Not a great start…

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Son's are having a mixed trip home. One on Jet2 to Manchester has landed and is now on the train to his girlfriend's in Sheffield. Other was flying via Heathrow back to NCL with BA, but plane landed late and he doesn't know if he is on the NCL flight yet.

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@narbs, @thecramps, alcoholic bevs duly dispatched. Snowing quite heavily too.

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@The Flying Snowplough, hooray! Happy New Year!

After all it is free

@Frosty the Snowman, Your aircraft has just got back to Leeds, crew must have had a night in Lyon. It had been to GVA and back before your epic so had probably run out of duty time.

@The Flying Snowplough, Great. Happy new year to you all, you've earnt those bevvies.

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@chocksaway, we were on the MAN flight, Not the LBA one.
Happy New Year All

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Just to add to the thread. After two trips involving Chambery, both of which were severely disrupted I vowed never to fly there again.

The only people who seem happy going there are people who dont fly on Saturdays.

Its too small and too flaky.

But it must be cheap, and slightly nearer the slopes which is why the TO's use it.

snow reports

I flew Southampton - Chambery on a Thursday once. Was brilliant. Was in my car, which had been parked free v near the terminal, within about 8 minutes of landing. Only when I started up did I realize there'd been no passport check! Flybe had midweek flights at one time.

You know it makes sense.

I flew to Geneva in May. Mid week flights. Very smart architecture, stupidly expensive shops, a bar with sushi and oysters but third world service. LONG walks and LONGER queues for passports. Flight (easyjet to Gatwick) was held up because so many people stuck in endless wait. We were two adults, but I felt very sorry for people with small kids. I read quite a lot of my book whilst shuffling along in the queue. We had also queued for AGES to check in suitcase. There are no easy ways to get to the ski resorts but I'd choose driving every time.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@pam w, if you are in the EU, it’s very quick (other than the walks but cf Schiphol) …

A snowHead

@pam w, if you are in the EU, it’s very quick (other than the walks but cf Schiphol) …

A snowHead

Probably time the Airlines dumped Chambery and reverted to Lyon/Grenoble...?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@albob, people have been saying that for years and it hasn't happened yet. We had a fog-bound trip there when my now 30 somethings were about 10 years old. One landing attempt aborted and diverted to Geneva, but we couldn't disembark as baggage hall was full. Then off to Chambery again after several hours sitting on the plane and pilot managed to land. Very late arrival in resort (maybe La Rosiere) in a taxi with a cracked windscreen.

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@Hells Bells, A memorable day! We once got bussed from Birmingham to East Midlands because of fog, then were late landing in Austria, and had long transfer from Salzburg to resort. Best part of 3 hours in little rattly minibus. Arriving at apartments late, the proprietor was unwelcoming, told us off for being late and waved us vaguely in the right direction. Fortunately I'd done O level German years before as she wasn't for speaking any English. 4 year old crying with cold and fatigue. We stumbled up the stairs, with those lights that go off after 9 seconds and into apartment. Thrilled with welcoming little doll in bed...... then realised it wasn't our apartment!! In the end it was a good holiday but not a good start. I had skied on a school trip, and some of us had had dry slope lessons on a slope with no lift so had very good leg muscles, if not good technique. I had to buy lift passes for four of us and get everybody to ski lessons - after skiing down the nursery slope to demonstrate our prowess we were all put in separate groups. Fortunately grandma was there to look after the 4 year old. We were there two weeks and she did ski school the second week.

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@albob, if it works it’s fine, but we’ve had two aborted landing attempts, one due to wind the other as the plane in front hadn't cleared the runway, plus one 8 hours delay going home due to fog, which wasn’t helped by our son having spent the night and transfer chundering ( one of the dangers of being in an Esprit hotel, if one kid goes down it spreads like wildfire), thankfully he slept most of the time as he was knackered.

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Chambery is a very good solution when it works. The bit I dont get is why there isnt a well drilled contingency pre agreed with Lyon / Grenoble with deals with bus companies as it’s only an hour away. When it goes wrong, get the plan out of the box marked ‘open this box if Chambery Airport is closed’.

