Missed flight due to departure gate not being announced.

Okell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81938941#Comment_81938941

I'm inclined to agree.

The flight was 17:40 and the screens had said the gate would be displayed at 16:40.

At 17:00 with no departure gate yet displayed the OP's party took action to find out what was happening

I personally wouldn't have waited as long as 20 minutes after 16:40, but neither do i think that 20 minutes was an unreasonably long time to wait.

If the airport wants to rely on screens to show departure gates then they need to make sure they work. Once they are aware that any screens aren't working they need to make PA/tannoy announcements to replace them.

The OP says that neither they nor any of their party heard any PA/tannoy announcements about their departure gate, or about late calls for missing passengers, or that their baggage was being unloaded. I see no reason to disbelieve them as it seems incredible that they would all miss so many announcements

The fact that other passengers may have made the flight is irrelevant if the airport did not ensure that the appropriate departure gate was communicated to all checked in passengers

Emmia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81939018#Comment_81939018

Many years ago when going on holiday with an ex we almost missed the easyJet flight from Gatwick as he insisted on staying in the cafe - there had been tannoy announcements for us, but these were not audible where we were sitting. It's therefore possible that announcements may have been made, but they were not audible where the OP was sat.

We made the flight by running after I got a look at the departure board. Our bags were on the verge of being unloaded... I never holidayed with him again, and I am always twitchy about departure timings/checking the boards etc. as a result.

marcia_

same i almost missed a flight when i was in smoking room where there were no departures boards or tannoy announcements. On leaving the room i heard last call for….. we ran as fast as we could and just about made it

Pollycat

Stansted Airport website shows gate numbers on departing flights so you could have found out the gate number - you didn't need the app.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81939256#Comment_81939256

Unless the same crashed system that fed the indicator boards also fed the website (& app).

Pollycat

Quite possibly they also failed.

But we'll never know as the OP didn't try to access Stansted Airport website.

eskbanker

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

I think you misunderstood the significance of that photo - it was presumably taken after they'd been told they'd missed the flight, and posted simply to illustrate that the correct gate wasn't shown even after the boards returned to life, rather than indicating that they were sitting around waiting until then!

In terms of the amount of time available to OP, the lengthy journey times to reach some remote STN gates already eats substantially into any contingency, and since Ryanair closes gates 30 minutes before departure, passengers would have needed to have been through the gate by 17:10, so there'd certainly be a need to be on top of the situation very promptly after 16:40…

Okell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81942102#Comment_81942102

"I think you misunderstood the significance of that photo - it was presumably taken 

after they'd been told they'd missed the flight

, and posted simply to illustrate that the correct gate wasn't shown even after the boards returned to life, rather than indicating that they were sitting around waiting until then!…"

That is my understanding as well.

It would seem obvious that there was a pretty serious failure of the information systems in the airport.

I'm not going to be so quick as other posters to blame the OP for their failure - or the failure of their party - to realise that there was a problem that apparently was not announced.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81942209#Comment_81942209

I don't think it's particularly useful for anyone to suggest either that it's 100% OP's fault or that it's 100% the airport's fault that OP missed the flight, as it seems clear to me that it's at neither of these extremes, and it's clearly important to recognise the shades of grey in between when it comes to discussion about whether any party is legally or contractually liable to reimburse OP's losses, i.e. it is indeed evident that there was a failure of the airport's systems, but in itself that doesn't necessarily offer a route to redress…

Pollycat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81942102#Comment_81942102

I haven't misunderstood the significance of that photo.

My point - in case you missed it - was that if all boards had gone down, I would have expected there to be frequent verbal announcements regarding flights and their gate numbers.

Reading back, as far as I can see, there is no mention of verbal announcements from the original poster.

As the poster above says:

"It would seem obvious that there was a pretty serious failure of the information systems in the airport."

If there had been such a catastrophic failure throughout the airport, I would have expected it to be at least mentioned by media sources.

Was it? I may have missed it.