albatross710
Established Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2004
- Posts
- 3,799
Had an interesting experience on Monday travelling my final leg of a 5 leg journey BNE-MEL-SIN-ZRH-ATH-JTR with our booking for 2 on A3 360 departing Athens at 7:10pm for Santorini. The journey had so far been wonderful and on time, QF-SQ-Swiss.
Sitting at Gate B28, a downstairs gate for busing to the aircraft we noticed that there wasn't much action at the counter at the boarding time of 6:35 and checked that the boarding time had slipped to 7:15. Then came an announcement that an update would be made at 8pm. No other information.
It seemed that my Santorini Caldera view would have to wait.
At 8pm there was an announcement in Greek after which about 25% of the waiting passengers left the lounge. 5 minutes later came the announcement in English that the flight was cancelled and we should go to the ticket office. Well you can imagine the length of the queue at the ticket office with a 737 worth of people lined up. While I was at this queue Mrs Albatross was dispatched down to arrivals to collect our bags. She returned empty handed as she needed the boarding passed with baggage vouchers to claim the bags. The same boarding passes I needed to rebook. Anyway, she headed back off to get the bags while I stayed in the queue at the ticket office.
When I did get to the front of the queue, the agent was still incredibly polite and in a good mood. He accepted by Tripit view of the booking and arranged for a double room at the nearby Sofitel. When I say nearby, it is opposite the airport entrance and very convenient.
After the accom was arranged I was next to line up to get a new boarding pass at the checkin counter. Once again all of the pax stayed happy and the agents seemed to cope with the arrangement.
While I was in this queue I found another pax from Brisbane whom had been on A3 358, the 4:15pm flight to Santorini and the operating aircraft for our A3 360. They had departed, they had flown to Santorini, had done a missed approach due to excessive cross winds (35 knts apparently)and returned to ATH. They were bused off the aircraft, waited, reboarded, deplaned and eventually cancelled as well. So I was a little disappointed to think that while we were waiting to board for a 7:10 flight the operating aircraft of the earlier flight was as least 3 hours behind schedule at sitting at Gate B3.
The re-booking process went well. We had an open choice of the next day's flight. As we had so far been 40 hours since leaving Brisbane I opted for a later start the next day.
After this queue it was off to the Sofitel to join the new queue for hotel checkin. By this stage we were getting to know our fellow passengers much better. Still in good spirits. Once again the hotel staff had a system for dealing with the issue and everyone kept happy. We checked in without Accor LeClub status or number as the booking would not earn points. I did however negotiate a free drink as a LeClub platinum. We made the room by 10:10pm.
While all of this queuing was going on the hotel banquet room was being set up for a buffet dinner for the pax. Start time 10:30pm. A reasonable meal was available.
So, all up, it was much better to be delayed and well fed at Athens, than to be off the side of the runway on Santorini. For Agean they were dealing with four cancelled flights, 2 ATH-JTR & 2 JTR-ATH
Breakfast was available next day from 3:15am. We took up the offer about 7am only needing to be at the airport by 8am for our 9:15 flight.
Having been through the Athens airport security a couple of times for this flight both Mrs Albatross and I both remarked how friendly and polite the security process was.
So, here we are having had our little holiday trip spoiled by a cancelled flight and at the same time happy and impressed that it was handled well. It may have helped that we had just come off the back of our SQ Suites experience and we were in pretty good spirits.
Enjoy your travels and always enjoy the journey where ever it may take you.
Albatrosousous
Sitting at Gate B28, a downstairs gate for busing to the aircraft we noticed that there wasn't much action at the counter at the boarding time of 6:35 and checked that the boarding time had slipped to 7:15. Then came an announcement that an update would be made at 8pm. No other information.
It seemed that my Santorini Caldera view would have to wait.
At 8pm there was an announcement in Greek after which about 25% of the waiting passengers left the lounge. 5 minutes later came the announcement in English that the flight was cancelled and we should go to the ticket office. Well you can imagine the length of the queue at the ticket office with a 737 worth of people lined up. While I was at this queue Mrs Albatross was dispatched down to arrivals to collect our bags. She returned empty handed as she needed the boarding passed with baggage vouchers to claim the bags. The same boarding passes I needed to rebook. Anyway, she headed back off to get the bags while I stayed in the queue at the ticket office.
When I did get to the front of the queue, the agent was still incredibly polite and in a good mood. He accepted by Tripit view of the booking and arranged for a double room at the nearby Sofitel. When I say nearby, it is opposite the airport entrance and very convenient.
After the accom was arranged I was next to line up to get a new boarding pass at the checkin counter. Once again all of the pax stayed happy and the agents seemed to cope with the arrangement.
While I was in this queue I found another pax from Brisbane whom had been on A3 358, the 4:15pm flight to Santorini and the operating aircraft for our A3 360. They had departed, they had flown to Santorini, had done a missed approach due to excessive cross winds (35 knts apparently)and returned to ATH. They were bused off the aircraft, waited, reboarded, deplaned and eventually cancelled as well. So I was a little disappointed to think that while we were waiting to board for a 7:10 flight the operating aircraft of the earlier flight was as least 3 hours behind schedule at sitting at Gate B3.
The re-booking process went well. We had an open choice of the next day's flight. As we had so far been 40 hours since leaving Brisbane I opted for a later start the next day.
After this queue it was off to the Sofitel to join the new queue for hotel checkin. By this stage we were getting to know our fellow passengers much better. Still in good spirits. Once again the hotel staff had a system for dealing with the issue and everyone kept happy. We checked in without Accor LeClub status or number as the booking would not earn points. I did however negotiate a free drink as a LeClub platinum. We made the room by 10:10pm.
While all of this queuing was going on the hotel banquet room was being set up for a buffet dinner for the pax. Start time 10:30pm. A reasonable meal was available.
So, all up, it was much better to be delayed and well fed at Athens, than to be off the side of the runway on Santorini. For Agean they were dealing with four cancelled flights, 2 ATH-JTR & 2 JTR-ATH
Breakfast was available next day from 3:15am. We took up the offer about 7am only needing to be at the airport by 8am for our 9:15 flight.
Having been through the Athens airport security a couple of times for this flight both Mrs Albatross and I both remarked how friendly and polite the security process was.
So, here we are having had our little holiday trip spoiled by a cancelled flight and at the same time happy and impressed that it was handled well. It may have helped that we had just come off the back of our SQ Suites experience and we were in pretty good spirits.
Enjoy your travels and always enjoy the journey where ever it may take you.
Albatrosousous
