cost flight. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif Pushback was at 10:59, we taxied to runway 02 (there's only one runway at Southampton: today, unusually, we were taking off to the north), and wheels up was at 10:59.
A shortage of inflight magazines meant that I had no opportunity to read one on either flight except by looking across the aisle to someone else's copy. It looked comparable to the offerings of airlines such as Horizon Air. Also in the seat pocket (this time everyone had one) was Choice, giving not only the list and prices of Duty Free goods but also the prices of beverages and snacks on the plane. Here was the first taste of where low-cost airlines make up some of their revenue. A medium-sized roll that you could be in a supermarket for under £2 was on sale at £4. As I knew I would not eat until the evening, I grudgingly bought a BLT in a brown roll. A 15cl can of tomato juice set me back 50p. A water bottle would have cost £1 (you can buy 6 in the supermarket for £1.69 or less). I really resent paying inflated prices for food and drink.
The flight was scheduled to be an uneventful 1 hour and 15 minutes. We started our short descent at 11:53 (local time, one hour ahead of British Summer Time), with the usual mild turbulence crossing the Jura mountains. We touched down on runway 23 at 13:11 (Geneva only has the one runway - I've never taken off or landed on runway 05) and we were at the gate by 13:16, four minutes ahead of schedule.
Be warned, flybe uses one of the two satellites, the one that houses gates 21-28. It's a long walk through underground corridors to customs and immigration. There are moving walkways, when they're working.... I was through passport control without hassle, retrieved my checked bag, and quickly found the Hertz counter. As luck would have it, the display was malfunctioning, and I couldn't see my name on the #1 Club Gold display. But I soon discovered that there is no real Gold service at Geneva. You have to line up with everyone else and wait to be issued your key. From there, into the parking facility and down two floors. I found I had a silver Peugeot 307 with only 5000km on the clock. Still had that new-car smell.
Out of the car park (which involves taking a ticket at one exit barrier, driving up a spiral ramp and inserting it into a second exit barrier) and out into the sunlight. Within 5 minutes I was in France (no halt at the customs post) and on the French autoroute, heading up high into the Alps towards Mont Blanc.
I have to say that the 5-speed manual gearbox on the Peugeot is very imprecise in feel, like all French stickshifts. The lever waves around like a willow in a breeze. The car is also massively undergeared. In 5th gear, I was doing over 4500 rpm at 150 kph. In my own car, this would only need 3250 rpm. Despite the engine working hard, the car was quiet. There was no air conditioning (which fortunately I did not need). I would have had to pay a lot more for A/C and an automatic gearbox. The scenery approaching Chamonix was the usual spectacular mountains, though Mont Blanc itself was shrouded in cloud today.
July 4
GVA 1:55pm SOU 2:40pm
BE 1812
3D
Having completed the interviews I had come to do (using a new Sony Minidisc recorder with external mic - worked extremely well) and having had a delightful meal at the Ermitage Hotel (Logis de France, 2-star but good cuisine) in the Alpine resort village of Vallorcine, 1.5 miles from the Swiss border, I set off back to Geneva the following morning. This time, I decided not to go back down through Chamonix and the French autoroutes but to cross into Switzerland and take the autoroute from Martigny past St-Maurice and then on around Lac Léman, skirting Lausanne and directly into Geneva and the airport. I was told that this was not only more beautiful but quicker. Though the views over the lake were impressive, it was on the whole neither more beautiful nor quicker. The Swiss motorways feel narrower than the French ones, and it's less relaxing. Also the signposting to Cointrin airport at Geneva is less than perfect, and I overshot the first turning and had to take the second one and come back. There again, the signage was confusing. As on leaving, your take a ticket at one barrier which lets you through the next barrier. Good Swiss efficiency at work. I found the Hertz part of the parking facility where a very efficient young man took care of me.
