UncleDude

LHR-IST yesterday afternoon/night.

Was this weather or total incompetence?

From the comfort of The Concorde Room..just arrived in First Class, then a 4.44min Delay

irishguy28

It's certainly not unusual. When it comes to de-icing, you'll always have to wait.

TravellerFrequently

Very sorry to read of your experience, UncleDude.

What service did they provide on the ground and then during the 3+hour flight?

IAMORGAN

This used to really annoy me. They board you on time (ish) then close the doors and THEN tell you that you're not going anywhere. I think it's because they genuinely don't know how long it's going to take to get the equipment sent to them/slot to come through etc. It's something that you experience more the more you fly -I think you just have to accept it.

Yesterday, I flew LHR-FRA. Boarding was practically on time, but we had a good hour on stand waiting for both a slot time and then we missed our initial slot because there was no tug available. The crew did offer drinks though, so it wasn't a big deal -and I think it was (only) about an hour of waiting. We then had a bit of a delay holding over FRA.

There was a man who wanted to offload himself when Nigel told us we would be delayed, but I think he was persuaded by the crew to do otherwise!

I did appreciate the constant updates from the FD and from our Purser about the delay -some flight crew will just say words to the effect of "it's weather, it's the UK, what the hell do you expect? I don't want to be here either so just sit down shut up and if you don't like it, then tough." Our captain was (fortunately) more diplomatic, and I think it also helped that he spoke German and came into the cabin to "answer any questions". Our Purser came through the cabin and spoke to everyone individually about the delay -pointing out that it was fine to use mobile phones etc. They even managed to find some blankets (why you'd want one I don't know, but somebody did) and tea/coffee plus a full bar service and those of us in CE got a ET bag of crisps whilst still on stand.

Once airborne, food came out straight away, followed by more drinks, highlife shop and, yes, an ADDITIONAL bar service ^^ about 30 minutes from landing-not many people had another drink, but it was a nice gesture. I can honestly say that the crew earned their money yesterday.

However, back to the OP's question, I think over four hours is very very poor. There must surely be some indication to the crew before they start boarding that de icing has a massive backlog and it will be at least -say 120 minutes. Why not delay the boarding by an hour at least, just to maximise everyone's comfort. It can't be fun for crew to have to constantly have to answer the question "how much longer" -which we all know when weather is involved is like asking "how long is a piece of string?"

I hope the crew offered drinks and some food during that length of delay.

Question to crew on here -if you board and realise there is going to be a four hour delay, is it possible to disembark everyone? Is it possible to order more catering so you can offer the loaded catering on the ground, and then have something else to offer once airborne, or do the bean counters not approve of that?

CT-UK

This isn't just a LHR thing as already poined out.

Twice last year I had a 2+ hour wait at MUC for the same thing.

OPebble

I see your 2+ at MUC and raise you by 3+ at FRA!

Alinlondon

Two hours wait at T5 last night for a pier for the already two hours late 1489 from GLA.

iainbhx

4:20 mins at FRA on Monday. We got our sandwich on the ground and a nice supply of drinks throughout and in flight.

stut

It does really make a difference when they do this.

While it's often hard to praise the blue demons above BA, one of my favourite aspects of KLM was always the policy that, in case of disruption, the captain would stand at the front of the cabin with a microphone, and explain exactly what was going on.

Glad to hear it happens elsewhere.

OPebble

In my experience the Captain coming out of the cockpit and picking up the PA is BAD news.

One time it happened to me was when the BA38 (?) from Beijing nearly didn't make it into LHR and more recently when Iceland decided to empty their ash trays - funnily enough both occasions at FRA.

No I'd rather he stayed in his nice warm cocoon!

xenole

Twice the length of one end to the middle

Still, as mentioned, I'd rather slum it in F or maybe J than Y if I had to endure a long wait.

Dave Z

Seems like BA struggle with their de-icing. I was sat on the tarmac for 5 hours trying to get to DEN last January. I think perhaps it's because they do their own de-icing. Maybe they should contract some of it out. I've been de-icing my flight every day this week, but have had minimal delays. We use ASIG to do our aircraft and they always seem to get to us on time.

