In article , Ron Lowe writes
Are your connecting flights with alliance partners or with the budget ones?
It's been a while since I flew into Denver but last time I was going for winter sports and not travelling light, but didn't have a problem with the luggage. That was on single booked right through tickets, didn't even see the luggage until the final destination.
If you don't mind me asking, where were you skiing? There are some nice spots over the mountains from there.
I may well be wrong but I think I read that from February this year BA increased the baggage allowance for "World Traveller" to 2 bags even in Europe. And I've found something on their site about it. But I am not
*sure* how it works.
BA all the way. Checked right through, as you say. Just going by reading the e-tickets.
Not actually had a problem yet, as we've adjusted our baggage system to put 4 pairs of boots into a honking great bag, rather than 4 boot bags.
Normally do a week in Aspen Snowmass ( with day trips to other Aspen mountains )and a week in Breckenridge. We have regular condos we use at both.
With day stop-overs in Vail mostly for the back bowls, and Beaver creek sometimes to have a laugh at the pampered.
Just after posting I realised it was Continental I flew with BMI doing the internal leg (Star Alliance), not BA.
Sounds nice :-)
I was boarding and based in Breckenridge, even used the school bus to travel to the linked set of resorts. At the time, Aspen wasn't keen on boarders.
Canada would be my choice these days, staying in motels and chasing powder on a daily basis around the rockies based on the evening TV forecasts but it's probably not what you want to be dragging a family round.
So is mine, get to the airport earlier.
Yeah, your problem is that you fly with BA, a service that makes Ryanair look like Cathay Pacific.
True, but...not every aircraft seat has an available overhead locker.
Exactly. In fact, they use some of them for odd stuff such as the dummy oxygen masks, life jackets, etc...
So is mine, get to the airport earlier.
It really should not be necessary - the problems are caused by other passengers - not the airline / handlers / airport. Why would anyone really want to get there too early. I repeat - the transaction at the desk should take less than a minute per party if it is only a bag drop. stupid people cause the problems - I should not have to go early because of them - they should be sent to the back of the queue.
I sympathise. But they should be sent to a separate queue, as some of them will be arguers, not repackers.
Ryanair 737-800 with 189 seats, all traveling as single persons.
So turn up three hours forty nine minutes before departure then.
Ryanair supply bags that comply with their own spec which is different to anyone elses and cost about 80 quid.
Interesting that your ire is aimed at those in the queue in front of you, and not those who have the power to do something about it by, for example, opening up another check-in desk.
You've chosen a cheap airline. They've cut their service to the minimum to reduce their overheads, and they've made rules to increase their potential charges which will mean that situations such as you describe will happen. If you want to avoid that, pay the extra for a posher airline, otherwise stop whining.
I'm not like some on here - I'll use Ryanair when it's appropriate, but I'll do so in the knowedge that it's not exactly going to be the glamorous journey the ads earlier last century offered.
There are a few points both good and bad about Gobshites airline.
One problem I have with them, is that you are bombarded with that much racket from their PA system on the plane that if something happened which demanded your immediate attention like 'brace brace brace' you'd probably ignore it as another sodding advert.
Fixed seats that don't even recline slightly can be very uncomfortable. but legroom is good.
The planes are very new compared to some of their competitors but that has other issues- see
Their crew at the pointy end are monitored as rigidly as the very best in the industy for performance in the air. A bad approach, or landing, and before you get to the gate you might a call frommbase saying you are in for a long spell on the simulator (paid for by the crew not by airline) or you could be down the road, jobless.
Flight crew morale is low, very low. Gobshite works them extremely hard, and bends maximum hours rules (per period) to their very limit.
If only they could shake themselves out of the everything is extra syndrome, remove the premium rate phone calls, the 40 quid for boarding cards, the credit card surcharges, the unfair competition on some routes that means they 'absorb the taxes until their competitor goes bust', the playing off of one airport against another (Manchester being dumped for instance) when they couldn't go any lower on landing fees, the truly ridiculous airports they claim serve some cities, they could set proper flight times in their timetable, and value their crews and all other staff.
