No drama getting to the airport. The Aerobus runs every 20 minutes from the city and the airport is close to the city due to its age, from an earlier age when the city was smaller. A new airport is planned but won't be ready until 2017. In the meantime, they have added a second terminal, which is mainly used for domestic flights.
The first inkling that this would not be an ordinary day was about just before boarding when the loudspeaker announced that due to a TAP pilot strike, a London flight was cancelled. Sure enough, a while later, a TAP rep told the waiting passengers (note, not over the loudspeakers, but to people crowding around the service desk) that the flight was rescheduled to 2145 that evening. I had to get a translation from somebody. Our luggage would be reloaded and we would have the same seats. The flight number would be TP2165 instead of TP165. In the meantime we could go spend the day elsewhere. Apparently some 15€ vouchers were handed out but I didn't know this when it happened so I missed out. I exited airside, going through passport control again, and prepared to wait at the airport until evening. I didn't want to go into the city, it was warm and I would have to pay for another two shuttle journeys.
Waiting at an airport due to delays feels awful, you are all set for a jump to another destination, most of your belongings are in transit and suddenly everything is thrown into limbo and you face boredom. Anyway I managed to get through the next few hours, sitting at the self-service restaurant, listening to music. WiFi access was free only to the airport site and external sites required a fee. Sometime during that waiting, I noticed that the time had been pushed back to 2255.
At the appointed time the passengers waited at the boarding gate but not much was happening. Then they started checking boarding passes laboriously one at a time. Only two employees were doing this task and it went slowly. It was wryly amusing to see a third employee mostly idle, except to let "business class" passengers through another gate just a meter away. Most of the time he had nothing to do but look important, twiddling his pen.
Eventually, far beyond the boarding time, everybody was in the buses (no airbridge for this gate). You'd think they would let one bus go as soon as it was full, but that would have been too smart. No, we had to wait until everybody was loaded.
Then it was announced that the flight is cancelled after all and that we should head up the stairs again. Groan. About half the people have gone up, (bear in mind there were some 150-200 passengers so it's hard to move lots of people up stairs), when we are told that the flight is on again. Remember that no loudhailers were used, just some rep telling a group of passengers surrounding her and the news spreading by word of mouth.
By this time the passengers are dispirited by the frequent changes of plan, and sporting grim expressions but hoping we would really take off soon. We discover that the plane is an old Air Finland plane, with Finnish pilots, and a different model so no way we can have the same seats. We just take what's available.
More waiting and nothing happening. Then some business class passengers complain that as this plane has only one class of seats they won't be getting the spacious seats they paid for so they want to get off the plane. Unfortunately this means that by regulations their baggage has to be offloaded.
Eventually an announcement came over the plane's loudspeakers from the pilot. Due to the delays, they have exceeded the time allowed by safety regulations to pilot on-duty time, including flight time, so they cannot continue. This was the only general announcement made and it was a non-TAP person who made it. At least then we were told the truth instead of scant information from TAP.
Back to the terminal in the buses. More waiting and no news. Eventually we are told that we will be taken by coach to a hotel and a new flight arranged for later that day (by this time it is around 0200). We retrieve our luggage from the conveyors and carry them to the coaches. Some passengers have bulky items like surfboards and they have to get it from a separate counter. In fact the outsized luggage does not fit under the coach so TAP has to arrange a van to transport them separately.
Here we are inside the terminal, and the TAP rep is telling the people around her that coaches will be coming. At least a couple of passengers were videoing the debacle, possibly for evidence for any claims.
We are driven in two coaches along the ring roads of Lisboa, across the magnificent bridge across the Tejo and for what seems to be a long time, something like an hour, along rural roads through villages. What sort of hotel were they taking us to? I fantasised that they were taking us to the Algarve to load us into boats and sail for Brazil. Or worse, to massacre us in the forest.
On reaching Sesimbra (which is a seaside resort about 40km south of Lisboa, I discovered later), more time is wasted while the drivers search for the entrance to the hotel. As you can imagine, with steep narrow roads and long coaches, turning around is not easy after reaching a dead end. Let's go back to the airport, yelled one passenger and the rest of us laughed at the black humour. Our coach separates from the other and takes us to a beachside entrance. The hotel looks all boarded up and dark out of season. In fact what had happened was that our coach had taken us to the wrong entrance on level 2, the other coach was at the reception, on level 9. The hotel is built on a slope down towards the beach. In fact there are still quite a few sunseekers staying in it as we saw them the next morning at breakfast, but due to the late hour of 0400, lights were out. There is only a steep flight of stairs to the level 2 entrance and some passengers are close to revolt at having to drag their luggage up the stairs. I had only a backpack but others had sizable suitcases.