Because the flybe route is so new, flybe is not yet listed on the check-in gates outside the terminal building. You have to go inside to find out where to check in. The board said desks 11-15, so off I trotted. No one there. It was 11:40am and I was somewhat early, so I wandered off and bought some chocolate for my wife, had a look to see if Duty Free prices were any lower on digital cameras than High Street prices in the UK or US (they weren't) and returned to the desks at 12:00 noon to find a small line had already formed. I tagged myself onto the end of it. Two girls were checking pax in. One single line, dividing at the head according to which agent was the next to become free. I had the misfortune to have the less attractive of the two, who (though French) insisted on speaking English to me even though I addressed her in French (I am bilingual with no accent). She issued my boarding pass. I looked at it - 3A. I always prefer an aisle seat (though I was glad to see that I would have a full-size overhead locker) so I asked if 3D was available. It was, but she rudely said to me "You should have asked me for that before I issued the boarding pass." I retorted "You should have asked me which I preferred before you printed the boarding pass." No matter. It was 12:20 and I had plenty of time to do more shopping for perfume and books and find my way out to the satellite.
It was not until 12:55 that gate B25 came up on the display. I wandered through. Hazard no 1 was a large crowd of people at the end of a moving walkway. Turned out they were waiting to go through the metal detector leading to the other satellite (gates 31-34), but because it was difficult to get off the walkway (which additionally kept disconcertingly stopping and starting) you couldn't actually see what the problem was. A number of us stood in line for a minute or two before making our way to one side, at which point it became clear that we were in the wrong line. More underground corridors and walkways still to come. You don't reach the metal detectors for satellite 21-28 until the very foot of the stairs up into the satellite itself. The Swiss security team on duty at the detectors were most charming, and I had a great time explaining to them that this little metal tube was actually a breath-freshening spray. Much laughter all around.
Up into the satellite, only to find that Gate 25 is bare. Ah, it's been changed to 27 while I was walking along the corridors. Just as well it wasn't changed to one in the other satellite..... This satellite does have a coffee/drinks/snacks bar (and they take foreign currency but give change in Swiss francs) and two boutiques selling watches and souvenirs, books and mags. (Both of these were closed until 2.00pm and then shut again at 3:00pm.) But if you need a lavatory, it's back down the stairs, alongside the metal detectors. Some British flights (e.g. BA to Birmingham) leave from this satellite, and there were also some LH flights (e.g. Munich) and Swiss (e.g. Düsseldorf). The LH flights seemed to be operated by Augsburg Airways. I noticed that planes were taking off to the south as usual.
My plane, G-JEAW again, arrived at the gate at 1:18pm. Excellent. We should be boarding on time, I thought. At 1:45pm, an announcement: supplementary checks (whatever those were) would have to be made. New estimated departure time of 2:30pm. No other details were given, and for long stretches there seemed to be no one looking at the plane at all. At 2:30pm, we were told that there would be more information at 3:20pm...... For much of the time, again, there seemed to be no one anywhere near the plane. Perhaps they were waiting for a part of a suitably qualified technician? We were not told.
In the meantime, my attention was diverted by the announcements for a Swiss flight to Athens which was oversold. One volunteer was needed, who would be rebooked on the 7:00pm departure via Zürich, in Business Class, and with a $300 voucher (or the equivalent in SwFr) in his or her pocket. The announcement was made first in French and then in English. Lucky if you understood French. I saw someone approach the podium as soon as the French announcement was over, and I think the reticketing had already been done before the announcement in English was completed!
