Be smart:

If you´re watching a movie and you have the headsets on please remove them while I´m talking to you. Many times I would like to use that moment to ask you: would you like f@!# off or diet s#@!? 

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Top 5: 31st of August 2013

At the end of each month I´ll give you a small resume of my top 5 and bottom 5 passengers’ nationalities to work with

1)      Japanese: state-of-the-art-passengers. They are polite, clean, cut efficient and extremely well organized when it comes to traveling. If they travel in packs or individually they know how to behave with ground staff and Crew. Not only they try to understand directions but also they try to help others in need even so they don´t speak the language of the other passenger. Always smiling and very patient in every occasion. They are very clean with their “things” but also they understand clearly what personal hygiene is. Boarding is really fast and because they tend not to take much carry on items it´s easy to help them store it in the overhead compartments. The only thing that they may request is a pair of slippers or extra socks but that is it. Certain Nationalities should really learn from them.

2)      South Koreans: they are just like Japanese but with a little bit more youthful energy in there things. A big difference from Japanese is that they tend to really love Duty-free and perfumes, so many bath themselves with a lot of fragrances before getting into the aircraft and sometimes you may have a slight headache because of it. Nevertheless they like to be efficient and practical when it comes to travelling: they tend not to take much carry on items, if they do they tend to respect to baggage limit and they also are responsive to commands. They keep on their seat belt during all the flight and they don´t move much around the cabin, if they do it´s to stretch but they do it without blocking the aisle (they just go into the free space between the emergency exit doors or the back part of the galley next to the restrooms).

3)      Canadians: they always have the Canadian flag in some part of their luggage. Not only they are happy and cheerful but also they are calm when it comes to long to extra long hauls journeys. They don´t like to bother others and they are good people to start a conversation when they feel that they can. A big difference from there neighbors is that they don´t shout as much as certain States. Also they tend to be very fast while boarding and very well mannered when they ask about something that they didn´t understand. They are not at all problematic customers to deal with.

4)      Swedish / Sweden: it´s all about order, rules and Ikea. They do know about minimalistic personal style in the way they groom themselves. Straight hair cuts, original but simple outfits and woman wear very light make up when they travel. They are very clean and cut efficient when they want something and they don´t like to bother Crew. If they can go to the galley to pour a glass of water without annoying another passenger, they will. Sometimes they seem to be very cold and distant but it´s just their comfort zone until they feel they can “open up” to others. Also when it comes to boarding they are extremely fast and generally they know where there seat specifically is before getting into the aircraft. If they get a little drunk they just seat and sleep; not loud at all.

5)      Americans: grey zone. Depending of the State in which they come from they can be noisy or very noisy, it´s like if they are kind of deaf. So you may listen the clear American accent when you hear them approaching the gate: “Yeahhhhh, do you have you Passsspoooort with yooou?” it seems they need a constant self reminder for things. They are not bad passenger to deal with, they are simply too noisy. They generally are good people to deal with and polite; they also tend to ask questions when they don´t understand something and they are responsive to commands. While boarding they might take a little time to do so as they become sometimes distractive and disoriented inside the aircraft but once you assist them they respond quickly. Sometimes they buy a lot in the Duty-free and they enter the aircraft with their bags, trolley and too many Duty bags and that may be troublesome to place them in the overhead compartments. Many times we have to store them in Business but they tend to be very respectful if they need to take something from there, that is why they usually they ask Crew before entering Business or they ask us to bring them their personal items.

