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"Ryanair's" Stansted Sat 3 - beware predatory baggage police all ye who enter here!
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2sides2everystory
Posts: 1,744 Forumite
The majority of Ryanair's Stansted international flights fly from the long walk down escalator and round the corner and along the travelator and up another escalator and round another corner towards the old Buzz shed known as Satellite 3 (Gates 41 to fifty something I believe).
If your flight goes from here then gather your skirts well before you arrive because this is now injun territory and the natives sure ain't as friendly as they once were
There has long been a desk in the middle facing you as you enter this satellite. If you needed assistance then you might approach it, but otherwise it has habitually been inhabited by youngsters in Ryanair or Swissport gear chatting away happily.
But now?
Hmmm, I was hurrying to the same flight as someone pursued by them after he failed to stop when they spotted he had two bags and wanted to interrogate him or worse. He called back as he passed and said something about having his girlfriend's bag and she'd be along in a minute but he was in a hurry to take his place in the gate queue.
They were insistent: "Come and put your bags in our box, Sir. Sir, Sir, don't continue walking when we are talking to you ... "
He was equally insistent: "I am in a hurry ... If you want to check my bags then do it at the gate, please. That's where I am going."
Two of them pursued him right down to the gate where he had managed to beat me and had sat down at a good spot at the head of the queue which had quickly formed on the "Other" (Non-Priority) side :money: ... well done that man
They essentially then attempted a "You need to come back with us to the desk and put your bags in our box" malarky.
He offered to put them in the thingummy-jig at the gate. Nope they wanted him to accompany them to their station :rotfl:
Well sorry he said but he wasn't giving up his place in the queue to walk all the way back there. He said his bags were well within the rules and that he'd even checked in another bag and paid fifteen quid to be sure, to be sure.
Another passenger remonstrated with them and said "Surely he has offered a reasonable compromise?"
The lady who had done all the "Sir, Sir, don't walk away, Sir" bit back at the desk wasn't happy about that - she wanted to give the customer the full cardboard box treatment I reckon.
Her boss looked like he was beginning to wish he hadn't taken the long walk.
Whlst all this was going on, the girlfriend appeared behind the 'authorities' and watched with interest. She chose her moment perfectly ... just as the impasse had developed into a bit of a pause with a hundred people waiting to see what happened next
She spoke gently but firmly to the lady in blue with the blues, like she was a difficult teenager "Now be honest" she said, "You thought 'Aha there's a man with too much handbaggage so we'll charge him to put it in the hold', didn't you? But he hasn't got too much handbaggage, has he?"
"I told them you were behind me" the man said, helpfully.
"But he refused to let me check it and I could have checked and marked his boarding pass so we could save time at the gate" the blue lady said.
"Well he is still offering to let you check our bags now, here. Perhaps you could still check them, if you still need to?"
At that point the bossman had heard enough and said yes let's check them here and they disappeared quickly soon afterwards.
Now that got me thinking ... exactly what right do Ryanair or Swissport have to intercept and direct passengers in ths way as they enter this particular satellite and even before they have even been to the last WH Smith before the gate? They were very insistent.
There was one other view at the gate from someone in the priority queue after they had gone - "When you come into an airport they have the uniform and the authority so you must do what they say."
Interesting one
Be careful out there
If your flight goes from here then gather your skirts well before you arrive because this is now injun territory and the natives sure ain't as friendly as they once were
There has long been a desk in the middle facing you as you enter this satellite. If you needed assistance then you might approach it, but otherwise it has habitually been inhabited by youngsters in Ryanair or Swissport gear chatting away happily.
But now?
Hmmm, I was hurrying to the same flight as someone pursued by them after he failed to stop when they spotted he had two bags and wanted to interrogate him or worse. He called back as he passed and said something about having his girlfriend's bag and she'd be along in a minute but he was in a hurry to take his place in the gate queue.
They were insistent: "Come and put your bags in our box, Sir. Sir, Sir, don't continue walking when we are talking to you ... "
He was equally insistent: "I am in a hurry ... If you want to check my bags then do it at the gate, please. That's where I am going."
Two of them pursued him right down to the gate where he had managed to beat me and had sat down at a good spot at the head of the queue which had quickly formed on the "Other" (Non-Priority) side :money: ... well done that man
They essentially then attempted a "You need to come back with us to the desk and put your bags in our box" malarky.