After all it is free

We once spent practically all day waiting for flights in a hideously overcrowded Innsbruck airport - with a big crowd who had been in a supposedly "catered chalet" with Inghams which turned out to have no adequate kitchen so we ate very poor meals in the hotel to which it was annexed. I was cross with Inghams who had not told us of the change, or I'd have changed the booking. Fortunately we were a cheerful lot and the "chalet boy", who only had to make an afternoon cake, was a great lad. The food was so bad it was a source of jokes, as everybody tried to guess what it was and invent cod-German names for it. Hundscheissenwaffeln. Clearly Inghams had given the hotel a miserly budget for our food, as we were shoved into an out of the way corner of the dining room and served quite different, and inferior, food to the rest of the guests!

I've not done package holidays for years and have no intention of starting now. DIY all the way, and I'll sort out problems myself.

I don't understand why the French 'allow' the Swiss to handle 'their' ski resort traffic - it's very unlike the French isn't it?
You would think Grenoble would be ideal as a winter airport or even Lyon which still has an unused terminal I believe.
Similarly, why isn't there a direct train to / from Geneva to the French resorts?
Chambery îs a brilliant airport outside of holidays, peak weekends etc. But has no or very little connectivity either.

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@The Flying Snowplough, I cannot comment on recent diversions to LYS, but ten years or so ago their attitude was along the lines of "diversions will not be unloaded until we have sorted out our booked flights - tough".

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@alti - dude, In situations like these, Chambery used to assist the Tour Operator and the airline (for scheduled flights) with lists of coach and hotel availability as a matter of course, but it is the Tour Operator's (or airline's) responsibility to actually book any extra coaches needed (or hotel rooms). Grenoble and Lyon are both sister airports (i.e. operated by Vinci) - they ought to cooperate.....
My experience of Chambery (from the TO end) was that other than cross-winds, weather problems tended to be only in early season (perhaps the lake is too warm in December/early January). Yes, it's a small, seasonal airport - if they had a blind landing system (which costs money) it would be so much better.

snow reports

edited having been politely corrected by Nemisis, who clearly does know of what he talks snowHead

@boredsurfin, the ancient agreement was to allow Geneva to have an airport. It's technically on French territory. Lyon (or Chambery) not great for much of the local to Geneva skiing.

Direct trains - I mean, these things were built before skiing was invented as a tourist sport - tricky into mountains.

Hey all - picking this up again for your thoughts/ideas/help!

We were taxied to our accommodation on Saturday night after our 12ish hour delay and diversion to Lyon (the ground staff at Lyon told us that was our only option).

Problem we now have is, because Tui wouldn’t take us to Chambéry, we were unable to pick up our car and are now looking at a hefty one way transfer back to Chambéry.

I’ve contacted Tui, who have passed my query to Crystal (not sure why) and I’m being told it’s my problem to sort.

Any ideas? I will call the insurance but I sort of think this should be to Tui to sort (yes, it was a weather divert but only because it wasn’t able to leave Glasgow on time as the aircraft hasn’t made it there from Gatwick the night before). I was a pilot in a former life, but not in Europe so only half understand the UK charter flight world!

Would love some thoughts/help/inspiration- maybe another week on the slopes?!

Aside from that - I hope everyone else who got off to a bad start at the weekend is having fun - the snow gods have been very favourable!!

You know it makes sense.

@SnowBear22, I fail to understand why a taxi couldn't have taken you to Chambery instead of straight to your resort. Was your accommodation booked with TUI or did you just book flights with them? If Crystal (a TUI company) have reps in your resort, might they have space for you on a transfer coach? Failing that, it is probably one for your insurers.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@hells bells- they were saying Chambéry was closed (it was about 11pm when we got out of the airport at Lyon despite landing at about 5.45pm).
We’re in La Clusaz, which I don’t think Crystal uses so maybe we are stuck.
I sort of think the technical/legal contract position is they should take us to Chambéry since that’s where we booked - but maybe they were doing us a favour not taking us there at midnight!

