No show on A380 between checking in with luggage and boarding

[dajop]

Only time I came really close to FTB, I had multiple messages on my voicemail, from gate and lounge, which I didn't know about until after I'd taken the flight. They'd been paging me as well. I was travelling ARM-SYD-MEL, and the late inbound ARM flight had landed and reached a remote stand at the northern end of the airport. What no-one knew was that we had to wait 20min for a bus to take us to the terminal, but I assume luggage was unloaded much more promptly. When we finally got to gate I raced to the MEL flight, and they indicated they had been waiting.

Not always the passengers fault.

 

[harvyk]

Don't get me started on carry on luggage...please, but i think there has to be a better solution to compensate for this. I guess it is hard to anticipate who will be late. But maybe someone can come up with a device when you check in to locate your bags quicker in such cases. A code connected to your boarding pass tagged onto the bags and then located by some remote device....<snip>

There are a few RFID devices (including the QF coasters), but it's the physical access that's the issue.

They (typically) know exactly where your luggage is, but they may need to unload many containers to get to the one which your bags are in. They then need to reload those same containers back onto the aircraft. That all takes time, and as you said, it's hard to know which pax are going to be no-shows.

 

[Franky]

At lunch with sister-in-law over the weekend, who lives offshore at a nearby small pacific nation. She often exhibits a little bit of entitlement but is otherwise a lovely person. Anyway, discussing airline ops in that country she made mention a few times "oh we never worry about being late for boarding, the airline will always wait for us". It seems 'island time' even extends to ex-pats, bugger everyone else.

Sounds about the same as Broome time...

 

[RooFlyer]

A lot of the experiences on this thread are a good advertisement for applications such as TripItPro. It will send you advices of departure time and gate changes (or 'on-time' time) way before they appear on airport screens (if they do). Great for connections - you can know the time/gate of your connection before you de-board, saving having to find a screen, find your flight, figure out where the gate is etc when you are disoriented and possibly panicking because connection time is tight.

 

[serfty]

It will send you advices of departure time and gate changes (or 'on-time' time) way before they appear on airport screens (if they do)

Sometimes ...

I would have missed a flight at MIA a few years ago if I'd relied on my TripIt Pro subscription.

A combination of FlightAware, FlightStats, TripIt and the airline's status info in the hours/minutes leading up to boarding is what I use these days. (Track in bound flight etc.)

 

[pshughes]

A few years ago, it's amazing we didn't miss our flight. Were meant to fly from DFW to SYD on Qantas, but unfortunately had to divert via LAX to pick up some stranded passengers, due to a cancelled flight. We had specifically chosen to fly home out of DFW to avoid LAX as had a few bad experiences departing LAX in the past. Obviously we were not very impressed hearing this at check-in, but we were assured there would be a quick turn around at LAX. We couldn't wait on-board, as the aircraft had to be cleaned. Needless to say the quick 1.5hr turnaround turned out to be over 3hrs. We waited in Qantas Club, where the wife and young son slept, while I tired to keep myself awake. Thankfully I did, otherwise I'm certain we would have missed the flight.
Heading back to over to the US later in the year for another family holiday there, and we're avoiding LAX both inbound and outbound.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

A definite trap for young players is time zone changes eg ex BNE when it's daylight saving down south and pax are connecting through SYD and beyond. Pax don't adjust their watches one hour ahead and think they have an extra hour up their sleeve.

A lot of the time people manage their time poorly and simply don't allow enough time to get to the gate or even know what the gate number it is and its location. Number one thing anyone should do is know the gate number and how many minutes walk it is from the lounge, bar or wherever they will be immediately prior to boarding. Whatever the boarding time is on the boarding pass is the time you should arrive at the gate, if not earlier.

The amount of people you see at airports when told the boarding time is 1040 (eg for a domestic flight at 1100) who respond "oh the flight's going early" is phenomincal. They can't seem to fathom that for a flight to depart on time at 1100, passengers all need to be onboard and seated well before then hence a boarding time and departure time and two totally different animals.