Back to our delayed flight. At 3:20pm we were told that boarding would begin at 3:35pm. Even with a full flight and everyone having to climb the stairs of the boarding ramp, the doors were closed at 3:43pm and we began to taxi at 3:46. Then the pilot told us what the problem had been: a slight leak in the hydraulics. I could only suppose that he was right, since he then informed us that we would be taking off the northwest. (We actually took off to the southwest.....) Wheels up at 3:52pm, just under two hours behind schedule. Once again, the exorbitant prices for food and drink. My BLT this time was made with a large helping of Swiss mayonnaise. The man sitting next to me in 3E - who looked just like a garden gnome so I thought he must be Swiss but he turned out to be English - had brought his own food, fruit and drink, which he munched and swigged merrily away on. This time we had three female F/As, one of whom had an accent which was so difficult to understand that the safety announcements and everything else were completely incomprehensible. As the Duty Free cart came through the cabin, it became clear that they had no credit card machine with them (not clear whether they never have, or whether they had left it behind by mistake).
Descent began at 3:46pm (BST, gaining the hour back), we landed at 4:12 on runway 02, taxied rapidly back down the runway (which doesn't often happen at Southampton) and were at the gate at 4:14. Into the terminal, thinking that our troubles were over.... Wrong! A problem with the baggage transport system will now delay us still further. There are four carousels at Southampton, two in the Channel Islands/UK arrivals room, and two in the international arrivals room where we were. I've often noticed in both rooms that the baggage handlers are inefficient or that perhaps there are mechanical difficulties. After all, you can see the flatbed pick-up driving from your plane to where the bags are loaded...... often nothing then happens for some considerable time. Today, after 15 minutes, it became clear that there was a mechanical problem with the belts leading to the carousel. Solution (why didn't someone think of it before?!): change to the other carousel, since there are no other international flights arriving at this time. Woe to ye, there is a similar technical problem with the belts leading to this one too...... My bag did not finally emerge until 4:45pm.
Finally retrieved my car and set off.
Did the missing ticket ever turn up? Yes, it arrived at my office on July 4, the date I was returning, having been mailed 2nd Class on June 25, the day after I booked it. Be warned! There's no facility on the website for selecting "pick up ticket at the airport". This might be a useful option for BE to consider.
Thanks for reading. Hope it wasn't too boring.
[edited for typos]
[This message has been edited by 1P (edited 07-09-2003).]
SOU 10:35am GVA 1:20pm
BE 1811
8D
I frequently use Southampton airport for hops to the Channel Islands and Europe when I'm in England, as it's only half an hour from my English address. The airport is conveniently situated adjacent to the M27 motorway and Southampton Parkway railway station. Southampton is rapidly expanding, due to flybe's expanded European flight schedule. Statistics show that it's the fastest growing airport in the UK. Despite that, it's still a very small provincial airport.
Flybe is the trendy new marketing name for British European, formerly Walker Aviation. I suppose they've copied bmibaby and others. Perhaps these names are thought to be "sexier" than the actual name of the airline. At any rate, I've been using British European to fly to and from the Channel Islands for several years without any major problems. (There's something slightly exciting about using an airline whose name is the same as the old carrier BEA - British European Airways.) This was an opportunity to try out one of their new European routes on the expanded network. This is also my first FT trip report, so please forgive any infelicities. I thought a lesser-known carrier might be of some interest. Then I found that UnitedFirst had beaten me to it with his fairly complimentary report on flybe a couple of days ago. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/003862.html
I booked my ticket online (very efficient website) on the Tuesday of the previous week (June 24). The website says that your ticket will be sent to you a maximum of 7 days before departure - surely this means a minimum. Despite this, the ticket had still not arrived on July 2, the day before I flew. I phoned the toll free number to arrange to pick up the ticket at the airport. The CSR informed me that I would have to sign an indemnity form which would effectively make me responsible if someone else tried to use the ticket (that doesn't sound very good) and promise to destroy the ticket if it eventually arrived.
I allowed plenty of time to drive to the airport, as the M27 can often be clogged up from the Hedge End exit at that time of day. In fact there was very little traffic for some reason, and I was parked by 8:48. Went to the ticketing desk (extreme left-hand end as you walk in) and by 9:02 had my ticket. I asked about the indemnity form and was told "Oh, there's no need for that. I just reissued the ticket against your booking reference." I was all checked in by 9:08 and had time to make some phone calls, buy a newspaper, etc..
