Originally Posted by
ph-ndr
I
My biggest gripe about bussing is that there is no longer any dedicated busses for premium pax. It's the same busses for everyone, and when they finally board the premium pax that bus also gets rammed full of any late arrivals for the rest of the plane.
-A
I just experienced the opposite of this, we were boarding DOH-JNB and boarding began at 55mins to take off, once our boarding cards were scanned, all J pax were asked to wait outside for a J bus, eventually 6 loads of Y pax were sent to the plane before the second of the J load was transported. It turns out only one J bus was allocated and had to do a 25min round trip to a far stand (its marked 517 on google maps).
Eventually the thrid bus departed the terminal 15 mins before the scheduled departed arriving just before scheduled departure time. The crew tried to scold the pax for being late.... I was feeing particularly grumpy, it wasnt their best strategy.
Given the current state of Hamad, they need more busses, and they need to commit to timelines for the D/E gates opening - its easier to be sympathetic when there is a horizon. They also need to also start publicising plans and timelines for the western concourse.