Missed flight due to departure gate not being announced.

Curiosity2017

I can't see them getting anywhere with pursuing the Airport as others have said an element of personal responsibility comes in. It reminds me of being in an Airport about 8pm in the evening. I overheard a group of about 6 who had missed their flight, their argument was no final calls had been made. I think the Airport has a "quiet Airport" policy where a constantly rambling tannoy doesn't happen hence no final calls. This wasn't a case of the boards had gone down. It was late and quiet to the point it was easy to see other people getting up for the flights and noticing you're one of now just a few left in the departure lounge. I just couldn't believe some people actually wait for their names to be called in a final call before actually moving their !!!!!!!

Pollycat

Surely if ALL the boards in the airport had gone down, here would have been mass announcements about gate numbers for all flights…

I certainly wouldn't have been sat in Departures taking photos of newly shown departure information at 17:42 (as the OP's photo up-thread shows) if my flight was scheduled to depart at 17:40.

bazdvd

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81937771#Comment_81937771

OP has said "

We waited until the boards went down at 17.00. There were people on many different flights in the same position so there was a mass exodus from the departure lounge at the same time.

"

daveyjp

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81936700#Comment_81936700

Exactly my thoughts. If an airport is going to rely on a system with a significant single point of failure they have to held responsible when that failure occurs.

Pollycat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81937883#Comment_81937883

Hmmm.

So flying at 17:40, they sat and watched the boards without taking any action at all until the boards failed.

What about vocal announcements? Did the airport make any?

When my flight shows 'gate will be advised at xx:xx', I'm ready to check the nearest board at that time.

And if there was no change to the information, I'd be checking information from alternative sources.

Re 'shifting the blame to the OP', I do think the OP should have been more-proactive in finding out gate information.

Some people must have found out the correct gate and boarded the plane.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81937914#Comment_81937914

But it's not a single point… the OP has admitted they never looked at other sources provided by both airport and airline. Now maybe the airport website went down too but it can't be said one way or the other because wasnt checked. The fact that the plane didnt leave empty and that the OP said there were several people complaining not the thousands of multiple empty planes leaving suggests that most were able to identify there's a problem and work around it.

sheramber

OP says baggage unloaded. They normally put out calls for missing passengers to avoid having to do that.

littleboo

In the OP's defense, I would suggest that the airport, as the provider of the service and the experts, should have been pro-active in advising passengers what to do when their de facto primary information system used by their customers, has failed. I'm sure this wouldn't have been the first time it happened and it wont be the last. They should have a process for dealing with this. PA announcements advising customers what to do would seem a very reasonable expectation in this scenario.

Pollycat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81938455#Comment_81938455

Precisely.

Has the OP said that the airport wasn't proactive with information?

Maybe the airport did have a process but the OP just sat looking at crashed boards…

Did the airport not announce gate information when the boards went down?

How do you think the other passengers got on the plane?

Jemma01

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81938749#Comment_81938749

OP already explained all this, waiting 20mins until 17:00 for the gate to update is not unusual. I've had flights delayed for few hours with no gate given. They didn't just sit back looking at crashed boards, they asked for help but had to queue and then walk to a far away gate, did you bother reading what OP wrote? Or are you just in a barking mode?