botham

Having just returned from a charter flight trip to Salzburg, I count my blessings that most of the time I am able to fly scheduled and best of all with BA when flying to SZG. The charter terminal was a scene of chaos. We queued for check-in for over an hour, the another hour to get through security and passport control and arrived at our gate, along with about 30 others, 15 minutes after scheduled departure time. Fortunately the plane waited for us and the captain blamed the late departure on a tour party checking in late. This wasn't true, as I was the last through check-in having arrived at the airport earlier than recommended!

Having had a very pleasant departure from BRS the previous Saturday, I hoped for a similar from the usually efficient Austrians!

MODS

Please feel free to move this, but I'm not sure where to!

Fruitcake

Thanks for a timely reminder of how the other half sometimes lives.

Doesn't mean BA can't continue improving though!

KenJohn

It depends which part of the service you are looking at and who you are comparing against.

I had to make changes to two reservations over the phone recently.
BA (both Gold line in London as well as Bremen) could not have been more helpful and efficient. It was all done very painlessly for me providing me with total confidence in that they were doing what I was asking for.

In comparison, a call to Royal Jordanian was like talking to a eight year old and took 25 mins to make a simple change to the return date for my flight and take my 50 quid change fee. It really tested my patience.

Swiss Tony

Similar tale when I flew out of BHX just after Christmas to go skiing. We were on LH via FRA - not a queue in sight. Compare this however to the EZY flight to GVA and they seem to pride themselves in keeping people in queues. Hoards at the check-in desk. They even called the flight as boarding before the inbound had touched down!

On arrival in SZG, our Priority tagged bags were numbers 2,4 and 6 off the belt and we even got out of the baggage hall before our taxi driver was there.

I think it's probably 12 years since I set foot on a charter (with the exception of a Calm Air Hs748 out of Winnipeg to Churchill) and I've no intention of reversing that trend.

Silver Fox

I can think of somewhere

thegoderic

I flew to KRK with EZY a couple of months ago and they had us on the bus and out on the tarmac looking at the plane just as the doors opened and the incoming pax started to get off.

They seem to work on the principle that passengers are a necessary evil that slows down a turnaround.

Jenbel

EZ at BRS usually send you to stand in the tunnels outside, with the passengers coming off the plane filing by you in the opposite direction. It's all a bit like being back at school - line up in pairs, holding hands!

But, it is the bad point out of a generally efficient operation. And they're way more smiley than the staff at EDI.

crystal_cad

Crikey, I didn't realise this still went on. I must have had it so good for too long.

crystal_cad

I only flew EZ a couple of times when I used to live in BRS, but I recognise the tunnel queues, but they got their planes out on time, often 20 minutes early. Ultra efficient.

Jenbel

Yes, in a year of flying EDI-BRS-EDI fortnightly, I had a bad delay just once. It was pretty impressive. Although I did think I spent about 30 hours waiting in the tunnels

PUCCI GALORE

Charter ski flights are in my experience the worst of every world. Vast amounts of baggage to delay the check in and frankly - in the days when I did them (and this was in the days before low cost really had got started) the most unspeakable people that I have ever had to serve in my life. Barely off the ground people were baying for booze - treble gin and tonics (and of course no change) Those GVAs were a nightmare - a nightmare. I can recall having to just throw things in the toilet and shut the door as we were almost on the ground and I was not strapped in.

That is one of the first times that I really answered a Captain back when he told me off - I had been dealing with situations and he had not. There were trays and glasses and bottles all over the place - what he want me to do - ask him to go around? The girls backed me 100% and he relented.

So - low cost and charter compared with BA - was any money saved?

PanGalactic

I used to do package holidays, and pay good money for them too until around 2002.
It has been costing me slightly more that the equivalent package deal for the same hotel since then, although now I have discovered airline miles, hotel miles, credit card miles and more importantly FT, I'll be paying less than the package martyrs, flying premium cabins and getting my hotel rooms upgraded too

Thanks FT!

Lite

Oh Pucci, couldn't agree with you more. Very difficult flights. 233 on a 757, all eating the full breakfast service, all with heaps of bags and equipment (and no locker space and an aircraft with no wardrobes), then a bar service where nobody had the right change and everyone had a comment about having to buy their drinks ... all on a flight lasting about 1 hr 20, and sometimes squeezing in a tax free round as well. When you've done that, you can do anything! Bit like doing a cruise PMI or a MAH full of little ones on the DC-10. Busy, busy!

I always say to crew now on very short flights like MAN or ORY (or AMS when we used to do that), that everything within the Domestic or Band One service can be completed with a big smile and at an energetic but friendly pace, with time for a breather and a cup of tea if you're organised.

botham

I got an excellent deal through Crystal Ski - £560 pp for hb in a 4* hotel in Kitzbuhel, so financially the deal was good, but I much prefer having more control. I had realised that Butlins still operated outside the UK, but yesterday was a real eye-opener.

Phil the Flyer

43 years for me (1969 Dan Air to Malaga). I've every intention of keeping that streak going.