Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
General Topics => All things that have nothing to do with Turkey => Topic started by: Scunner on October 10, 2011, 20:58:29 PM
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From reading Rimm's topic it appears we all agree that Dalaman Airport is, on the whole, crap. But surely amongst us there are numerous examples of airports elsewhere that do something worse :)
I'll kick off with Puerto Plata aiport in the Dominican Republic, who beat Dalaman's charging for luggage trolleys by allowing a huge angry mob of strangers to almost physically prise your suitcase from your grasp while demanding money for carrying it 30 metres to your vehicle.
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Tunisia was not much fun. Spent so long in queues that had to rush into duty free like I was on a trolley dash.
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I am not at all well travelled but Sumburgh Airport does seem to have more than it's fair share of jobsworths per square metre:(
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Even worse thsn Puerto Plata is Mytilene airport in Lesbos. When we were there there was only 1 departure lounge for 4 flights? It didn't even have enough seats for 1 flight let alone 4 and they were the old wooden ones :(
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Very similar situation in Zakynthos (Zante) airport last time we were there. Jokingly referred to as 'Thunderbirds are Go' by the tour reps. Again, queuing outside to check in, struggling to get to check in desks for the arrivals coming in opposite direction! Again, one small deparure lounge for all the flights. And a long walk to the plane, one time in pouring rain! :)
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As I briefly mentioned in Rimm's topic - Rhodes airport is awful - dozens of queues at dozens of check in desks, everyone appears to do as instructed - be there two hours before departure but it seems that no desks open till about an hour before - so the check in hall is absolutely heaving with people standing in a queue going nowhere. Once your desk does open you slowly get to the front but there is no luggage check in - everyone queues up again at a huge bag drop queue. Once through, it doesn't get any better - there's almost nowhere to sit and people are lying all over the floor - it looks like a war massacre scene :-\
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Santorini, where 2 flights arrived at the same time & a single luggage carousel that was barely big enough for half a flight. The people whose cases were on the belt couldn't get near for the rest of the crowd. Result around 10 passengers stood at the belt calling the names from the tags & cases were passed over heads until they reached their owners.
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Dabolim aiport Goa India and also Bombay India
Talk about jobsworths!! Entrance to Airport you must show ticket to Guard before allowed anywhere near doors, then security screening, but only through your own airlines scanner, all hold luggage must then have a security seal on. Proceed to check in ,Big queues all merging into each other, while waiting, fill in embarking form to be handed in at passport control,, Much later!!,
Hand tickets etc over at check in desk, suitcase has seal, check, handbag, hand luggage, carrier bag, anything not to be checked in should have had a tag and stamped by security earlier, So if you didnt get done same time as checked in stuff they will supply but with lots of the nodding of heads Indian style, bit like the old nodding dogs.
I am not racist My late husband was Indian
Proceed with boarding cards to passport control, a big Big queue. Just as you near the front theres a tannoy announcement to let all the people who have been held up checking in etc has priority as flight departing, so back to end of queue
Customs asking where you are travelling to, Turkey I said, but you dont have Visa, the reply, But I dont need, I have Residency Visa and anyway I could buy visa in Turkey, I said. 30 minutes and much more nodding of heads later they let you through
Get tags on bags stamped again and passport looked at.
Queue again for another security check Go into a booth for a scan and hand baggage x rayed, ladies get a private booth. Men just the usual wand waved over them in public, any lighters in bags confiscated
Enter lounge and the hand luggage tags are scutinised and stamped again. Buy new lighter, or maybe its a second hand one confiscated earlier! who cares by then, Phew Nearly there
Flight called, Go to gate, Another look at tags on bags and stamped.
Another security search Ladies in Booths. Men in queue, they dont seem to worry at this point that you have obtained a new lighter and have that in your bag Stamp tags on bags again!
Out onto runway where they wave you in a vague direction where your plane is, ok . But can be confusing when you are on Monarch and there are 2 Monarch planes sitting there
Sit on a boiling plane for 30 minutes minimum While people are wandering around shouting, wheres this plane going??
