Last week, I started a thread about a great crew of GAs in CLT. Well, one week later and one airport identifier letter different, I have another -- and this time less complimentary -- story to tell.

I was on my way home from CLE tonight. Apparently, CLE Center lost either their computers or radar for a period of time tonight. CLE, like CLT, has three flights leaving in quick succession. Tonight, all three were delayed. And unlike CLT, there was only one GA on duty. Two of the flights were to ORD, and the other was to IAD, so there were connection foul-ups a-plenty -- and one person to deal with them.

Unlike CLT, the GA was having trouble keeping us informed. Unfortunately, the gateroom speakers are divided, so even though there were three planes' worth of pax standing around, unless you were near B3, you never heard any announcements. The IAD flight got out first, so the GA had to go over to board that flight. She came back and resumed trying to fix connections. The two Chicago flights (UX 6970 and UX 6972) were both on the ground, although 6970's aircraft had to wait until the IAD flight left to get a gate. So 6972 boarded first. What was interesting is that it looked like another GA magically appeared to grab boarding passes at that time (she may have been from the lobby). Why no one else came down to help out before that is beyond me.

We got to our gate at ORD about 25 minutes late, thanks to an unavailable gate (we sat for ten minutes at ORD). 6970 was about ten minutes behind us, so anyone who stuck with that flight thinking they'd be ahead of 6972 really missed their connections.

This isn't a rant about that poor GA. It's probably more of a rant about the lack of teamwork at CLE. I've seen CLT rampers helping the GAs. At CLE, no one came up to help, but the rampers all had time to horse around outside.