Air your getaway gripes and put a stop to holiday hassles

I would just like to say how upset I am over the last 30 years we have always had our holidays abroad ,two years ago (the wife) decided we would not go again as the hassle was not worth the bother what I am trying to say I would still go whatever but the boss has decided ,end of story.sob sob.

When younger, we travelled for holidays on long haul flights. Our philosophy was that the journeys would be a pain, but the destination and time there made it worthwhile – a simple “is it worth it” choice.

Now older, our breaks are short haul, usually with no frills carriers. Like Delldweller in a previous post, I agree – the airlines, staff, and service are absolutely fine.

The problem is the passengers. Turning up late, bags clearly larger than allowable, huge duty free bags in addition to hand luggage, and on boarding some passengers so wrapped up in themselves they either don’t read (or can’t be bothered to follow) the instructions “seats A-P board at front, Q-Z at the rear”.

The latter leads to horrendous stress as people try to get to seats at the back of the plane from the door at the front, passing everyone with their luggage on the way, and blocking aisles.

Then when most people are comfortably seated, those last few large bags don’t fit in lockers, and people with correct sized bags are asked to put them under their seats so that the incorrect ones can be stored in lockers.

The system “rewards” bad behavior.

If someone has correct sized luggage, give them a green card at the gate, “fine” those who don’t £10 on the spot.

If someone boards at the incorrect end, send them back down the steps to the other end (after being “shamed” like this a few times, they’ll soon learn to look for the boarding instructions in future).

If locker space is insufficient when most people are seated, get the people with large duty free bags to put it under their own seats.

During the flight, everyone with a “green card” is entered into a “lucky dip”, to win a share of the fine money collected. People with oversize luggage will soon get the message when they see their cash being handed over to people who have acceptable luggage, and will think twice next time.

I feel so sorry for staff working on no frills airlines, having to deal with people who obviously have no thought for anyone but themselves.

Eurostar check-in at Brussels always keeps you waiting outside the check-in until the previous train has left. If you arrive in reasonable time you can be kept standing for half an hour despite the waiting area being empty. We were recently kept waiting like this, then when we were allowed through the ticket check there was a brief power failure in security so we were kept standing for another half hour before passport checks. No information was given. It was not until we reached UK Border check that we were reassured that the train was being held for us. If we had been checked-in instead of being kept standing we would probably have all been through before the power failure. To speed things up UK Border waved us through, but this meant that our unchecked passports had to be checked at St Pancras with another half hour wait.

Brussels Midi has often a nightmare because of the idiocy of all the staff there. On one occasion we went to the departure board to find the platform for our Frankfurt train, all the details of the train were shown except the platform which was shown as ‘Depart autre gare’. As John Betjeman might have said ‘Happiness is Brussels in your rear view mirror’.

Used the new Terminal 2 baggage claim on Tuesday 15th July. My flight was the only flight where bags were being offloaded so baggage hall not busy.
Waited 20 mins for carousel to start then after 15 mins use the carousel stopped for 20 minutes. No airport staff visible to give explanation.
No information in hall which gave name and details of baggage handling agents.
Allow 30 minutes walk from arrival gate to Border/Passport Control. Only toilet is near Passport Control.

Flights booked on line for myself & my wife to fly to Cyprus, unfortunately 1 weeks before we were due to fly, my mother in law died, so we had to stay in U.K. for the funeral.

When we ask easy jet to rearrange our flights to another time (We live in Cyprus so any time in the year would be O.K.) we were refused! “because we had booked on line”!
We pointed out that booking on line was for easy jets benefit, not ours, made no difference, we lost both flights!
We did not ask for our money back, just for the flights to be re arranged.
We have told this story to all our friends in Cyprus, they all fly with Monarch now!!!

We have noticed a trend in that holiday airline companies are restricting the weight of cabin bags, to make passengers pay for hold baggage. Flying to Greece two adults and two children we have previously bought 4 appropriately sized cabin bags (1 each) and avoided having to pay for hold baggage.
Now with Thompson flights they restrict both the weight and size of cabin bags to 5kg. The self weight of the bags themselves are 2kg giving an allowance of just 3kg which amounts to a towel, cream and a few t-shirts. Other operators allowed up to 18kg! So we now have to pay for luggage in the hold at £48 two ways to 20kg. If the weight goes above 23kg then not only does the cost per kg rise dramatically but it needs to be split into two bags.
If it about weight and fuel cost why aren’t heavier passengers charged more than lighter? Wwhy cant we have a system where passenger weight is considered along with passenger baggage weight? – Bit radical I know!!!!!!!

Lack of passenger control at departure gates drives me mad, everyone mills around trying to hear what the latest boarding edict is. This is usually shouted out, it seems, by the smallest supervisor with the smallest voice. Heathrow terminal 5 have it 50% right with an electronic info board over the gate.
In my opinion access to the gate should only be from the “collecting pens” which should have an electronic board clearly showing the seating to be filled first/next. This I’m sure, properly controlled, would speed boarding with less hassle for passengers and be helpful to those who don’t speak English (and anywhere in the world where passengers don’t understand the local language).