To make things worse there is no direct lift from level 2 to 9. You have to change at level 5. The lifts are tiny and can only carry 4 or 5 people at a time. Imagine fitting luggage into such lifts. I get my room key and have to drag myself and my backpack back to level 2. I stumble into my room at around 0500, take a shower and crash out. All we had been told (again by word of mouth) was that we would be picked up later in the day and taken directly to the airport.
Breakfast is on level 5 until 1000. I get there around 0900. I don't recognise most of the people there, they are normal holidaymakers so most of our party must have been sleeping. At least the buffet breakfast is sumptuous. A group of us swap black humour jokes over breakfast. At least we feel a little bit rested now.
But still no news from TAP. The hotel reception could only tell us that our rooms were ours until noon, and then it was up to TAP. Surely they had to do something before then? Just past noon, the first coach arrives. Some of us load our luggage and get on. Nothing happens. It turns out that they have to wait for the other coach to arrive. We could go check-in first and reduce the delay, but no, that would be too sensible of TAP.
Eventually the second coach arrives and is filled. Finally we set out. At the terminal I miss the information that we are to go to the priority check-in counter and go to the standard check-in. When I see that the people there are not familiar, I backtrack and find my fellow sufferers. It was my fault for not double checking when getting off the bus, but there was no loudspeaker announcement of any sort; surely coaches have such equipment.
At the immigration booth, the official jokes that I'm having a hard time leaving Portugal from the two cancelled exit stamps. I mention TAP and she nods in sad agreement.
There are many more passengers than last night, it looks like they are combining us with the normal flight of the day. With all the delays checking the boarding passes we miss the scheduled departure time of 1500 (the same hour as yesterday's flight) and don't get off the ground until close to 1800. I inwardly cheer when we are finally aloft.
Where did TAP fail so badly? First was communications. Their communiques were told to a group of passengers surrounding the rep. There are such things as loudspeaker systems these days you know, TAP. No announcements were displayed on airport monitors or on the website. In such a situation, rumours run rife. It is ironic that the only piece of definite information came from the Finnish pilot on the plane. As an aside, Lisboa airport reminds me of a Portuguese old town, lots of passages forking and recombining. Even with signage, it's not hard to get a bit lost.
Second was responsibility. Nobody seemed to be in charge of the situation on the ground, they seemed to be relaying directions from unseen bosses, and "just doing my job". Nobody owned the problem and interfaced directly with the passengers.
Finally, I have to fail TAP on service. Shuttling us around, no consideration given to making us a bit more comfortable in an unhappy situation. No lounge offered, no drinks, no compensation, except for that 15€ voucher some people got. Moving us around in the middle of the night to some distant beach resort, tiring us out even more.
I appreciate that there must be people behind the scenes at TAP scrambling to make alternate arrangements, but all this is not appreciated if the customer facing reps are not helping the passengers.
I hope I haven't bored you with this long rant. At times during our odyssey the only thing that kept us going was curiosity about how much worse it could get. Most of us just shook our heads in disbelief at every new bungle, but some of the passengers were quite vocal about our treatment. One took out his frustration volubly on hapless counter employees at TAP. There was a rumour that he would be filing a lawsuit.
Unfortunately I have to deal with TAP again. In a month's time I have to go back to Lisboa from Recife. I just want to get back with no issues and then I want nothing more to do with TAP. One good thing that came out of this ordeal was a sense of camaraderie that developed amongst us.
As an aside, Sesimbra is the kind of resort you go to if you want to have a big breakfast, then laze away the day swimming in the pool, playing ping pong, that sort of thing. The hotel contains heaps of nearly identical dreary rooms the kind that developers inflict on people. There isn't any scenery you would go out your way to see. A morning mist from the Atlantic covered the beach that morning and we joked that we should take a picture of that and claim to naive people that Fortaleza beach was misty. Yeah sure, if they don't know that Fortaleza is in the tropics.
The first inkling that this would not be an ordinary day was about just before boarding when the loudspeaker announced that due to a TAP pilot strike, a London flight was cancelled. Sure enough, a while later, a TAP rep told the waiting passengers (note, not over the loudspeakers, but to people crowding around the service desk) that the flight was rescheduled to 2145 that evening. I had to get a translation from somebody. Our luggage would be reloaded and we would have the same seats. The flight number would be TP2165 instead of TP165. In the meantime we could go spend the day elsewhere. Apparently some 15€ vouchers were handed out but I didn't know this when it happened so I missed out. I exited airside, going through passport control again, and prepared to wait at the airport until evening. I didn't want to go into the city, it was warm and I would have to pay for another two shuttle journeys.
