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!

Summer Madness

I am still here, if anyone was wondering. It’s the summer. Everyone is happy and on holiday except us miserable airline industry people. The airport is crazy. Tourists and travelers everywhere. About 70% of flights are delayed, 20% are canceled and the remaining 10% are miraculously departing without any glitch (pun intended) . The lines of crowds are never ending. If I was unpleasant and cranky before… God help the pax who comes my way in the next few days. I carry around with me a stack of pre-written complaint letters for anyone who asks, because they WILL ask if they run into me.

It’s so hectic, a woman in a wheelchair was forgotten by the staff and never made it onto the flight. It’s THAT bad. How can anyone forget about a wheelchair? I mean, if you’re boarding and you know the flight has a special pax with needs, and this passenger hasn’t boarded… doesn’t a siren go off in your head, at least for a second or two? Doesn’t the flight attendant ask where this passenger is? Doesn’t the back office coordinator wonder why a wheelchair has been de-boarded? Doesn’t ANYONE ask where an old woman, who can’t walk, strapped to her wheelchair, could have gone? She didn’t roll down the baggage belt that’s for sure. The fact that someone can forget and lose a wheelchair is normally beyond comprehension; But things are THAT chaotic right now, I’m not awfully surprised it happened. I’m just glad it didn’t happen during my watch….

I fear I may I lose the few brain cells I have left or end up jumping off the control tower.

I want the summer to be over.

Hamster Legend

There’s a hamster loose in the airport. It’s been running around the offices all morning.  There’s only one explanation for this: some passengers wanted to carry it with them and when they realized they weren’t allowed to carry a rodent without the proper documentation…… they chose to let it loose instead of missing their flight.  Oh the cruelty! PETA would have a field day with them.

Nobody really knows how long the hamster has been there.  The airport people have been all hush-hush about it.  If the word gets out that a rodent is loose in the airport… well all havoc will break loose.  The area must be in quarantine to test for any signs of contagious disease.  Nobody wants that as it will disrupt business.

So, the poor hamster has disappeared without a trace.  It’s going to become in the coming days, one of our airport’s unsolved mysteries.  Much like the rats, the mice (I’ve seen those!), the fleas (seen those too!) and other unknown creatures roaming around the terminal.

I love this airport.

Your Boarding Gate Has Been Changed

It is not unusual for gates assigned to particular flights to change in the last minute. This usually happens when a flight is delayed and therefore, the initially assigned gate for it is occupied by another flight. However, it is unheard of to have your gate changed not once, or twice, or even three times… but FOUR times. But it happens, and unlucky me, I got the heat of it.

Our flight was delayed and when it arrived, the airport gate coordination department changed the initial gate (lets call it Gate 1) to another gate (Gate 2).  All passengers were informed and we all positioned ourselves at Gate 2.  Slight problem… Gate 2 has no Immigration Control.  This particular flight needed passport control as it was leaving the Schengen area. When the immigration officials arrived they informed us that they cannot perform a passport control at this gate because it was not equipped at that moment for this task.

So, the airport gate coordination office changed the gate once more. This time to Gate 3.  Alright then, all 139 passengers, custom officials and boarding agents moved to Gate 3, which was at the other end of the terminal.

We get to Gate 3 and I’m about to faint.  Our flight was boarding by bus and Gate 3 was a Finger dock gate, which is a gate with a passenger boarding bridge for direct boarding into the aircraft. You cannot board by bus at this type of gate.

I don’t know what I’ve said to the airport gate coordinator when I called him.  “Good morning” surely wasn’t the first thing I said when he answered. How complicated was it really? Back when we were in Gate 2 , I specifically asked him for a gate where we could board with a passport control AND bus. Not that much information to memorize all at once.

So, we changed gates again. Gate 4 was the final gate.  I didn’t know what to say to the passengers. They were fuming. Who can blame them? Well at least they got a tour of the boarding area of our airport…

The Cranky Flier

Oh my goodness look at this little gem of a blog I found:

Cranky Flier

How did I not know about it before?  This is getting bookmarked fast!

