Gatwick Madness

I don't know what's going on at Gatwick Airport, but I just
went through an incredible hassle trying to disembark a
flight from Edinburgh.

It was an EasyJet flight - and although they're very much a
"budget" airline, the flight was very pleasant, and they got
us to the gate at Gatwick on time. Unfortunately, Gatwick
would not let us cross the jetway into the terminal --
instead, we had to climb down some stairs and get on a bus.
The EasyJet folks said that the rerouting had something to
do with Gatwick having to take our pictures, but we were
later handed a note that said something about our pictures
having been taken when we left the plane, so I have no idea
what was really going on (or why they wanted to take our
pictures).

So the bus dropped us off, and everyone clambered up some
stairs, only to find that the doors on the top of the stairs
were locked. So we waited for someone to unlock the doors --
but after a while, someone came over to tell us that we
shouldn't have gone up the stairs, we were supposed to have
gone through a door into the terminal instead. So in other
words, while I suppose that we were being subjected to this
hassle in the name of "security" (a buzzword which is
invoked to excuse all kinds of inconvenience and
incompetence these days), what you actually had was a group
of passengers wandering around the airport unescorted, with
no clear idea of where we were going. (If this had happened
in the US, I'm sure that John Ashcroft would have had us all
arrested.)

So then we had to walk an interminable distance with our
carry-on luggage. (One might have hoped that the impromptu
bus ride would have brought us closer to our luggage, but
one would have been foolish to have so hoped.) Somewhere
along the walk we were handed a card with some meaningless
info on it, but with the clear and boldfaced instruction
that we were to return the card further along on our trek.
And sure enough, someone collected the cards from us a few
minutes later. What was all that about? Were they looking
for things for us to do so we wouldn't get bored?

Finally, we reached the baggage area -- but it wasn't really
a baggage area, the baggage area is under construction, this
was just a large ticketing hall in the terminal. (I passed
through it again the next morning on my way to catch my
flight to Dallas, it seemed to have become a ticketing hall
again.) I understand that alternate areas must be used
during periods of construction, but the room wasn't even
marked as the area where we should wait for our luggage!
Everyone else seemed to expect the luggage to show up there,
so we waited there with the rest of the flock (baaaa!), and
sure enough, our luggage showed up after a while.

All together, from the time our plane reached the gate to
the time I walked into my room in the Gatwick Hilton (which
is in the same terminal!), a full hour had elapsed.

"Hank Mishkoff" wrote in message
...
I don't know what's going on at Gatwick Airport, but I just
went through an incredible hassle trying to disembark a
flight from Edinburgh.


I don't have the answer to your question, but I loved your story! Baaa! The
part about the cards was particularly intriguing and you're probably lucky
that you weren't implanted with microchips during your experience. :-)

I once experienced a saga on a flight from NYC to Lisbon, that I won't go
into here, since it's hardly as amusing as yours, but I spent the entire
morning missing three consecutive flights to Madeira because of a mess which
brought to mind pictures of Ellis Island at the height of immigration.
Finally, in the afternoon, the passengers at the gate were herded into an
airport bus and released onto the tarmac in front of a plane, as we plodded
our way up the stairs, the punchline, delivered in Spanish from one of the
passengers who had made it to the top, was, "Everybody go back down--this
plane is going to Faro!"

Lana

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 08:35:39 -0500, Hank Mishkoff
wrote:

I don't know what's going on at Gatwick Airport, but I just
went through an incredible hassle trying to disembark a
flight from Edinburgh.

Love the story. I had a similar, although not as strange experience in
Frankfurt airport Saturday before last, disembarking from an evening
flight from Zurich and boarding a midnight departure for Australia. We
were diverted in all sorts of interesting ways through the airport
(albeit with staff around to direct us). At one point, when I asked a
staff member for directions to my gate as there was no visible
departure information, he informed me that it was directly behind him
and the temporary barrier he was in front of, but that I would have to
walk halfway around the airport to pass through a security checkpoint
to get to it.