He offered to put them in the thingummy-jig at the gate. Nope they wanted him to accompany them to their station :rotfl:
Well sorry he said but he wasn't giving up his place in the queue to walk all the way back there. He said his bags were well within the rules and that he'd even checked in another bag and paid fifteen quid to be sure, to be sure.
Another passenger remonstrated with them and said "Surely he has offered a reasonable compromise?"
The lady who had done all the "Sir, Sir, don't walk away, Sir" bit back at the desk wasn't happy about that - she wanted to give the customer the full cardboard box treatment I reckon
.Her boss looked like he was beginning to wish he hadn't taken the long walk.
Whlst all this was going on, the girlfriend appeared behind the 'authorities' and watched with interest. She chose her moment perfectly ... just as the impasse had developed into a bit of a pause with a hundred people waiting to see what happened next
She spoke gently but firmly to the lady in blue with the blues, like she was a difficult teenager "Now be honest" she said, "You thought 'Aha there's a man with too much handbaggage so we'll charge him to put it in the hold', didn't you? But he hasn't got too much handbaggage, has he?"
"I told them you were behind me" the man said, helpfully.
"But he refused to let me check it and I could have checked and marked his boarding pass so we could save time at the gate" the blue lady said.
"Well he is still offering to let you check our bags now, here. Perhaps you could still check them, if you still need to?"
At that point the bossman had heard enough and said yes let's check them here and they disappeared quickly soon afterwards.
Now that got me thinking ... exactly what right do Ryanair or Swissport have to intercept and direct passengers in ths way as they enter this particular satellite and even before they have even been to the last WH Smith before the gate
? They were very insistent.There was one other view at the gate from someone in the priority queue after they had gone - "When you come into an airport they have the uniform and the authority so you must do what they say."
Interesting one
Be careful out there
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Comments
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I would have offloaded him - if he is unwilling to fulfil a reasonable request on the ground, what would happen if someone asked him to do something in the air?Gone ... or have I?0
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like it DMG - also i know people think i'm a mug to pay for PB but when you get people like him desperately running to be first in the other queue (usually ages before you start to board) I am so pleased I paid out the extra £4. You can spot the ones who want a particular seat but are too tight to pay the extra as they start standing in front of the monitors about an hour before the flight is due to leave, getting more and more agitated and red in the face and not daring to get a drink or go to the loo in case they miss the gate announcement. Hilarious! It's really not worth breaking sweat over!0
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There was one other view at the gate from someone in the priority queue after they had gone - "When you come into an airport they have the uniform and the authority so you must do what they say."
Interesting point. One thing is certain; when you board an aircraft you are bound by law to follow the Captains orders (and that of the cabin crew as his staff).
Inside the airport, its interesting. I am not sure whether Swissport or Ryanair staff have any direct authority over you (as the Captain of an aircraft does). However, as dzug said they can very easily offload you if you start becoming difficult. You also have to consider in an airport that ground handling staff only have to make one radio call and you can instantly be greeted by big blokes with hats, bulletproof jackets, and very large guns. Whatever anyones opinions of this is, its the world we now live in and you take that into account by using air travel.
They were more than entitiled to ask the man about his baggage. I personally wouldnt just ignore/walk away from ground staff in such a situation, for the reasons stated above. If his flight was boarding or on final call, you could maybe understand it, but seeing as he just wanted to run to be first in the queue its fairly immature.
Thanks for the way you recalled your story though, made me smile for a few minutes.0 -
Absolutely. For a one- or two-hour flight, I certainly don't care whereabouts I sit, and I have always been amazed how people start to form a queue at the gate as soon as they hear the plane is about to land (or, on one memorable occasion, had just taken off on it's way to us)! I stay in my seat and join the end of the queue at my leisure.You can spot the ones who want a particular seat but are too tight to pay the extra as they start standing in front of the monitors about an hour before the flight is due to leave, getting more and more agitated and red in the face and not daring to get a drink or go to the loo in case they miss the gate announcement. Hilarious! It's really not worth breaking sweat over!0 -
The story illustrates the tension that builds up before boarding because of the policies of free seating and restricted hand luggage. Some people fear they won't be able to sit with loved ones, and physiologically people don't like to be left to last. Staff have a tough job to check documents and bill passengers with oversize bags in a short space of time. Customers are left thinking why am I treated like this, while staff are overcome with suspicion. It's not a happy mix.
The chap in this story was not trying to break the baggage rules and was prepared to co-operate at the gate. Why were staff trying to enforce gate policies when the passengers still hadn't passed WH Smith? Even traffic wardens let you park first before they write a ticket.0
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