HT From Germany, joined May 2005, 6475 posts, RR: 26 Posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 4 days ago) and read 6925 times:
Is there anybody elso who thinks that many of the generic, recorded announcements made in airports are just annoying ?
Examples:
Last Friday evening I got stuck at HOU for almost 5 hours and about every 10 minutes they would repeat the same trailer with some shrieking voices on the TV-screens in departure area promoting their (new ?) website www.fly2houston.com.
When I connected through HOU 3 days later I instantly recalled and continued to hate that trailer.
In the departure area of CRP the same recorded announcement was aired over and over, reminding that curbside-parking is prohibited. Who in the departure area, which since 9/11 can only be accessed by actually flying passengers, is among the target group of that announcement ?
"The current thread level is ORANGE. Passengers should stay in touch with their belongings at all time ..."
Now, this is the de-facto standard. Would pax no longer be required to stay in touch with their belonging if the thread level would be anything greener ... ?
Such safety procedures have been in place in many parts of the world since decades ...
"Smoking is prohibited in ..."
IIRC that is standard in the U.S. nowadays. Wouldn't it be sufficient to place the proper signs ?
IMO, aired announcements should be kept to a minimum which in turn would make more people listen to them.
Furthermore, there should be seperate announcement systems for a) departure areas (if necessary even split up among them) and b) publically accessible areas ...
-HT
Carpe diem ! Life is too short to waste your time ! Keep in mind, that today is the first day of the rest of your life !
Misbeehavin From United States of America, joined Mar 2005, 914 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6832 times:
All announcements at MDW! God! It doesn't matter what they say, they just don't stop. Ugh!
MarcoPoloWorld From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 602 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6823 times:
Thank you for bringing this topic up!
Seriously, if I was the manager of an airport, the first thing I would to would be to turn those infantile (to change levels with baggage carts, please use elevators), propagandistic (we are currently at "homeland" security threat level orange), and unnecessary (please do not accept ground transportation solicitors, etc etc) announcements off!
Audible announcements are intrusive and should only be applied for essential messages. I know many European airports even turned of their audible arrival / departure announcements a few years ago. It is definitely an issue about creating a comfortable customer environment.
WingedMigrator From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 2031 posts, RR: 56 Reply 6, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6820 times:
Quoting HT (Thread starter): IMO, aired announcements should be kept to a minimum which in turn would make more people listen to them.
Or the announcements should be creative and funny. Like these
Articulatexpat From Hong Kong, joined Sep 2006, 155 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6790 times:
There have been a number of posts and threads on here about how dumb passengers sometimes act when they're checking in and going through security and so on. Many airports are overwhelmingly loud. The recorded announcements are often incomprehensible even to native speakers. It's no wonder people lose a few IQ points as soon as they walk into terminals.
FWIW, I think the most annoying I can recall was at SFO. Former mayor Willie Brown had recorded an unctuous, irritating 'Welcome to San Francisco... you are in for a treat!' message that played incessantly in the baggage claim area. It was enough to make me a little embarrassed to live in the Bay Area.
MilesDependent From Australia, joined Sep 2001, 839 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6783 times:
I was actually going to post a message about this very topic. My issue airport is Kuala Lumpur (KUL). I have been through there a lot, and they seem to have more flaming announcements than any other airport I have visited. Every minute it seems you get the same announcement in
Malaysian
Mandarin
English
And they seem to have continual gate changes, and then they announce every gate change in all 3 languages, multiple times for every flight. At one point I looked at the departure board and around half the flights had a gate change, and these were being read one after the other.
I don't mind essential announcements, but KUL is waaaaay over the top. Compare to Singapore, where there are far few announcements. Plus, in Singapore the announcer has a soft and very calm voice. The chimes before the accouncement are quiet and soothing. Not like KUL where the chimes are loud and intrusive.
I was sitting around KUL for 2 hours and the continual announcements were driving me insane.
Overall, I am a big fan of quiet airports - no PA announcements except perhaps paging fail to board passengers.
KELPkid From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 5962 posts, RR: 4 Reply 9, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6779 times:
"PDX Is a smoke-free airport. Please smoke in designated smoking areas only."
Celebrating the birth of KELPkidJR on August 5, 2009 :-)
KELPkid From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 5962 posts, RR: 4 Reply 10, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6763 times:
Quoting MilesDependent (Reply 8): I don't mind essential announcements, but KUL is waaaaay over the top. Compare to Singapore, where there are far few announcements. Plus, in Singapore the announcer has a soft and very calm voice. The chimes before the accouncement are quiet and soothing. Not like KUL where the chimes are loud and intrusive.
Hmmm, when I was in SIN, waiting to board SQ2, they kept paging the same passenger over and over and over...he apparently was holding up boarding for the rest of us, as we began boarding about 30 minutes later than planned, despite the fact that the plane was at the gate and the crew was there. We didn't board until this passenger finally approached the podium...and the airline took about 5 minutes doing whatever business they had with him at the gate Boarding was announced immediately after this.
Celebrating the birth of KELPkidJR on August 5, 2009 :-)
Steeler83 From United States of America, joined Feb 2006, 8848 posts, RR: 19 Reply 11, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6745 times:
Is it time for an Airplane! post yet?
"The white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no parking in the white zone."
"Don't tell me which zone is for loading and which zone is for unloading!"
In all seriousness, those announcements that such-n-such a terminal is a smoke free terminal, that does get supremely annoying after about 5 minutes...
Do not bring stranger girt into your room. The stranger girt is dangerous, it will hurt your life.
DaCubbyBearBar From United States of America, joined Apr 2008, 76 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 6727 times:
In LAS for the moving walkways, "Please stand to the right so others can pass on the left." You could hear it 5 times before you got off the walkways. OKAY!!! I got their point.
