Things that airline staff want you to know...

[FlyMayBe]

If you bring the wrong passport to the airport, you will not be allowed to fly on an international flight.

No, the captain will not hold the aircraft for you while you wait for your relative to bring the correct passport in a taxi.

Lost your passport in the airport? Nope. You still can't fly - unless it is a domestic flight and you have reliable photo ID.

You sound great and I wish you’d been there to catch hold of ds even if he was screaming in panic at least he’d have been safe.

I once had a lady from a religious group handing out leaflets to all the economy passengers that said "This could be the day that you die" in huge letters on the front. When I told her to stop and that it was upsetting people she had no idea why, she was just spreading the Lord's word. This was about ten months after 9/11.

Heathrow will become more alienating if the 3rd runway and 6th terminal are built and BA and its code share partners have more dominance. A second runway at Gatwick will be a better option.

I can only assume you live in the south east. Gatwick is fucking awful to get to if you live way out in the provinces like we do. I will cross deals/holidays off my shortlist if they require Gatwick flights.

We flew to east coast US with toddler DS1 about 3 weeks after the whole shoe bomber episode. They made us open and taste an Aptamil carton we’d packed for his ‘bedtime’ drink at security, which meant it was no longer sterile, but somehow missed the 4 pack of fruit puree pots (full yoghurt size) I had in the changing bag & had forgotten about.

The one thing that makes me rage in airports is my fellow passengers at security, who don’t bother sorting liquids, emptying their pockets of change etc until they are at the top of the queue, at which point they act like they’ve never been through security before. It’s 2019 people!

Totally agree with this. The liquid restrictions have been with us a long time now. Don’t pretend you don’t know.

I did feel v sorry for the couple last year who had lost their passports somewhere between security and the departure gate and had to be offloaded from the flight. I hope they found them and were able to get on a later connection.

Gatwick express tho.

Aw, thanks Comefromaway. We'd have never taken you off to be searched without letting the other adult(s) you were travelling with to come through and be with your son. And if you were travelling with no other adults, one of us would have kept an eye on your son and kept him entertained while you were being searched.

It's something I always notice when travelling. Yes, security staff have to be firm sometimes, and implement the rules. They might disagree with them some of the rules, but implementing them isn't an option. However, it's not too difficult to do so in a polite, pleasant way. One can be firm without barking orders at people. There are a small handful of people in such roles who unfortunately just enjoy having a bit of 'power' over others.

This thread is actually making me really miss that job! I wasn't one who got off on the 'power', but I really enjoyed the interacting with people.

I flew out of Heathrow at the weekend and set off the alarms at security even though I had taken off my belt and my pockets were empty. The young Eastern European woman who scanned and then searched me was extremely pleasant and I made her laugh even though she was swabbing my shoes for class A drugs or whatever. By that point I hadn't slept for over 24 hours due to delays and overnight flights etc but she cheered me right up and made the whole thing much less stressful.

I didn't get any smiles out of my airline's customer service rep when trying to rebook my missed flight (not my fault) but I was polite and friendly and she squeezed me onto the supposedly full earlier flight because of some no-shows. I am very grateful to her!

It must be a fucking miserable job at times. Airports seem to turn many people into total arseholes for no apparent reason.

This thread reminded me of my near disaster in 2010. I am an experienced traveller travelling abroad fairly regularly so it's not as if I'm not familiar with navigating through an airport. On this occasion I was flying home from a holiday in Wyoming. I had taken an internal flight and didn't have that long before my transatlantic flight. I decided visit the ladies room between flights. Yep you've guessed it. When I visited the ladies rather than put my passport/boarding pass away safely I put them on the ledge above the toilet. That would have been fine if I had remembered I had done so when I left and proceeded to the boarding gate. I still remember the sinking feeling in my stomach when I realised what I had done. I ran back to the ladies room but of course no sign of passport/boarding pass. I was minutes from not being allowed to board the flight when they turned up. I'm not a big drinking but I definitely needed a big glass of wine when I got on that plane

On Sunday, for the first time ever (I left the UK 24 years ago, so lots of flights), I missed check in by one minute.

Thankfully; I had checked in online but I had to check my hold luggage at the gate.

The staff were lovely, called the gate staff who watched out for me.

It was entirely my (dads old man driving) fault and I would never ever have blamed anyone, let alone lost my temper. What's the point?

I did have a hot cup of tea to calm my nerves, as soon as the dolly trolley came my way.

9/11 was caused by intelligence failures which are not remedied by shouting at people to put things in trays.

Security checks happened way before and staff weren't always that friendly. It's the liquid and shoe rules that have changed.

My comment referred to the terrorist threat being comparable now and through the 80s and 90s. It simply isn't.

But, people are simply travelling more often and demand lower prices. That takes a toll on service. You can't fly cheap weekend breaks across Europe and expect service like in the 90s.

I’m so glad I hadn’t read a thread like this before we flew to America last year. I hadn’t been in a plane in fifteen years, the kids had never flown at all and I had no idea what to expect. It was scary enough as it was without reading horror stories and patronising comments beforehand.

I'll also add that in my experience, in general you'll be treated by staff as you treat them.
A smile or an apology often go a long way, even if you forgot you put a bottle of water in your backpack.

I’m rewatching Airline at the moment precisely as I love seeing people turn up to their flights late and then demanding they get on.
My favourite was a woman sobbing that if she had got her taxi 20 minutes earlier she would have made check in. She means she would have JUST made check in.
I’ve flown a lot and I think getting there and waiting is just something you need to be prepared to do. Aiming to get there late is ridiculous.

