Where’s My Bag and the Other 34…

People always wonder why they don’t get their luggage once they arrive at their final destination. Many things may happen. The most common incident is for a passenger to have a short connection between flights where the ramp agents don’t have time to load the bags into the new flight. However, other things may happen, such as technical error or unfortunately, human error.

Take for instance this incident:

A flight arrived with passengers but was scheduled to depart empty, that is, it didn’t collect any passengers after landing. It was due to go to some other place and collect passengers there. We were only required to receive the plane and its incoming passengers.

So this flight arrived full. The luggage was stowed in two different halls. The ramp agents began unloading Hall Nº 1. Just at that time, two other flights landed which had a short stopover as opposed to the other flight which had a much longer stopover. Also, these two new flights where scheduled to leave with passage, which required more attention than an empty flight.

The ramp agents, understaffed and pressed for time did what they had to do; they left the first aircraft and headed to where they were most needed.

While the ramp agents loaded and unloaded the two new aircrafts, the first flight closed its doors and departed. Nobody however realized that Hall Nº2 didn’t get unloaded, and inside its belly remained 35 incoming bags.

When the now sweaty and stressed beyond belief ramp agents finished with the 2 short stopover flights, and headed back to the first aircraft, they found the parking space empty. Naturally, they contacted the coordination department and informed them that Hall Nº2 was still loaded. They in turn contacted the pilot and informed him of the extra weight onboard so precautions could be taken.

Now next time you lose your bag, remember, a million things could happen for it not to get to you on the arrival baggage belt. Perhaps it fell off the luggage carriage while being transported through the tarmac. Perhaps it was loaded onto the wrong plane. Perhaps it lost its tag. Or if you were among the 35 passengers today who didn’t get their bags, well, your bag was simply forgotten and never left the aircraft.

Passenger folies

Just when I thought the summer couldn’t get any more crazier and I have seen all there is to see in the airport life, a family of 4 shatters my expectations.

I know that traveling is a stressful experience and the fear of losing one’s flight can take it’s toll on people’s judgments. But I’ve never seen such panic drive people to insanity to the point of endangering their lives.

This family of 4, took their time shopping in the duty free shops and didn’t hear the last call to board their flight. Once they heard their names being broadcasted through the terminal’s airwaves they panicked. They rushed to the boarding gate and once they realized their bus to the aircraft had departed without them, they became distressed. The boarding agents reassured them the bus will return for them and all they had to do was wait.

The passengers oblivious to the instructions of the boarding agents dashed through the gate, removed the chain at the gate and ran to the aircraft. They literally ran through the tarmac, duty free bags and baby stroller in hand. It was a scene from a movie. One of the boarding agents ran after them begging them to stop while the other notified airport security. The passengers could hear nothing, even when two police cars surrounded them from both sides. All they were seeing was their plane in the distance and they had to get to it, didn’t matter at what cost.

It was the most dangerous and scariest incident I had ever witnessed. In their hurry, they were crossing the main road of the tarmac, where planes, cars, trucks and other vehicles drove in constantly (most of the times ignoring the speed limit). One aircraft was being led by a “follow me” car to its parking space. The passengers didn’t see it. They simply ran disregarding anything in their way.

Thankfully, they got to the aircraft without getting hurt, thanks in part to the police cars that escorted them and stopped any vehicle approaching. When interrogated by the police, all they said was that they were afraid of missing their flight!!??

I’m telling you, something strange happens to people once they enter through the airport’s doors. It’s as if all sanity and composure is erased from them. They become disoriented and irrational. I can’t wait for the summer to be over, really!

Seat Guru

I had to giggle when I came upon this site after all the rant in my previous post on seat reservations. Alas, I try and be  helpful when I can. I’m not always grumpy, I swear!

If you like to reserve your seat ahead of time, Seat Guru  provides nice seat maps on various airline companies’ aircrafts.  The site mainly focuses on long-haul flights and large aircrafts, but there a few small aircrafts, like CRJ 65 and Dash 8-100.  These small ones are among my favorite aircrafts. Checking-in and boarding these planes is a breeze. Excellent opportunity to sneak in a book and read it during the “down time”.

Would you pay more to sit in a window or aisle seat on a plane?

The Sun Sentinel has a very interesting article on airlines charging for special seats.

 

Atlanta-based AirTran in June began charging customers for advance seat reservations on discounted fares — something Northwest Airlines started last year. United offers “economy plus” seating, with extra legroom , at no charge — but only to their frequent fliers.[...]

AirTran now charges $15 each way to reserve an exit row seat and $5 for a window or aisle seat, allowing coach passengers to avoid the middle seat.

