aristoph

s0ssos

Yea, that's not wit. Sarcasm is different from wit. Americans may not know the difference, but Brits certainly do.

So I know people who would go to the airport very early, to be less stressed. I don't find waiting at the gate less stressful. Waiting somewhere else in the airport, yes, but at the gate packed with people, you eagerly awaiting boarding and not knowing which group it is on, not having any space (no seats obviously, standing room only, but no place to stand where you aren't in other people's way). I don't see how that isn't stressful.
In fact, it seems much better (if you don't have carry-ons) to come later, when boarding is almost complete, and stroll on, then to be there before boarding starts.

Of course, there are other countries in the world where boarding is orderly and they seem to be able to load a wide body in less than half an hour.

LTN Phobia

I certainly would not find ending up at the gate early stressful. Almost missing the flight because of being stuck in a queue is stressful, however.

Is it that stressful not to be in a lounge? I don't find it is. I sometimes can't be bothered even going to one, so I go to the gate, find a quiet area (even if I need to go to another gate nearby), and get on with my life instead of hanging around the lounge. In fact, noisy lounges stress me much more than the crowded gate (I expect the gate to be crowded and noisy, whereas I do not expect the lounge to be noisy even if it's crowded).

Funnily enough, I find lounges that call every flight really stressful and it induces misery in me, so I guess different people get stressed by different things though.

Prospero

EasyJet had a bunch of delayed LGW, LTN, and BRS flights in/out GVA yesterday evening which would have added an element of unpredictability to the proceedings. GVA’s passports checkpoint processes both departing and arriving passengers so arrival peaks can severely impact on the departures flow through the tunnel.

Not exactly stressful but it can be quite tedious

thebigben

I thought this would have been about any of the other stressful factors in GVA. I would reckon that, given GVA's track record, OP had a good experience.

morges1

There has been continuous building work to expand and improve GVA since I started to live here in the early 70s. Geneva is a pretty small and extremely constrained canton 75% surrounded by France ((in fact, a bit of the airport is on French land, hence the domestic French flights. AS the population has increased and since it became an easyjet hub, the airport has continuously faced crowding and since there is no room, I'm afraid it will continue to do so. It is currently building a new long haul extension. One thing that has improved is security - a bigger area and speedy clearance of apparent crowds.

I just suggest, dear Aristophe, that you don't visit us at weekends during the ski season and particularly during the last weekend of the motor show in March. If you are grumpy visiting us now, I wouldn't like to be near you then!!

morges1

PS Remember, that your check-in person is from DNATA not BA and after checking you in will slip into another airline's uniform for the rest of their shift! If you don't employ someone directly, don't expect loyalty! It's a price that BA has paid in many places.

aristoph

Brisbane Road

aristoph

The outcome was good thanks to me being an experienced BA and GVA flyer. Nothing to see here.

Tobias-UK

Given what @Prospero mentioned supra, is it possible the information given to you by the check-in agent was in fact her trying to be helpful based on her observations of the situation when she commenced her check-in duties? Perhaps being helpful was her intent rather than trying to stress you out?

aristoph

The same lady was present at the gate later and her approach to passengers was not what I would call helpful. I didn't mention this in the OP as she was perfectly pleasant to me (though she did question me as though I were clearly lying when I said I had no hand baggage - a true answer as my partner and I travel with one piece between two of us).

Again, I have no idea whether it was her intent to stress passengers but I stand by my view that telling most passengers that they need to hurry to the gate with 1h45m to spare is likely to induce stress in the process.

Telecasterman

"She should have known the inbound was late. She should have advised all Club and GCH/SCH about the lounge; and she shouldn’t have advised me to go straight to the gate when I checked in 1h25m before scheduled departure and 1h45m before actual depart time."

Your words not mine - all very small beer imho.

aristoph