The great non-getaway of 22. How bad is it?

[Andy Farman]

Labour declaring their surprise at the lack of airlines' strategic thinking. Surely they must mean the senior management of those airlines, you know, those whose skills are identifying minions who can make things work and point out to them any hiccups ahead.

Guess which group was retained and which was laid off during the pandemic.

Paddle factory managers who did not think it important to be able to know how to make the things are now all at sea without one.

 

[bobthebuilder]

Flown Sydney-Melbourne-Hong Kong-Manchester and arrived this morning.

Sydney (Qantas domestic) was sheer chaos. No downloaded boarding passes, very few people able to use the self-service posts and only four desks. No airline staff on floor, no organisation / prioritisation of the queue and lots of cancelled flights. I ended up grabbing a lone Qantas employee who checked my bag only as far as Melbourne, which, given an hour delay, made the connection to say the least right.

They’re scheduling their normal hourly flight to Melbourne and then combining flights on the day and cancelling half. Purser on the flight told me that they’re running on about ¼ staff at the airport because a lot simply left despite being on JobKeeper (furlough).

Cathay to Hong Kong and on was fine, although security at HK was horrendous despite appearing well manned. Onward leg was fine and Manchester was really easy. No delays, very quick through immigration and bags collected within 40 minutes of landing.

Qantas are now frigging dire……

 

[syrup]

Flown Sydney-Melbourne-Hong Kong-Manchester and arrived this morning.

Sydney (Qantas domestic) was sheer chaos. No downloaded boarding passes, very few people able to use the self-service posts and only four desks. No airline staff on floor, no organisation / prioritisation of the queue and lots of cancelled flights. I ended up grabbing a lone Qantas employee who checked my bag only as far as Melbourne, which, given an hour delay, made the connection to say the least right.

They’re scheduling their normal hourly flight to Melbourne and then combining flights on the day and cancelling half. Purser on the flight told me that they’re running on about ¼ staff at the airport because a lot simply left despite being on JobKeeper (furlough).

Cathay to Hong Kong and on was fine, although security at HK was horrendous despite appearing well manned. Onward leg was fine and Manchester was really easy. No delays, very quick through immigration and bags collected within 40 minutes of landing.

Qantas are now frigging dire……

The far reaching affects of Brexit

Tis true a Remaniac told me

 

[MrBane]

People may well leave home very (sort of) OK, but by the time ( if and when) they get to their destinations they'll need profiling, meds, and rehab for two weeks!
It used to be the travelling was, or could be to some, part of the enjoyable adventure.
Now not so much.
Another problem is Staycation providers are really at it.
I cannot get booked on Skye, and the prices are eye watering even if I could.
We are just planning bucket list day trips this year. Maybe a1 night B&B.
Plenty of Scotland I've never been to yet.

Interestingly, I've just got an email from my agent telling me to consider adopting their dynamic negative pricing. I.e if demand is low my booking rates automatically gets cut.

However that doesn't work for me as I keep it very affordable as it is (in the scheme of things) and any price cut fucks me right into loss.

The industry fucked itself over with the sheer greed it showed last year, and I said it then that it would come back to haunt them.

Self catering, if done legally, is not a great game as margins are tiny. Five years I've never made a profit with losses totalling over £40,000.


FML.

 

[bobthebuilder]

The far reaching affects of Brexit

Tis true a Remaniac told me

Joking aside, there are parallels. Both countries relied heavily on immigration for the low cost labour that does stuff like baggage handling. Australia closed its boarders for nearly two years due to Covid, the UK switched off the Eastern European flow.

 

[Blogg]

Yes, I feel soiled by linking to the Wail but this is what Heathrow management mean by "technical difficulties" and "minor delays"

Heathrow's great mountain of uncollected luggage gets BIGGER

Staggering images show how hundreds of bags are stacked together in what onlookers described as a 'luggage carpet' at one of the site's terminals.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[RoofRat]

Yes, I feel soiled by linking to the Wail but this is what Heathrow management mean by "technical difficulties" and "minor delays"

Heathrow's great mountain of uncollected luggage gets BIGGER

Staggering images show how hundreds of bags are stacked together in what onlookers described as a 'luggage carpet' at one of the site's terminals.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Pay peanuts...get monkeys !
But in this case...the monkeys aren't biting anymore !

 

[Teeblerone]

Yes, I feel soiled by linking to the Wail but this is what Heathrow management mean by "technical difficulties" and "minor delays"

Heathrow's great mountain of uncollected luggage gets BIGGER

Staggering images show how hundreds of bags are stacked together in what onlookers described as a 'luggage carpet' at one of the site's terminals.

www.dailymail.co.uk

'Spanish practices'!
Why is it so difficult for people to apologise properly?
Or, madly radical idea, employ enough people to start with?
Ah..shareholders and 'market confidence'.
Can't we ship PR & HR off to Rwanda instead?

 

[exbleep]

And if, by some miracle your flight goes and has your luggage on board the same plane, you still have the great British public to contend with.

Report just the other day of a group of reality "stars" getting miffed cos they refused to put masks on for an internal flight in Spain despite being told many times that masks are required on public transport (including planes) in Spain. When one did get on board, he started vaping and got bitter when he was removed.

Then the ones they let on who have obviously started their holiday at the airport bar. Several reports of planes being diverted due to aggression from the already p1ssed up ones. Had my haircut the other day and the hairdresser was telling me she came from East Midlands last week. On arrival at security, the staff made them remove all liquid stuff from the plastic bags they had put them into and told they had to use the issued one. 3 hours delay getting on the plane and then sat there another hour.

Meanwhile, one young lad had started to get stuck into the duty free on board and was obviously worse the wear when they let him on. Another 2 hours whilst 4 coppers came on board to remove said young man.

Six hours late taking off.

Checking the incoming flights to Alicante at the beginning of the week and every TUI flight was cancelled from all UK airports.

 

[Blogg]

Pay peanuts...get monkeys !
But in this case...the monkeys aren't biting anymore !

According to talking head from British Aviation Group across UK & EU pre pandemic there were around 250K people working in Airport ground services.

Now still only about half that number, hence airports in UK and EU being instructed to wind the number of flights down.

 

[syrup]

Micheal O Leary was on SKY news earlier blaming it all on Brexit.

Seems BREXIT has stopped him and many other airlines shipping in cheap Eastern European labour that nobody else wants to do.

So they could probably get a lot of the labour covered if they paid a decent rate - nobody wants to do it because the moneys crap

Didn't explain why were were delayed in Dublin last month to staff shortages maybe that was BREXIT also