+1 for truth right here. I’ve traveled over a million lifetime miles and FRA is one place that confused the hell out of me every time I go through it (esp the schengen/non-schengen areas)
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Some of that is already done through certain airline apps. Delta and United are pretty good about it, for example (though why they send me a notification to tell me my flight has landed, I will never understand – I’m on the plane, I was one of the first few hundred people in the world to know the flight had landed, and I’m not supposed to have my phone turned on at that moment anyway!).
But even for those who have a smart phone, it’s not unusual for a battery to die during travel, or for the free airport wifi to suck (or to be non-existent – I know several airports where the only free wifi is the fancy-pants lounges and the poors have to pay or do without). Turning on international data roaming can be an expensive way to keep tabs on information that can be provided for free with, say, an announcement or an information screen. And I really don’t want to have to install a separate app for each airport I travel through.
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I suspect, then, that you’ve never flown Ryanair, though it’s more running of the bulls than pomp and circumstance. Followed by near-constant announcements at ear-splitting volume trying to sell you food, drinks, credit cards, duty-free, even lottery tickets. The CEO once even publicly contemplated charging to use the toilets. But it’s super cheap, which I guess is why people put up with it (and why Ryanair does what they do).
Other European discount airlines follow many similar practices, but none (at least in my experience) pushes the hard sell or the volume on the announcements as far as Ryanair does.
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Perhaps there’s more difference between the discount airlines and the “full-service” ones in Europe than in the US. We still theoretically have “low-cost carriers” and “full-service carriers” here, but the actual experience of flying on them (for domestic routes anyway) is nearly indistinguishable. The distinction is more in the size and design of their route networks.
Endure the 30 second ad and be rewarded with this classic:
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I admit it - I’m a monster. I even tut loudly when people insist on standing on the left-hand side of the Underground escalators.
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I like these too but they’re only good for people with sight. My husband used to travel a lot and he said the text push alerts from the airlines work great. I assume that texts are adapted for the visually impaired?
For sure. I wouldn’t mind the noise except that the announcements are completely unintelligible anyway, so they are adding no information. I struggled with them in my 20s, and now in my late 40s I don’t even take my headphones out because I know I can no longer distinguish the din. Unfortunately, though, in-airport signage is also always terrible. Many times I have nearly missed a flight because they moved the gate and didn’t update the at-gate displays.
I’m turning into a cranky old lady way ahead of schedule, it seems.
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I never trust the info up on the monitors. I’ve found out up to 30mins ahead of time of plane delays and gate changes directly from the airline’s website when the monitor showed everything was normal. And like you i actively ignore the announcements because its impossible to discern announcements pertaining your gate/flight with everything else.
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