Copenhagen – Barcelona SpanAir JK034 December 8 2008.
As December 8 is a holiday in Spain, I spend the morning at the Copenhagen office, and took the afternoon flight down to be able to have a full day on site Tuesday.
I knew we would be delayed already when I reached the gate, as I passed the passengers who had just arrived from Barcelona on the way.
The departure gate was A23, an area of the A-pier, where each gate has a closed-off waiting area. This enables passport and boarding card control already on entry to the waiting area, which -in theory anyways - would make boarding faster and smoother than normal.
However, the ground service staff (the full 1-person army assigned) decided to take this concept to a new level: She refused to open the waiting area, leaving a full flight off passengers to wait around in the walkway area on foot, blocking the way of passengers going to gates further out, and the golf-cars moving walking impaired passengers, cart-collecting vehicles etc. The monitor announced an expected departure delay of 10 min, slightly optimistic when we were all still standing outside the waiting area 10 min before planned departure.
When the area was finally opened and it became my turn, I asked the 1-lady army if there was any explanation as to why we had to wait outside the empty waiting area she said: “Off course there is: It is much easier for me to check you in this way”!
How stupid am I… I was under the illusion that Airlines provide passengers with a service. Now it is finally confirmed that they do in fact regard passengers as an inconvenience…
PS: Take-off was 25 min delayed, but we landed in Barcelona on time.
As December 8 is a holiday in Spain, I spend the morning at the Copenhagen office, and took the afternoon flight down to be able to have a full day on site Tuesday.
I knew we would be delayed already when I reached the gate, as I passed the passengers who had just arrived from Barcelona on the way.
The departure gate was A23, an area of the A-pier, where each gate has a closed-off waiting area. This enables passport and boarding card control already on entry to the waiting area, which -in theory anyways - would make boarding faster and smoother than normal.
However, the ground service staff (the full 1-person army assigned) decided to take this concept to a new level: She refused to open the waiting area, leaving a full flight off passengers to wait around in the walkway area on foot, blocking the way of passengers going to gates further out, and the golf-cars moving walking impaired passengers, cart-collecting vehicles etc. The monitor announced an expected departure delay of 10 min, slightly optimistic when we were all still standing outside the waiting area 10 min before planned departure.
When the area was finally opened and it became my turn, I asked the 1-lady army if there was any explanation as to why we had to wait outside the empty waiting area she said: “Off course there is: It is much easier for me to check you in this way”!
How stupid am I… I was under the illusion that Airlines provide passengers with a service. Now it is finally confirmed that they do in fact regard passengers as an inconvenience…
PS: Take-off was 25 min delayed, but we landed in Barcelona on time.
