 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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chopkins13, is it one of the major companies? I've no idea whether it would be possible to swap airports, but you could always ring and check.
The weather forecasts have been wrong as often as they've been right recently - and Meteo France is forecasting just light rain all day at Chambery tomorrow. This sort of situation is one of the downsides of DIY holidays but IIRC from previous discussions about this it's the airline's job to get you back to Chambery.
Chin up! 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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What are the timings of your flights? And how many of you are there?
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There are four of us (all adults) - on the Jet2 East Midlands flight (leaves 07:05) arrives into Chambery around 10:00am I believe
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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chopkins13, relax! any which way you are getting on the plane and will land somewhere then drive to your ski resort where you will have a great time.
We flew to Chambery couple of years ago with threat of fog lingering and it was absolutely fine. The following year we flew to Grenoble and had a 45 min delay due to fog. It really depends what height the fog is at. I believe for most standard aircraft and most european airfields they require visibility (not crystal clear viz) to a distance of around 900 metres to legally land. Fingers crossed for you.
AND since when have BBC weather ever been spot on? Does your car hire company operate out of Lyon and Grenoble too? If yes maybe you can just collect from them there instaed of Chambery and pay any difference in price?
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Some planes can land - It depends on the equipment (so I was told).
I know I started the negative thread but..... On our way into Chambery this time our plane landed. It was the earlier flights that all got sent to Lyon. But when they do they often sit at Lyon, re-fuel and fly back to Chambery when weather improves.
You may get delayed or have to transfer from Lyon on a bus... but look on the bright side..... you're going skiing tomorrow you lucky boy/girl.
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| Quote: |
There are four of us (all adults)
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Ah, and with quite a lot of baggage I imagine? If just two I could possibly have given you a lift - I am driving round to Les Deux Alpes tomorrow with plenty of time to spare. But I can't get 4 adults and baggage in the car.
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Or... get a private jet. I saw lots of those landing while we sat at Chambery waiting for our plane. Just re-mortgage your house.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Mike-H wrote: |
| you're going skiing tomorrow you lucky boy/girl. |
+1 this is the key point everything else is just a minor itch en route to the best gig in the world...SKIING!!!!
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pam w - that would have been very kind of you! But yes unfortunately two of our group are of the fairer sex and therfore come with rather a lot of baggage!
Fingers crossed the BBC are wrong or Jet2 pilots are made of steel and can land in the fog!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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^ how very rude ................... 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Chambery for us in the morning as well. Leave Bristol (hopefully) at 06.00 It'll be fine
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| Quote: |
therefore come with rather a lot of baggage!
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i.e the two blokes they are with
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You know it makes sense.
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What's worse is we have a hire car booked at Chambery so even if they fly us to Grenoble / Lyon it's going to be a right pain to sort it all out!
Depends who you are booked with. When Ive been diverted before from Salzburg to Linz, I just went into the Linz office of the Car provider and I picked one up from there.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I'd check the French meteo - that doesn't seem to be mentioning any fog as far as I can see - cloud and some rain maybe.
As others have said - you'll get there and be skiing on Sunday!
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Poster: A snowHead
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I've been on a Jet2 flight that's landed on auto-pilot in zero viz before.
If Chambrey have the kit then fog won't be an issue.
I'd worry more about bumping into the mountains on the approach if I were you 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| beequin wrote: |
| Quote: |
therefore come with rather a lot of baggage!
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i.e the two blokes they are with |
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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chopkins13, thats a nice early flight so plenty of time to sort out whatever comes your way.
Ive done Chambery loads and only ever once been diverted (very heavy snow). It was with Snowjet (airline) and they refunded our private taxi transefer cost to resort (with no fuss - but I think they were one of the better customer friendly airlines).
As others say, see if your car hire co. operates out of the other airports. All the companies will be used to dealing with such matters.
Dont worry - it all gets sorted - just look forward to skiing
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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And now for some science:
Here is the Terminal Area Forecast for Chambery tomorrow:
LFLB 171157Z 1712/1812 VRB02KT 9999 FEW006 SCT040 BKN080 PROB30 TEMPO 1712/1714 BKN013 BECMG 1712/1715 FEW016 SCT040 BECMG 1717/1720 CAVOK BECMG 1800/1803 4000 BR SCT006 PROB30 TEMPO 1803/1808 0500 FG VV/// BECMG 1809/1812 9999 BKN090
These are published every 4/6 hours and your pilots will make a decision based on this and the actual weather report. So the forecast published for at 1300 French Time valid until lunchtime tomorrow says there will be light winds this afternoon with good visibility and a few clouds scudding about. From 1800 the weather will be great but from 1AM the visibility will reduce to 4 km a bit of cloud at 600 feet above sea level. Temporarily from 0400-0900 there is a 30% chance of fog with 500metres visibility. From 1000 onwards the mist/fog will disperse and it will be a nice day. So there is a chance that the early flights will be delayed until the Captain is assure that the cloud and visibility is likely to be good enough by his landing time.
