Do you prefer silent airport lounges & terminals with no announcements?

[AFF Editor]

Pros & Cons of Silent Airport Lounges & Terminals is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Pros & Cons of Silent Airport Lounges & Terminals

Many airports and airport lounges no longer make any announcements. Is the silent airport trend a good one, or does it come with downsides?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[tdimdad]

I like the silent and therefore calmer terminals. But do wish that what's taken away from the audio announcements is replaced by more prominent visual ones. It'd be easy to configure displays to enlarge or otherwise highlight the flights which are ready to board or coming up e.g. in the next 30 mins. And then place the displays so that you can easily find one and keep monitoring it, if you so wish.

I sometimes use phone or watch alarms to prompt me to check on whether it's time for the gate soon. Also, timing e.g. eating or shower so that they form natural prompts works well for me (e.g. I'll eat at 11:30 for about 30 mins, then shower at around 12:00, just suitable for the 13:00 flight).

 

[Kremmen]

I like peace and quiet, but I believe the trade-off is definitely worth it. If a single person out of 300 misses boarding, that means the whole plane gets delayed 15 mins while they offload luggage. Being disturbed by boarding calls is worth it, especially in a lounge, because the lounge staff know when the plane is really boarding, as opposed to the "boarding" annotation that sometimes appears on airport monitors sometimes long before boarding actually starts.

As for "you’re trying to relax or perhaps even make a phone call" in the article, that's the noise we can do without! Send an SMS or go make your phone call outside. It's 100 times longer and more intrusive to others than a boarding call.

 

[SkyMogul]

I think Changi has the right idea with boarding announcements at the gate areas only. In larger airports there's no point making announcements for flights which may be at the other end of the terminal. Also most people have airline or 3rd party apps which give updated notification on everything from delays to baggage tracking.

Although in smaller airports there should probably still be announcements for pax who have gone for a wonder and lost track of time as these can still impact operations and possibly cause delays.

I think there needs to be a balance between important announcements and not announcing everything.

 

[MollyJones]

With most (all) airlines and airports now using apps, I would prefer phone based notifications. It is easy to connect to the free airport wifi, even if not in a lounge or travelling in a premium class.
The problem I find with many announcements is that they are often muffled, hard to decipher and the more there are, well, the more I tend to miss (ignore).
Quiet airports would be a winner for me.
Now, if airports could change their lighting to something less theme park, that would be another sensory improvement.

 

[SYD]

I did find myself running to a QF flight from the QF SIN lounge a few years ago when I noticed it was on “Final Call”… For lounges that are only catering for a few flights, it probably would make sense to call flights IMHO.

 

[vt01]

Having been caught out by Silent announcement when Ansett was around, I'm still for no announcements BUT then they must page a passenger or contact them by phone if they are about to miss their flight. I only had carry on so it was very easy for Ansett to just have the flight depart without me. No attempt made to contact me.
If flight's are delayed, I would prefer an announcement.

 

[dajop]

You know what would be nice, given that it's 2023 ... a web cam or 2 livestreamed for each boarding gate area. So you can see and judge when boarding is actually beginning and not relying on an announcement, departure board status, SMS or App.

 

[straitman]

This happened to us in Oct this year in the QF Business lounge at MEL International. The announcements, the boards and the staff all got it wrong. FAIL!

On arrival we only about 20min time available because of our late domestic arrival. We had a quick snack and prepared to go to the gate. The staff told us not to rush and they would call us.
When nothing happened and still being concerned a little while later I asked the lounge desk staff about boarding as the boards were not being updated.
They said it’s delayed don’t worry we will call you.

Here is the problem though.

A few minutes later I got a telephone call from the gate asking where we were as everyone else was onboard. We raced down to the gate and were last on board. Fortunately, it was a short walk to the gate, and we were in row 6 so a short walk of shame.

Boarding calls seemed to be totally hit and miss and the boards the same.

 

[justinbrett]

Considering half the time you get a boarding call in a lounge, you walk into the terminal and notice your flight is on final call, and when you get to your gate you notice it’s not even boarding yet.