One Plus One Equal Two

One of our flights was delayed 58 minutes today because of human error, something that increases in the high season. Once the flight was fully boarded, the dispatcher radioed in telling us that the final checked-in luggage figures we gave him didn’t match the number of actual bags they had. They had 81 bags and we told them they should have 80 bags.

At first it may seem as a minor thing. You’d think missing a bag would be a bigger deal. That is not the case however. Having an additional bag means there is an unclaimed bag without an owner, therefore, for security reasons, the unknown bag must be identified.

We radioed back that according to the check-in system, 80 bags were checked-in. Not 81, but 80, so the ramp agents counted again. They got 81 bags, all of them with tags.

It was puzzling. If there were indeed 81 bags with tags, the system should recognize all 81 bags, unless one bag was deleted from the system. If that was the case then the old deleted tag wasn’t physically removed. That was the only conclusion we got to. Someone during the check-in process must have deleted a bag from a passenger but forgot to remove the old tag and re-insert the bag with a new tag number into the system. However, we couldn’t confirm it because after reviewing each passenger’s log, no passenger has had a bag deleted. It was frustrating and mind boggling. We couldn’t figure out where that extra bag came from!

The captain refused to leave with an unclaimed bag. He requested all bags to be unloaded from the aircraft’s hall and for all passengers to disembark and individually claim their bags.

All bags were unloaded by the same two ramp agents that loaded them in the first place. Once the passengers claimed their bags one by one, those same ramp agents, re-loaded the bags again.

There were 80 bags. The ramp agents counted them wrong.

Simple mistakes like these can be made at any time, however, during the high season, with the great amount of passengers and flights we have, these mistakes occur often.

Fortunately, not a single passenger was upset by the delay (unlike our bosses). Everyone of them was very helpful and were ready to cooperate. For them, as one passenger told me, if it had to do with everyone’s safety, the delay is then something minor to put up with.

This is yet another time that I am grateful I work inside the terminal and not on the ramp. I can’t imagine how terrible it must have been for the ramp agents in the heat to load, unload, and then reload 80 bags. I guess they were fortunate the flight wasn’t full.

It Ain’t All Glitter

People often ask me, why people in the airline industry are grumpy all the time. They see us in immaculate uniforms, with perfect manicures, all made up with no hair out of place and assume our job is glamorous. They think we get lots of perks and get to go anywhere we please for free. Far from it. More than glamorous we are master deceivers I’d say.

We are underpaid. Working over hours is the norm, sometimes 10 hrs a day, other 12 hrs a day. We don’t get any perks nor assistance from the companies (be it airline companies or airports). In my airport for example, we are forced to purchase a parking permit (no discount). We are not allowed to park for free anywhere, even outside of the airport area (cars gets towed constantly). Apart from paying full parking fare, we have to walk 10 minutes to the airport. We don’t have a worker’s canteen, so, we get to pay full airport rates for anything we eat or drink which is usually double what you can find in a regular restaurant.

Take for example our uniform. I ended up paying for alterations for every single item they’ve given me. You can’t decide which size you can get. Whatever is there is yours. I ended up with items which were 2 or 3 sizes wrong. I remember one of the shirts they gave me was 4 sizes larger. It was like a tunic instead of a shirt. The company doesn’t pay for alterations, so I had to shell out the money myself. It was either wear the tunic or pay for it.

Our skirts, pants and blazers are 50% wool. We are expected to wear them throughout the summer. Let me tell you, that taking that 10 minute walk from the parking lot to the terminal in that uniform is far from glamorous. The wool is unbearable, and we’re not even in August yet!

Yes we get some discounts on some tickets, but to be honest, with all the Low Cost airlines out there, you can find cheaper fares than what we can get with our discounts. Plus, our discounted tickets are always subject to space availability. We can get kicked off a flight if it’s too full. So it doesn’t only cost you more than a Low Cost airline but you don’t even have a guarantee that you’re going to fly.

Yet despite all of this, people love the job. Why? I don’t even know. We have shitty schedules, were sometimes you get to sleep throughout the day and work only at night and then the following week it’s the other way round. You rarely get a weekend off. You get to work practically every holiday (missed Christmas Eve and New Year’s eve this year). Your social life becomes your work colleagues because no one can keep up with your schedule. Who else is going to get a Wednesday night off and want to go out right in the middle of the week?

