Henry III

Hi ho!

Was/were any (other) FTer(s) on AF 5167 (LCY-EDI) yesterday (Sun 9-Feb)?

What a bizarre tale!

If I am the sole FT representative then, with moderator permission, I could give a (rambling but true) account of this most curious of flights ... a moral tale of ground staff incompetence/indifference, air-crew professionalism and the spontaneous camaraderie and inherent (though ultimately futile) people-power of 12 angry passengers.

If there were others among the damned, then just let me know and feel free to contribute.

Like I said, with mod consent, I can tell the tale in short 'chapters', possibly with comments and questions from others. @:-)

It is, after all, just a trip report, but with some subtle twists!

Let me know how you AF Ft-ers feel! Or maybe I'll committ the tale to print and you'll be able to buy it from major high-street bookshops.

--Henry

BOB W

Quit teasing & tell us what happened

JOUY31

As long as it is a factual account, no problem.

justforfun

There's no reason to ask for moderator permission.

By all means, share with us.

Henry III

OK folks, so I've given the build-up, now it's down to me to see that the story meets the expectations ...


Most FTers (and other travellers in general) will have recent snow-based horror stories but this one did not start out that way, exactly. To set the scene - I was travelling back from a weekend trip to Brighton (SE England) to Glasgow, Scotland, and, for some time now, I've chosen to fly the EDI-LCY route for this regular appointment (it's the w/e of my mother's birthday).

As it happens, travelling from where I stay in Glasgow to EDI (train + airport bus) is generally pretty easy (circa 1 hour), and much cheaper than a taxi to GLA airport (the only half-decent mode of transport, actually). And, of course, there's the Flying Blue level miles accumulation (1,500 + 1,500 bonus, for now). (This GLA vs EDI point becomes relevant later on!)

The trip down was absolutley faultless - arriving at LCY 30 minutes ahead of schedule - a point proudly made by the CityJet senior FA! However, there was a strong possibility of heavy sleet or snow forecast for the London area Sunday PM (the scheduled departure time for AF5167 was 18:50), so I made a point of travelling up early - in case of "issues" with London Transport.

But my fears were entirely unjustified! I was at LCY with plenty of time to spare, and check-in via the robot was smooth; AF now even recognize FB Plats, and I was offered 04A or 04F (on a eco "T" fare)!

So, I did the usual milling around, coffee, snacks, et cetera, for an hour and a half, and then went through to the departure lounge. (I really do like LCY for its friendly, efficient security staff/system, BTW.)


As many FTers will surely know, the Silent Running of LCY is mostly OK unless you happen to be travelling CityJet/AF on Sunday. From past experience, I know that the typical time between the departures screen showing "Wait in Lounge" and showing "Final Call" is about 45 seconds! But I was prepared for this, as were most of my fellow travellers ... next time you're at LCY, you can be sure that the group of folks loitering with intent around the screen at the start of the domestic gate corridor are AF passengers.

Anyway, to my complete satisfaction, the screen changed to "Gate 9 - Boarding" exactly on time (embarquement a 18:25 - screen changed at 18:24) so I started the long trek down the corridor, with several other well-dressed sophisticates (I was certainly the least sophisticated in appearance). Later on, I was chatting to a fellow passeneger (we'll call him "J") who checked in manually, and he had been very proudly told that the flight was, indeed, bang on time.

Now things started to unravel. When we arrived at the gate (and it is a long way down from the lounge), the barrier-band was still across the doorway and the Air France girl (judging from her accent) told us that there was a minor techincal problem with the aircraft and boarding would be delayed by about 10 minutes, so we should all go back to the departures lounge.

At this point, a quite obviously intelligent and experienced traveller (sorry, no name available - I'll call you "Honoured Sir" henceforth) pointed out that it was at least a ten-minute walk back to the lounge, so could we just wait at the doorway/on the steps; the girl reluctantly agreed, then went out to the airplane to talk to an engineer.

Enter one of the story's leading players ...

A very dignified, well-spoken Scottish lady (henceforth, "Ma'am") then came down the stairs, asked "Honoured Sir" and I what the trouble was and then decided to go under the band-barrier so that she could sit down in the boarding area. The assistant gate attendant seemed put out and asked her to go back to departures; she said "No, I will not," politely but nonetheless firmly. At this point, she had just earned a great deal of 'over-the-odds' respect from myself and, I suspect, the others in the immediate vicinity, who remained obediently standing around the stairs.

When the head gate attendant came back, she decided that it was probably best to let us all through to the seats, so we presented our BPs (the assistant went over to Ma'am and asked for hers, checked her in, and then returned her BP and ID - see, the respect was spreading already).

After about 30 minutes sitting around, with engineers and others coming in and out, the head gate attendant announced that they had identified the problem and that it would be about 45 minutes until boarding. Then she ordered us all to go back to the lounge.

Now the murmuring started! This wasn't funny any more. And - an important point that came to our attention later - while we had been waiting, some of us noticed a BA plane parking at gate 10 (9 & 10 are at the bottom of the same stairs) and the attendant had gone through to 10 for some time, coming back with a 'puzzled' and/or 'worried' countenance.

There were only 12 folks (at this point) in the boarding zone, and we ambled back to the departures lounge. On the way, folks had started talking to each other (there's that 'oh so British' camaraderie), and it became clear (from "Ma'am") that there was a BA flight to EDI scheduled to leave in around 20 minutes).

