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10/06/2011 Issue 48 |
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 Gatwick north terminal - what joy. |
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What better time to write the first summer newsletter than after spending the best part of a day travelling back to Courchevel. I say travelling, but for the first couple of hours this morning the only travelling I was doing was from one end of a hall to another and back again through an Easyjet maze they like to call check-in. In the old days Easyjet only had a couple of routes and when you got to the airport they had maybe 3 check-in desks each with a sign above it denoting which destination the check-in was for. As a certain meercat would say Simples. Now Easyjet flys to everywhere, or at least to the suburbs of everywhere. With this expansion, a couple of years ago, Easyjet moved from Gatwick south terminal to the north where it has between 1/8 and ¼ of all the check-in desks at the terminal. But to get to the desks, which are all now marked (all destinations) you have to file down a very long meandering cordoned queue system. Ive encountered this on two seperate occasions. In Geneva and Gatwick. The Gatwick method. I turned up at 6am with more than 2 hours before my flight to find the hall was packed with huge queues for normal check-in, speedy check-in and online check-in bag drop. This might not have been a problem if there had been enough Easyjet staff working. Of the 15 desks in normal check-in less than half were open. Of course being British we are used to politely lining up, like sheep. To make the problem worse someone (slightly) in charge would shout, is there anyone still waiting for (insert destination)? Each time between 10-20 hands would be raised and they would be moved to the front of the queue, bring the main queue to a halt for 15 minutes. 5 minutes later another destination would be shouted out and more people would be called to the front of the queue. By the time I got near of the front I only had 3 minutes before the deadline of my flights check-in. The two Swiss girls in front werent as lucky, missing their deadline for Basel by 2 minutes and having to be sent to another counter to book on to the next available flight. After rushing through security, were my belt buckle and shoes did its best to slow me down even more I made it to the gate (on the far side of Gatwick) with little time to spare. The Geneva method. Again I turned up early afternoon 2 hours before my flight and headed down to the easyjet section of the airport. You go to a computer screen where you enter your reference number and it prints out your boarding pass and luggage tags which you affix to you bags. You then line up to hand in your bags. The line, although as long Gatwick moves twice as fast and is suprsingly well organised. 15-20 minutes later the ordeal is over and I head through security. For the arrival again its a tale of two cities. The Swiss arrival. At the other end the Swiss couldnt have been more different and by different I mean quick efficient and even a smile at passport control. The plane landed at 10.45. I got to baggage reclaim (Did you know they have a duty free section at baggage reclaim?) at 10.55 and by 11pm I had my bag and was out of the terminal building heading towards France. The only way could of got better is if Roger Federer had met me personally and given me a bar of chocolate, a cuckoo clock and a Rolex watch. The London arrival. Is it me or does Easyjet always get the plane parking spaces that are furthest from the terminal? Even with the help of certain travelators I find myself walking several kilometers just to get back to passport control. Usually the queues arent that bad but its when you get through the gates is when the problem starts. You have to wait to find which carousel your luggage will be delivered to. Everyone starts looking at a screen that tells you the number and you keep looking and looking and looking almost willing the number to appear. After a good 15 minutes the number finally appears and a stampede commences. By the time you get to the carousel there is still a bit of a wait. At least I survived both times. The question is would BA be a better option in the future? or are all English airports crap! The editor |
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