As the procedures to land at Chambery are highly complex and pilots require special training - I am not able to be definitive about the minimum weather required but unlike Heathrow and Geneva zero viz landings are not authorised (by a long shot). As a rough guide they will probably need a cloudbase of 600 feet and 2.5 km vis.
All very complex I know - to the passenger on an early flight stand by for a bit of hanging around before take off. But fog is very tricky to forecast correctly - it could easily be a gin clear day - or foggy till late morning. If you go to the Tignes thread I generally give a guide to potential delays on the French airports and GVA each Friday and Saturday night.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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chocksaway, great post
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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We flew into Chambery couple of weeks ago and it was no problem at all.
Oh no, wait, that's not right.
Hope it goes well for you.
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If Chambrey have the kit then fog won't be an issue.
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A big "IF"...... as the expert post from chocksaway illustrates.
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We were once diverted from Hamburg to Berlin because of fog, and the airline transfered us on a bus back to original airport, and that was Ryanair !!!!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Forecast not changed, still a 30% chance of fog. Fingers crossed 
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And its a nice morning at Chambery!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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and it looks like flights landing (a couple of the early ones have been delayed, that could be delayed departure).
panic over, but looking at the number ofmflights arriving between 9.30 and 11 it could be a bit of a scrum in the airport.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Arriving might have been a scrum but departing was worse. The Chambery management/staff were spectacularly incompetent and inefficient today e.g. a small drop-off area for the arriving busses, resulting in a queue of several coaches waiting to deposit returning passengers, adjacent check-ins with shared luggage belts but the staff getting the baggage mixed up, one check-in guy, who looked like a trainee because he wasn't allowed to issue the boarding passes, had to call a supervisor who then interrupted the work of the other check-in staff (when she took a break from gabbing to her colleagues) to issue the passes for every person that he checked-in, queuing lanes that didn't match with the check-in desk etc. Security seemed to be on a mission to match this with one guy with a pacemaker been left in limbo because no one was available to do the search and another who had the small allen key for his boots confiscated because it could be used as a weapon (it was shorter than many domestic house keys).
Today was definitely a classic of a kind but at least the weather was good and the only delays in take-offs were due to the check-in, security and baggage-loading mayhem (one Thompson flight missed its slot and was delayed by 50 min). There were probably others but thankfully that was not a concern of mine by that time.
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departure from Chambery was a NIGHTMARE!!!
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You know it makes sense.
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What you should worry about is departing this shithole of an "airport". After a good week skiing in Les Arc, our party of 11 arrived this morning to fly back to Manchester. Dropped off by the Crystal Ski rep and was advised that we were ahead of schedule and to wait the hour or so up on the top mezzanine until our flight was called.
Coach after coach arrived, spewing more and more people into an already crowded area but worse was to come. Two lanes of queues stretching way way back, hardly moving at all and even when another couple of of check in desks were opened, it took an age to get the luggage checked in and boarding passes issued. They have a stupid system where one luggage weighing belt is shared by the two desks either side therefore ensuring that a bottleneck develops. Compound that with staff that today seemed clueless, baggage needed to be taken from the belt by too few handlers before the next baggage could be weighed, it's no wonder that chaos ensued.
After that was the massive snake of people, just to get through the 2 open counters to check passports and then through security.
This airport is just not capable of dealing with the number of people travelling in the skiing season on Saturday turn round day.
Chambery should be renamed Shamblerey.
Good luck next Saturday, I hope your return journey is better than ours was today.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Aha, beaten to it.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Don't do Grenoble then - that really is a cock up carnival 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yep Grenoble is every bit the departure nightmare that is Chambery 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I know people grumble about Geneva but really, it works pretty well (extremely well on the scheduled side of things, IME).
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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jirac18, NO WAY. Grenoble is a model airport in comparison to Chambery.
Compared to any other airport it's not great, but compared to Chambery it's ace.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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CP, jirac18, when I was reading this earlier I was thinking of how shoite Grenoble had been the other week. Why do the French not do toilet seats?
We arrived at the airport and had to wait for check in. I piled loads of rubbish discarded on seats into a trolley that was already piled with rubbish and wheeled it a safe distance away. Was chaos trying to move around the terminal (to toilets etc), climbing over peoples suitcases etc. Check in and then did ok having a couple of drinks waiting for our gate - obviously not going through security until then as there isnt room for that many peeps beyond security
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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thecramps, I've used both and from my experience both were appalling when departing.
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jirac18, without doubt, I was just suggesting one turd was perhaps a little firmer than the other.
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thecramps,
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irac18, without doubt, I was just suggesting one turd was perhaps a little firmer than the other.
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Thanks for that image 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| beequin wrote: |
| Quote: |
therefore come with rather a lot of baggage!
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i.e the two blokes they are with |
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I think the issue is whether you fly into Chambery, Grenoble or Geneva these are all pretty small airports & most likely 40 weeks of the year they cope adequately the issue being Saturday turn around ski trips...swamped & we just have to deal with it, like others have mentioned, smile you are about to experience awesome thrills on the hill together with fantastic scenery & great apres....enough said 
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