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A recipe for confusion in Athens (2 flights, same times)

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A recipe for confusion in Athens (2 flights, same times)

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Old Feb 27, 2019, 4:16 am
  #1  
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A recipe for confusion in Athens (2 flights, same times)

Not sure if this has happened before, or if this is a result of the demise of the 767s. I see that Easter saturday has Athens up to 6 rotations on one day, but for some reason two of them appear to be scheduled for exactly the same time (14:30 departure for BA637 and BA629). I can imagine this causing chaos at the gates with irregular travellers who know they are on the 14:30 BA flight to Heathrow, being told they are not on this one, but the other one... Anyone know if this is normal, I would have thought they would stagger the departure times by at least 5 minutes!



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Old Feb 27, 2019, 4:28 am
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I expect seeing at least a flight number at this interface.
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 4:36 am
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Amusingly the second entry is scheduled to take 5 minutes longer. Probably because it'll be pushed back 5 minutes later once the tug moves over from the gate next door

Is there a timetable change on this date? This looks like a classic 'forgot to remove the old timetable' situation...
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 4:49 am
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It amazes me everytime I leave Hong Kong. Two separate flights, spaced about 30 mins apart. Different Flight numbers - yet still, Everytime - people get mixed up. They just see a BA plane and head for it. There will always be confusion.
At Athens they'll probably start boarding about ten mins early to account for this particular instance, or they'll have a number of people walking through the gat area barking instructions (which everyone will ignore)
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 5:13 am
  #5  
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Originally Posted by A P Yu
At Athens they'll probably start boarding about ten mins early to account for this particular instance, or they'll have a number of people walking through the gat area barking instructions (which everyone will ignore)
Given how badly group boarding can go when they are announcing that, I can't imagine that asking people to look at their boarding passes to check the flight number will be very successful!
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 5:22 am
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I’ve once seen something similar (though with a difference - maybe 5-15 minutes?) at Newcastle. I don’t fly enough to know how common this is, but it did surprise me.
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 5:33 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by A P Yu
It amazes me everytime I leave Hong Kong. Two separate flights, spaced about 30 mins apart. Different Flight numbers - yet still, Everytime - people get mixed up. They just see a BA plane and head for it. There will always be confusion.
Only 15 minutes apart, sometimes!

Mind you, it's even easier to sow confusion when your boarding pass for BA28 says "Gate 16", as expected, there's no aircraft there, the nearest place to get help is the staff who are boarding BA32 at Gate 15, and they cannot understand that I do actually know which flight I'm supposed to be on and I just need to know where they've put the blinking aircraft.
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 5:42 am
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Originally Posted by andrewkeith5
... Is there a timetable change on this date? This looks like a classic 'forgot to remove the old timetable' situation...
No, these are two separate flights, ATH has 5 or 6 rotations on certain days.
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 5:55 am
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Originally Posted by A P Yu
It amazes me everytime I leave Hong Kong. Two separate flights, spaced about 30 mins apart. Different Flight numbers - yet still, Everytime - people get mixed up. They just see a BA plane and head for it. There will always be confusion.
At Athens they'll probably start boarding about ten mins early to account for this particular instance, or they'll have a number of people walking through the gat area barking instructions (which everyone will ignore)
NCE in the summer is my personal favourite.

If you're on BA, you may well find yourself going to LGW - which boards from the gate right next door, and shares an entrance with the LHR gate!

Or, if you're on EZY from Terminal 2, you'll find 3 flights departing from 3 gates right next to each other. LTN, STN, and LGW. The chaos of people running between the gates, makes an NFL play look amateurish!

M
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 6:21 am
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Originally Posted by msm2000uk
NCE in the summer is my personal favourite.

If you're on BA, you may well find yourself going to LGW - which boards from the gate right next door, and shares an entrance with the LHR gate!

Or, if you're on EZY from Terminal 2, you'll find 3 flights departing from 3 gates right next to each other. LTN, STN, and LGW. The chaos of people running between the gates, makes an NFL play look amateurish!

M
This has been useful for me when flying on standby before from PMI. My original booking to LGW was looking chocker so I booked to STN too and they ended up boarding right next to each other at the same time. I had boarding passes in hand for both so it was a weird blue pill/red pill moment deciding which line to choose.
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 6:52 am
  #11  
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I suspect they'll retime one of the flights to avoid the chaos.
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 6:54 am
  #12  
 
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Originally Posted by Globaliser
Only 15 minutes apart, sometimes!

Mind you, it's even easier to sow confusion when your boarding pass for BA28 says "Gate 16", as expected, there's no aircraft there, the nearest place to get help is the staff who are boarding BA32 at Gate 15, and they cannot understand that I do actually know which flight I'm supposed to be on and I just need to know where they've put the blinking aircraft.
Do they still put coloured stickers on you in HKG?
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 6:56 am
  #13  
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Originally Posted by Speedbird676
Do they still put coloured stickers on you in HKG?
Hi,

They did not in December 18 whem I flew back on the A380.

Regards

TBS
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 7:05 am
  #14  
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Spare a thought for the ground staff of Menzies at EDI. A few years ago they had to handle, within 30 minutes, two LCY services, a LGW and two LHR flights, one of which was a 767 and the other a 321.

It was rescheduled after 2 weeks.
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Old Feb 27, 2019, 7:07 am
  #15  
 
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Happened a lot LGW-ALC-LGW last year with the acquisition of the Monarch slots. Many flights on the route running within 5 mins of each other. I noticed plenty of off script boarding announcements at the gate at various stages of the boarding process on the occasions I was there advising passengers to check their boarding pass, this is flight number BA####. If your flight shows BA**** then you at the wrong gate and need to go to gate $$. Seemed to work in the main part.
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