Waiting at an airport due to delays feels awful, you are all set for a jump to another destination, most of your belongings are in transit and suddenly everything is thrown into limbo and you face boredom. Anyway I managed to get through the next few hours, sitting at the self-service restaurant, listening to music. WiFi access was free only to the airport site and external sites required a fee. Sometime during that waiting, I noticed that the time had been pushed back to 2255.
At the appointed time the passengers waited at the boarding gate but not much was happening. Then they started checking boarding passes laboriously one at a time. Only two employees were doing this task and it went slowly. It was wryly amusing to see a third employee mostly idle, except to let "business class" passengers through another gate just a meter away. Most of the time he had nothing to do but look important, twiddling his pen.
Eventually, far beyond the boarding time, everybody was in the buses (no airbridge for this gate). You'd think they would let one bus go as soon as it was full, but that would have been too smart. No, we had to wait until everybody was loaded.
Then it was announced that the flight is cancelled after all and that we should head up the stairs again. Groan. About half the people have gone up, (bear in mind there were some 150-200 passengers so it's hard to move lots of people up stairs), when we are told that the flight is on again. Remember that no loudhailers were used, just some rep telling a group of passengers surrounding her and the news spreading by word of mouth.
By this time the passengers are dispirited by the frequent changes of plan, and sporting grim expressions but hoping we would really take off soon. We discover that the plane is an old Air Finland plane, with Finnish pilots, and a different model so no way we can have the same seats. We just take what's available.
More waiting and nothing happening. Then some business class passengers complain that as this plane has only one class of seats they won't be getting the spacious seats they paid for so they want to get off the plane. Unfortunately this means that by regulations their baggage has to be offloaded.
Eventually an announcement came over the plane's loudspeakers from the pilot. Due to the delays, they have exceeded the time allowed by safety regulations to pilot on-duty time, including flight time, so they cannot continue. This was the only general announcement made and it was a non-TAP person who made it. At least then we were told the truth instead of scant information from TAP.
Back to the terminal in the buses. More waiting and no news. Eventually we are told that we will be taken by coach to a hotel and a new flight arranged for later that day (by this time it is around 0200). We retrieve our luggage from the conveyors and carry them to the coaches. Some passengers have bulky items like surfboards and they have to get it from a separate counter. In fact the outsized luggage does not fit under the coach so TAP has to arrange a van to transport them separately.
We are driven in two coaches along the ring roads of Lisboa, across the magnificent bridge across the Tejo and for what seems to be a long time, something like an hour, along rural roads through villages. What sort of hotel were they taking us to? I fantasised that they were taking us to the Algarve to load us into boats and sail for Brazil. Or worse, to massacre us in the forest.
On reaching Sesimbra (which is a seaside resort about 40km south of Lisboa, I discovered later), more time is wasted while the drivers search for the entrance to the hotel. As you can imagine, with steep narrow roads and long coaches, turning around is not easy after reaching a dead end. Let's go back to the airport, yelled one passenger and the rest of us laughed at the black humour. Our coach separates from the other and takes us to a beachside entrance. The hotel looks all boarded up and dark out of season. In fact what had happened was that our coach had taken us to the wrong entrance on level 2, the other coach was at the reception, on level 9. The hotel is built on a slope down towards the beach. In fact there are still quite a few sunseekers staying in it as we saw them the next morning at breakfast, but due to the late hour of 0400, lights were out. There is only a steep flight of stairs to the level 2 entrance and some passengers are close to revolt at having to drag their luggage up the stairs. I had only a backpack but others had sizable suitcases.
To make things worse there is no direct lift from level 2 to 9. You have to change at level 5. The lifts are tiny and can only carry 4 or 5 people at a time. Imagine fitting luggage into such lifts. I get my room key and have to drag myself and my backpack back to level 2. I stumble into my room at around 0500, take a shower and crash out. All we had been told (again by word of mouth) was that we would be picked up later in the day and taken directly to the airport.
Breakfast is on level 5 until 1000. I get there around 0900. I don't recognise most of the people there, they are normal holidaymakers so most of our party must have been sleeping. At least the buffet breakfast is sumptuous. A group of us swap black humour jokes over breakfast. At least we feel a little bit rested now.
But still no news from TAP. The hotel reception could only tell us that our rooms were ours until noon, and then it was up to TAP. Surely they had to do something before then? Just past noon, the first coach arrives. Some of us load our luggage and get on. Nothing happens. It turns out that they have to wait for the other coach to arrive. We could go check-in first and reduce the delay, but no, that would be too sensible of TAP.
