In August 2022 I was traveling 2 weeks in Europe and begin September I did fly back from Schiphol Airport to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. And I did fly with EVA Airways. This is a Just Back Report about my very bad experience with EVA Airways ground staff from EVA Airways at Schiphol Airport for flight BR0076. This is not only as a complaint to EVA Airways and Schiphol Airport but also as warning for people currently going to fly with EVA Airways from Schiphol Airport.
In short : Flying was as usual but check-in and boarding at Schiphol Airport was a bloody disaster! Following is the long story.
So I took the train and as there were strikes going on at the trains I left early and I duly arrived very early at Schiphol Airport. I first did some shopping and then I went to the check-in counter of my flight. This was at 17:30.
For your information : The counter would open 3 hours before flight, as my flight was scheduled at 21:30 the counter would open at 18:30. But I arrived at the check-in counters already at 17:30 (that is 4 hours before flight!). Due to all kind of shortage of staff Schiphol Airport has been a mess in the past months, so many people now arrive very early. Although that also again creates problems of overcrowding at the airport. So actually Schiphol Airport is recommending not arrive too early, to prevent chaos & overcrowding.
When I arrived at 17:30 there was already a cue that was blocking a part of the departure hall. Mind you this flight can accommodate 396 people. And I think about 300 people were already in cue. So yes, I could have joined that cue and then I would have been cue number between 300 and 350. I had already checked-in on-line so theoretically I only had to drop-off my luggage. But there was no drop-off counter. This was probably due to the fact that staff also had to check vaccination proof.
For your information : The counter will open 3 hours before and close 1 hour before (normally staff will then proceed to the gate for boarding assistance). So everybody knows (incl. EVA Airways) that staff has 2 hours to check-in 396 people (flight was fully booked). At 4 min per check-in you will need 7 staff to do all check-in in 2 hours time. But there were between 5 and 2 staff doing the check-in!
But I did not cue at 17:30 but I came back at 19:30 and I thought the cue would be at least 50% gone. But I was wrong! Very wrong! At that moment (19:30) there were only 5 staff doing the check-in. And 2 of them were only doing the Priority guests. When they were done with all Priority guests they left the check-in counters. So now only 3 staff were left (I think this must have been about 19:45). Then later 1 more staff left, so now there were only 2 staff left. Joke? No! I think this must have been about 20:15. About 30 min later 1 extra staff came, so now there were again 3 staff working. And one management guy in suit was watching this disaster. If they would not have delayed the flight by 1 hour then about 80 people would have missed their flight!
Must be said the extra guy that came to help with check-in had a brilliant idea. He told the management guy to check the vaccination proof of all people still cueing. So now at the check-in they did not have to check that anymore and that did speed up the all process. Maybe they could have done that at the beginning? Just an idea!
Mind you the flight was scheduled to leave at 21:30 and start boarding at 21:00. But at that time people still had to check-in! I think at 21:00 there were still about 40 people waiting for check-in! But the joke continues .... I finally checked-in and behind me were even some other people. I think this must have been about 21:15.
But then you will have to walk a long way to get to the security check (dear management of Schiphol what are you doing?). At security check of the 15 body scanners only 2 were used. And there was a cue with waiting time of 10 min to 15 min. Normally no problem but when you are at the point of missing your flight even waiting 1 min is long. Again, dear management of Schiphol what are you doing?
With a group of about 20 people about to be missing their flight due to mis-management of EVA Airways you would think that they would do everything to help you to speed up going to the gate. But no help at all.
After security check we had to walk a little bit to immigration check and again of the about 20 counters only 2 were open. There was a cue with 10 min waiting time. Again normally no problem but when you are at the point of missing your flight even waiting 1 min is long. And again, dear management of Schiphol what are you doing?
Then the biggest joke of EVA Airways ... the management guy had assisted a guest in wheelchair and was after the immigration check point. That is the point where you have to start walking to the gate. And that gate is almost at the far most point you could think of. The management guy screams to me "You have to run to the gate, they are looking for your luggage already"! I was in a bloody hurry but I was thinking "Could you not have arranged a golf-car to bring people to the gate?'. So I did run as fast as I could but my legs are not so well anymore. Almost more dead as alive I did make it to the gate and the airplane. I think behind me was still one other person.
You would think that EVA Airways would make excuses for having limited staff and not enough time to complete the check-in at orderly fashion? Hahahaha no of course not! So we left the gate and then nothing, then we did ride a bit and again nothing. Probably waiting for a slot to get airborne. Finally we were airborne about 1 hour after scheduled time!
EVA Airways knew how many people had to check-in. They did also know that they had limited staff. And they did also know they would not be able to do check-in for 396 people within the time of 2 hours. So they knew that there was a big chance that people would be missing their flight. But they only thing they did was delaying the flight.
I think there would have been a few things they could have done :
- Start earlier with check-in
- Train office staff (up-to the management and CEO) to do check-in
- Check vaccination proof before check-in
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| Check-in at 20:47 |
At photo above you see that officially the counters are closed already (see screen above the counters). At this moment there were 3 staff working and 1 management guy in suit watching). At the photo above and directly under you can also see that at least 50 to 70 people still have to check-in.
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| Check-in at 20:49 |
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| Check-in at 21:07 |
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| Security check at 21:29 |
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| Security check at 21:34 |
Disclaimer : All information is created in good faith and is an expression of fair comment.
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