Most international lounges are silent, I prefer them. The airline apps seem to be the most reliable source.

 

[Keanie]

I like the silent approach. Given the technology today why can't they light up the board, eg bright green when it's time to board? Or ten minutes before. It's easy given the tech in the phones we all use.
Looking through large quantities of flights can be a pain.

 

[MMB]

I tend to spend most of my travel in Economy class. Now if something could be done about kids running around and people listening to their devices without headphones. I think announcements are the least of the issue.

 

[elanshin]

I find that silent is better IF there is a good a source of information elsewhere. It can be quite annoying if you see your boards light up as everything is ok, you go to the gate then stand around for an hour while they troubleshoot something.

Or other times when nothing has updated on the boards or app, but somehow google has it updated and showing a mssive delay. Lo and behold when it comes to the original boarding time your mobile boarding pass now shows delay but the boards still say it's all ok.

I guess it's all up to whether there's accurate information available or not.

 

[flyerof]

Pros & Cons of Silent Airport Lounges & Terminals is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Pros & Cons of Silent Airport Lounges & Terminals

Many airports and airport lounges no longer make any announcements. Is the silent airport trend a good one, or does it come with downsides?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

i dont mind a silent lounge as long as they come and wake me up

 

[docjames]

100% prefer silent. All airlines, all lounges.

Agree - issues with lounge announcements for “now boarding” (arrive at gate: boarding not under way) or missed announcements (people don’t follow the boards and the staff forget to announce then suddenly it’s final call).

 

[flyerof]

100% prefer silent. All airlines, all lounges.

Agree - issues with lounge announcements for “now boarding” (arrive at gate: boarding not under way) or missed announcements (people don’t follow the boards and the staff forget to announce then suddenly it’s final call).

missed announcements are the biggest worry as the accountability if flight is missed is on the passenger.

 

[Kremmen]

With most (all) airlines and airports now using apps, I would prefer phone based notifications. It is easy to connect to the free airport wifi, even if not in a lounge or travelling in a premium class.

That is not uniformly true. There are airports (esp. in the Middle East) where you can't. Even if you can, I've flown on over 50 airlines. I don't want 50 extra apps on my phone and they wouldn't fit anyhow.

 

[jrfsp]

With most (all) airlines and airports now using apps, I would prefer phone based notifications. It is easy to connect to the free airport wifi, even if not in a lounge or travelling in a premium class.
The problem I find with many announcements is that they are often muffled, hard to decipher and the more there are, well, the more I tend to miss (ignore).
Quiet airports would be a winner for me.
Now, if airports could change their lighting to something less theme park, that would be another sensory improvement.

No issue with an app approach, but not the QF app approach for boarding "See monitors"

 

[JohnK]

Announcements please!

 

[Ade]

I can't make up my mind re silent or non-silent airports. I think there can't be a right answer in this regard.

I understand that there are apps that update pax re whats happening (they all require an active internet connection etc - you are overseas and not sure if turning on your mobile data will charge you heaps $ for roaming, or you don't know how to connect to the airport wifi), there are display boards with flight status/info, there are also announcements at gates etc ... but I see a lot of pax that look lost, even with announcements going on ... this month at SIN International and even in CBR domestic, there we a couple of pax that looked lost and did not know what to do and where to go. I asked if they needed help and they were happy that I did ... Granted such pax a very minority, number-wise, but they are still there and I'm not sure if announcements would have helped them, but the pax did ask why nothing is announced (or something to that effect)

OTOH, those that are used to travelling a lot, those are cognitive enough to understand that they need to use the display boards, mobile apps etc as a guide to take them to the right place at the right time, those that are able to ask for assistance (to connect their phone to wifi, as an example) etc - will be alright in a silent airport, other pax may not ...

Pax from certain regions of the world may be used to announcements and not having one might disorient or disengage them for a bit before they realise that they need to start looking for something else other than announcements to get them to where they need to go ...

Again, I can't make up my mind and I see that there are cases on for/against on both sides ...