What cheeses me off

[Flyfrequently]

European airports full of people with no spatial awareness.

Lisbon @drron ?

 

[ellen10]

European airports full of people with no spatial awareness.

I agree. Catania airport is crazy busy, and our flight is delayed!

 

[drron]

Lisbon @drron ?

Yes and ZRH. Not helped by airport staff.
In the Tap Premium Lounge in LIS the board said go to gate for our flight. A major problem was no gate was showing. Mrsdrron asked the woman on the desk for the gate number and was told just check the board. A couple of minutes later the gate number appeared.
So trotted off to gate 16 and no one there apart from a cleaner. Mrsdrron asked her if this was still the gate for the Zurich flight to be told just check the board. Now 1). When I got to my seat on the plane I got a message from Swiss that the gate was changed from 14 to 16.

 

[MARTINE]

So travelling to Madrid today from Florence on Vuelingerlinger. Minimal choices.
Have paid for every add on to ensure I can go with HLO. Paid for extra seat. At check in (‘priority’) takes then 15 mins. Madam you did everything right but our system has trouble making sure the extra seat is not interpreted as a person!!!!. Do you have a musical instrument? No I want extra space - (felt like saying do you see a cello?!?)
So priority boarding and we are in the Q….We wait and we wait for over an hour. No communication but as I was first in line - and understand Italian - I hear we are overweight.
19 passengers will have their luggage offloaded.
Luckily I am HLO.
Eventually get on board - have the extra seat - and all worked out.
Add the lack of spatial awareness mentioned above for extra fromage. Got to Madrid and baggage handler strike - thank God for HLO

 

[ellen10]

@MARTINE we flew Vueling from Catania to Florence. Priority lane was pretty good.
Thank goodness @madrooster booked us fly grand. 1 checked bag, 1 cabin bag 10k, 1 underseat bag.
Exit row seat and special cabin bag space for us exit row people. The rest of the overhead cabin spaces were chockers. Flight attendants trying to squeeze late boarders bags in everywhere.
And when we landed, people started getting up even though the was an announcement to stay in your seat. Flight attendants came through and sat everyone back down.
Then there was another announcement that the plane would be exited by rows.
First 5, then next five etc. The most orderly disembarking I have ever seen.

 

[MARTINE]

@MARTINE we flew Vueling from Catania to Florence. Priority lane was pretty good.
Thank goodness @madrooster booked us fly grand. 1 checked bag, 1 cabin bag 10k, 1 underseat bag.
Exit row seat and special cabin bag space for us exit row people. The rest of the overhead cabin spaces were chockers. Flight attendants trying to squeeze late boarders bags in everywhere.
And when we landed, people started getting up even though the was an announcement to stay in your seat. Flight attendants came through and sat everyone back down.
Then there was another announcement that the plane would be exited by rows.
First 5, then next five etc. The most orderly disembarking I have ever seen.

Agree with all that - I liked the orderly disembarking

 

[drron]

Two companies in travel are really WCMO at present.
!. Qatar. Left a jacket on the plane from BKK. Only realised when I got to MAN so not able to report at the airport. Can't report on line as only have AA PNR + ticket number.m Try emailing both QR and Hamad lost property. All bounced. Finally put through to an agent using chat who put me through to someone who was said to work in lost property. Told to email again and in one to two days they would reply with a tracking number. Now 4 days after the email didn't bounce. Of course no reply so I sent another email 12 hours ago pointing out I will be in DOH tomorrow 1/10. Still no reply.

2. Avis UK. Told that car had full tank on pick up but was empty after reaching Liverpool just over 30 miles away. MAM avis phone rang out. $ emails so far not answered so got Avis UK who replied they will be in touch with me. Not happened. I explained everything to fellow when I dropped it off in Southampton who agreed I would not be charged for fuel. So charged GBP92,50. 7 emails to Avis Customer care. Last one via Gmail who helpfully gave ways to stop being bounced. It got through and I got a reply with Reference number before we went to dinner. Come back from dinner and no sign of the reply and a new bounce email from google.mx.

Unfortunately for Avis I had taken a screenshot of the reply. Now to find how to complain to the UK authorities and never again will I use Avis.

 

[ellen10]

Taking a photo of a statue. A young something pops in front posing, pouting, then wants a side angle, flicking of the hair. We wait and wait, so much of this at any iconic site, these days. No I don’t want you in my photo, please move on! It is CMO!

 

[drron]

Taking a photo of a statue. A young something pops in front posing, pouting, then wants a side angle, flicking of the hair. We wait and wait, so much of this at any iconic site, these days. No I don’t want you in my photo, please move on! It is CMO!

And when they have finished taking their 110 photographs they stand there and review them.

 

[Pushka]

Two companies in travel are really WCMO at present.
!. Qatar. Left a jacket on the plane from BKK. Only realised when I got to MAN so not able to report at the airport. Can't report on line as only have AA PNR + ticket number.m Try emailing both QR and Hamad lost property. All bounced. Finally put through to an agent using chat who put me through to someone who was said to work in lost property. Told to email again and in one to two days they would reply with a tracking number. Now 4 days after the email didn't bounce. Of course no reply so I sent another email 12 hours ago pointing out I will be in DOH tomorrow 1/10. Still no reply.