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Bottom 5: 31st of August 2013

At the end of each month I´ll give you a small resume of my top 5 and bottom 5 passengers’ nationalities to work with

1)      Indians: what is it with their heads that when you talk to them they do this head gesture “small shake” that is looks as if they were saying "no"? Is very difficult to understand what they are trying to say when they get nervous but if you combine that with the head-gesture-small-shake it can get a little bit more complicated. Sometimes I have no idea if they are saying “yes” or “no”, for example: “Sir would you like the rice and chicken?” head-shake-gesture-response. I reply back: “Okay, we also have pasta (pesto tortellini) option as you may see in the menu” head-shake-gesture once again. I showed the passenger the two options and he pointed out nervously with his index finger into mid air without actually pointing any of the meals. So I just placed the rice and chicken option on his tray table, poured a glass of water and continued with the next passenger. All the time that takes me to understand an Indian I could attend 3 passengers, problem: they take too much of your time and sometimes it seems that they are playing with your patience. They continue to be rude towards others passengers and crew, another example: while boarding they may mash up or try to jump the queue in the intent to board the aircraft first and sometimes they might get really annoyed (being a bit aggressive) when a priority class passenger boards first (without doing the queue), as if they weren´t able to understand directions provided by ground staff. Another issue is personal hygiene: some men apparently just use hair gel but they don´t wash their hair before applying it, so they might have a gel layer of 10 cms. thick over their heads and its smells, it smells really bad. Or some woman who doesn´t know what is to take care of themselves while having their period, so they have another sort of smell that is worst.

2)      Chinese: they are too loud, last flight Y class (economy) was more of a Chinese Tour Bus that an airplane class in which one row in the middle of the aircraft talked (screamed) to another group that was sitting way in the back. When they are standing in the aisle talking to their group (literally blocking the aisle) and you kindly ask them to step out so you can move they suddenly “don´t understand what you are saying” so you smile and touch their shoulder and perform a diplomatic dance of hand gestures: MOVE-OUT-OF-AISLE-PLEASE, but they still don´t understand. In that case I just go back to the galley, grab a trolley and just walk into the aisle pretending I'm driving a steam locomotive asking gently while I walk through: "clear the aisle please", there they seem to understand. Also, they tend to travel in this almost 80´s relax look with their over too big navy pants over too wrapped onto their tummies, with the stripped navy shirt and their brownish or bluish coat. But for some the fact of washing their travelling outfit before travelling is an unknown “thing”, so that might be one of the reasons why they don´t smell good. Women are sometimes a print copy of men with longer hair and a fake Louis Vuitton bags and if they travel with children they might be very tough when they handle their babies and kids. How tough? I´ve seen more than once a 5 year old little girl being carried with one arm by their mother flying from the ground from the moment they entered the plane till the moment they sat, the child never cried.

3)      Nigerians: really money is never showed but the issue is when they over show it. Not only they may treat crew as if they were there modern slaves but they also don´t care much about other passengers. One of the many experiences that we have to deal with was in a New York flight where a Business passenger had a very strong flue so we kindly ask passengers in that section to close their window blinds so this sick passenger could travel more comfortable, everyone did it without any remorse except the Nigerian passenger. When the Purser kindly asked the Nigerian passenger to close the blind he replied in a very arrogant way that he didn´t care about the other passenger problems; he paid for the seat and for the window and it was in his choice to do whatever he wanted to do with it. Other passengers are very uneducated so they might be really rude because of their lack of education. Some don´t like to follow instructions provided by Crew and sometimes they might give you “that look” (I want to punch you) if you insist with orders, an example: when they are making queue for the bathroom and there is turbulence, you politely tell them to go back to their seats, some go back others give you “the look” and others just don´t pay you attention. In that case, male Crew explains that when there is turbulence for safety reasons they need to go back to their seats, but they still ignore orders. If the Captain tell us “Crew to your stations” (that means that there is going to be real turbulence), male Crew have to tell the non complaint passengers: “the airplane is going to go through an air pocket and we may fall several thousand feet, if you are standing you are going to be pulled to the ceiling and you are really going to be injured, return to your seat at once”. If so, they might understand.

4)      Vietnamese: why do they turn on their phones to make phone calls when we are taking off or landing? They tend not to follow rules, at all. If there is turbulence, they are standing up; no electronic devices may be used during that moment, they switch them on; bags must be removed from exits, they put their bags there; while landing and speeding off they stand up to grab their bags from the over head compartments. Is exhausting to be a kindergarten teacher with grownups. Another fact soap and shampoo: an unknown product for many of them, so their nails are all dirty, their breath might be quite strong (please-put-the-oxygen-mask-and-talk-to-me-while-you-wear-it-strong).

