T.G.T.W.O.

Thank God This Week Is Over

What a week! I don’t even know where to begin. I’m not even sure anyone will believe me. It has been surreal to say the least, but, thank goodness it’s finally over.

The delays we’ve had this week are countless. I think probably only 2 flights left on time and it’s not even summer yet!

Seriously, I don’t know with what atrocious incident I should start. I strained my neck from all the accumulated stress this week.

First, a big bird decided to commit suicide against one of our aircraft’s front window. It couldn’t have chosen a better time nor aircraft; 1) the flight was already boarded and ready to leave. 2) we have no licenced mechanic for this particular type of aircraft in our base. So, flight was deboarded, a mechanic was sent from another base to examine the window and the flight was delayed for about 2 hrs.

We’ve had a group of TEN new check-in agents (who clearly have not stepped into an airport in their life) start their first week in the company. Even though they were trained and underwent a rigorous course, they somehow didn’t retain any information whatsoever during their shifts. They either froze in front of the computer screen or simply did atrocious mistakes that caused great delays. Then of course, leave it up to us (the “veterans”) to clean up the mess. My goodness, everyone does mistakes when they first start, but I’ve never seen anything in this magnitude. These chaps and their mistakes require a post of their own.

Then, as if none of the above is enough, we’ve had 3 aircrafts in one day get hit by lightening. Nothing happened to anyone or anything except of course the flights were delayed. Who would have thought it was possible but yes, you read right; lightening + three planes = super delays.

Two days ago, just like a scene from a thriller movie,  our terminal was swamped with undercover police and a SWAT team (van parked outside and all) tailing a criminal, who surprise, surprise was checked into one of our flights.  They caught him, took him and we continued running around the airport like headless chickens trying to keep up with our deadlines.

To finish off this fantastic week, I had two unruly passengers in the same exact morning. One didn’t want to pay for his excess baggage and the other one… well I’m still not sure why he was angry, but man oh man was he even angrier when we called the police on him and kicked him off the flight. Ha!

I don’t know what was in the air this week but I am glad as hell it’s over. Come on Monday!

Today’s Memorable Quote

“We missed our flight. It left 10 minutes ago, can’t it come back? It hasn’t been so long!”

“Um, no.”

Pax who missed her flight and expected it to make an aerial U-Turn and come back for her.

A plea to backpackers

A bag’s journey through an airport is quite simple. When a passenger checks-in his bag, the check-in agent steps on a pedal and sends the bag down the baggage belt. The bag then rollercoasters its way down a series of belts till it reaches the baggage handlers at the ramp. They will then hurl the bags onto carriages and hurl them once again into the plane’s halls. The baggage belts are therefore essential for smooth airport operations and happy households (you don’t want to greet your kids with no souvenir in hand).

It is not rare for baggage belts to break down (at least in my airport). They can stop for a few seconds or for a few hours. A few months ago the main baggage belt broke down during the busiest time of the day (early bird shift where most passengers have international connections). We managed to haul some luggage into the special baggage lift (there is only one lift which had to be shared with all other airlines). It was taking us so long to unclog the belt and stuff the lift with our flight’s luggage that the captain of our flight refused to wait any longer. It resulted in more than 50 bags staying on the ground and back sprains for us.

The most common reason for baggage belts to stop working, apart from technical malfunctioning, is BACKPACKERS

A bag may get stuck somewhere along its way which can create a jam preventing other bags’ flow through the belt.

**Pop Quiz question** Which bag is more likely to get stuck?

- Answer: A backpack.

With its mileage of straps and belts hanging all over the place a backpack is what a nail is to a car wheel. Why do they need all those belts and buckles? I don’t know, but they get stuck all over the place.

A note to backpackers: about 99% of baggage that gets stuck is because of you and your stringy backpacks. If you want to fly tie them well or better yet, wrap them with a safe bag. If you don’t, then just go hiking and save us the back pain!