2. Avis UK. Told that car had full tank on pick up but was empty after reaching Liverpool just over 30 miles away. MAM avis phone rang out. $ emails so far not answered so got Avis UK who replied they will be in touch with me. Not happened. I explained everything to fellow when I dropped it off in Southampton who agreed I would not be charged for fuel. So charged GBP92,50. 7 emails to Avis Customer care. Last one via Gmail who helpfully gave ways to stop being bounced. It got through and I got a reply with Reference number before we went to dinner. Come back from dinner and no sign of the reply and a new bounce email from google.mx.

Unfortunately for Avis I had taken a screenshot of the reply. Now to find how to complain to the UK authorities and never again will I use Avis.

Credit card charge back?

 

[Pushka]

Taking a photo of a statue. A young something pops in front posing, pouting, then wants a side angle, flicking of the hair. We wait and wait, so much of this at any iconic site, these days. No I don’t want you in my photo, please move on! It is CMO!

The instas at every well known site in Japan are horrendous. The Inari Shrine (multiple Tori Gates) - got so sick of them we ignored their 'minders' and hopefully photobombed them all. Their facial expressions are hilarious. One thing that seems to annoy them is to laugh at them. Those stupid pouts.

 

[kookaburra75]

Taking a photo of a statue. A young something pops in front posing, pouting, then wants a side angle, flicking of the hair. We wait and wait, so much of this at any iconic site, these days. No I don’t want you in my photo, please move on! It is CMO!

Try this - 8 metre range, works every time. Even better if they're standing at a fountain as you can refill there.

https://www.bigw.com.au/product/zuru-xshot-water-fast-fill-micro-water-blaster/p/113080

 

[anat0l]

Taking a photo of a statue. A young something pops in front posing, pouting, then wants a side angle, flicking of the hair. We wait and wait, so much of this at any iconic site, these days. No I don’t want you in my photo, please move on! It is CMO!

The IG generation does make it frustrating in this respect, but depending on where you are, it just may be par for course and you'll never get a photo without people in it.

A classic example - I went to the Taj Mahal last year. You see those wonderful photos in magazines etc. with no people in them. The only way to nearly guarantee that you can get such a shot is to turn up early in the morning to enter amongst the first. Otherwise due to the volume, you have absolutely no chance of getting a shot with no one in it. Don't bother waiting, it won't happen. Find a spot and make the best photo you can. You are nearly always not the first person to think of taking a photo in the way that you want to, where you want to.

I am a patient photographer and try not to get in the way of people taking photos that I can clearly see, and 99% of the time they are very grateful for it. It probably helps that nearly all the photos I want to take do not have me in it, so it removes a significant time and effort drain when one is taking and checking photos.

If a douche wants to rudely demand that I move in order to create their IG or TikTok, they can pound sand until they ask nicely (of which I'll usually reply that I'm just about done).

China is even crazier in ways. This is pretty much a volume game. Go on a cruise? When we are about to pass a pretty landmark, see the rush of people to get to the best unobstructed photo spots on the upper deck. Lots of city attractions (e.g. Xi'an's clock tower) are a mainstay for streamers, so you pick your spots carefully to get a "clean" shot of the tower from outside the roundabout. Getting a good photo in the tombs of the terracotta army demands either one is pretty tall (long arms are better than selfie sticks) or you learn to push and shove to get your chance to stand at the edge.

 

[mrsterryn]

Not to seem like a Luddite but isn't there apps or programmes to enable a person remove extraneous people out of photos ?

 

[prozac]

Not to seem like a Luddite but isn't there apps or programmes to enable a person remove extraneous people out of photos ?

My mother used par avion stickers. You knew exactly where you stood simply by glancing at the framed family photos.

 

[Scarlett]

WCMO

“We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes”

No you’re not. You just don’t care about customer support. You care about your push marketing and your info; you don’t care about what others might want of you and you minimise staff.

Right now it’s the 40 minutes in hold with Bankwest. Not helped by every few minutes being told that I should message them through the app. When I try to do that, as soon as so select the ‘Message Us’ button it logs me out of the app.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Not to seem like a Luddite but isn't there apps or programmes to enable a person remove extraneous people out of photos ?

Yes!

 

[VPS]

WCMO

“We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes”

No you’re not. You just don’t care about customer support. You care about your push marketing and your info; you don’t care about what others might want of you and you minimise staff.

Right now it’s the 40 minutes in hold with Bankwest. Not helped by every few minutes being told that I should message them through the app. When I try to do that, as soon as so select the ‘Message Us’ button it logs me out of the app.

That really peeves me too. And telling you while you’re on hold that you can do things on the website or the app. If I could do it on the website or the app, I would do it on there.

 

[anat0l]

Not to seem like a Luddite but isn't there apps or programmes to enable a person remove extraneous people out of photos ?

Well, there are, and they are very good tools, but it's still not simple.

If there's lots of people which you need to remove, you'll have a wonderful time selecting and removing people clusters (or one) at a time. Of course, when the person is removed, the app uses AI to guess what should have been behind that person so removed. Sometimes it gets it absolutely correct, other times it's acceptable or indistinguishable unless you zoom in a lot, and other times it is a horrid guess (might just be the area blurred and that's it).

Like I said, apps are getting good at doing it these days, but they are not perfect. People who aren't photo enthusiasts don't want to spend ages per photo (per album) editing imperfect photos to this degree. People find a lot of satisfaction in taking a good photo right the first time (i.e. with no or little editing), but in some places that is a trying test of patience.

 

[anat0l]

WCMO social media posts that identify First Class while showing a product or lounge that is Business Class.