5)      British: grey zone. When they are not drunk they are great passengers as they don´t like to be bothered and they are very accurate when it comes to decisions: "what would you like to have for dinner?" they know exactly what they want. Problem is when they are drunk: they might be very loud and very aggressive. Also, when they are pissed many Crew can´t understand what they are saying and many times we have to guess their words and it feels like if we are playing the Russian Roulette.  If they said: "beer" some understand "pear" and if you take them a pear they might through the fruit to the floor and ask once again for a beer. If we say "we don´t have pear in this flight", he may start screaming that he saw a full stock of pear (beer) in the galley and then insults the Crew while demanding his drink. Once again, it depends how drunk and how they might behave while being drunk that depends in attending a great passenger or fantasizing that you are ejecting him from the aircraft.

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Counter staff count my weight:

When I stare at check-in counter staff I would like to calmly tell them: “carry me with your shoulders to the bus, my purse and all of my bags. That is the feeling I have each time I have to lift a 20 kilograms bag to the overhead compartment thanks to you, what´s your problem?”.

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Pill and water routine:

Excuse me; do you have a glass of water? I need to take a pill. Sorry but I´m in my boarding station assisting in boarding 310 passengers taking care of overall security, seat organization, special needs assistance, soothing first time travelers and trying to prevent a potential crying infant but here is your glass of water for your pill. Hope is Valium.

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Do you know the feeling?

When I know that flights are being cancelled or slightly delayed and I have to go to the airport, it´s like dead woman walking.

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Run Passenger run:

Every time I´m told: “I have a tight connection, may ground staff help me?” I always want to respond: “how fast can you run?”

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If I see you playing with your i-phone during taxi let’s play hide and seek:

I hide it and let´s forget about the seek. 

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Spot Alert: Maldives

When entering Maldives if you have alcohol with you (even Duty Free) it may be confiscated as it´s not allow to “import” alcohol with you. 

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Murphy´s Law:

We have multinational multicultural crew as the United Colors of Benetton in each flight speaking a total  amount of more than 10 different languages but there is always this passenger that doesn´t speak or understand any of them.

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I found this and it was a must to post it:

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Who said woman didn´t like engines?

I ride two Rolls Royce at the same time.

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Logics: A + B = C

A first class suite it´s a suite when there are doors. A first class suite with no doors it´s just a big seat.

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White flag:

I will start pouring decaf coffee – Sorry Sir, the espresso machine it’s broken.

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Oh Maria:

“Ladies and Gentleman this is a non smoking flight. There are seventeen fire extinguishers onboard the aircraft. If you are caught dismantling a smoke detector or smoking you will be sprayed head to toe with foam and charged £1000 for the privilege”.

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Small habits:

When the airplane is about to take-off some kiss their Rosemarie’s; others just cross their fingers and say a small prayer to themselves; others close their eyes and look up; others just knock three times the floor with their feet. But when the plane is about to take-off I´m just doing all the emergency summery in my head in case of a crash landing or ditching.  

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Eat all what you can eat:

There are those who eat what is necessary and healthy and there are those that need to show other and themselves how much they can eat. First and Business Class usually have a 3 course abundant meal in long to extra long haul trip: they have the entrée, the main course and the dessert plus the in-flight snacks.

Not only may they repeat several times what they ordered but also they have an abundant plate with many palliative options to enjoy: caviar, murg varhadi, grilled red snapper, fettucini with salmon, baby lamp shank so on and so on. You may see those passengers that only ask for the necessary, not more or less. They finish the plate and then they say: “this is enough, I´m already full, thank you for this wonderful service” (well, actually not many say the words “wonderful service” to crew but let´s pretend for a second that they do). Those types of passengers are the least in each flight.

