When the departure gate isn't the departure gate.
Mar 11, 2019, 2:22 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Surrey, UK
Programs: BA Gold, *A Gold, IHG Platinum
Posts: 672
When the departure gate isn't the departure gate.
Interesting one for the BA359 to LYS on Saturday.
For a 15:20 departure, gate 24 popped up on the departure boards in the terminal around 14:50, so I made my way downstairs to wait for the bus. Sure enough, on the monitor at the gate all the flight details were confirmed on the monitor, however there were no staff around. Slowly but surely, more passengers turned up until (by my estimation at least) pretty much the entire flight was in the basement area.
Around 15:15, still no staff to be seen anywhere, and as this was the only flight to be leaving from this area, zero staff around at all, apart from what looked like a couple of baggage handlers on their tea break. By this point, quite a few people had taken it upon themselves to let themselves into the gate area past the boarding pass check and take a seat inside the gate room.
A member of BA staff did appear, and I did ask what was going on, and where were the gate staff, considering we were due to depart in the next couple of minutes. He was about as much use as a chocolate teapot however, and just shrugged and said they'd be here soon. Fair enough he wouldn't know exactly what was going on, but surely he could have contacted someone who did.
By pure chance, an off duty member of cabin crew was on the flight and I'm assuming managed to log on to the internal BA site - which said we would be departing from gate 3! I guess that would explain the lack of staff at gate 24 then. Cue a mad rush across terminal 3 for a flight that was now a good few minutes past departure time. Arrival at gate 3 was met with a few half arsed apologies but that was about it. To be fair, the captain seemed more sincere during his welcome speech, but I cant help but wonder what would have happened had that off duty staff member hadn't have been there.
Surely the ground staff would have known about the gate change, so would it not have been an idea to inform the entire flight stood waiting at the old gate when nobody turned up at the new gate?
Not really a complaint or a rant, just sharing the story and wondering "what if" more than anything.
For a 15:20 departure, gate 24 popped up on the departure boards in the terminal around 14:50, so I made my way downstairs to wait for the bus. Sure enough, on the monitor at the gate all the flight details were confirmed on the monitor, however there were no staff around. Slowly but surely, more passengers turned up until (by my estimation at least) pretty much the entire flight was in the basement area.
Around 15:15, still no staff to be seen anywhere, and as this was the only flight to be leaving from this area, zero staff around at all, apart from what looked like a couple of baggage handlers on their tea break. By this point, quite a few people had taken it upon themselves to let themselves into the gate area past the boarding pass check and take a seat inside the gate room.
A member of BA staff did appear, and I did ask what was going on, and where were the gate staff, considering we were due to depart in the next couple of minutes. He was about as much use as a chocolate teapot however, and just shrugged and said they'd be here soon. Fair enough he wouldn't know exactly what was going on, but surely he could have contacted someone who did.
By pure chance, an off duty member of cabin crew was on the flight and I'm assuming managed to log on to the internal BA site - which said we would be departing from gate 3! I guess that would explain the lack of staff at gate 24 then. Cue a mad rush across terminal 3 for a flight that was now a good few minutes past departure time. Arrival at gate 3 was met with a few half arsed apologies but that was about it. To be fair, the captain seemed more sincere during his welcome speech, but I cant help but wonder what would have happened had that off duty staff member hadn't have been there.
Surely the ground staff would have known about the gate change, so would it not have been an idea to inform the entire flight stood waiting at the old gate when nobody turned up at the new gate?
Not really a complaint or a rant, just sharing the story and wondering "what if" more than anything.