A snowHead

@SnowBear22, Have you looked at bus down to Annecy then train? If you get off at the stop before Chambéry you could probably walk to the airport.

A snowHead

Oh thanks RJS- no, we haven’t looked at that. I’ll suss it out tomorrow Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@under a new name, ah yes, of course, I forgot GVA was mostly in France. I wonder if there is a revenue share agreement as well.
Direct trains are possible into the heart of the Alps to Bourg St Maurice and stops in between, but no direct train from GVA. After all it was once possible to get a direct train from London to Bourg st M Sad

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It doesn't look like anyone as given a report from the other side of this!

I will stick to an abbreviated version that misses out vast sections of tui's incompetence because I can't face writing for that duration.

Tui failed to find transport and accommodation for many many people stuck at Chambery on Saturday night. Having spent the day being told that flights would be soon, the party line changed to hotels will be soon, which then changed to everyone needs to leave the airport right now as it's closing! So the hundreds of people left were gradually packed off to the care of the French Red Cross at a very cold nearby sports hall vaguely between 12:30am and 1:30am. Disorganisation and an unwillingness by tui to pay for what needed to be done seemed to be the main problems.

The shambles proceeded as tui had no idea who they had sent to where for the night so had to send out surveys to everyone to determine what transfers were needed. This was then followed by transfers not turning up/late, people left behind, mass texts being sent out telling people that they would need to book and pay for their own transfers.

Flights from Lyon then over 3 hours delayed again on Saturday, groups trying to check - in finding that individuals within groups had been left of the manifest.
Plane then flew into a different airport to that which was booked. Coach transfers back to original airport - but tui staff had no idea who needed to go or how many, so people were left behind at Gatwick and had to hire their own taxis at own expense. One of the buses then broke down on route to original airport.

All in all, well over 30 hours later arriving than planned when we got back to the correct airport on Monday the 1st having left the resort on the morning of the Saturday. Communication lacking/contradictory/incorrect the entire time. Customer care was clearly not of interest. Contingency planning was obviously only an afterthought (not an ideal timescale for a contingency plan!).

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@TJ1,

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@TJ1, jeeeeees, what an absolute nightmare.

The way people were treated was actually just deplorable.

There is a type 1 diabetic in our group - absolutely zero duty of care was given. A £10 food voucher at, I would say, 9 am - that was the only food available to them all day. They arrived into the resort at 1am, way after everything was closed - so was a question of controlling blood sugar with whatever we could find (clearly they pack something for this, but didn’t expect to be kept on an aircraft for basically 8 hrs for a 1.5 hr flight).

I imagine there would have been a few people in the same boat at Chambéry.

People will say you can’t predict the weather etc. but there is so much more to it than that - communication costs nothing and would have allowed people to sort themselves out (different for us as we were stuck on the plane).

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

I remember when I used to book with a TO because I thought it was better to have it all under one roof if something went wrong...but this thread is a shining example that it may not be. I've only really had one flight properly disrupted, the return from Venice after last season's Birthday Bash when the late flight out had hydraulic issues. It took a little while but BA got us sorted out with a hotel for the night (plus a coach transfer to/from it) and packed us onto flights the next day. BA covered the hotel, food, my extra parking charges and gave me the 250 euro compo with no effort.

It helped immeasurably that I was on the return home, had no rush to be home, was travelling without kids and had other snowheads to chat with....but even that still felt like an ordeal. Really feel for the people who have suffered in this, it sounds like a royal f**k up. What surprises me is that fog isn't exactly unheard of at Chambery, so after all these years of flying there you'd have thought TUI had some decent fallback ideas. That said, the two or three trips I've had through the airport have all been fairly easy, with the exception of security being a bit overwhelmed.

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It’s currently snowing fairly heavily in La Plagne right down into the valley and forecast to do so tomorrow- snowmaggedon again!

Help!!

Not a great start…

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