... coming next: "Chapter 2 - Twelve Angry Men"

--Henry the Tease (Sorry, folks, I have to do some work today!)

Henry III

Nightmare on AF5167: Chapter 2 - "Twelve Angry Men"

I use the term 'men' generically - there were (IIRC) 4 ladies among us - and to maintain the pun on the old Tony Hancock episode.

To resume: The twelve of us were now standing resolutely around the AF desk in the departures lounge. Another lady traveller (who had maybe picked up the BA info from Ma'am) was talking to the AF girl about the possibility of a transfer to another flight (we would now be arriving in EDI at least 1� hours late, and this makes for considerable inconveience for those travelling onwards from EDI, such as myself), but seemed to be making little progress.

Then Ma'am and J started taking turns to (1) point out that there was the up-coming BA flight and (2) explain that all of us and our luggage had been through security, so it was possible (in theory, at least) to transfer to BA without breaking any regulations or laws. We also 'knew' now that the BA flight was at the adjacent gate - so transferring luggage shouldn't be a problem - and that the flight was far from full: both planes were Avro-RJ85s (90-100 seats, AFAIK) and that the BA was nowhere near full (we saw the pax walking down to Gate 10 as we were walking back from 9).

But we were simply given the "no can do" party-line from the AF girl. So, after some increasingly bitter exchanges, Ma'am said that she no longer wished to talk to 'her' and wanted to see the manager - where could he/she be found? The reply was "she's downstairs, by the check-in counters." Then J suggested that she phoned through and ask her to come up to talk to us. She duly picked up the phone and made a call - we assumed this was to the duty manager, but we may very well have been wrong (vide infra)!

The wrankling continued. I was, at this point, standing a little way off (but still obviously in the group), as were most of the other 12 - a wonderful display of solidarity! I had also learned (or been reminded) that it's generally a good thing to listen to fellow passengers when trouble starts brewing, because there's always something somebody knows that you don't, no matter how much of a frequent-fyler you are.

Nightmare on AF5167: Chapter 3 - "Aux Armes, Mes Citoyens"

While we were waiting for the manager (and increasingly eagerly watching the BA boarding status on the screen), the BA helpdesk girl (sitting right next to the AF girl, as it happens) was looking on the proceedings with some considerable interest; I looked at here (rather passively, I thought) and shrugged my shoulders, which prompted the riposte, "BA has no obligation to you, and we don't delay our flights for other airlines." Rather uneccessary, I thought, but made nothing of it.

While we were waiting for the AF manager, the helpdesk girl gave us all some refreshement vouchers - presumably to help pacify this 'angry mob'. I was absolutely overwhelmed (not!) with the generosity: �3.50 each!!! (Although "J", who had been one of the most vociferous, was given two vouchers - so much for being Mr Nice Guy!)

When I recovered from the shock of this (unprompted) display of AF kindness, I looked up (expecting to see the AF manager) only to find two heavily armed (sub-machine guns) airport police standing at the desk, between us and the BA girl. Wow! "Ma'am" and "J" had obviously really made an impression ... the BA staff had probably thought we would, en masse, storm the gate and board their aeroplane!

After a few minutes of Mexican Stand-Off, I overheard one of the storm-troopers ask the BA girl, "Is the gate closed, now?" When she replied, "Yes, and the plane's away!" the two of them went away quietly - presumably to be debriefed on their recent, highly successful counter-terrorism operation!!

So, nothing to do now but wait, so I trotted off to the bar, where I was mildly peeved to find that the cheapest pint of beer was �4.50 - but the bartender was happy to take our vouchers in part payment. With the (first) drama now in the past, "Honoured Sir," "J" and myself resigned ourselves to the complimentary drinks and waiting to be called for our (now much delayed) flight, and started up one of those 'shared crisis' chats.

... coming soon: Chapter 4 - "Champagne Supernova"

--Henry

Len Brennan

Just a FYI. Presumably you want to tell as many people as possible about what happened, but I actually couldn't be bothered reading this after the first couple of lines of the first post. Just come out and say what you have to say succinctly and you will get less people clicking on this thread and then hitting the back button.

patgarrett

So what actually happened?

BearX220

Hey, I came here for a nightmare. I'm getting a pretty standard delayed-aircraft story with a big side dish of rhetoric. Now, in the next chapter some passengers get mown down with those machine guns, or I'm off.

nicolas75

Sometimes I regret creber's complaints...
At least, they go straight to the point

af fp

So far it's just bad service by AF and BA, what's special here? Unfortunately we are very used to it. I blame less the staff than their management who care less and less... and will regret it when we will have moved all of our business to other airlines.

Len Brennan

Something tells me that when Henry III logs on to FT again to continue his rant he's going to tell everyone to "sod off".

piotrzdebik

So the moral of the story is that the flight was delayed by 2 h and you only received a 3,5 Pound voucher and no option for getting rebooked for a BA flight?

I think you should start a new forum with a stories like this.......

HereAndThereSC

While I agree with everyone that the story is not breaking news... I do find the story-telling pretty amusing I'm mildly entertained! [Ok I had a few pints earlier]

HTSC

nicolas75

3.5 � voucher??