But they won't until they get rid of gobshite & co.
With their relatively new fleet they can afford to sit on their aircraft for many years, and they will have to as neither Boeing nor Airbus want anything to do with them for future orders. They could end up with Russian or Chinese aircraft in the future.
On the downside I can see a big accident coming up at Ryanair, the sheer number of flights and how they push flight crew will turn out be a major factor.
I am surprised that airports still allow any queuing before the security check. Seems like a serious vulnerability to me. Airlines and airports should be required to have enough staff at all times to restrict queues to no more than somewhere between 5 and 10 people at all times, depending on presence of any nearby queues*, i.e. to limit the density of unchecked people in any one area.
After the security check, queues are not a (security) problem.
*Ryanair could implement this by charging you £1 for each person in front of you in the queue when you join it ;-) Never fly Ryanair myself...
That is not my experience of flying with BA. Of course, things might be different in cattle class.
Coiln Bignell
I've only ever flown business class with BA. Compared to the majority of airlines their service sucks, their service was in fact so poor that I preferred to fly British Midland for short haul flights. For long haul, BA are definitely fourth rank and only just slightly ahead of Aeroflot.
Still if you want to be wedged into a poorly maintained seat and served s**te by some matron with varicose veins, support tights and more slap on her face than is stocked at any single Debenhams, BA would be right up your street.
Perhaps next time you try to puff yourself up, with snide lines about "cattle class", you could try think for a moment before posting?
Strweth. "AirBaltic" sound better than that (I have actually flown with them).
Generally I use Lufthansa or SAS[1] if I can and no complaints there and they are cheap enough.
[1] Because when they f*ck you up by overbooking, they fix it by offering in both cases it's happened to me, a refund greater than the original cost of the flight, a rebooking or diversion and necessary taxis or overnight accomodation. In one case I had to insist on travelling and they made it possible. The other case was only a diversion from Munich to Frankfurt, connecting taxi over (diverted to the town centre rather than the airport by a short chat with the driver and a tip). No real probs - 1 hour late and a free return flight!The worst was Air China whom when asked:
a) At this end, about baby sleeping hammocks said: "no probs - just ring them at the other end to arrange";
b) Rang at the other end 2 days before departure: "You have to come to our office in Beijing in person a night's train ride from where you are staying to arrange - we can't do it on the phone";
c) Ignore the idiot and get to the airport 4 hours early and enquire: "Oh you should have come 2 days ago in person." me: (in maximum English strop mode): "No! Get your manager out here, now, please!" After a lecture on customer service, said boss promised to sort it.
d) Got on the plane and it turned out the "hammocks" are stored there regardless and all it takes it to have a bulkhead seat reserved, which is trivial for the checkin desk to fix.
gawd - talk about a run around.
Used BA/Quantas to Oz once - not bad
Ah yes, I forgot about that. I already hated BA at the time that I was working in Germany, but during that time I came to absolutely loathe them. In 1993 I was on my way back to the UK. I had a business class ticket and my secretary had called that morning to confirm the reservation. When I got to the airport I was told that I had been "bumped" by BA because "the flight is over-subscribed". Since I was over an hour early for the flight I asked how this had happened. The reason was because an aircraft had been hijacked that day (a flight from Frankfurt to Cairo had been hijacked to the USA) that news teams had poured into Frankfurt and BA has decided that despite them not having reserved places it could not afford to upset the press, so it ditched all the regulars.
I wass able to transfer ticket to another airline much later in the day, and I haven't used BA since. If I ever meet any exec from BA I will be tempted to punch them on the nose. As companies go, they are right up there with British Gas, British Telecom and any other wanky former state-owned business with "British" in their name.
I think you must have flown a different BA from me, as none of that matches any of my experiences.
Cattle class is the industry term, just not an official one.
Colin Bignell
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