Usually you encounter people who have the need to eat everything that they can because if not they feel that they didn´t really “invest” in their ticket or that they need to show-off that they are eating all what they can devour in a premium class. So not only they order 2 the appetizers (entrée) and 3 times the main course and 2 times more each dessert but then they eat the whole selections of snacks (all the chocolate bars, bonbon boxes, sandwiches and potatoes bags  they find on their way and most of the times they ask for more). And not only they eat all what they can find in their way but also they drink everything that comes in a can or bottle. At the end of the flight you may see them all puffy and with a slight headache but they still have to have breakfast so once again they manage to perform a fast packman digestion but they ask for every little thing that appears in the menu and at least two times they need their coffee cup re filled.

Then there is the other group of passengers that order absolutely everything just for decoration, a very sad abstract piece of art scene that they “enjoy” staring at on their tray tables. Who would say the modern version of “Fruit and a Jug on a Table” by Paul Cézanne would be a breakfast scene of a passenger in Business or First Class? They just seat there with their coffee mesmerized by the small platter of fresh fruit and the very dynamic work of cutlery which sleeps by the impressive oval size shape glass that contain this orange color substance that is orange. The most impressive thing is the fact that if a fork falls down to the floor they have the need to ask for another one even so they are not going to use it.

And last but not least are those who are undeceive for everything so they ask you 3 times what each plate is about as if you may create a story about each plate and sometimes they are interested to know what would you eat if you were to be them. So once they made their decision and you prepared the presentation of the plate and then you are about to place the order on their tray tables they accidentally changed their mind because they saw what their neighbor passenger is eating and they feel they should eat the same. So we have to go to the galley and prepare everything again to go back with a big smile and a sense of comfort and dedication to service. Then when you are about to collect their plates you see that they barley touched their food and they kindly ask you to return in a while as they didn´t finish. So you return 20 minutes later and you observe that they only touched the bread and they ask you to return back in another phew minutes. So after 15 minutes you return and the plate is still there almost intact.

Is impressive to believe not only how rude people are to themselves but how little they care about food when people are actually dying of starvation in many parts of the world. Not only they don´t care but at the same time some passengers have the need to show off that they are eating in business or first class devouring everything (without pleasure whatsoever) what comes on their way.

Meanwhile I picture in my head that my healthy tray will transform somehow into a super fat greasy hamburger with french fries.

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Maria´s PA:

“Ladies and Gentleman we´ve reached cruising altitude and we will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your dedicate cabin crew”.

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American Airlines:

I love them, they are so hard experienced and she might be 83 years old.

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Dream a nightmare: A380

The passengers dream but the nightmare of Crew. 

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Working with a frequent traveler program is like working with a Bank:

The fact that nowadays you may have the chance to sum up miles from different services and then put it on an account is not something new. People do it with the joy of thinking that someday after being loyal to that service they will get something back for free.

The problem to start with is that it´s not for free, is obvious that you need to spend a lot of money to get something in return without charge. The usual rate of journeys to get a free Y (economy) ticket is for example: form South America to Europe you need probably to travel between 4 to 5 times (back and forth) per year to get a free ticket, or from North America to Europe 5 to 6 times (sometimes even more depending in the airline).

The second issue is that it´s not a totally free ticket: you have to pay and sometimes even with restrictions. Many airlines when you issue the awarding ticket you have to pay taxes and fees (depending of the destination you will have to pay more or not) and even sometimes the ticket comes with restrictions as for example non free cancelling ticker or non free change the date of the ticket after emission.

The third factor is that the attention that you may get even so sometimes you are in Premium levels it´s not the best and it could take even more than one hour and a half to issue the ticket by phone. This is to the fact that many airline operators are slow or none attentive in the phone, so if you lose your patience they may become more restrictive to what you desire. And it that desire you may find that the date in which you want or need to travel there are non available seats for awarding tickets (as there´re only a limited amount of seats per aircraft for awarding tickets and they´re not inclusive available for all the trips that that aircrafts does). So if you need to travel on a Monday you probably will finish travelling on a Thursday, paying the extra fee for taxes and talking in the phone for more than one hour. Conclusion: is not for free.