When I flew BKK/xDOH/BCN on QR the boarding time was one hour prior to departure and as pax arrived at the gate, which is more like a holding pen, their boarding passes were scanned. That way the airline had a better idea of who was missing prior to the actual commencement of boarding so they could actively follow up those people way before what usually happens when being a gate noshow would be the first indication.

 

[HockeyMonkey]

The only time I was had a near FTB was after a business meeting on the other side of Paris from the airport and planned weekend in Venice. Thought I had heaps of time, ended up in near disaster.
- Didn't count on the Friday afternoon peak hour traffic.
- Switched to rail as more predicable however queued in the Metro queue rather than the RER.
- Found the RER ticket queue was very long.
- Once finally on the train watching it stop all stations while counting down to boarding time had me sweating
- Train arrived 15 minutes before departure time
- Vueling flight was in terminal 3, a 1km sprint from the train station had me sweating even more.
- I happened to choose the end of the terminal where security was closed

Happened to run in to a couple of US tourists on the train who were trying to catch the same flight. I had carry on, they had checked baggage. Bid them farewell, sprinted to the terminal thinking they had no hope. Fortunately the security queue was short. Just as I stepped on the bus to ferry us to plane, the doors closed.

Slumped into my seat catching my breath failing to notice the planes failure to depart. 15 min later the US tourists boarded. Didn't expect a LCC to wait for them.

Never enjoyed wine and music in Piazza San Marco more than that evening.

Tips for next time
- Use train from the start
- Purchase train ticket in advance

 

[Ewing]

I've been guilty of FTB once.

I'd just flown ORD-DFW-BNE-SYD and was in the SYD J lounge waiting for SYD-CBR.

It'd been a stressful trip. Delayed for hours out of ORD due to weather, then landed and miraculously made QF8 (if I wasn't already familiar with DFW there's not a chance I'd have made it as I had to change terminals and it was already boarding when I landed), and then had to deal with lost baggage on arrival in AU (my baggage unlike me did not make it).

Accidentally dozed off in the SYD J lounge and woke up to find my flight had departed two hours ago. Fortunately the staff were very accommodating but it can happen to the most seasoned travellers among us.

Those that decide they no longer wish to fly are most infuriating though. We nearly missed curfew in SYD once after a couple decided they didn't want to fly in the storm after boarding (the seatbelt sign was on the entire way - they handed out refreshments prior to take off) - surely they could have thought of that before they got on the plane (while we were delayed perhaps?!)

 

[SeatBackForward]

Don't get me started on carry on luggage...please, but i think there has to be a better solution to compensate for this. I guess it is hard to anticipate who will be late. But maybe someone can come up with a device when you check in to locate your bags quicker in such cases. A code connected to your boarding pass tagged onto the bags and then located by some remote device....I always wonder why people after check-in come late to the flight. I can understand illness or something beyond your control but that's not always. To be honest it has happened to me on about 2-3 occasions in my travels which is not bad after literally 1000's of flights.

The issue is not the people being late. Thats a very simple solution - close the doors and push back. The issue is their bags that are now onboard. My solution (albeit in jest) would be the only solution that would not lose any time. You could develop some system whereby the order of people boarding the flight is the order that bags get loaded. But even this would result in delays due to the late loading of what is effectively cargo.

Once we're all flying in pods, the problem will go away.

 

[Quickstatus]

Change boarding passes to indicate only boarding time not departure time.

Eventually live tracking of passengers via some kind of embedded RFID or smart phone

 

[equus]

live tracking of passengers via some kind of embedded RFID

This would be technically quite easy now. RFID could be part of boarding pass. Could even be the detachable part that is collected at the gate after pax is scanned on board, and then reused (leakage only being those who fail to board).

The barriers are logistical (including cost). Would need airport infrastructure to do the tracking, so not easy for an airline to implement unless they have their own terminal. Then there is the actual cost and effectiveness.

I am guessing it doesn’t stack up economically, otherwise it would be being done. Mind you, maybe there is an income stream for the airport - tracking passenger movement and selling the data to all the shops.

To improve the solution (at greater cost), it could be an active device - so that the airline can driver a little electric jolt to wake up sleeping lax (and maybe a little alarm) to get them moving.

 

[dajop]

Change boarding passes to indicate only boarding time not departure time.

