Skip to main content

Exciting delays and queues enroute, wherein automated systems falsely block our progress

Image
By

 Qatar: [20mar22] wake-up at 4:30 (Margo & Charles had arrived home at 1am from their trip); Margo woke up to say goodbye and thanks.  


Uber 5am to Doha airport, check-in, long queue at lounge, then long queue at gate A5, onto QR3 to Heathrow, seats 60f&g, movies Get Out, Military Wives, The Accountant, The General, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

    Plane lands at 12:30 local time at Heathrow, but waits for 30 minutes for a gate to open (this A380 requires special jetway); we are in row 60, so it takes a while for us to deplane, get the underground train back to the main terminal and enter the automated boarding-pass checker, which refuses: Go To Reservations Desk.  Over a hundred people are crowded around the nearby Customer Service desk, and our individual queries to several official persons nearby confirm that we must stand in the Very Long Queue to get our problem addressed – evidently because our attempt to enter the boarding area was after the cutoff time for that flight's departure schedule.  

    This was particularly ironic, as my first attempt (while standing in the queue) to telephone British Airways customer support had resulted in the guy telling me he could not do anything because our next flight was delayed, had not yet departed.  It departed 30 minutes late, though the official display board was never updated until that actual time, so it is unlikely that the computer would ever have let us board (as the computer only knew the original schedule, until the actual departure).  

    More waiting, and several cut-off phone call tries to BA;  at 4pm, a knowledgeable phone agent recommends that I exit the sterile area and walk to the Qatar Airways ticket counter.  As I feared leaving the crowded secure area, we waited in the queue for BA customer service person, fifteen more minutes:  "sure, I can book you on the next flight tomorrow morning; but in order to get a hotel & meal voucher you must go to Qatar Airways ticket counter."  

    So we exit the secure area, wend our way to the departures area and the QA ticket counter, where they direct us to the small side desk with a harried but patient Qatari manager assisting several other desperate passengers.  Twenty minutes later, he patiently hears our story, then makes some phone calls (evidently to the hotel), and writes out a hotel, dinner, and breakfast coupons for us.  It's now 6pm, and we hike through the underground tunnels to the Sofitel, get dinner, and sleep.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Riding the Bus often

By
From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back.  His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty.  The air-conditioning usually works too well.  I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...
2 comments
Read more

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

By
 As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico .  There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver.   Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government.  As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time.  I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government?   And what will it take to recover from the damage?  Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever?   Only ni...
Post a Comment
Read more

Yikes! Russian Chocolate!

By
 The other day we chanced upon a Slavic grocery store.  We went inside, marveled at all the products from various eastern european countries, from Czechia to Poland to Yugoslavia to Russia to Kazakhstan.  I grabbed a chocolate bar... and now I realize that it's Russian, imported via Germany.  The ingredients list is written in Russian, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek; and a separate ingredients sticker pasted over it in German.  No Portuguese or Spanish or English.  Hmm. How did it get here?  And what sort of sanctions are imposed on Russian confectioners? The chocolate itself is just okay, nothing special.
Post a Comment
Read more