So the bits and tricks to have a more enjoyable time and energy consuming way to obtain that golden ticket is the next:

   

1)     Sky Team / Star Alliance / One World: airlines which belong to that group have the obligation to offer you a way for you to reach that destination even so the airline that you are calling to get the award ticket doesn´t reach. For example you are in Buenos Aires, Argentina and you want to travel to Dubai. You are calling Aerolineas Argentinas (horrible example that airline but is the easiest in my mind) and you tell them about where you want to reach. They will tell you that Aerolineas Argentinas doesn´t reach Dubai so they you´ll have to tell them that they are in Sky Team, Sky Team has different types of code shares (alliances between airlines) and that Alitalia also belongs to Sky  Team and they reach Abu Dhabi; or that Air France reaches Dubai. So you ask them politely to know how many extra miles you´ll need to invest in Air France or Alitalia to get that ticket (there is always an exchange rate difference of miles from one frequent flyer program form another). So after that you choose which airline is more convince to you taking into consideration the exchange miles rate, flying dates, restrictions, transit hours and taxes / fees you´ll have to pay. That applies for every airline that has or code share or that they are with alliance with another airline.

2)      You may use your flying miles to book a Hotel but ask for the restrictions of that booking. It may be from the fact that you have non cancel policy to non extra use of benefits that you have from another program that participates in that Hotel (upgrades, free breakfast, late check-put, etc.).

3)      Be aware which frequent flyer program you are going to put in your miles. For example if you are travelling Lan (it´s an important airline from South America) you may still put your miles into the Qantas account even so you didn´t travel Qantas. This is because as they have a mutual agreement through One World you may do so. But check what is more convenient for you, which program brings you more benefits and which you have to spend fewer miles to get a “free” ticket or upgrade.

4)      Print every paper that they send to you and write the name and surname of the employee which you talked to and the hour in which you did the call: that may help you if then you have a problem with the ticket as for example restrictions that they didn´t tell you or knew about because they didn´t appear anywhere in your booking.

5)      Ask for all the restrictions and a complete explanation (even with examples) of each one; then ask them to send you via mail all of what they explained to you.

6)      If they (the call center) say to you “no Sir, that can´t be done” and the airline you want to use to travel to that particular destination belongs to the same frequent flyer program (One World / Star Alliance / Sky Team) insist: many times they don´t know that that can be done or they just don´t want to do it because it implies a little more work than usual.

Soon I´ll make a list of the programs and the problem that you might encounter in each airline when you call their call center to perform a booking through there awarding tickets system.

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2 buttons for your satisfaction:

The light button is the one that has the light bulb in it; the on call button is connected to cargo if you press it your bags will start floating over the Pacific Ocean.

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Maria´s way of reminder:

As you exit the aircraft make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be evenly distributed among the crew you p@!#?# off during the flight. Please do not leave children, spouses or Louis Vuitton bags. 

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Safety first said Maria, thank you dear collegue for this reminder:

If oxygen is required masks will appear from above you. Stop screaming, pull the mask towards to you start the flow of oxygen, place the mask over your face en breath normally. If you have children with you secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are travelling with more than one first pick your favorite child.

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Habits:

If today you didn´t wake up with shivers and a slight headache; if you didn´t break your stocking; if you didn´t play the sequence in your head of smashing the head of a colleague against the floor; if you didn´t burn yourself with the oven and then looked at your mini tray of “healthy” food wishing that somehow it transforms to a super greasy hamburger it means you just didn´t do your job right.

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Idiotic – bonus level:

Sometimes is hard to believe the level of stupidity of certain passengers: “No Sir, your coffin size bag won´t fit anyhow the over head compartment and I also believe that you just killed more or less 4 times the bag of the lady sitting next to you in which she had a brand new laptop in it” – smile.

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Some airlines allow pets on board:

The problem is when that animal costs more than your own life.

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Hippo to Lipo:

The main problem that we go through when we are dealing a brake up is the fact that each day we walk by a Duty Free with 3 x 5 promotion of Kit Kat and 2 x 1 of Cadbury. Yeah, last month I got fat thank you for the memo HR, just another small reminder of what I´m dealing with.

