Why does security at LCY need to be so rude?

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)

  • Anonymous
    Guest

    Charles-P
    Participant

    I came through London City yesterday and once again witnessed utter rudeness from the security staff. It may be the airport has a poor training scheme, it could be the people themselves but whatever the reason they are clearly now the rudest security staff I have to deal with.

    I saw an elderly man being shouted at because he didn’t move fast enough, a couple with a baby spoken to like they were children because they had an issue folding their buggy and I was told to,
    “get that laptop out !” while I was in the process of doing exactly that.

    Considering that the majority of customers at London City are regular flyers who know what to do and need minimal supervision I can’t see that the job is a tough one so why the need to be so unpleasant ?

    It is perhaps inevitable that there are now a plethora of signs reading,

    “We have a zero tolerance policy regarding verbal assaults on staff”


    StephenLondon
    Participant

    I’ve always found the staff at LCY to be perfectly pleasant. I go through often enough that I’ve gotten to know some of them, and they give a warm welcome and have been pretty efficient at getting people through quickly.

    What I often witness is how rude passengers are to these staff members. The number of people that seem to go out of their way leaving tablets and liquids in their bags, metal in their pockets, etc., as if they’d never been through an airport before. When asked whether they have liquids in their bags, or a tablet, the customers get snippy with staff.


    AdzFlyer
    Participant

    Absolutely agree. Rudest staff in the UK.


    GrahamC
    Participant

    Although I have no problem with the security staff, LCY overall is a fairly unpleasant experience.

    For the benefit of anyone that hasn’t travelled via LCY recently, imagine a corridor running through a rundown 1970’s comprehensive school, cram several hundred travellers into the corridor then add a runway.


    SealinkBF
    Participant

    I have never found the security staff rude at LCY (whereas I refuse to fly from STN again as their staff are truly awful).

    However LCY on a Friday evening is deeply unpleasant – the well managed security queue was actually the best thing about it!


    JohnHarper
    Participant

    Since leaving the UK earlier in the year I must say that I now cringe at almost any airport in the UK because of the rude airport security staff. Compared to anywhere else I travel they are dreadful.

    LHR still tops my list as the worst although T2 is marginally better than the rest. I’ve also been to NCL, EDI, LCY and MAN, all awful. The exception is LGW where I’ve consistently found the standard of politeness and professionalist much higher than anywhere else in the UK, that’s not saying it’s great but they do not appear to be bristling for a confrontation as you approach them.

    I’m sure they think they are all doing a tremendous job. My position remains unchanged, if my safety in the air depended on UK security staff, I wouldn’t fly.


    PeterCoultas
    Participant

    JohnHarper +1: though my LGW experience was hardly good. Not only outbound security unnecessarily unpleasant but also inbound immigration, especially when transferring at LHR to internal UK flights.
    LCY used to be ok but its extra popularity with those of us trying to avoid LHR has meant a serious deterioration.


    Coldbat
    Participant

    If only we could all wear a giant hat reading “I’ve flown x number of times already this month, year, lifetime, I know what I am doing” this wouldn’t happen.

    In the defense of the mostly wonderful people whose job it is to keep us safe in the skies, they are trained to say the same thing to everyone. Unfortunately they cannot always identify us who actually speed the process up by doing the correct thing from the get go.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    I had seen a little improvement at Heathrow recently with the staff in the Fast Track channel.

    However, this morning, it was back to the usual rude staff. Or of course, it could have been due to going through BKK and HKG transit on my way back to Europe. The Asians have soooo much politeness – is there really a reason why UK airport staff could not provide the same degree of politeness…

    Why does the UK still insist on liquids out of the bag. I can only assume it is to be able to check the size of containers….


    AisleSeatTraveller
    Participant

    once these people don the uniform there is a power surge to the brain in their right little toe ……


    MrMichael
    Participant

    In defence of those people at security, it must be a pretty thankless task. Day after day these people on little more than the minimum wage have to root through people’s belongings looking for anything they might consider suspicious. These people are trained not unlike a widget making machine to operate within certain tolerances and to discard anything that does not fit. I imagine a few hours of that and the brain will be in the left toe as brain is not what is required. I don’t think they celebrate every day a flight leaves their airport without being blown out of the sky, it is what is expected, and what is normal. Imagine how they would feel if on their watch a flight did blow up over the North Atlantic….how would people on this forum feel. So while I too hate the mundane security checks I have to endure four times a week, I don’t get stressed about it but go with the flow knowing it is actually for my benefit. No need for rudeness by them, but I doubt customer service training is high on the agenda…..security and threat is. It is their managers that need to regularly do customer service journeys, that is how things will improve, and until they do, it won’t.


    BEYbrit
    Participant

    During the last 15 years of living overseas, I’ve noticed changes in my bi-annual visits to the UK.

    The Britain of my childhood (and early adulthood) is one where people smile and are polite and friendly.

    The last couple of times I’ve visited, I have left feeling depressed at how sullen, unsmiling, miserable and unfriendly everyone has become. In shops, in hotels, in restaurants. In the street, at the airport, at the train station.

    Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t find the UK a friendly place – and this upsets me!

    When did we become a nation of grumpy jobsworths who won’t go out of their way to smile or to help?


    esselle
    Participant

    If asked to award first prize for surly and aggressive security staff, I would give it to LPL.


    TiredOldHack
    Participant

    I’d give to to any US airport I’ve ever been through. Oddly, I’ve always found the immigration bods in the US to be charming and smiling. The TSA staff, though, physically and mentally, all seem to have been cloned from Orcs.

    What really pisses me off at security, though, is the sheer number of people and they mostly seem to be female), who hold the line up because they have ignored all the instructions about clear plastic bags, laptops, metal objects in pockets etc.

    On the way back from Miami, a week ago, the AA stewardess commented, when she handed back my jacket, on how heavy it was.I said: “That’s because it’s got everything in it – phone, money, keys, the lot, and I can just dump it through the scanner.”

    She nodded understandingly,.

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