The departure lounge at Southampton is planned in a particularly foolish fashion. There's the Duty Free shop off to one side, also a small coffee bar. The main part of the not very large room consists of seating for smokers and non-smokers. The problem is that the smoking area is adjacent to the gates, so even if you have managed to avoid the smoke thus far you still have to walk through it to get to the gates. I have been surveyed a number of times in the lounge while waiting for flights and have repeatedly pointed out this stupidity, but nothing has been done yet.
Although boarding was scheduled for 10:05, the incoming plane did not arrive at the gate until 10:12. We finally began the boarding process at 10:18, and I was sitting in my seat by 10:22. It's amazing how many people, when told please have your passport out and open at the photo page as well as your boarding pass, fail to register this and then can't find their passport when they reach the head of the line..... Southampton is an airport where you walk to the plane and climb the steps. I was not so pleased to see that I was flying a BAe-146-300, G-JEAW, since I've read a lot about incidents in the UK and Australia with noxious fumes filling the cockpit. Just hoped it wouldn't happen to on my flight.
The interior of the cabin has a pleasant appearance, with comfortable mid-blue leather seats arranged in a 3-3 configuration. Pitch is about 34". Although flybe advertises Economy Plus, I could see no special seating anywhere in the cabin. Because the 146 has wings sprouting from the top of the fuselage, rows 6 to 8 and part of 9 only have very narrow overhead lockers - my carry-on would not fit and so had to go under seat in front. The other rows have full-size lockers. Female cabin staff (we had two) have smart red jackets and skirts with navy blue blouses and shoes, and an attractive multicoloured striped silk scarf around the neck. Males FAs (we had one) wear pale blue short-sleeved shirts, navy blue trousers, and a multicoloured striped tie matching the females' scarf.
Doors closed at 10:45, the plane was only about 3/4 full, and I moved from 8D to 9D as 8E and F were occupied by two rather large pax. The man next to me had been coughing and belching. Well, this is a low-cost flight. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif Pushback was at 10:59, we taxied to runway 02 (there's only one runway at Southampton: today, unusually, we were taking off to the north), and wheels up was at 10:59.
A shortage of inflight magazines meant that I had no opportunity to read one on either flight except by looking across the aisle to someone else's copy. It looked comparable to the offerings of airlines such as Horizon Air. Also in the seat pocket (this time everyone had one) was Choice, giving not only the list and prices of Duty Free goods but also the prices of beverages and snacks on the plane. Here was the first taste of where low-cost airlines make up some of their revenue. A medium-sized roll that you could be in a supermarket for under £2 was on sale at £4. As I knew I would not eat until the evening, I grudgingly bought a BLT in a brown roll. A 15cl can of tomato juice set me back 50p. A water bottle would have cost £1 (you can buy 6 in the supermarket for £1.69 or less). I really resent paying inflated prices for food and drink.
The flight was scheduled to be an uneventful 1 hour and 15 minutes. We started our short descent at 11:53 (local time, one hour ahead of British Summer Time), with the usual mild turbulence crossing the Jura mountains. We touched down on runway 23 at 13:11 (Geneva only has the one runway - I've never taken off or landed on runway 05) and we were at the gate by 13:16, four minutes ahead of schedule.
Be warned, flybe uses one of the two satellites, the one that houses gates 21-28. It's a long walk through underground corridors to customs and immigration. There are moving walkways, when they're working.... I was through passport control without hassle, retrieved my checked bag, and quickly found the Hertz counter. As luck would have it, the display was malfunctioning, and I couldn't see my name on the #1 Club Gold display. But I soon discovered that there is no real Gold service at Geneva. You have to line up with everyone else and wait to be issued your key. From there, into the parking facility and down two floors. I found I had a silver Peugeot 307 with only 5000km on the clock. Still had that new-car smell.