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ABC News: How flight attendants cope?

(these videos is not of my property)

Wait until the door close so you may glorify:

That moment of glory when the plane is almost full and everyone is staring at the empty seats and then you start seeing the face of disillusion when another group of passengers walk through the door and keep on sitting and suddenly the plane is, full.

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When Crew are square:

Two days ago while boarding the Purser said to one of the Korean young female crew to cover the door as he needed to grab something for the gallery. When he came back the Crew was literally covering the door, with a quilt. In her defense she said in her Korean-English: “You said cover the door and I´m covering door”. Self-reminder: if Purser try to be specific in details with everything.

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Fake priority:

That moment when you say to the passenger: “we don´t have pasta anymore, only beef”. And the c#@! tells you: “I´m vegetarian”. And then you have to provide them with a business class meal.

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Dear Sky Team Group,

Today 21st of August of 2013 the Argentinean Government has intimated Lan Argentina for the total stop of maintenance and hangar service in the airport located inside the Capital of Buenos Aires – Aeroparque Jorge Newbery.

The National Regulator Airport System (Organismo Regulador del Sistema Nacional de Aeropuertos - ORSNA) demands Lan to proceed in the end of stop of service in 10 days from today even so Lan Argentina has a legal agreement signed by the former President of Argentina, Dr. Néstor Kirchner, to use the hangars until the year 2023 paying each month a total amount of U$S 20.000 for its service.

ORSNA claims that according to the article 3 of the resolution 123 (http://www.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/205000-209999/205407/norma.htm) that was stipulated in the year 2012 clearly expresses that from the 1st of August of this year “the building facilities attached to the South Platform (Industrial) from Aeroparque (.) shall be supplied for the exclusive use of the Federal Government". This decision not only may leave more than a thousand employees without job but also it would be a direct impact to passengers.

This is not the only problem that Lan Argentina dealt these past years. From past March the national company Intercargo removed the use of skybridges to Lan Argentina. Intercargo is the company that is in charge of all operational ground service providing ground handling services in domestic and international flights at 20 airports in Argentina consisting of signaling and pushback loading and unloading of cargo, trailer, water loading, cleaning, toilets drain, power supply, air conditioning, etc.

Due to this problem passengers have to wait for hours to get off the aircraft as ramp service is denied by Intercargo with no reason whatsoever. Those people are children, babies, grandparents, grandmothers that have to wait inside the aircraft sometimes during excruciating conditions, during summer temperatures may reach 43°C.

According to Paula Marrconi, general secretary of the Argentinean “Association of Flights Attendants for the Commercial Airline Industry” (La Asosiación de Tripulantes de Cabina de Pasajeros de Empresas Comerciales – ATCPEA) manifested in an interview to lapoliticaonline.com that passengers have to wait sometimes 3 hours to get their bags as Intercargo don´t remove them from the aircraft. Also she informed in a letter that she wrote to the current Argentinean President, Dra. Cristina Ferndandez de Kirchner, that ORSNA and the Civil Aviation Administration (Administración Nacional de Aviación Civil – ANAC) didn´t authorize the route expansion of Lan Argentina even so everything was properly presented and that also those 2 organizations didn´t allow the introduction of new aircrafts into their fleet. The main consequence is that if an airplane needs to be repaired aboard from Argentina the Argentinean Government doesn´t allow aircraft replacement as they reject with no cause the enrollment of a new registration.

I do understand the fact that the Argentinean government is protecting its interest and giving priority to their National carrier that is Aerolineas Argentinas. But unfortunately the way in which they are trying to protect their business has become totally abusive and inclusive violent. Not only they seem that they simply don´t care about the passengers that arrive and tour around their country but also they are putting in risk the job of thousands.

What we would like to know is why Sky Team supports an airline with such a violent behavior that not only harasses competitors but also look down on passengers throughout the mechanisms of the National State in which they are protected by. An institution is a representation of various departments and one of them is the human resources area. If you support Aerolineas Argentinas in your group you would be accepting an indirect way of bullying.

