My girlfriend should have been with me from Saturday with a flight from Schiphol Amsterdam airport in Holland, after the heavy snow both airports were screwed over. With KLM she is a silver member and so was moved to a later flight the same day because Heathrow informed everyone that they were closing the airport until 16:00 to clean the runways and get things running again. That was of course not the case and so then that rescheduled flight was cancelled as well, strangely Schiphol got just as much snow if not more than Heathrow and managed to sort it's act out, granted it is a smaller airport at lower capacity and so is more flexible. Later on after a long day for her Heathrow stated that it'd stay closed for all of Sunday too so KLM organised her a flight for 16:00 today, because people figured well a whole Sunday to clean up and de-ice when there isn't more snow coming should be enough. Heathrow's problem is and has been ice, clearing the stands which have planes parked at them takes time and the de-icing stuff isn't doing a great job, the north runway is open but without enough stands there isn't much they can do, the companies have to reshuffle their planes and crew around etc BUT KLM had their plane sorted and they had huge pressure on terminal 4 to clean their stands but simply terminal 4 was still not ready for them and so her flight today was cancelled too even though the plane can leave Amsterdam and can land at Heathrow, it has nowhere to go once landed... So cancelled woo. She's now sorted a ferry to come tonight and will be getting it, simple as that... and wont have her luggage with the Christmas presents she was to carry, her clothes and her medication/toiletries.
My huge problem is with Heathrow, not KLM because KLM has done well by her and have tried the best they could with the information they got from Heathrow and the trust they had in Heathrow, which they've now lost and just cancelled the rest of the day, they're very angry with Heathrow. KLM also jumped her past the huge queue for sorting luggage at Schiphol and have sorted that it'll be returned to her home in 2 weeks, what great service from KLM, shows that it's worth paying more for a good airline sometimes.
This has nothing to do with the ground crew and operations staff at Heathrow, they're WORKING THEIR SOCKS OFF!! Everyone there is working hard to clear what they can and they are working with what they have, it's amazing just how hard the staff at Heathrow are trying. The problem is not them, they should be commended for all their efforts, especially when people will try and blame them and they just work through it. The problem is those that are running BAA Heathrow and their naivety! Seriously, it was said last year that the weather patterns that gave us our winter last year will be repeated, and some airports acted on this information. Heathrow has bought equipment over the last few years yes, but they have not tooled up enough at all to deal with these conditions, if they had then they could deal with it a hell of a lot better. The argument is that this is a freak event for the UK and that the cost of the equipment etc could not be justified. Well after last year, it was observed that it'd be repeated so saying it's completely a freak event is ****. The cost of the equipment? Well let's see buying the equipment, maintaining the equipment, staffing it or training the staff, and storing the equipment and it's resources. Think of that cost over the cost of a year then see how much that'd be if it didn't snow for like 3 years, Heathrow would be out of loads of money, wow it makes great sense. Again the fact that the winters were widely said to be repeated still remains. Also Compare this cost to the cost of all the lost business, the overtime hours to those cleaning, the costs to all the passengers in terminals. Then add a huge indirect cost, loss in reputation and trust... major airliners were already pissed with the Heathrow, the way it was run and just how close to capacity it is. They've already been looking to reroute the flight connections to airports like Paris Charles de Gaulle which is still expanding in its use. While Paris CDG may not be dealing with the snow amazingly either, they can still attract airlines away from Heathrow and this can cost BAA Heathrow a huge amount. The media are gunning for Heathrow too due to just how badly they've handled it in their preparation. Heathrow is not flexible, they cannot move things around easily, they're near capacity and it's just completely inadequate with situations such as these. If you buy a nice house with nice things inside and live in a good area where crime is very low then you'd figure well burglary is unlikely, may as well not get contents insurance to cover theft, but what happens when you are burgled? No matter if it's likely or not the protection against it works out cheaper, whether it's in direct finance or it's in unquantifiable costs. I'm not sure if BAA Heathrow realise just how much a problem this is for them, they know they're at capacity and with Cameron cancelling the expansion they know they're inflexible! A hell of a winter was coming and it was reported from last year! Prepare better... and I'd be so damn interested to see the economists reports as to just how much Heathrow is likely to have lost due to direct and indirect losses and costs. I hope it's a huge slap in the face that shows them that the expensive cost of equiptment, maintenance and storage would have been worth it.
Christ I'm pissed and feel sorry for my girlfriend
now gotta find a way to get her from the port to here safely, ugh. Good luck to any of you that have to travel or have close people to you travelling. This is the only 2 weeks she gets off from Uni during the year excluding summer...
/end rant
My huge problem is with Heathrow, not KLM because KLM has done well by her and have tried the best they could with the information they got from Heathrow and the trust they had in Heathrow, which they've now lost and just cancelled the rest of the day, they're very angry with Heathrow. KLM also jumped her past the huge queue for sorting luggage at Schiphol and have sorted that it'll be returned to her home in 2 weeks, what great service from KLM, shows that it's worth paying more for a good airline sometimes.
This has nothing to do with the ground crew and operations staff at Heathrow, they're WORKING THEIR SOCKS OFF!! Everyone there is working hard to clear what they can and they are working with what they have, it's amazing just how hard the staff at Heathrow are trying. The problem is not them, they should be commended for all their efforts, especially when people will try and blame them and they just work through it. The problem is those that are running BAA Heathrow and their naivety! Seriously, it was said last year that the weather patterns that gave us our winter last year will be repeated, and some airports acted on this information. Heathrow has bought equipment over the last few years yes, but they have not tooled up enough at all to deal with these conditions, if they had then they could deal with it a hell of a lot better. The argument is that this is a freak event for the UK and that the cost of the equipment etc could not be justified. Well after last year, it was observed that it'd be repeated so saying it's completely a freak event is ****. The cost of the equipment? Well let's see buying the equipment, maintaining the equipment, staffing it or training the staff, and storing the equipment and it's resources. Think of that cost over the cost of a year then see how much that'd be if it didn't snow for like 3 years, Heathrow would be out of loads of money, wow it makes great sense. Again the fact that the winters were widely said to be repeated still remains. Also Compare this cost to the cost of all the lost business, the overtime hours to those cleaning, the costs to all the passengers in terminals. Then add a huge indirect cost, loss in reputation and trust... major airliners were already pissed with the Heathrow, the way it was run and just how close to capacity it is. They've already been looking to reroute the flight connections to airports like Paris Charles de Gaulle which is still expanding in its use. While Paris CDG may not be dealing with the snow amazingly either, they can still attract airlines away from Heathrow and this can cost BAA Heathrow a huge amount. The media are gunning for Heathrow too due to just how badly they've handled it in their preparation. Heathrow is not flexible, they cannot move things around easily, they're near capacity and it's just completely inadequate with situations such as these. If you buy a nice house with nice things inside and live in a good area where crime is very low then you'd figure well burglary is unlikely, may as well not get contents insurance to cover theft, but what happens when you are burgled? No matter if it's likely or not the protection against it works out cheaper, whether it's in direct finance or it's in unquantifiable costs. I'm not sure if BAA Heathrow realise just how much a problem this is for them, they know they're at capacity and with Cameron cancelling the expansion they know they're inflexible! A hell of a winter was coming and it was reported from last year! Prepare better... and I'd be so damn interested to see the economists reports as to just how much Heathrow is likely to have lost due to direct and indirect losses and costs. I hope it's a huge slap in the face that shows them that the expensive cost of equiptment, maintenance and storage would have been worth it.
Christ I'm pissed and feel sorry for my girlfriend
/end rant