I only missed a flight once and it was because we crashed on the way to the airport. BA were fabulous about it though, transferred us, told us not to rush to get there and snuck us through the first class entry to get to the next flight on time.

I flew for the first time in 12 years recently, and didn't know how the liquid restrictions worked, so yes, for some of us, it may be 2019 but we don't know exactly how things happen.

My favourite bits on Airline were all the people who'd got carried away in the airport bars and were too shitfaced to be allowed to fly 🤦🏻‍♀️

I can understand being nervous as I'm not a great flyer myself and often have a constitutional beforehand (and during!) but come on, you need to be able to stand up!

Going through security in Stansted last year on my return flight. The clear plastic bag that had been okay for flights to and from the US and my journey down to Stansted 2 days before was suddenly not good enough. Okay, fair enough, but my colleague had an even bigger clear bag than me and her one was fine. I didn't argue. However, as we were waiting for our cases to come through (hand luggage only) I was horrified to see this same security person making a guy with a broken ankle in a plaster cast, hop through from one side of security to the other while his crutches were x-rayed. Now, I know why the crutches had to go through, but to make him hop? Really? He was young and fit, but you could see the toll it was taking on him. I had been in plaster on an ankle in the summer, and whilst I am old and fat and that makes a big difference, I would not have been able to do that. I do not understand why they didn't let him wait until the crutches had been cleared and then taken him through.

Still, there is no point in shouting at the staff. They are only doing their jobs.

About 10 years ago I was allowed to fly from Paris to Dublin without a passport because I was (and presumably still am!) clearly Irish to the Aer Lingus staff at CDG, and you're always allowed to fly home (???).

(I love Aer Lingus.)

Somehow everyone I encountered at CDG as I went through security & boarding felt that this was reasonable, and passport control in Dublin agreed that I was clearly Irish so the lack of passport was no problem.

In a similar vein there are things that passengers would like airline staff to know:
a) If I am flying long haul via an intermediate stop I expect you to check my luggage through to my final destination not chat to your colleagues and ignore me and tag the luggage only to the intermediate airport.
b) if you lose my luggage as a result of (a) I expect you to process the claim promptly, not take 6 months.
c) if I'm flying with children don't allocate us seats near an emergency exit so that we then all have to be moved once settled on board because only adults can sit near emergency exits.
d) don't delay me at security with a full bag search because you have decided that a container in my bag contains liquid when in fact it does not.
I could go on ...

The airport security shouting at my 2 year old as he walked through the scanner to me because he walked slightly too fast (apparently) and then shouting at me because shouting at him had caused him to bolt to me in a panic was a low point.

The kind security lady who offered to hand scan and check me because 2yo ds had just fallen asleep in the sling after being awake almost 24 hours was a real high. She carefully checked us all with a wand so I didn't have to unclip him and wake him (which I would have done in an instant if necessary). I may have cried some exhausted tears at that time...

for some of us, it may be 2019 but we don't know exactly how things happen.

YouTube is your friend here.

@StBernard I have had some really lovely experiences like this as well. I often travel with my four DC alone, (now aged between 10-4) and I have received so much kind help. One flight where we touched down at 11pm and one fell asleep so the staff took the others down and into the airport whilst I carried the sleeping one. Even on Sunday when it was my fault I was late, and I had to run to the gate and recheck in my hold luggage at the gate, they had called ahead and the gate staff were waiting with everything prepared for me. I have only had a jobsworth once (being a pain about my pushchair and telling me that travelling with small children wasn't his concern) but I think he was just having a bad day. The passengers directly behind me in the queue told him he was being horrid to me and which stopped his attitude a little.

I would never question the security, even if I know I have stuck to the rules. They are doing their job, and I am grateful for the fact that they are taking precautions.

I would never question them out of sheer terror...

I find airport staff on the whole friendly including security. Even the US boarder control who have a reputation but I found friendly and helpful.

The scariest was at Dubai for random drug testing of my carryon items. I was worried I had inadvertently touched something as they did my phone, hands and clothes even though I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

I have no idea why anyone would get all shouty at airports especially when it's their fault. I can understand some people don't know the 'rules' but they are just doing their job.

British airports are fine, the US however seems to employ the most horrible border agents imaginable with zero empathy - when you have a 1 and and 2 year old, airline stowed the pushchair (meant to be at gate) it's past midnight (body clock wise) and the 2 year old is autistic, saying that they need to go through the scanner individually, remove shoes, and then want to want asd 2 year old AFTER we got off a flight from Heathrow why? The sheriff dept came over to intervene, apologised and helped us through to where dh was meeting us. Welcome to the USA.

See I found the US border control lovely. We had to wait for a while because their computers went down and they were great about it. We did come in and out from a smaller airport though.

We flew for the first time with dc (and for me the first flight in about 10 years, despite flying very regularly before this point) one of our DC was suspected asd at the time, so we went on YouTube watched lots of videos and did the prep.

Arrived at Heathrow and it was different, he got through the tube scanner alone, but had to be hand scanned, again alone, and they wouldn't let me explain to him in the meantime. He was only 5.

If that is what they have to do it's fine, I've no problem with that but I think Heathrow could do a lot better in terms of the information it has available to prepare passengers who are looking for detailed information.