Eventually the second coach arrives and is filled. Finally we set out. At the terminal I miss the information that we are to go to the priority check-in counter and go to the standard check-in. When I see that the people there are not familiar, I backtrack and find my fellow sufferers. It was my fault for not double checking when getting off the bus, but there was no loudspeaker announcement of any sort; surely coaches have such equipment.
At the immigration booth, the official jokes that I'm having a hard time leaving Portugal from the two cancelled exit stamps. I mention TAP and she nods in sad agreement.
There are many more passengers than last night, it looks like they are combining us with the normal flight of the day. With all the delays checking the boarding passes we miss the scheduled departure time of 1500 (the same hour as yesterday's flight) and don't get off the ground until close to 1800. I inwardly cheer when we are finally aloft.
Where did TAP fail so badly? First was communications. Their communiques were told to a group of passengers surrounding the rep. There are such things as loudspeaker systems these days you know, TAP. No announcements were displayed on airport monitors or on the website. In such a situation, rumours run rife. It is ironic that the only piece of definite information came from the Finnish pilot on the plane. As an aside, Lisboa airport reminds me of a Portuguese old town, lots of passages forking and recombining. Even with signage, it's not hard to get a bit lost.
Second was responsibility. Nobody seemed to be in charge of the situation on the ground, they seemed to be relaying directions from unseen bosses, and "just doing my job". Nobody owned the problem and interfaced directly with the passengers.
Finally, I have to fail TAP on service. Shuttling us around, no consideration given to making us a bit more comfortable in an unhappy situation. No lounge offered, no drinks, no compensation, except for that 15€ voucher some people got. Moving us around in the middle of the night to some distant beach resort, tiring us out even more.
I appreciate that there must be people behind the scenes at TAP scrambling to make alternate arrangements, but all this is not appreciated if the customer facing reps are not helping the passengers.
I hope I haven't bored you with this long rant. At times during our odyssey the only thing that kept us going was curiosity about how much worse it could get. Most of us just shook our heads in disbelief at every new bungle, but some of the passengers were quite vocal about our treatment. One took out his frustration volubly on hapless counter employees at TAP. There was a rumour that he would be filing a lawsuit.
Unfortunately I have to deal with TAP again. In a month's time I have to go back to Lisboa from Recife. I just want to get back with no issues and then I want nothing more to do with TAP. One good thing that came out of this ordeal was a sense of camaraderie that developed amongst us.
As an aside, Sesimbra is the kind of resort you go to if you want to have a big breakfast, then laze away the day swimming in the pool, playing ping pong, that sort of thing. The hotel contains heaps of nearly identical dreary rooms the kind that developers inflict on people. There isn't any scenery you would go out your way to see. A morning mist from the Atlantic covered the beach that morning and we joked that we should take a picture of that and claim to naive people that Fortaleza beach was misty. Yeah sure, if they don't know that Fortaleza is in the tropics.
Sorry to hear about the stuff ups.
ReplyDeleteTwo questions. Did you get the impression that perhaps TAP never intended the flight and wanted to combine the two flights to save money?
Second, do you get the impression that Portugal is a bit that way in general? Sort of halfway between third world and European?
I hope I am not over-generalising?
Hopefully, the story will be more enjoyable in the retelling than the living!
Jamie
No, that would be too far-fetched. There was indeed a pilot strike and many other flights were disrupted. The whole airport was a mass of pissed-off people. It seems most flights were rescheduled the same day, whether with the victorious pilots or with replacement crews I have no idea. But we were very unlucky not to get off the second try due to the combination of issues. The way TAP handled it was simply unprofessional. Another passenger claimed that TAP is the last or one of the last state-owned airlines in Europe and has accumulated a lot of deadwood employees. A quick search couldn't verify this and I don't have the time now to download and check a yearbook mentioned in a search hit.
ReplyDeleteAs for Portugal, it and Spain were among the last western Europe nations to modernise after getting rid of their respective dictatorships. From what I can see Spain has made tremendous strides towards parity with other WE nations in all respects, and Portugal less so. You have the veneer of modernity, all the cell phone comms, the fast food chains, that sort of thing, but in some parts of Portugal the traditional ways still hold. It is one of the charms and one of the drawbacks of the country. And Lisboa differs a from the country. A discussion on this could occupy a whole blog. There's a book some 10 years old now titled The Last Old Place which I found entertaining.
The other thing noticeable is how many old people there are in country Portugal. It feels to me like the young have fled to the cities and to other countries. This surely must be a worry for demographics planners.
And I forgot to say you also have to remember that TAP was losing money putting us up in a hotel. Let's say $100 per passenger for transport and lodging. Comes to $20k. Not to mention the cost of the aborted replacement flight.
ReplyDeleteSo no devious motives I don't think, just a stuff-up.