I found that security was very tight in all four of the airports I
passed through that day, more than I had seen in the previous weeks. I
can only imagine that certain days are chosen with which to amuse the
passengers with an IQ test. Fortunately for me, the security officer
who scanned me on my way through Frankfurt was very sweet with a
sense of humour, because after a long day I discovered that what
little German I know had disappeared from my mind...

Tara

At one point, when I asked a
staff member for directions to my gate as there was no visible
departure information, he informed me that it was directly behind him
and the temporary barrier he was in front of, but that I would have to
walk halfway around the airport to pass through a security checkpoint
to get to it.

Nearly the same thing happened to me at Heathrow last year.
We got off a United flight from Amsterdam to switch to
another United flight to DC. (Actually, it was the same
flight #, but a different plane.) We were told that we had
to go through security before we could get on the flight to
DC. However, after we had walked just a few yards, I spotted
the gate for the DC flight; people were lined up and were
already getting on board. I asked the agent if we could just
get on the plane (we had never left the secure area), he
said no, we had to go through security first. (He'd know
because of a certain stamp on our boarding pass.) So we did.
I estimate that we walked about a mile round-trip. At the
security checkpoint, they barely glanced at us -- but they
did stamp our boarding pass, so when we arrived back at the
same gate 20 minutes later, the agent was able to allow us
to board.

So why didn't you ask them and Easyjet?
PJW

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 08:35:39 -0500, Hank Mishkoff
wrote:

I don't know what's going on at Gatwick Airport,...

"Hank Mishkoff" wrote in message
...
....
All together, from the time our plane reached the gate to
the time I walked into my room in the Gatwick Hilton (which
is in the same terminal!), a full hour had elapsed.

Probably not much more than average, given how far you usually have to walk
to get anywhere in Gatwick.

Colin Bignell

So why didn't you ask them and Easyjet?

A combination of being too tired and assuming that the
explanation would make no sense. We had already been given
contradictory explanations (a: we had to go somewhere to
have our pictures taken, and b: our pictures had been taken
when we disembarked), asking for additional explanations
didn't strike me as an especially productive thing to do.

Hank Mishkoff writes:

The EasyJet folks said that the rerouting had something to
do with Gatwick having to take our pictures, but we were
later handed a note that said something about our pictures
having been taken when we left the plane, so I have no idea
what was really going on (or why they wanted to take our
pictures).

It's a new security measure at Gatwick airport. Your picture is taken
as you enter certain parts of the terminal building, and you're given
a card with a barcode on it. When you leave that part of the terminal
building you hand over your barcode card, and the person you've handed
it to checks your appearance against the photo which comes up on the
screen when it's fed your barcode.

So then we had to walk an interminable distance with our
carry-on luggage.

Yes, they always seem to make passengers from Scotland walk miles at
Gatwick and Heathrow. It's really tedious.

Finally, we reached the baggage area -- but it wasn't really
a baggage area, the baggage area is under construction, this
was just a large ticketing hall in the terminal.

Yes, I had that too - it's awful! Sadly I have tickets for another
trip or two changing at Gatwick in the next few months, but I
certainly won't be booking any new flights changing at Gatwick after
that. I'll try to get flights through Schiphol by preference in
future I think.

--
-- Chris.

So then we had to walk an interminable distance with our
carry-on luggage.

Yes, they always seem to make passengers from Scotland walk miles at
Gatwick and Heathrow. It's really tedious.


But its stopped all those complaints about waiting for baggage, it takes so
long to walk that your baggage is always there before you :-)

"Miss L. Toe" wrote:


So then we had to walk an interminable distance with our
carry-on luggage.

Yes, they always seem to make passengers from Scotland walk miles at
Gatwick and Heathrow. It's really tedious.


But its stopped all those complaints about waiting for baggage, it takes so
long to walk that your baggage is always there before you :-)

Truly brilliant! Devious, but brilliant.