Well this is it.......inaugural post on this forum after quietly lurking for almost a year, just plucking up the courage.....
Yesterday was also the first time I had flown Air Pacific to Fiji and experienced what can only be described as total mayhem at the FJ check in counters at Sydney Airport. Traveling in J I whipped through the check in but was amazed to see about 300 people in the Y queue with 25 mins to boarding time.
At the QC I asked if they thought boarding would be delayed and they said no this was just "Fijian time" and all would be good. Sure enough the boarding call announcement was on time and I made my way to the gate. Once safely ensconced in my J class seat in the nose of the 747 I was oblivious to all that was happening down yonder..........However all was not well and after an hour of sitting, sans alcohol an announcement was finally made by the captain stating that the outsourced ground staff were struggling with the large amount of excess luggage being brought by the islanders to take home for Xmas and there was still another 150 passengers to be processed at check in.
It was only then that the FA's started beverage service to keep the passengers happy. Twenty minutes later there was another apologetic announcement from the coughpit stating that the outsourced staff still had 47 passengers to process and there would be further delay. Two hours after scheduled take off we were on our way.
Well in retrospect I should have trusted my gut instinct and stayed put in the Qantas lounge and defied the boarding call. What would have been nice was for there to have been improved communication between ground staff at check in and those at the air bridge so that the boarding call could have been delayed. Probably too much to ask because it seemed to me that Air Pacific crew wanted us to remain captive onboard to stop anybody going missing in the duty free hall or imbibing too much at the QC.
So Bula to you all, it's raining big time here in Nadi this afternoon so finally some time to write my first post. Does anybody know who is responsible for FJ check in coz their reputation sure got trashed on the plane yesterday??
Yesterday was also the first time I had flown Air Pacific to Fiji and experienced what can only be described as total mayhem at the FJ check in counters at Sydney Airport. Traveling in J I whipped through the check in but was amazed to see about 300 people in the Y queue with 25 mins to boarding time.
At the QC I asked if they thought boarding would be delayed and they said no this was just "Fijian time" and all would be good. Sure enough the boarding call announcement was on time and I made my way to the gate. Once safely ensconced in my J class seat in the nose of the 747 I was oblivious to all that was happening down yonder..........However all was not well and after an hour of sitting, sans alcohol an announcement was finally made by the captain stating that the outsourced ground staff were struggling with the large amount of excess luggage being brought by the islanders to take home for Xmas and there was still another 150 passengers to be processed at check in.
It was only then that the FA's started beverage service to keep the passengers happy. Twenty minutes later there was another apologetic announcement from the coughpit stating that the outsourced staff still had 47 passengers to process and there would be further delay. Two hours after scheduled take off we were on our way.
Well in retrospect I should have trusted my gut instinct and stayed put in the Qantas lounge and defied the boarding call. What would have been nice was for there to have been improved communication between ground staff at check in and those at the air bridge so that the boarding call could have been delayed. Probably too much to ask because it seemed to me that Air Pacific crew wanted us to remain captive onboard to stop anybody going missing in the duty free hall or imbibing too much at the QC.
So Bula to you all, it's raining big time here in Nadi this afternoon so finally some time to write my first post. Does anybody know who is responsible for FJ check in coz their reputation sure got trashed on the plane yesterday??
