Chaos at Funchal Airport
Apr 24, 2018, 8:39 am
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK and Southern France
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In a saturated situation, small perturbations create disproportionate effects - the example I gave of traffic joining a motorway and creating stop/go queuing behind it is a good example. It takes very little time for a car to merge in, but it causes braking that creates a standing wave back in the traffic, Another example is the rate of traffic flow on a road where it's not raining and traffic flows smoothly, and the same road where it is raining, when the very slight slowing and braking for individual vehicles can cause significant delays. Small effects multiplied by large numbers of occurrences create significant differences in outcome..
Apr 24, 2018, 9:12 am
#17
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Buckinghamshire
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You should try flying with BA from Genoa regularly as I do. Sometimes there is a Priority check-in desk, sometimes not and there are two normal desks. Sometimes when there is a Priority desk it is policed to ensure CE and status pax get priority, sometimes (correction - often) it is a free-for-all and although one desk may be labelled "Priority" it is effectively operates as a second normal desk and everyone just joins whatever queue they like.
Apr 26, 2018, 10:18 am
#18
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,060
To get back on topic, Mrs Muscat and Ms Muscat were on the same flight, on a BA holiday, travelling Club out and Eurotraveller back. Mrs Muscat (gold) was texted by the duty office and asked if she needed any assistance. She said yes, and they ended up back in Reid’s Hotel for the night, actually in the same room that they had checked out of . She got a phone call and text confirming the situation, and what was happening with the flight. The ground staff at Funchal were hopeless, but the BA Holidays duty office couldn’t have been better. (Gold line couldn’t or wouldn’t help). Almost no food on the way back as nothing had been loaded; if passengers had known, they could have bought food to take on board.
Apr 26, 2018, 12:00 pm
#19
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To get back on topic, Mrs Muscat and Ms Muscat were on the same flight, on a BA holiday, travelling Club out and Eurotraveller back. Mrs Muscat (gold) was texted by the duty office and asked if she needed any assistance. She said yes, and they ended up back in Reid’s Hotel for the night, actually in the same room that they had checked out of . She got a phone call and text confirming the situation, and what was happening with the flight. The ground staff at Funchal were hopeless, but the BA Holidays duty office couldn’t have been better. (Gold line couldn’t or wouldn’t help). Almost no food on the way back as nothing had been loaded; if passengers had known, they could have bought food to take on board.
Apr 26, 2018, 12:02 pm
#20
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: LHR
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Posts: 418
I agree. In those places who shouts louder usually wins. It’s the survival of the fittest, unfortunately.Very sorry about your experience.
Apr 27, 2018, 12:40 am
#22
Join Date: Sep 2014
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Also its not about being a dykwia, it’s about making a polite request
Apr 27, 2018, 1:37 am
#23
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: LON
Programs: BAEC
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My experience couldn't have been different when flying from Bordeaux last year, return flight was cancelled due to an ATC strike, I called BA Holidays and they made sure I was on the flight the following day but told me to sort out my own hotel arrangements and if I needed an extension to the car hire to also resolve this with Avis and claim back. I felt as if it was a bit of a gallic shrug but from someone with a British accent.
Apr 27, 2018, 10:02 am
#24
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 47
Apr 27, 2018, 12:54 pm
#25
Join Date: Sep 2014
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I agree...but if you dont get it I think it's OK to go and inquire instead of ranting about it later on. There's nothing 'DYKWIA' about it
Apr 27, 2018, 12:56 pm
#26
Join Date: May 2014
Location: DMV
Posts: 2,092
This seems like a fairly petty complaint. It's an outstation and there were IRROPs. We're also talking about CE here and not Emirates First Class. The main complaint appears to be that there were queues and no dedicated CE check-in/bag drop. While I understand the nuisance, it's just one of those things I'd chalk up as bad luck and move on from it. My advice is..don't expect the red carpet on a intra-European flight in J, better yet don't throw money at BA by paying what they ask for it.