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Some years ago I flew out of Fair Isle " international " airport. No crowds , no duty free to fret about and the landing strip shared with cows and skylarks. One Land- Rover fire appliance of mature years and one passenger " lounge " of the tin variety boasting one sofa,two wooden chairs, table plus visitors book.For nervous fliers an Elsan was provided and for the even more nervous, a Bible.What a change from the norm. Happy days ! You can keep your Dalamans etc.!
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That's weird. A gentleman I work with alot made that trip recently. Had the seat next to the pilot:D
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quote:
Originally posted by Highlander
I am not at all well travelled but Sumburgh Airport does seem to have more than it's fair share of jobsworths per square metre:(
Agree with H - not a nice place to get stuck at, but luckily it has not been busy the times I have been there.
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I obeyed the written instructions on the wall, took may laptop out of its case and put it on top of same.
Not good enough for this muppet who wanted the laptop and case in separate trays:(
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Yeah I think you mentioned something about that on page 1 Jules
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quote:
Originally posted by Scunner
Yeah I think you mentioned something about that on page 1 Jules
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The internet or my computer is playing up and running slow Wrong link posted Sorry!! have deleted!!
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Many years ago we flew in and out of Geneva Airport on a ski holiday. The round of 4 drinks at the airport was soooooo expensive we had to pay on credit card!
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I hope the holiday wasn't all downhill from there.
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Luxor airport. We were amongst several flights that poured in at once due to landing lights being off earlier and planes stacking. We queued for hours to get out, crammed in like sardines in what seemed like a glorified cattle shed. Made a rush hour dolmus seem quite roomy and comfortable!
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I may be in a minority, but I do not find Dalaman airport too bad, apart from the ridiculous prices of the food and drinks. Some of the worst airports I've been to are mostly the Greek islands, Rhodes, Corfu and Crete, also Naples in Italy was totally chaotic and also Cairo.
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I find the level of customs checks to be very good at Dalaman (i.e. next to none :D ) - I have always had a "something to declare" face I think and if one person a day at an airport got stopped it would be me. I even once got stopped at Gatwick after a flight from Dalaman and was asked how long I intended staying in the United Kingdom!!!
But for places worse than Dalaman, as the topic asks, when it comes to customs checks I nominate Abu Dhabi Airport in Emirateshire. The only place where I have been pulled over and had my bags searched twice in the same customs hall.
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Changing planes in Brussels Airport is no fun - especially if your first plane is late. The Arrivals wing is a huge distance from Departures - which may be sited in Holland for all I know.
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A true commutor flight from a lake in Sweden to Stockholm
A small airfield by a lake and steel mill in Sweden.About 50 people milling about a small building which was locked.30 mins before plane departure, a car drives up. two people alight. Doors are unlocked, we are ushered in, our tickets were checked, our baggage weighed. The plane left on time.
As the plane left, the airport was locked up again (keeps the local moose out apparantly)
All airports should be like this
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I once took a flight from Kristiansand in Norway to Copenhagen. I had been attending a conference and some of our Norweigen hosts came to the airport to wave goodbye. I checked our tickets to ensure the three of us travellers had been put close together. One of the conference hosts said "Oh you have been allocated seats! That's unusual". To which I had to reply "What do you usually have to sit on - beer crates?". Yes, yes, very silly - but I get that way.
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It was a few years ago,before the Iron Curtain came down,that I found myself having to get a flight from Odessa in the Crimea(former Soviet Republic)to Frankfurt in West Germany.The Aeroflot bomber,which I am convinced it was,was sitting on the runway and I was herded aboard with a group of German tourists who had had their cruise around the Black Sea terminated due to Chernobyl nuclear power station trying to burn its way through to Australia.As I tried to find my designated seat on the alraedy full plane ,I spotted a young lady who I had not had a chance to say goodbye to come towards me with a huge bunch of flowers."BEEELLLL"she said in the Russian way of pronouncing Bill,"You did not say goodbye".How the heck did you get on the plane I asked her,"Is no problem,i went to school with guard on gate"Thats how things worked then,Its not what you know,its who you know.This series of eyeopeners contnued when I found I had no actual seat to sit in."Niet Problem" said the Senior Commandant,sorry stewardess,a deckchair ,complete with stripy fabric was produced and placed behind the pilots door and at take off I slid backwards down the centre aisle.Can this get more surreal I thought.YES.The stewardess then came round and asked if we would like a drink.If you said"DA",thinking that a welcome G&T might be coming your way,you were quickly disillussioned. You were given the communal plastic glass and water was poured from a jug into it.The warder,sorry stewardess, then stood and waited while you drank it before moving on to the next victim,sorry passenger.These days with Thomas Cook,Monarch,etc.looking after us I wonder how I ever made it through the 20th Century without Health and Safety looking after me. Bill.