This is not uncommon with low cost airlines. Jet2.com for example, has raised the fee for extra-leg room seats to 19 EUR (26 USD) for flights less than 3 hours, and 27 EUR (37 USD) for flights over 3 hours.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it. I just don’t see the point of advanced seat reservations and paying extra for a particular seat. It is fine if you are really tall and require extra space for your legs, but really, there isn’t much difference. Especially with the newly remodeled low cost aircrafts where passengers are packed like sardines to maximize profit. Unless if it’s the first row, or an emergency seat where the seat in front of it doesn’t recline, you really don’t have that much space to spread your legs and be comfortable. I know I’m going to be prosecuted by the industry for saying this, but unless you travel in business class or the almost defunct First class, you are NOT going to be comfortable flying in economy!

Also lets not forget about an important fact, advanced seat reservations are a pain in the neck to a check-in agent. Not talking low cost airlines here where there isn’t much difference where you sit (except, you can argue, the extra-leg room seats).

Say you are happily at home or with your travel agent, and you reserve a window seat. The system usually assigns you whatever window seat it pleases. Perhaps you had in mind a window seat near the front of the plane (I dont know, because you want to get chatty with the pilot for example). Anyway, once the check-in agent gives you your boarding card and you realize you are way in the back of the plane, or gasp, it’s an aisle seat. Your eyes begin to twitch and your wrath falls on the check-in agent.

Well sorry to inform you but, your pre-assigned seat doesn’t really matter. It all depends on the aircraft’s seat configuration, especially if it’s an aircraft with say First, Business and Economy seat configuration. More often than not, a flight’s configuration is determined a few hours before it actually departs. Especially in the high season.

If the flight’s configuration was initially of 22 Business class seats, and say 119 Economy class seats, but in the end only 5 Business passengers and 136 Economy passengers check in. Instead of upgrading those extra 17 Economy passengers into Business (lots of money for the company), it would be much easier to simply change the aircraft’s seat configuration. The much loved and cheaper method for the airline company is the famous movable curtain that divides the classes. Just unhook it from the row you want it and hook it up again a few rows down and voilá, Business class and Economy class have been rearranged!

So anyway, I got off track. You’re still standing there at the counter angry that you didn’t get the seat you reserved. It depends on the aircraft’s seat configuration, really. If it hasn’t changed or it hasn’t affected that particular seat you had reserved, then you’ve got nothing to worry about. However if your seat fell in the midst of the movable curtain’s shuffle, well then, too bad. You’ll need a new seat.

Conclusion…. if you want to pay extra for a seat which in reality to me is almost identical to the one you are already paying for (price of your ticket!), go right ahead. But I don’t see the point. The only true advantage it gives you is that it protects you from me, because then I won’t be able to sit you where I want if you catch me in one of my Voldomortian moods….

For the full article in the Sun-Sentinel: Click here!

Frequent Flyer Walkie Talkie

I am almost certain, weird things only happen at our airport.

We misplaced a walkie talkie in the morning. No one could find it. The last time it was seen, a ramp agent had it before loading a Milan flight.

By noon we received a telex from the Milan base asking us if we had misplaced a walkie talkie. They had found it inside the aircraft’s hall between the luggage….  Apparently the ramp agent either dropped it or forgot it in the hall while he was loading the bags!

That same aircraft returned later that night and with it came our walkie talkie.  It spent the whole day in Milan.  Now that’s what I call a freebie!

Chock Scare

We had an awful scare yesterday. I’m still not sure how it actually happened. I was at the office at that time, photocopying some paper work when people started rushing behind me. The back office coordinators were nervous screaming at each other things like “contact tower control make them stop the plane!”, “tell the dispatcher to stay away!”. Some were hogging the walkie talkie, others were yelling into the phone and a few others were looking out at the tarmac with binoculars. I could tell something was not right. Throughout all the cringe worthy things I’ve been through in the airport, I’ve never seen so much commotion and felt people this scared before.

An aircraft which was leaving its parking location heading towards the tarmac to take off, was dragging from its landing gear a set of chocks. Chocks are rubber wedges that are placed for safety around aircrafts’ wheels to prevent them from moving while parked. The chocks’ rope must have been caught into the landing gear’s breaks and got dragged when the aircraft (a MD-80) began moving.

This is the most dangerous incident I have ever witnessed. If no one had noticed the chocks being dragged, I don’t even know what could have happened. luckily, the coordinators moved fast, contacted the airport control tower who in turn contacted the pilot. They were also worried on how to remove the chocks once the pilot was alerted. If the chocks were completely stuck, the engines would have to be stopped and the plane was in a dangerous position, outside of it’s parking space.

I’m not sure how the chocks were finally removed. Things were happening really fast and I couldn’t linger around the office to nose about, as I had my own flight to get back to. All I know is that the aircraft didn’t have to stop its engines and none of the ramp agents got hurt trying to retrieve the chocks, which makes me assume, the chocks fell off by themselves. Surprisingly the plane took off on time!