EvilDoctorK

A cautionary tale about rigorous closing times, inflexible rebooking and oddly located gates at DUS !

I decided to try the new DUS-LCY flight yesterday evening and was booked on the BA3276 leaving at 1800 as my return flight on my day trip to lovely DUS yesterday

However this isn't a trip report as I ended up flying back on Air Berlin to Stansted instead

The gate they use for the LCY flight is B42 which is incredibly obscurely located 2 flights of dark stairs and through several forbidding looking doorways below the main departure concourse and not behind the non-Schengen gates passport control (e.g. nowhere near the B37-ish gates the DUS-LHR flights usually use and where I instinctively headed for)

I arrived at the gate at about 1741 when I eventually found it and the flight was closed and gone .. my bad clearly should have been there earlier , but in my defence I defy anyone to find that gate quickly .. and also worth noting that in the reverse direction on that flight ex-LCY checkin would probably still have been open at T-20mins .. closing ~50seater prop flights rigorously at T-20 seems kind of extreme .. the evening LHR flights from DUS rarely start boarding at T-20 in my experience and certainly never close at that time !

Anyway the helpful BA Staffer at the gate suggested I head up to the normal B37 gate where the delayed 1805 LHR service was leaving from (they certainly didn't close that one 20 mins early yesterday !) .. she said she couldn't do anything but she'd call up to the gate and they should have a few seats free - she said she'd tried to call up to the lounge to find me around 1730 but they aren't very cooperative with paging people apparently and the general airport PA doesn't reach the lounge area.

Slightly irritating, but that's life - and at the end of the day I fully accept I should have got to the gate earlier ... but then it got worse .. the not so helpful BA staffer at that gate said she'd been expecting me and she wouldn't help me as I had to go back to the ticket desk and get my ticket re-issued for the 2040 BA945 to Heathrow and pay a change fee etc.

Kind of annoying, but I could still live with that (and I wasn't being given much choice anyway) .. so back out through passport to the ticketing desk where I arrived at just before 1800 (now the LCY flight I had "missed" still hadn't actually departed!)

Cue several minutes of tap tap tap on the computer by the ticketing agent .. a comment that someone had already tried to rebook me but "not done it properly" and that she'd "have to do it manually" .. fair enough .. I've plenty time now it seems ... some more tap tap tap and then apparently No .. you can't change your ticket and the only option is to buy a completely new one .. for €420 o/w

Not very happy with this obviously - and totally at odds with previous experiences with BA .. I don't make a habit of missing flights, but it has been known to happen in the past .. and normally it's not a problem .. and accepting it was my fault I'd have been happy (well tolerant) to pay a change fee ... but to somehow have ended up with my ticket voided like this seems pretty extreme.

Anyway not feeling much love for BA last night, and certainly not feeling like giving BA €420, I noticed that Air Berlin had a flight to STN departing at 1900 I headed over to them where they very flexibly opened the already closed flight , sold me a ticket for half what BA was looking for and off to STN I was in short order.

Anyway long story, but if you are travelling on the LCY flights from DUS .. watch out for the very oddly located gate they seem to use and beware of turning up even marginally late to the gate as they seem extraordinarily inflexible on this.

8420PR

You are right that some of the bus gates at DUS can be obscure (upstairs, downstairs, through doors etc), but I find the numbering rational enough that I have never had problems.

However, closing a small turboprop flight 20 min before departure is rubbish! If I was you I would be pretty upset!

Sixth Freedom

On the one hand it does say on those boarding cards that the gate closes 20 minutes ahead.

But on the other hand:
i) the gate should be easy to find, even if a long way away
ii) BA hardly ever closes boarding at T-20 in my experience - more likely this is when boarding actually starts.

I am inclined to side against BA in this case.

MumbaiDan

DUS is indeed one of the worst airports there is. I find the numbering of those Bus Gates very confusing and in particular the Gate area you are describing is hard to find. I had to get there with a big carry on last time, two flight of stairs in a dark stairway. was twice thinking to turn around, but finally the gate arrived. Rediculous Airport. not German order at all.

Phil the Flyer

Ve haf orderz, you must obey zem.

EvilDoctorK

Thanks Guys ... I've logged a more coherent version of my rant with Customer Relations and I will take BaltimoreHugh's kind offer up too and pass it on that way.

I'm not personally out of pocket (except for the trauma of a visit to STN and being home 2 hours later than planned) so no huge harm done, but would like to point out to them that I expected a bit more from BA

Passmethesickbag

I sometimes think it would be great if somebody could invent a cheap, inflatable and disposable bag for the benefit of passengers who have access to premium check-in lines and wish to avoid situations like this. You whisk it out of your hand luggage, blow it up, check it in, and - hey presto - you can finish your champagne in the lounge, the flight will wait for you. Then when you arrive at your destination, you just walk away and let the airline dispose of your bag as they wish.

EvilDoctorK

A deviously interesting idea ...someone should pitch it on Kickstarter .. I'd buy it

peck

I appreciated the way you have posted this - level-headed and accepting of your faults on the day. However I do completely agree, as a regular flyer I would also hope that BA could be a little more accommodating, and not void and re-issue the ticket. Is that really necessary? But, it's their loss in the end I guess as your money ended up in Air Berlin's pocket!

As an aside, I am also a 'Doctor K'. I'm not evil though

NWIFlyer

It's not just the departure gates that are confusing - most of the plane spent ages running round in circles trying to find the luggage belts when I last went through there (admittedly a couple of years ago). They turned out to be up a ramp and behind a frosted glass door - not that there was signage anywhere to let you know that once past passport control.

Having spent the best part of half-an-hour trying to find them, the trains to downtown then steadfastly refused to take any sort of recognised credit or debit card, didn't give change and every exchange point was closed anyway even if I could have got cash in some sort of acceptable format.

Sounds like not much has improved ...

layz

Trains tend not to accept credit cards or give change. Next time try the ticket machine

dj_jay_smith

Come off it! DUS is a nice airport to travel in/out of and there are far more airports that are much, much worse!

Every airport has its oddities and DUS is really not that bad.

totti

Sorry to hear about to OPs story.

I can only comment on DUS in general and departures to LHR and agree that DUS is not bad at all. I had some issues with me showing up at the airport rather late but still in time and the check-in agent being a bit grumpy and unfriendly but that was only once. Normally I have no complaints about or issues with DUS.

DUS

I am sorry to hear that the OP had such a bad experience with BA and with the gate layout at DUS.

But I am rather surprised to hear that DUS airport is considered by some as a poor airport for travellers and MumbaiDan even rating it as one of the worst. Personally, I think DUS is a great airport and I never had any issues with finding gates, the luggage belts etc as others have reported in this thread. Well, maybe it's because I use it almost on a weekly basis. But I am more than surprised as to how on earth a LH HON Circle and BA Gold member who obviously spends a significant amount of time at airports around the world can come to such a negative view on DUS....

TravellingSalesman

Hm. I rather like DUS.

They do have cash mashines in arrivals... never had a ticket machine refusing to give change before. You could have just got on the train and explained this to a conductor (in the unlikely situation where one would have been along).