The job is hard and not glamorous at all. We don’t get as many perks as people think yet we love it. We put up with horrible, just horrible people on a daily basis, yet every now and then, there comes a passenger who makes this whole debacle worth it. We value those passengers. Unfortunately, there are only few, and days may pass since you meet one. But when you do, it just reminds you why you love your job.

I still want to get rid of the wool uniform for the summer though.

Testing the Competition

I took a very quick trip yesterday. The flight I took was with another company, so I took the opportunity to observe how the competition operates.

I was more interested in passenger service as it’s my area. I must say, it was quick with no hiccups (even with an electronic ticket). I didn’t stand in the queue for more than a minute before it was my turn to the counter. I asked for a window seat and I must have seemed nice to the check-in lady, cause she gave me a whole row to myself. She didn’t know I worked in the same airport as her. I made sure to go to an unfamiliar face. Those of us who work in the airline industry tend to be very lenient towards fellow colleagues, even if they work for other companies. We always try and help each other out (give the best seats, turn a blind eye to excess baggage fees etc..). If we don’t help each other out, who’s going to help us? Certainly not our bosses nor our companies. Us workers stick together!

I had no bag to check-in so the process was very easy. The bad news came at the time of boarding. The flight was 45 mins delayed. I guess we’re not the only company who is familiar with delays! I could see how stressed and annoyed the boarding agent was as she was being overwhelmed with angry passengers surrounding and screaming at her. I felt bad for her as I knew how she may have felt. She had her hands tied and can’t do anything about it, yet the passengers didn’t care. They scream and shout as if she decided to delay everyone. I bet the poor thing had to get off work 45 mins late because of that delay. She must have been annoyed by it just as much as the passengers.

By the time the plane arrived and we had to board, the boarding went smoothly for us passengers… not the boarding agent. She was trying to get everyone on the plane as fast as she could. Another agent came to help her out. Between the two of them they boarded all 70 of us in just a couple of minutes (it was direct boarding no bus trip). It didn’t take them long to get all the paperwork done after we boarded, so the doors were shut just a few minutes later.

All in all despite the delay, I don’t have any complaints about the competition. I won’t name them so not to advertise though!

Electronic Tickets

I hate them.

For a passenger an electronic ticket is a blessing. You only need to show your passport or your ID when you get to the check-in counters unlike before, when you had to have a paper ticket or else you weren’t going anywhere.

For a check-in agent, an electronic ticket should be a breeze if everything works fine… however, that is not always the case. For us, electronic tickets are actually more problematic than regular paper tickets. Sometimes the reservation system and the electronic ticket database don’t communicate. We can spend precious minutes trying to associate the two (precious minutes that we don’t have during check-in time).

If the passenger brings his Electronic ticket number with him, it would make the process much easier and faster. However, most passengers bring their reservation number instead of their ticket number. For a check-in agent, the reservation number is of no use. That belongs to the reservation and sales domain. So therefore, we would have to call the reservation office for them to access the reservation through the reservation number and give us the electronic ticket number.

Another common scene with electronic tickets, is that the passenger prints out every page he can while at home and therefore, shows up at the check-in counter with about 5 pages for us to look through. Some are emails, some are confirmation pages and some are advertisements. Most often than not, when we are handed out all these pages, we don’t bother looking at them. We can’t waste time reading all those pages trying to find a ticket number. It usually is much faster to call the sales department and have them look up the passenger and his ticket number, than for us to search through pages and pages of printed out emails.

What the passenger should know is that time is precious at the airport. If you don’t want to wait a long time during check-in, help us out a bit. Electronic tickets are very convinient for the passengers and for us, however, sometimes problems arise. Be patient and know your ticket number. We have a job but you also have one.

I personally hate electronic tickets and wished we’d all go back to paper tickets.

Today’s Memorable Quote

Excuse me, is this the airport?

Yes…

But we can’t see any planes!

Well.. you’re in the terminal, the planes are… outside…

this must be the weirdest question I’ve been asked, and I’ve been asked many weird questions. There’s something that makes people so disoriented and genuinely dumb once they cross the airport’s doors that simply baffles me.