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scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

........and now rxfaith is coming to study in KSA ?

Cuffs · Joined: 10 Feb 2009 Posts: 77

It is standard practice for check-in for international flights to open 3 hours and close 1 hour prior to departure. One assumes this gives the airline enough breathing space to clear a backlog of passengers at the check-in counter, get their checked baggage through security and on to the aircraft, and to get the passengers through passport control and security screening, which may take some time if there are several departures within a short period of time.

It is standard practice to open all the window blinds at take-off and landing. Had you been listening to your iPod, you would have been asked to turn that off; had you been reading a book or magazine resting on your drop-down tray, you would have been asked to return it to its closed position; had you been resting with the seat reclined, you would have been asked to return it to its upright position. The flight attendants were only asking you to do the same as they had asked the rest of the passengers to do. You weren't singled out for particularly poor treatment, nor should you feel that you were victimized. The attendant's 'rude' behaviour towards you was a direct result of your refusal to follow standard practice flight rules.

Budget airlines like Jazeera, Air Arabia, easyJet, Ryanair, Air India Express and many others operate on tight margins. They remove all the unneccesary flim-flam from flying and the price of your ticket covers transportation from point A to point B alone. In an effort to make more money from a captive audience, they charge you for every single little thing they can: coffee, sandwiches, priority boarding, choosing your seat, and so on. There is no need to be alarmed at these charges, and there is no need to pay them. You are free to bring your own food and drinks on to the aircraft.

I can only assume that this is your first time flying with a budget airline. Think about it: if you go to the supermarket and buy the budget own-brand products, you get exactly what you pay for - the product and nothing else. You don't get bright colours, or fancy packaging, or celebrity endorsements, or expensive advertising campaigns. You cut out all the extraneous crap, and that's why it's cheaper.

For my own part, I flew Air Arabia from Bahrain-Sharjah return last weekend for SR480 and it was perfect. Up-down, in-out, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am. I can't think why anyone would pay double that just to get a bland sandwich and a couple of episodes of Mr Bean.

svatopluk · Joined: 16 Sep 2009 Posts: 81

It all depends on the airline staff.

Once I got bumped off a Bahrain - Istanbul flight with Gulf Air for being 15 minutes late for check-in (due to a night of drinking after 5 months abstinence), the guy was really rude and couldn't even guarantee me a seat on the next flight 2 days later, so purely by chance I came across a Gulf Air office in one of the malls, explained the problem and within minutes the guy had put me on the next flight. When I got on the plane after another 2 nights boozing, I found he'd upgraded me to 1st class.

I also completely missed an Easyjet flight to Praha from Gatwick (stoned this time) and they just smiled and put me on the next one, 5 hours later.

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Xenophobes come in all shapes, sizes, colours and nationalities !

boysfromtheblackstuff · Joined: 15 May 2010 Posts: 35

If you want to find ill-mannered morons with no sense of customer service, try flying into JFK on a European Passport. I still bear the psychological scars.

I'd never heard of Jazeera airlines before, but now I'll look out for them, they clearly put the needs of the many who arrive on time before the few, who arrive late. They obviously have well trained staff who are prepared to enforce airline safety regulations in the face of hysterical parents who didn't have the wit to a) accept that this is a safety regulation (have they never flown before ?) and b) use the in-flight magazine as a sunshade for junior.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Who says that Arabs with American passports can't be xenophobes ? ANYONE can be a xenophobe ! Membership in this club is open to all.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

But JFK is the main entry point for those arriving in the USofA.

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 11:03 am Post subject:

Only on certain airlines, scot...only on certain airlines. Or, are you unfamiliar with the Hub and Spoke system?

NCTBA

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

But those are American airlines ! Look at airlines based outside the US and you will see they all use JFK !

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 11:16 am Post subject:

KLM don'! An' last time I checked, they were a European-based airline...

But, that said, I can understand the generalization...

NCTBA

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Woof woof !

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I am sticking to my constitutional right to talk nonsense !