LTN Phobia

I am typing this post as I sit in a F lounge of another airline. The noise from nearby brats (no effort from parents to have their children keep their voice down) is only surpassed by the noise of flights being called.

This brought me to think, thank goodness BA don't call the flights at their LHR lounges. Given the frequency of departures, can you imagine how noisy it will be?

I do not understand why airlines insist on calling the flights in lounges when there are plenty of screens. Anyone who cannot pay enough attention to those screens do not need to be nannied at the expense of comfort of other passengers.

Anyway, thank you BA for choosing not to call the flights in lounges. You are ensuring extra comfort for me, and I suspect many people might feel the same.

Silver Fox

And it would distract the muppets having conversations on their phones/tablets using voip. Or cause them to talk even louder than I thought possible.

Poxball

Personally I prefer the call. Takes the responsibility away from me, stops me having to second guess, get up to see the monitor etc. for example in HKG, the first call means it has started, the second is you better go and third is you better hurry.

correctioncx

Which airline?

Saltire74

I do like the 'No Calls in Lounge' policy after sitting in the VIP lounge in Cairo T1 the other day and listening to a constant speech in Arabic, English and some French.
However, it does help at LHR when the screens are working in the lounge so that you can see the status of your flight without having to wade through hundreds of passengers carrying sludge from the buffet (GC North) to see the only working flight display monitors.

Safe Travels

S

DANNYB111

Though it would be good if it was made more obvious whether a lounge calls or not to avoid catching out the newbies.

My first lounge ever was EDI were they call flights, so I assumed was the norm, until my first trip to LGW where I had a near miss having been listening for a call that never came.

In hindsight should have cottoned on to the fact that NO calls were being made...and I know it says on the screens if calls are made or not, but if you think it'll be called then you don't look at the screens!

flygod

In true 1st Class, a member of staff approaches you and let's you know your flight is ready.

If sir or madam has a few too many shopping items, they may even carry them for you. (and put them in the buggy - Bangkok, or car - Zurich) that takes you to the aircraft.

As for children, I usually tell the parents I was a good pal of Jimmy Saville's and so am happy to entertain them for a while!

lorcancoyle

Am currently in AA Flagship at JFK - no flight announcements yet, but having been subjected to infomercials for something that's "1000 times more powerful than vitamin E" it's now progressed to proselytisation with some form of Christian mass / service etc being broadcast. Very, very odd - BA, don't ever do this...

DVT

I usually now ask what the procedure is, since it varies by outstation, BOS and BRU recently they did call to board from the lounge.

where next

so wrong, but very funny, I may have to borrow this line.

corporate-wage-slave

Yes it is somewhat inconsistent, there's a surprise. At Amsterdam, they always prod you out of the door since it's a long way. At Frankfurt, they do repeated prods even though it's not a long way, but security has its own way of doing things. At Edinburgh there are two calls, sometimes three. At Newcastle, where you can see the aircraft boarding from your seat, the lounge lady will eventually slide round to you and say "look Mr. Wage-Slave, they really will leave without you, you know".

Cathay's announcements are intrusive, especially given the two sometimes three languages, so I wish they only made exceptional announcements. T5 would be unbearable - if it was 3 announcements per flight, and there are 25 flights in the next hour, you can just imagine it. In CCR they will page you if you don't clear in the first 10 minutes of boarding, though in very hushed tones, and you'll get the "your chariot awaits" message if you are a regular offender. Special Services deal with the high value passengers or tickets, but do it way too early.

xenole

Quite a few announcements earlier in the LAX AA Club even after the woman on the desk told me they wouldn't announce flights.
At least they stuck to english only rather than repeating in spanish,

Poxball

SQ come and negotiate what time your golf cart should arise and then come to tell you it had arrived. But that's an F service!

layz

The announcements don't bother me. I thought they might have done on one of the days they were playing in GF due to faulty screens as there's so many departures but in the end the announcements by a real person were preferable to the recorded announcements you get in the public areas. It's the same in railway stations, I prefer the announcements made by people in some East a Coast stations (e.g. Newcastle, York) than the automated announcements you get everywhere else.

But whether announcements are useful depends on the lounge. Some people would tune out to announcements in a busy lounge so they'd be less useful.

On the other hand lounges where everyone is waiting for the same flight it makes sense to do announcements.

Lounges like the bmi domestic in T1 used to offer announcements but BA stopped them. They were useful in this situation as most flights boarded by the nearby gates and the announcements let you know exactly when was best to go to gate, unlike the screens that often say boarding when they aren't. It also meant they could announce the flights of those departing on the green mile earlier so they'd still arrive at the gate on time.

corporate-wage-slave

The one that really annoys me is the French language version of "please don't abandon your luggage", which one hears in T5 and other airports on the same system. The lady says such bags "seraient détruits" with such an insouciant tone to the last word that you can almost hear her say "hahaha!"