Airport ’19 (Part Deux)

Last week I had to split my entry into two because it was too long, Airport ’19 (Part 1). This time you have the part concerning passengers and all the crazy things they do when at the airport.

Dealing with people as customers is always interesting, so to speak, sometimes they are a nuisance and others just lovely, I have been doing it for ages, but it wasn’t until I got a job at the airport that I realised how odd some of them are. As I am being a waiter I can’t help but wonder what is wrong with people? Are we all such dbags when we travel?

As I previously said, my first day at the airport was weird. See Airport ’18 for more data. As a handling agent it was even worse. The thing is people on wheelchairs tend to be nice because you are helping them, random passengers just blame you for everything.

In the autumn of 2019 we had lots of rain which flooded all the swampy areas surrounding the airport. This brought an enormous increase of mosquitoes in a period of the year when most of their predators have already left for southern territories. Swarms of those evil flying nuisances were all over the place. Mostly at sun down, but sometimes even in full day time they would be annoying people. The authorities didn’t want to do anything claiming it was another one’s job, and so on and on for weeks. Passengers on holidays had to deal with them at home, but also in the terminal and even by the plane on the runway. Videos of them gesturing in the air to get rid of them as they were trying to board the aircrafts were on the media. It would have been more fun if it wasn’t because even inside the airport we had that issue.

As workers inside the terminal we were used to deal with flees, and other infestations as long as they didn’t annoy the passengers. We were OK if bitten or stung, for the authorities, but not the customers. So when they started complaining things changed. One day I was checking in a flight when a group of them came to me asking to do something about the mosquitoes. I told them where they should go to claim since we were never heard and we had to suffer same issues as them. They didn’t see the point but they did it anyway. A couple of days later they were spraying the fields to get rid of them.

This said let’s go back to them being mean. Picture it, afternoon flight to Paris, we are checking in passengers, a couple comes and make fun about how cool it would be if they lost the flight since they are having so much fun in Alicante. I told them they are already checked in so it is up to them to lose the money of the plane tickets. They laugh and leave. We go to boarding. Everything is normal unti we come up to the last passengers in the row. All flight is boarded except for 3 of them, not there and the couple I checked in is missing. My colleague asks if they could be no shows, I told her no since I did see them like 45 minutes ago. So we wait. We check they other flight to Paris just in case they were at the wrong gate, no one. We call them several times until the pilot tells us to let go, his plane needs to leave now. He proceeds and my supervisor tells me to stay at that gate so I do the Rotterdam just after. As I was mid boarding, which was like 45 minutes later, the three missing passengers show up and try to board that flight. I tell them this is not theirs, and that they should have been here a long time ago since theirs must be already over Barcelona. They were at the wrong gate and they never heard the calls for their flight with they names on. They told me it was our fault for not telling them anything nor waiting for them. So now what? Now you’ve lost your flight and you have to go back to the office. I never saw them again, but they were convinced we tricked them not to fly.

With the bad weather we also had huge thunderstorms that made some flights been diverted to other airports until the conditions were safe for them to land. The Amsterdam flight had that inconvenient and therefore was delayed 3 hours. When I started my shift they were about to board but still waiting. A guy skipped the queue and went straight towards me with a funny attitude. He told me it was our fault he lost his flight to Charles DeGaulle because we made the plane go to Valencia instead and we needed to fix this now. I told him the airline already knows about the issue and they will find something for him. He didn’t want to listen. My colleague had already the same argument with way before and was just letting him deal with me. I explained the weather although it was obvious as we could hear the thunder and the heavy rain against the windows, but he was convinced it was us who sent the plane somewhere else. I ended up telling him that maybe he didn’t care about flying in hazardous conditions but maybe the other 188 passengers in that same flight didn’t want to die in a plane crash just because he is in a hurry, so if he would please go back to the queue we may be able to start boarding instead of wasting our time. He went blank and left, the guy on the first row, waiting smiled at me.

Most of the time we had issues with the hand luggage. Some airlines had a very strict policy about that, and we had to make sure that there were not more bags than allowed. So we would count them. Sometimes the premium passengers had to be told to put theirs in the hold, even if they paid lore, but airlines rules were like that. Others they were always allowed to. It did not matter they would always complain about it. Almost always saying the low cost companies are the culprit because they charge them for everything. In that case maybe next time they should use the other airlines although they won’t be paying 15€ a ticket. Or maybe pay the priority instead and make sure they were able to carry them. Maybe if they would have read the conditions this would have been prevented.

This also happened with the charging them for printing the boarding cards at the airport. Most companies make you pay for it because you are supposed to do it yourself at home, and they tell you about it several times before check-in. Still you would have to deal with angry passengers that didn’t do their part of the contract and will be complaining about you scamming them. They never read the conditions of what they have signed when purchasing the plane tickets, but this is your fault not theirs.

It happens with the boarding cards, with the hand luggage and of course with the weight excess at check-in. They pay for 20kg but they show up with 25 and they don’t know how this happened. They scale was fine at home. Sometimes, just so they would leave you alone and make no fuss you would skip a couple kilos. Not in this example. Some would just try to rearrange suitcases so it would fit, but it wouldn’t work every time. Even when they paid for a 32 kg bag and showed up with 35 they didn’t want to understand it is forbidden to do it. Same would happen with the electronics in the hold. One day I was so fed up with having to say the same thing on and on that I told them it could set on fire the plane mid flight and it would be messy. They seemed to get it.

Forbidden items on board was something pretty usual. Lighters were most of the times the culprits of delays, we had to take the passengers to a room where they would have to recognise their baggage and open them for the police, and then get rid of the not allowed items. They would complain about who would keep them, but it was a security issue and this was most of the times what made them accept it.

Umbrellas were a tricky subject. Sometimes they were OK and others they weren’t. It depended on the security staff. So we got to keep many of them although they were not used that often. The weather improved and we didn’t need them. By the time this happened I was almost at the end of my contract and after all this I didn’t want to renew it. I was fed up with passengers and supervisors so I wanted some time off and away from the terminal.