I spent Sunday looking after a charter flight from Amman,
Jordan to Doha Qatar. I know the group and their requirements well and they
know me, It normally goes smoothly. The arrangements had been made with the
handling agent a week in advance and the group had flown into Amman the
previous week on the same airline what could go wrong ...
.
On the Thursday the airline called the office and told us we
would be delayed by 6 hours from midday to 6PM due to a technical problem with
the aircraft. The group manager complained to the festival organiser who spoke
to the Chairman of the airline who just happened to be at the performance that
night. The chairman said don’t worry it will all be OK and you will not be
delayed. We called the airline operations department who said … you will be
delayed. This went on all Friday and Saturday morning. I arrived in Amman at
5:45pm On Saturday evening and was supposed to pick up the barding cards and
bag tags for the group. Because of the delay I had arranged to go into Amman
the next morning and label the baggage before it was brought to the airport. I
went to the airport office for the airline and spoke with the duty manager
which was no mean feat as I had to blag my way past a security check point. On
arrival at the airline office the duty manager seemed to know nothing about the
flight, I then rang the director of ground services for the airport who said
“don’t worry it will all be OK” he then rang the duty manager. I was then told
that If I had the manifest they would print out the bag tags and boarding cards
and I could collect them in about two hours after they called me. After
blagging may way back through the security check point, which was harder this
time as no one is supposed to go back through the process this way I went to
the Hotel.
Getting to the hotel in itself was complicated, I rang the
hotel and asked for the shuttle bus and was told the Hotel was full, I said I
had a reservation and they said the bus stopped at 5PM please call again
tomorrow. I said I had a reservation and they put the phone down on me. I then
asked at the information desk and was told where the shuttle bus stop was.
Having found this I rang the hotel again and was told they would send the bus.
I asked at the bus stop if I was in the correct place and was told yes. The
helpful man told me I was looking for a bus bigger than this one, pointing, and
smaller than that one, pointing again. After about 15 minutes I asked someone
else and he pointed to a man and said “he will help you” I asked the new man
and he said “the bus in on the way.” After another 10 minutes it arrived. At about 9:30PM the duty manager called me and told me the
boarding cards and bag tags were “not possible until the morning” when the
charter manager cane to work. Moments later I received a call to advise that
the flight would now be on time some 6 hours earlier than planned. After some
frantic phone calling to the tour group I went to bed.
The next morning I was checked out of hotel by 7:30 and
waiting for the shuttle bus, “don’t worry sir it will be here”
at 7:45 I asked again and was met with
shrugs, a while later I saw a shuttle bus and went out to it, are you going to
the airport I asked and was told “yes but only for business class passengers” I
said lying through my teeth “ I am traveling business class”. I arrived that
the airport at 8:30AM and called my contact to say I was in terminal 1, “don’t
worry”
I will send you one of my men but you should be in
Terminal 2 where the flight will go from. I went to Terminal 2 and 10 minutes
later met Mr Abdullah. “I need the boarding cards and bag tags” I said “the
passengers can the boarding cards when they arrive” he said. “what about the
bag tags” I said, he said “you already have them and the bags are already
tagged”. “no” I said “they are not tagged and they have just left the hotel” Mr
Abdullah then started shouting in Arabic into the phone. “The charter
representative is not here” he told me when he got off the phone, “I will get
the bag tags and the passengers will use the VIP terminal” great I thought,
“what about the boarding cards” I asked, the passenger can collect them at the
check in counter” “no” I said I am supposed to get them all first and hand them
to the passengers. Mr Abdullah shouted into the phone again. At this point I
was told “we don’t have the manifest can we cannot print the boarding cards” I
began to get frustrated but kept a calm demeanour
After some more conversation Mr Abdullah
announced “your flight will depart from terminal 1” I said “the baggage driver
has been told to go to terminal 2 and I don’t have his phone number” “don’t
worry” he said “we will look after you”. He then told me to follow him to
terminal 1 where we passed through the same checkpoint as the previous night
but today all was OK. At the check in
desk Mr Abdullah introduced me to Mr Hassan before doing a runner never to be
seen again. Mr Hassan said “I am here to
help you, I am the charter representative” great I said explaining everything
again. Then I am introduced to a check in agent who says “I will print the
boarding cards. And proceeded to print 39 cards, “there you are” she said.
“There are 93 of us” I said. “I will check she said” at this point the porters
start to arrive with the baggage. I have no idea who they found the truck or
how the truck knew we had changed terminals. “Here are the rest of the boarding
cards ” the check in girl said. I ticked them off and we were now up to 81,
“they are still not all here I said” “I will check” she said. Meanwhile I
receive a call from the passengers to say they have arrived at the airport and
where should we meet. Bag tags were spewing out of her printer and porters were
running around labelling everything. “come through the first security check and
I will meet you there” I say “It should
be right now” the check in agent says giving me some more boarding cards. After
I checked again I said “there are three missing” I will check” she said. The
porters are now pushing the baggage into the system so fast that the baggage
belt overheats and shuts down, The passengers start to arrive in the check in
area asking for the boarding cards “there you are” the check in agent says and
finally we are right. I had over the boarding cards to the passengers tour
leader and say I will look after the baggage. At this point the airports
director of customer experience arrives and introduces himself to me, “It’s all
going very well” I lie surrounded by baggage. There is a beaming smile from
him. The baggage system then stutters back into life before shutting down a
moment later. For the next forty five minutes the baggage system coughs and
splutters as we force the baggage down it. The passengers are at the gate and I
should be first onto the aircraft with the signage for the seating but I am
still at check in, don’t worry about that the tour leader says, we know where
we are sitting. “don’t go without me” I say. After another 30 minutes I am on
my way to the gate. I get a phone call to see if I am coming. And I tell them
to wait. I finally board the aircraft 30 minutes after we should have departed
and go WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!!.