Once again we would like to know your point of view in the matter.

“We” are the 3000 viewers from the blog and the 300 from Instagram. They are not only viewers, they are people that want to know.

Thank you very much for your time.

Best regards,

3000 viewers from iamtiredofsmilingatyou.blogspot.com and the 300 from instagram: iamtiredofsmilingatyou

(Y) Economy problems:

When a meal is being served and the idiotic passenger in front of you refuses to put his seat in the upright position.

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Window shades Dracula:

When you travel in an all day flight (the sun is out during all of your flying hours) in a long to extra long haul journey, passengers should be arrested if they try to open the window shades. The feeling when someone opens them is like if a thousand needles hit your eye ball, the nearest thing from a real Dracula. Advice: they should be automatically locked after take-off.

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Crew is not your friend:

When passengers start talking to me while I´m working in the gallery I want to tell them that: “I´m your crew; I´m not your best friend, not your cousin or either you home neighbor so don´t pretend that we are bff like Paris Hilton was to Nicole Richie before the sex tape”.

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Spot Alert: India, New Delhi International Airport by fashion_lawyer (Instagram account)

fashion_lawyer

Oh I lived this experience on the above mentioned Delhi trip. We had checked in online and printed our boarding passes. For some strange reason, they let us through the customs and stamped passports for exit. When we came to security, they have to stamp the boarding pass and it so turns out that they don't stamp printed ones, only old school ones. We were running short on time and were worried we would miss the flight but they allowed me to go back out and collect the old school boarding passes. That was not so easy because going in the wrong direction, everyone wanted an explanation to what was happening before letting me reverse one step. Finally I hear a Finnair uniformed woman speaking on her radio with what I think is security and she is walking with two old school boarding passes in her hand - I nearly jump on her with joy and she tells me she knew that we were checked in so she was waiting for us at the counter to come and collect them. Then she escorted us straight to the gate and we were the last peoe to board the plane. Needless to say, we would not have had this treatment had we not flown in business. They would have just let us miss. @iamtiredofsmilingatyou

fashion_lawyer

*people

fashion_lawyer

Oh and it's true about coming in to the terminal as well, and the same thing goes for Senegal. You know you can have a business ticket with a changed date and you have the original confirmation, they don't let you through. But my Delhi experience (once actually in) was an unexpected nightmare.@iamtiredofsmilingatyou

iamtiredofsmilingatyou

Lot's of passenger each day loose their flights in that airport. Not only is one of the most crowded airports in the world but also it has 6 different security check points. Also the fact that everything is managed by indians doesn't make things easier. They simply lack of education or interest in helping out the passenger and they get very easily offended (specially if they become nervous by the situation that they feel is going beyond there reach - situations that may be very common and frequent for any international airport). The best way is to be patient, very patinet and be at the airport prior 6 hours to your flight. Also depending where you are in the airport the VIP lounge could be in the middle of one of the security check points and once you went through that not very easily you can go back. So ask several times where is the lounge located as staff may provide different indication of where it actually is - advice: check beforehand, call in the Hotel to the airport and ask for the lounge so they may indicate you how to get there / or kindly ask concierge - guest service to do so. India is a very exotic destination to go but you have to be very aware of your surroudings, it's not like going to Bali.

iamtiredofsmilingatyou

@fashion_lawyer thank you for sharing you experience : )

fashion_lawyer

Haha you are so right about them getting offended while nervous! My best confusion in Delhi was going through security once. They saw a metal item in my hand bag and asked to take it out. It was my car key. "Lady, wott is dis?" "It's a car key" "A car?" "No, it's the key to my car" "We don see da car lady" "it's because I only carry the key with me" "oh key. Ookey oookey key. Ooookey lady". @iamtiredofsmilingatyou

iamtiredofsmilingatyou

Lol yeah...even crew sometimes have problems...do u mind if i post ur comment in the blog and facebook, putting your instagram account so people may know from your experience? @fashion_lawyer

fashion_lawyer

Please go ahead! Happy to amuse @iamtiredofsmilingatyou