WHBM

BA St Petersburg flight cancelled on me today because, presumably, of this

You would hope they might learn from their outstations where they use contractors. At St Petersburg, which like everything about Russian aviation not at Moscow is a shoestring operation, the de-icer (boy, is that necessary there, -15C at the moment) is round to the BA A320 right when required when ready to go (no matter how late the inbound was due to whatever today's excuse at Heathrow was), gives us a good blast all round, and then off to the next aircraft. There only seem to be one or two de-icer trucks there, but they do get on with it.

BA at Heathrow have actually spent a fortune on their de-icer trucks, they sent a couple over to the London City Airport open day two years ago and let the kids blast water over into the dock. I had a good look at them then, custom-built brand new trucks which probably cost £ quarter million upwards, each. At St Pete they use secondhand Russian army trucks (decidedly heavyweight things). But did BA at T5 get talked into buying such expensive kit by some fast-talking salesman that they then couldn't afford enough of them, or afford enough trained staff for them ?

Greenpen

On Sunday the Austrian Airways flight from VIE to Astana taxied to a de-icing area and was dealt with immediately. Strange lights scanned the wings before a man and a hose did something under the wing and a machine sand-blasted (guess not really) the top of the wing. Masses of steam. Never experienced this before so it was fun, and no real delay.

Nice food and service on OS but seats do no go flat. Riedel (spelling?) glasses though to enhance the wine list.

lancefan

[QUOTE=IAMORGAN;15357743]This used to really annoy me. They board you on time (ish) then close the doors and THEN tell you that you're not going anywhere. I think it's because they genuinely don't know how long it's going to take to get the equipment sent to them/slot to come through etc. It's something that you experience more the more you fly -I think you just have to accept it.QUOTE]

I think your right, sometimes you just have to suck it up and accept it.

Yesterday on the 1396 up to MAN, my original 1394 got canned. Everyone onboard and doors closed near enough for an on time push back. FO comes on the PA we have a bit of a ATC delay. Then we need to be de-iced. Now looking at a 16.15 departure instead of a 15.20 one. Crew announce that the drinks service will be offered on the ground. Regular updates from the FO about what is going off. 27R / 9L is now closed as its frozen so all take offs and landing are now useing 9R. FO tell us northern runway has re-opened, if i remember right we pushed back at around 16.30 and another 20 - 30 mins in a queue of traffic. Wheels up at around 17.00, arrive into MAN at 17.50.

Crew where excellent IMO, regular updates from the flight deck also excellent.

Little off topic but can the flight deck / crew tell when a mobile phone is on as we did have regular requests for people to turn their phones off. Guy in a few rows in front of me was on his Blackberry non stop. Member of flight crew comes walking down the plane, the guy shoves phone between his legs, so he clearly knows he shouldn't be useing it. Soon as crew member walks past out comes the BB again, crew members turn round and guy gets busted.

Weather you like it or not why can't some people just obey simple instructions.

Had a few passengers moaning about the delay, but it's just one of those things. The plane needs to be de-iced and im sure they don't just shut a runway down unless they really had too.

With regards to why can't they board say 1hr later if they know its a 3 maybe 4hr wait to be de-iced. Last Friday i was in Santa Barbara and was booked on a early evening Amtrak Surfliner down to LA. I get to the station at 6pm for my 6.20pm train only to be told that there is a delay of at least 2hrs minimum due to someone getting hit and killed by a train a few miles up the line. To cut a long story short guy at station then comes over the PA to say if anybody want to head into town feel free to do so but come back to the station in 90 minutes time for a further update. I stay at station and start reading my book. 30 minutes later an announcement is made that our train has been released and will be arriving in 10 minutes time. Train arrives, where at the station for a further 15 minutes then off we go to LA. I do wonder how many passengers did head into town, came back 90 minutes later only to be told the train has come and gone.

I guess the point im making is could a 4hr delay suddenly change and become a 1 or 2 hour delay and delaying boarding and having passengers scattered around T5 would be more hassle than its worth.