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Great Story Bill!
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My least favorite airports are Charles de Gal, O'hare, LAX and Heathrow. All absolute nightmares especially Charles de gal with its rude and arrognat french lot.
Barcelona one of my favourites.
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I flew into Charles de Gaulle by British Airways from London to meet a French colleague and then to continue with Air France to Lyon. The BA flight was late. BA and AF are not best chums and seem not to talk to each other. I asked a steward if it possible to contact AF to hold for 10 minutes tp give us a chance of maling the connection. He did one of those breathing-in-deeply-between-clenched-teeth-and-making-a-whoosing-sound things, sadly shook his head and said "Air France? Blimey, you'd be lucky". I ended up galloping from Arrivals to Departures - only to find the AF flight was delayed 20 minutes on takeoff. So, beathless, I met up with my colleague.
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what is the airport at lanzarote like
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Constanza(Romania)in 1980. Never heard of it ? I don't think our pilot had either, bloody plane dropped like a stone with 10 Minutes to arival, I seriously thought we'd had it. When we arrived, I wish we had. What a sh**hole. No bloody wander they're all over here.
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Has to be Rio de Janeiro, especially if you arrive from another South American country. Once landed there never seems to be an air bridge available so you get all the crush of a bus.
Once in the terminal you must then queue for the medical police who will check to see you have had yellow fever jabs. If not you will then stand in another queue for said jab for which you will pay $50. Once through there you will then queue for immigration. Being a major international airport there are of course a dozen immigration slots but only one is manned.
Once through you must then use telepathy to find out where your luggage is. Once you have that then you can contemplate the transfer flight. You will have to form an orderly queue at the airport tax desk. Of course there is only one of these and it is not sign posted. Unless you have done the journey a number of times you will only find out about the airport tax desk after having queued at your allotted check-in desk only to be told you cannot check in until you have paid your taxes.
Taxes paid, you can then queue at check-in (again) and then proceed to domestic departures which is miles away and requires using a telepathic sense of direction. You arrive at the gate to find you have missed your connection but the next bit almost makes the rest seem ok. The gate staff simply said "don't worry why dont you just get on that plane instead?" "I don't have a boarding pass for that plane, my luggage is now on the plane that has left and its a different airline" says I. "Don't worry, this happens all the time. Just grab any seat and tell them Fabiano sent you!"
I get on to find one seat available so take it waiting to be challenged but find that the doors are quickly closed and we are off. I am not on the manifest unless Fabiano has let them know. I arrive at Curitiba to find I now need to track my luggage down. My luggage is in a quiet corner of the hall having clearly been tampered with. Anything of value having now been removed.
I know since 9/11 this could not happen but I assure you in 1997 it certainly did. The place is/was a bloody nightmare!
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In the late nineties I worked in Nigeria (you know where this is going all ready dont you). I flew out of Lagos airport several times, the international flights could be interesting, what with some of security staff trying to scam money out of you for whatever they thought they could, then sitting on the floor (there were no chairs of any description) in the dark with no air con (the electric had gone off, quite normal for Lagos). When the departure gate changed this was announced by a gentleman from the staff telling one or two people on the edge of the herd, of the one hundred and something there, and hoping that they would tell everyone else - still in the total dark dont forget! Arriving could be even more fun, with the local thieves running onto the runway and robbing suitcases from the holds of taxiing planes! Then the company 'security adviser' 'guided' you through passport and customs to stop you being ripped off for something!
Internal flights, well, all I can say is that the Foreign office advised against traveling on internal flights at any time, and the staff, systems, seating arrangement make Ryan air look positively pleasent, in fact they make Micheal Leary look good!
On the up side the CEO of the company and I ware late catching a flight, by the liberal use of wads of cash the flight was held up for us for approx 15 mins, the looks from the passengers already on the plane, (with no aircon and the door open) was not particulary pleasent either!
Oh well beat working for a living!