[RichHI1]

Touched a nerve , huh?
Try using theses faciltiies (having prebooked) and see how long you have to wait. Also check out how many moving walkways and escalators and lifts/elevators are actually working.
We need to think of the elderly, those with small children and people with limited mobility who do not think of themselves as disabled and try to live a normal life.
There are solutions such as the elevated buses at IAD and MEX and the need to rebuild terminals to accomodate b gates so two narrowbodies and can use the stand of a heavy (A380 or 748i for example ). But it all costs money. Hoepfully the central area rebuild at LHR will reduce the problem.
Other airports make more use of towing aircraft in and out of gates to remote stands.
It took many years for LHR buses (and UK in general) to adopt kerb lowering for the disabled due to cost and all these things add cost which in these straightened times no one wants to hear.
LHR is not done on the cheap but the commercial imperative there means that if there is a debate about investment in adding stands or shops you know who will win.

[VintageKrug]

You meant to write “straitened times”.

[RichHI1]

More haste less speed…

[conair346]

Rich, yes you did touch a nerve.
Airport authorities annoy many of us. I’ve worked at two for a number of companies in a number of roles. Currently I’m at Manchester and their programme of removing travellators from the terminals to save energy is annoying, as it slows all passengers and staff down. Rather than removing them and wasting money why not refurbish and make them more efficient?

But to hint at entire airfield re-profiling just to save you the inconvenience of a few extra minutes to your aircraft is silly. Airports have more important things to contend with, like local enviornmentals campaigning against further expansion.

It would be lovely to have airports totally rebuilt but its unrealistic. Heathrow has grown from having 6 runways to just 2 and all its infrastructure is severely under pressure, to build more piers to serve the remote gates is just not feasible. Just as FRA has grown from a former military base it has had to make do with the existing ground facilities and improve where possible. To accommodate no busing at such airports would require closure and a total rebuild. Not very likely. Heathrow has tried its best with the once in a lifetime opportunity afforded by T5 and reconfiguring and refurbising the existing terminals without compromising the flows of aircraft around the airfield. Heathrow cannot afford to pander to your needs.

PRM’s are well catered for from my experience, Manchester airport employs OCS to take care of them. Belfast City has G4S, if you do not want their help by means of ambulift or guidance so be it, but do not demand that the whole airport be torn up just so you don’t have to live with it like the rest of us.

[DJ_London]

Ludicrous! Whether travelling in premium cabins or not, BA should provide one bus for all and save on the carbon emissions. There is no reason whatsoever that justifies providing a bus for say 20 Club Europe Passengers only and then bringing most probably another two busses for the remaining 110 of the aircraft. I travel Club Europe on all my business trips and I would not mind waiting five minutes for the bus to fill up.

[RichHI1]

It was not my intention to upset you. It appears we will have to agree to differ here. I do not ask for the airport to be torn up just some creative thinking as you exhibit with your travelator refurbishent idea. As long as we “live with it” things will not improve and I suspect those airports which proactively address issues will prosper both in other countries and in the UK.
PS Though I think buses should be dumped I agree a separate bus for Club Europe is a daft idea (seen it in some European airports too). The only time when it makes sense is if you are bussing a heavy and then it is a case of sending the bus when it is full rather than 1 bus for first, 1 bus for business and more buses for coach.(Unless it is a New First Bus :-))

[NTarrant]

DarrenJ – Pulling the environmental card is a bit like bolting the door after the horse has bolted. There is every reason to provide a seperate bus for premium passengers because if there was no bus then you would be first off the plane. You may be happy to wait five minutes, but there are a lot of us that don’t.

It is all part of being looked after as a premium fare passenger.

[DJ_London]

RichHi1 – this is a forum for friendly banter and debate… I don’t think you have upset anyone. We just have strong views!

NTarrant – I do agree with you to some extent. However, do you really think a separate bus for business customers is justifiable whether for environmental reasons or not especially when on some flights the cabin is empty with as little as 1 or 5 passengers onboard?

Though I am Gold Card holder, I would not expect the airline to put on a bus just for business class customers for the very few flights that are bussed to terminals.

Furthermore, and this is by no means a dig at you, but your views to me are that of a legacy Gold Card holder / BA customer, who believes that nothing is good enough for you and that on every flight the red carpet must be rolled out “just for you”… I see this behaviour at check-in, in the lounge, at the gate and onboard all the time, and it makes me so cross… While the product for business paying customers should be better… On this particular topic I have to disagree.

Going back to the post. Last week I took a Club Europe day trip to Barcelona and Frankfurt separately, I was one of 2 business passengers on the BCN-LHR and one of 10 or so on the FRA-LHR. Admittedly, we were not bussed and the outbound sectors were full, but if we were to have been bussed when I returned from BCN I would find it absurd for BA to put on a bus for me and one other customer. I just don’t think BA can justify this for the reasons I stated before and because of the additional cost (manpower, fuel, etc) this will incur. In the end we will all have to pay for it with higher fares and an even higher fuel surcharge!

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

“Ludicrous! Whether travelling in premium cabins or not, BA should provide one bus for all and save on the carbon emissions. “

Yes, one bus for a 747, they could arrange it like a train on the sub continent, with the steerage folks on the roof and hanging off the sides.

[RichHI1]

Now this would work well on the T5 train….and they could charge for tickets,,,

[DJ_London]

It is very rare that an arriving 747 will pull into stand on especially between 5am-9am or 6pm-10pm and now that T5C is open for business. You will find on the shorter routes such as CAI that you might be bussed out to a 747 and as you would expect there will no doubt be more than one bus… It is usually the short-haul flights that customers and bussed to/from and premium cabins on most of routes and capacity does not exceed 20 (give or take depending on aircraft type).

[RichHI1]

Apologies for off topic but I flew BA a lot in 2008 and 2009 and had many many flights from PVG and GRU bussed in both directions. The interesting fact is that MEX flights were never bussed. I inquired on one flight and was told that Customs and the Dog Unit would not meet the plane if it was not at a Gate. Never thought I would appreciate criminals…

[MartynSinclair]

boarding I agree 1 bus is all thats needed – after all the quicker the business passengers get on the aeroplane – doesnt not mean the quicker the aeroplane goes.

On arrival though, anything that enables the business class passenger speedier process through the airport, is one of the benefits he/she has paid the airline to provide.

[RichHI1]

Aside from my problem with steps, what really bugs me flying to and from Lisbon with the bus at T3 is not that one shares buses with Coach passengers but that one waits 5-10 minutes for the buses to arrive. If the buses were on stand when the plane arrived it would be so much better. I feel for the flightdeck who bust a gut to depart and arrive on time and you circle for half an hour over Crystal Palace or Epsom, then taxi to Terminal 1 and then wait 10 more minutes for the buses to arrive.

[NTarrant]

DarrenJ – I don’t expect red carpets but I do expect a certain standard of service when paying a premium fare. I’m not sure what you mean by a “legacy gold card holder”. Whilst I am a gold card holder, the level of executive club is imaterial when paying a premium fare for a journey.

One of my regular journeys from JER to LGW for the summer timetable arrives on an international stand and everyone is bused in. Sometimes the staff direct everyone on to the first bus so that it goes first, but inverably that does not happen so two buses arrive at the terminal and it is a scrum to go up long and steep staires, that is before negotiating the usual maze of twists and turns to get out. There are invarably five or six rows of CE, a head start is what paying a premium fare is all about.

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