Out of the car park (which involves taking a ticket at one exit barrier, driving up a spiral ramp and inserting it into a second exit barrier) and out into the sunlight. Within 5 minutes I was in France (no halt at the customs post) and on the French autoroute, heading up high into the Alps towards Mont Blanc.
I have to say that the 5-speed manual gearbox on the Peugeot is very imprecise in feel, like all French stickshifts. The lever waves around like a willow in a breeze. The car is also massively undergeared. In 5th gear, I was doing over 4500 rpm at 150 kph. In my own car, this would only need 3250 rpm. Despite the engine working hard, the car was quiet. There was no air conditioning (which fortunately I did not need). I would have had to pay a lot more for A/C and an automatic gearbox. The scenery approaching Chamonix was the usual spectacular mountains, though Mont Blanc itself was shrouded in cloud today.
July 4
GVA 1:55pm SOU 2:40pm
BE 1812
3D
Having completed the interviews I had come to do (using a new Sony Minidisc recorder with external mic - worked extremely well) and having had a delightful meal at the Ermitage Hotel (Logis de France, 2-star but good cuisine) in the Alpine resort village of Vallorcine, 1.5 miles from the Swiss border, I set off back to Geneva the following morning. This time, I decided not to go back down through Chamonix and the French autoroutes but to cross into Switzerland and take the autoroute from Martigny past St-Maurice and then on around Lac Léman, skirting Lausanne and directly into Geneva and the airport. I was told that this was not only more beautiful but quicker. Though the views over the lake were impressive, it was on the whole neither more beautiful nor quicker. The Swiss motorways feel narrower than the French ones, and it's less relaxing. Also the signposting to Cointrin airport at Geneva is less than perfect, and I overshot the first turning and had to take the second one and come back. There again, the signage was confusing. As on leaving, your take a ticket at one barrier which lets you through the next barrier. Good Swiss efficiency at work. I found the Hertz part of the parking facility where a very efficient young man took care of me.
Because the flybe route is so new, flybe is not yet listed on the check-in gates outside the terminal building. You have to go inside to find out where to check in. The board said desks 11-15, so off I trotted. No one there. It was 11:40am and I was somewhat early, so I wandered off and bought some chocolate for my wife, had a look to see if Duty Free prices were any lower on digital cameras than High Street prices in the UK or US (they weren't) and returned to the desks at 12:00 noon to find a small line had already formed. I tagged myself onto the end of it. Two girls were checking pax in. One single line, dividing at the head according to which agent was the next to become free. I had the misfortune to have the less attractive of the two, who (though French) insisted on speaking English to me even though I addressed her in French (I am bilingual with no accent). She issued my boarding pass. I looked at it - 3A. I always prefer an aisle seat (though I was glad to see that I would have a full-size overhead locker) so I asked if 3D was available. It was, but she rudely said to me "You should have asked me for that before I issued the boarding pass." I retorted "You should have asked me which I preferred before you printed the boarding pass." No matter. It was 12:20 and I had plenty of time to do more shopping for perfume and books and find my way out to the satellite.
It was not until 12:55 that gate B25 came up on the display. I wandered through. Hazard no 1 was a large crowd of people at the end of a moving walkway. Turned out they were waiting to go through the metal detector leading to the other satellite (gates 31-34), but because it was difficult to get off the walkway (which additionally kept disconcertingly stopping and starting) you couldn't actually see what the problem was. A number of us stood in line for a minute or two before making our way to one side, at which point it became clear that we were in the wrong line. More underground corridors and walkways still to come. You don't reach the metal detectors for satellite 21-28 until the very foot of the stairs up into the satellite itself. The Swiss security team on duty at the detectors were most charming, and I had a great time explaining to them that this little metal tube was actually a breath-freshening spray. Much laughter all around.
