We arrived at Geneva airport at 5:00am for our 6:15am flight to Sardinia. Typically this is sufficient advance time (at least based on Emilie’s arrival preferences – see my final post from Nice) and we figured that the early hour of our departure would reduce the check-in time required.
It turned out that we were wrong…very wrong. Upon entering the terminal there was a line for the Easyjet check-in that rivaled the worst Southwest Airlines queues at LAX. It seems that all of Western Switzerland was apparently departing early on Saturday morning…
Panic (at least for me) immediately set in. If we missed our flight, we were basically screwed. There was no back up flight or Plan B. If we weren’t able to get on the plane in time, then we’d be spending the holiday weekend at home while the nonrefundable cost of our flights and the hotel would simply add insult to injury.
As we struggled with the automated ticketing machine (it wouldn’t recognize any of my information), a warning was played over the loud speaker for our flight's final check-in, which apparently closed in five minutes. Yep, there was now no doubt that we were screwed. We didn’t even have our boarding pass and we still needed to check Emilie’s bag due to Easyjet’s hyper-restrictive carry-on rules. The queue alone would take 15 minutes.
And then a glimmer of hope came complements of the public address system: “Any passengers traveling to Lisbon or Olbia (Sardinia), please immediately go to check-in counter 1”. While that was the literal translation, I understood the underlying message:
For all of you unprepared and inconsiderate passengers who didn’t take the time to arrive early enough to check in properly, we are going to bail you out for no good reason and let you cut in front of all the respectful travelers who thoughtfully made the commitment to arrive on time for their flights.
Though I hate being that guy, if it meant being able to get on my flight then so be it.
It turned out that the razor thin margin on our “timely” check-in was not the final hurdle as the security line held us up further. As each minute passed and the line crept along at a snail’s pace, I continued to fear the worst. With every unnecessary delay, my patience wore thinner and thinner (yes, sir, you DO have to take your lap top out of your bag…no ma’am, you CANNOT take a 12oz bottle of hair spray in your carry-on luggage…).
After finally getting through security, the sprint began. Though Geneva airport is not large by international airport standards, it still required a good five minute sprint-jog to get to our gate. And we made it. The plane was in the final stages of boarding, but it was still boarding thankfully. A few passengers even boarded behind us, but not many. We had about five minutes to spare. Had we not made it, I think I would have cried. Seriously.
It turned out that we were wrong…very wrong. Upon entering the terminal there was a line for the Easyjet check-in that rivaled the worst Southwest Airlines queues at LAX. It seems that all of Western Switzerland was apparently departing early on Saturday morning…
Panic (at least for me) immediately set in. If we missed our flight, we were basically screwed. There was no back up flight or Plan B. If we weren’t able to get on the plane in time, then we’d be spending the holiday weekend at home while the nonrefundable cost of our flights and the hotel would simply add insult to injury.
As we struggled with the automated ticketing machine (it wouldn’t recognize any of my information), a warning was played over the loud speaker for our flight's final check-in, which apparently closed in five minutes. Yep, there was now no doubt that we were screwed. We didn’t even have our boarding pass and we still needed to check Emilie’s bag due to Easyjet’s hyper-restrictive carry-on rules. The queue alone would take 15 minutes.
And then a glimmer of hope came complements of the public address system: “Any passengers traveling to Lisbon or Olbia (Sardinia), please immediately go to check-in counter 1”. While that was the literal translation, I understood the underlying message:
For all of you unprepared and inconsiderate passengers who didn’t take the time to arrive early enough to check in properly, we are going to bail you out for no good reason and let you cut in front of all the respectful travelers who thoughtfully made the commitment to arrive on time for their flights.
Though I hate being that guy, if it meant being able to get on my flight then so be it.
It turned out that the razor thin margin on our “timely” check-in was not the final hurdle as the security line held us up further. As each minute passed and the line crept along at a snail’s pace, I continued to fear the worst. With every unnecessary delay, my patience wore thinner and thinner (yes, sir, you DO have to take your lap top out of your bag…no ma’am, you CANNOT take a 12oz bottle of hair spray in your carry-on luggage…).
After finally getting through security, the sprint began. Though Geneva airport is not large by international airport standards, it still required a good five minute sprint-jog to get to our gate. And we made it. The plane was in the final stages of boarding, but it was still boarding thankfully. A few passengers even boarded behind us, but not many. We had about five minutes to spare. Had we not made it, I think I would have cried. Seriously.
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