Just had the misfortune of travelling cattle class for 5 hours on the AIR 2000 flight from London/Luxor/London. The outward flight was not too bad, legroom seemed just about bearable for someone of 6’2”. Inbound though legroom seemed more restrictive and just to add insult to injury, the passenger in front was one of our ‘larger than life’ transatlantic cousins. Not only were my knees pummelled at the slightest movement, but after takeoff and once safe to do so, once the chair was put back what slight space there was disappeared completely. In a vain attempt to save further injury I stupidly positioned the left knee to the outside of the seat only to have it continuously battered by the trolley dollies without a word of apology or a simple ‘Sorry’.
During the flight there was no offer of water/juice/tea or coffee unless of course we were prepared to pay £1 for a 200ml bottle of mineral water or a 20ml can of cold drink. The only incentive for the trolley dollies was to screw as much out of the captive passengers by way of sales from the mini-bar. Apart from at meal time [stewed tea/coffee – if we were lucky and they did not run out] at no time were we offered free refreshments {our transatlantic cousin was reduced to sucking ice cubes for refreshment!}.
Meal time – after the wonders of Egyptian cuisine “bangers and mash”, what felt like a 3 day old bread roll and some pale yellow water, sorry custard and an appalling pastry [? Tests are still being conducted to establish what this was!]. Again passengers were beginning to ask for cold drinks, water, squash etc to be told that a) squash had finished and that b) water could be obtained from the mini-bar at a quid a shot. By now the trolley dollies were coming under some pressure…
The fun though had yet to start – the sale of duty free!!! With the exciting prospect of spending £35 or more and obtaining a ‘wonderful AIR 2000 knapsack’ you can imagine the intense atmosphere of anticipation. Oh what a deluded bunch we were. Cigarettes, sorry sold out. Whisky, sorry sold out. Gin, vodka etc sorry sold out. One poor passenger having parted with in excess of £35 on the way out to be told they had run out of knapsacks tried again on the return and again met with the now famous ‘sold out’. When pushing further the trolley dolly just gave him the address of customer services and advised him to write in!
People were by now tired, exhausted, thirsty, hungry and getting just that little bit towards the extreme p****d off state. Absolutely no concern from the trolley dollies apart from what could be seen as increasingly pinched faces.
Considering the air industry is in crisis, this company seems to have deliberately taken the attitude that a passenger is to be treated as worse than cattle and screwed for every penny possible without any regard to the welfare! Let’s hope that this one will not weather the storm and that the remaining airlines/charter companies start responding to customer needs and treat us like civilized persons!
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excellent op!
Eloquently written. Perhaps we need more opinions like this.
Well done!
belinda9 06.11.2001 22:01
I've just come back from USA with American Airlines, I must admit, every time I looked, they were coming round with drinks. All free throughout the flight. My mum and dads flight was even better, they went with British Midland, and they even had a chef onboard.
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Nov 6th, 2001
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