Some airlines do this, for example SQ boarding passes only indicate boarding time. However as the boarding time is very early (well before the flight physically starts boarding) they also have wording about closing, such as "Gate closes 10 mins before departure" - I like this and can rely on it** .This way you are realistic, and provide this as a warning to the group of people out there who are never ever going to board early.

** although I realise it won't work everywhere, with all airlines. In some parts of the world (USA) it might well be that gates are closing 15mins before departure. However, if you have no checked bags, they might kick you off the flight and give your seat away to a stand-by passenger at T-25 (who then will all be boarded before gates closing at T-15).

 

[Quickstatus]

Airlines should never use departure time. Stating a departure time just means there will people turning up at departure time thinking they can just walk on.
Use boarding time start, and also when the gate closes.

Just say.
"Boarding commences at 1520hrs and gate closes at 1600hrs".

 

[dajop]

Eventually live tracking of passengers via some kind of embedded RFID or smart phone

In the Orwellian world in which are rapidly moving into, facial recognition linked to CCTVs around the airport might be an efficient way of doing this. I suspect in the not too distant future we won't be scanning boarding passes, but scanning our faces to board a flight.

 

[RooFlyer]

Reading this thread has suddenly reminded me of my own fail-to-board experience - but my conscious is clear.

Colleague (the MD of my client) and I were on Air Canada YYC-SFO, then onto QF SFO to Australia, separate tickets, both HLO, a number of years ago. The AC flight was late and when we de-boarded, we knew that we might be in trouble with the Qantas flight, and made all possible haste to the Qantas check-in desk.

As it happens, we got to Qantas check-in a few minutes before check-in was due to close; the sign still said 'open'. We could immediately see the check-in agent was surprised, and then worried. He tapped away furiously at his terminal. Colleague and I looked at each other and already had an idea as to what was about to happen. Eventually told that we were unable to travel. We asked why (colleague was WP1, me WP), and no good reason given, but immediately offered a US$500 voucher (redeemable for cash), plus overnight at the Hilton and US$150-odd for meals. We gave them a bit of a hard time, for appearances, then accepted.

Of course what had happened is that they decided too early that we were no-shows and had wrongly given our seats away, and they knew it.

As I say, no harm done to us and the plane wasn't delayed - my only regret is that we weren't a bit more mercenary with the compo; we had 'em on toast.

 

[Quickstatus]

We were a party of 5 travelling KUL-SIN-SYD on Singair

At KUL checkin they could only give us boarding pass to SIN but no further. Which means trouble in SIN

I was correct because the flight was overbooked. At SIN transfer desk we were immediately offered Sing$500 each plus $100 voucher each to spend anywhere in Changi terminal. I also feigned indignation.

No hotel vouchers though - not needed because they put us on the next flight 4 hours later.

So Sing$3000 to hang around the terminal for 4 hours for 2 adults and 3 children.

However the $2500 was Cash. They just opened a drawer and started counting money. And this was in 2003.

 

[Pushka]

An annoying incident for MrP was when two sectors of a flight couldn’t connect due to a late departure of the first flight. He finally arrived at the end of the first sector and turned on phone to receive quite a nasty recorded phone call from Qantas telling him he had caused the second flight to run late while they waited for him to board and then retrieve his luggage as a no show. Except - he hadn’t even arrived when the phone call was made so no luggage had been loaded obviously. Plus - he was HLO. He was so pee’d he kept the message and replayed it in the QP as they rebooked him on an alternate flight. It’s not always the passengers fault Flights were all on the same PNR.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

In the Orwellian world in which are rapidly moving into, facial recognition linked to CCTVs around the airport might be an efficient way of doing this. I suspect in the not too distant future we won't be scanning boarding passes, but scanning our faces to board a flight.

Indeed. A number of facial recognition articles here.

Also Singapore's Changi Airport tests facial recognition technology to find late passengers delaying flights (looking at possible uses, not actually doing it yet).

 

[Beano]

Just happen to have a boarding pass lying around. QF passes show boarding time. Experineced flyers alway arrive early, even for the Priority Lane. This is so there is room for their carry-on in the lockers. Late comers usually have trouble finding places for their bags.