 Poster: A snowHead
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Sitrep - Chambery 19th Feb 12:30CET
For some reason Crystal panicked, and dragged me out of bed at 9am for a private taxi transfer to Chambery. We arrived just before 12 noon, for a 5pm flight. Traffic was busy in all the usual places, but still only 3 hours travel time. Now got 3 hours to wait for check-in to open. Currently esconsed in the 'spotters' gallery behind the cafe/resturaunt on the first floor.
The ground floor looks busy - probably 10-12 desks open, and perhaps 20-30 people in the queue for each. Security and passport looks more problematic though - queueing out the door.
G-TAWL has managed it's first two legs, Exeter to Chambery, and Chambery to Gatwick on time, so there is a chance we'll get home roughly on schedule. Should be back in as BY4624 at 15:50, and then home to sunny Exeter as BY/TOM6621 at 17:00.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice day for watching aeroplanes. Not sure why a couple have diverted from CMF to LYS and STR, is it getting a bit busy on the apron.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| chocksaway wrote: |
| Nice day for watching aeroplanes. Not sure why a couple have diverted from CMF to LYS and STR, is it getting a bit busy on the apron. |
Diverting to Stuttgart seems an odd choice.
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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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Sitrep - Chambery 19th Feb 14:46CET
Checkin now open, but although BY4624 seems to have taxied at LGW on time (12:49GMT) it only got as far as the end of the runway 3 minutes later. Since then nothing on any of the trackers I use, so it's either gone full stealth on departure, or hasn't actually left LGW yet. Got a bad feeling about this.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Judwin, Airborne 1405 GMT.  Lots of hour plus delays at Gatport Airwick.
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| sugarmoma666 wrote: |
| chocksaway wrote: |
| Nice day for watching aeroplanes. Not sure why a couple have diverted from CMF to LYS and STR, is it getting a bit busy on the apron. |
Diverting to Stuttgart seems an odd choice. |
On further digging it was a bis jet ex Prague, bit of private banking on the way!
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Sitrep - Sunny (but dark) Somerset 19th Feb 20:00GMT
Chambery Checkin. Where to start. 6 desks open for the Exeter flight, it's rammed and barely moving. Strange, coz on the way out there were only 60-70 PAX. Soon turns out that they have scrubbed the Bristol flight, and put everyone on the Exeter, and then they were going to bus the Bristol PAX up the M5. I believe it's called consolidation, but its a royal PITA. Everyone with existing Bristol boarding cards has to be re-issued with new ones for the Exeter, and they all want to sit together obviously. Scuppers my hoped for upgrade to "Business Class" - turns out there are now about 170 PAX on the flight.
Add to that they actually want to see the UK PLF forms for everyone, and the WIFI and 4G appears to be playing up, so people are struggling to access it on their 'phones. Top tip, if you can get your accomodation to print out hard copies of the PLF form do so. One less thing to worry about.
Chambery Security - fairly swift. 6 X-Ray machines cooking hand baggage, plus the special assistance lane. Passport control - 2 gendarmes/douaines stamping passports, and through in perhaps 10 minutes - which is just as well as the first bus to take us to stand 99Z (which turned out to be 25 yards over the tarmac from where we got on the bus) arrived as I emerged into the departure portacabin. Out to the plane, up the rear steps, sit down and STFU. Off the deck at around 17:30CET (30 minutes late), and I managed to bag a bacon butty to while away the time.
Landed Exeter about 18:10GMT. Held on the plane for about 20 minutes - Seems Exeter only have one ground handling team, and there was the "once a week" Ryanair already loading up to depart. Once off the plane, slow progress through through passport and immigration. Even slower baggage delivery. Finally got to the car at about 19:10GMT which is a personal record of the wrong type. Usually only takes 20 minutes. Then off up the A30/A303 to civilisation, and just missed the local (useless) KFC which closed at 8pm.
Still, at least Yeovil didn't loose. Game against Daggers called off due to weather, which means I still haven't missed a home game this season even though I should've missed 3 due to ski trips.
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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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@Judwin, you can save a copy of the PLF on your phone, which avoids needing data to access it.
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| sugarmoma666 wrote: |
| @Judwin, you can save a copy of the PLF on your phone, which avoids needing data to access it. |
Requires you to have a phone (which I don't), and battery (which will be low if you've just spent 5 hours staring at flightaware/FR24).
It seems a lot of people were unaware they needed a PLF at all, and so were trying to fill it in on a phone during the checking queue, not realising its a stupid number of senseless questions that will take more than 2 minutes to do. And for a family of 4 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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There seem to be a lot of cancelled or delayed BA flights out of Heathrow today. Is this likely to be due to still getting planes back in the right places after the storm?
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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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Lyon 19th Feb 10:00 ish.
Second hand report from my sister, who returned from Val Diz to Lyon to Luton on Sat 19th. I suggested she booked via Lyon rather than Geneva, and have now had an ear full about how little I know, and she's never going via Lyon ever again 
Departed Val Diz 05:45 by hire car, and about 3 hours to Lyon airport. Went to get something to eat then into the airport at about 10am to checkin for the 13:40 EZ2428 to Luton. Four check-in desks open for all Easyjet departures, and another 4 for TUI. There were about 6 or 7 Easyjet flights scheduled between 10:45 and 14:00 (Luton#1, Porto, Tel-Aviv, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Luton#2, Teneriffe). As far as I can tell, the TUI flights were CMF diversions - one Gatwick and one Manchester.
Anyhow, the TUi checkin proceeded fairly well, all done and dusted within an hour. The Easyjet queue was glacially slowly though. She still hadn't reached the front of the queue in 2 hours, and tempers were getting frayed, but there were several others in the queue behind them for the Luton. After the TUi checkin had completed, a couple of those desks reopened as additional Easyjet desks. She eventually got checked in then up to security by about 12:30, where there was yet another queue. After 45 minutes in that queue, a cabin crew member announced "last call for XYZ - please come to the front" but no-one really heard where XYZ was (it was aparantly an Air Maroc flight to Tangier), so everyone assumed it was their flight and rushed security. This caused them to lock the doors and tell everyone they were going nowhere until/unless they all calmed down.
So the queueing resumed, and another hour to get through security, and another half hour for the Schengen passport exit stamp (2 gendarmes on duty). She isn't sure, but thinks they finally sat in their seats around 14:30. Then about another hour's wait for the remaining passengers to get through security and onto the plane. It finally departed at 15:28, almost 2 hours late.
Difficult to know where to allocate 'blame' here (and as I wasn't there I'm guessing), but it seems to me you should be planning to be at THE FRONT of the Easyjet checkin queue 2 hours prior to departure. If there are a lot of Easyjet flights scheduled before or at the same time as your flight, then that may mean joining the end of the queue up to 4 hours before departure.
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| Judwin wrote: |
| Departed Val Diz 05:45........ finally departed at 15:28, almost 2 hours late. |
Jeez, you could have driven VdI - Calais in that time!
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You know it makes sense.
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Outbound EasyJet last Friday from Edinburgh, Arrived 2 hours before flight, made the gate comfortably for boarding on time. Took over an hour for luggage to arrive at Milan. 2 Hour drive in the morning to Monterosa for a bonus day skiing.
Return trip, bonus morning skiing then 2 hour drive to Milan Malpensa. Straight to a check-in desk (EasyJet Plus), 10 mins for security, loads of free time at the airport.
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