Up into the satellite, only to find that Gate 25 is bare. Ah, it's been changed to 27 while I was walking along the corridors. Just as well it wasn't changed to one in the other satellite..... This satellite does have a coffee/drinks/snacks bar (and they take foreign currency but give change in Swiss francs) and two boutiques selling watches and souvenirs, books and mags. (Both of these were closed until 2.00pm and then shut again at 3:00pm.) But if you need a lavatory, it's back down the stairs, alongside the metal detectors. Some British flights (e.g. BA to Birmingham) leave from this satellite, and there were also some LH flights (e.g. Munich) and Swiss (e.g. Düsseldorf). The LH flights seemed to be operated by Augsburg Airways. I noticed that planes were taking off to the south as usual.
My plane, G-JEAW again, arrived at the gate at 1:18pm. Excellent. We should be boarding on time, I thought. At 1:45pm, an announcement: supplementary checks (whatever those were) would have to be made. New estimated departure time of 2:30pm. No other details were given, and for long stretches there seemed to be no one looking at the plane at all. At 2:30pm, we were told that there would be more information at 3:20pm...... For much of the time, again, there seemed to be no one anywhere near the plane. Perhaps they were waiting for a part of a suitably qualified technician? We were not told.
In the meantime, my attention was diverted by the announcements for a Swiss flight to Athens which was oversold. One volunteer was needed, who would be rebooked on the 7:00pm departure via Zürich, in Business Class, and with a $300 voucher (or the equivalent in SwFr) in his or her pocket. The announcement was made first in French and then in English. Lucky if you understood French. I saw someone approach the podium as soon as the French announcement was over, and I think the reticketing had already been done before the announcement in English was completed!
Back to our delayed flight. At 3:20pm we were told that boarding would begin at 3:35pm. Even with a full flight and everyone having to climb the stairs of the boarding ramp, the doors were closed at 3:43pm and we began to taxi at 3:46. Then the pilot told us what the problem had been: a slight leak in the hydraulics. I could only suppose that he was right, since he then informed us that we would be taking off the northwest. (We actually took off to the southwest.....) Wheels up at 3:52pm, just under two hours behind schedule. Once again, the exorbitant prices for food and drink. My BLT this time was made with a large helping of Swiss mayonnaise. The man sitting next to me in 3E - who looked just like a garden gnome so I thought he must be Swiss but he turned out to be English - had brought his own food, fruit and drink, which he munched and swigged merrily away on. This time we had three female F/As, one of whom had an accent which was so difficult to understand that the safety announcements and everything else were completely incomprehensible. As the Duty Free cart came through the cabin, it became clear that they had no credit card machine with them (not clear whether they never have, or whether they had left it behind by mistake).
Descent began at 3:46pm (BST, gaining the hour back), we landed at 4:12 on runway 02, taxied rapidly back down the runway (which doesn't often happen at Southampton) and were at the gate at 4:14. Into the terminal, thinking that our troubles were over.... Wrong! A problem with the baggage transport system will now delay us still further. There are four carousels at Southampton, two in the Channel Islands/UK arrivals room, and two in the international arrivals room where we were. I've often noticed in both rooms that the baggage handlers are inefficient or that perhaps there are mechanical difficulties. After all, you can see the flatbed pick-up driving from your plane to where the bags are loaded...... often nothing then happens for some considerable time. Today, after 15 minutes, it became clear that there was a mechanical problem with the belts leading to the carousel. Solution (why didn't someone think of it before?!): change to the other carousel, since there are no other international flights arriving at this time. Woe to ye, there is a similar technical problem with the belts leading to this one too...... My bag did not finally emerge until 4:45pm.
Finally retrieved my car and set off.
Did the missing ticket ever turn up? Yes, it arrived at my office on July 4, the date I was returning, having been mailed 2nd Class on June 25, the day after I booked it. Be warned! There's no facility on the website for selecting "pick up ticket at the airport". This might be a useful option for BE to consider.
Thanks for reading. Hope it wasn't too boring.
[edited for typos]
[This message has been edited by 1P (edited 07-09-2003).]