Go Cubs Go Hey Chicago whaddya say the Cubs are gonna win today
Haggis79 From Germany, joined Jun 2006, 1096 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 6640 times:
ohh, there are quite a few:
SLC: "This is Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson..." (going on how pleased he is about people using the airport and they should not leave their baggage unattended - don't know if they recorded a new one now that Ralph Becker is mayor, though). They have quite a few of them, but Rocky is the only one I seem to remember
IAH: some announcement for a lounge accessible for military personnell... repeated every 10 mins or so
AMS airs all boarding, gate change etc. announcements all over the terminal.... the one that's quite funny though is "Mr or Mrs X, immediate boarding please through gate Y, you are delaying your flight!"
VC10DC10 From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 960 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 6625 times:
I suspect that the "XYZ is a smoke-free..." announcements are really meant to be a psychological crutch for the sometimes violently anti-smoking types you sometimes find. That, or they're designed to increase the anxiety level of the nicotine-deprived smokers....
TwinOtter4Ever From Canada, joined Feb 2008, 213 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 6601 times:
Don't forget the "AIRPLANE!" announcements. (surprised nobody has brought the movies announcements up) that were done by the actual announcers of the day (husband and wife)
man: The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading
of passengers only, there is no stopping in the white
zone.
lady: NO! The white zone is for immediate loading and
unloading and there is no stopping in the red zone.
man: The red zone has always been for loading and unloading
there is never stopping in a white zone.
lady: Don't tell me which zone is for stopping and which zone
is for loading.
man: Listen Betty, don't start up with your white zone s@%t
again!
Kappel From Suriname, joined Jul 2005, 3533 posts, RR: 18 Reply 18, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 6590 times:
Quoting Haggis79 (Reply 14): AMS airs all boarding, gate change etc. announcements all over the terminal.... the one that's quite funny though is "Mr or Mrs X, immediate boarding please through gate Y, you are delaying your flight!"
That one's my favorite too at AMS.
I'm actually not really bothered by the announcements themselves. What does bother me is that the announcements are sometimes completely not understandable. Like for example in Spain. To me, the message in Eenglish sounds exaclty the same as in Spanish, i.e. can't understand a word of it! So in Spain, I keep an extra close watch on the monitors. ALC is especially terrible in this respect.
Quoting TwinOtter4Ever (Reply 16): Don't forget the "AIRPLANE!" announcements. (surprised nobody has brought the movies announcements up)
Bwest From Belgium, joined Jul 2006, 1318 posts, RR: 4 Reply 20, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 6528 times:
BRU has signs at the entry of the building saying something like "this is a silent airport, passengers are advised to check the monitors for any info"... no annoying announcements there.
Rwy04LGA From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 2248 posts, RR: 7 Reply 22, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 6485 times:
Quoting WingedMigrator (Reply 6): Or the announcements should be creative and funny. Like these
I nearly burst a blood vessel laughing at these. PRICELESS!
The early bird gets the worm, BUT...the second mouse gets the cheese!
Sailas From United Arab Emirates, joined Jul 2007, 211 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (5 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 6455 times:
ID actually Like for HEL to have some announcements instead of only hearing AY flight 875now boarding for GVA...
Its a very dead airport.
I like geneva airport, that bell that does the 5 tone ring and then theres a woman speaking so bad you cant understand
Airlines been on: AY, LX, SR, OS, SK, KF, EZY, FR, BA, LH, AF, TG, DC, FC, TK
25 GSM763: This is a security announcement, baggage must not be left unattended at any time. Baggage left unattended will be removed and may be destroyed. Would
26 Ariis: "... We will proceed to off-load your luggage!" That announcement is repeated over and over in AMS; it is the first one to welcome you when you arriv
27 BCAL: Just as Jeremy Clarkson mentioned in his book, the most annoying airport announcements were those repeatedly played in Spanish airports when there are
28 HT: Thanks for all the contributions. BUt that one goes on with. "We will proceed to off-load your luggage" which often has made me wonder at which timepo
29 Dvincent: You know, in all my wandering around in Bradley Airport and flying there, I can never recall hearing automated announcements. But I haven't been in Te
30 FlyPNS1: "Caution, the moving walkway is ending". Replayed constantly on the bridges that connect the parking garages, metro station and terminal at DCA. I'm s
31 IndyWA: You've got that right. Ever have to be at A1 or A2? Every 10 seconds (literally!) "The moving walkway is ending. Please watch your step." Drives me i
32 EMB170: ATL: *Gladys Knight soundalike* The city of Atlanta has limited smoking in the airport. Please *refrain* from smoking in the airport, except in design
33 Vfw614: At Cologne/Bonn (CGN) airport, they have a permanently repeated announcement recorded by the German voice of James Bond of 007-movie fame. It starts w
34 PanAm747: Dang, y'all beat me to it!! The more the loudspeaker drones on, the more people tend to ignore the announcement and tune everything out. Then a REALL
35 AirTran717: This doesn't take a genious to figure out that by the very nature of a travel venue, people come and go all day and all night long. They play announc
36 AV8AJET: The one I find not only annoying but stupid is when gate agents say: "This is the LAST & FINAL boarding call"! Uh isn't that one in the same thing, an
37 Yflyer: At SMF: "At the top of the escalator, please step forward." "This is a security announcement. Please maintain control of your bags at all times. Unatt
38 Petertenthije: The "mind your step" at the AMS moving walkways are very annoying. Other announcements like mind the bags and no smoking are only once every 10 minute
39 AirTran717: One more thing to add to this thread... Most of the announcements are made for legal reasons. In our society of sue-happy morons, the one place that a
40 Cubsrule: However, I don't think I've heard them the last few times I've been through MDW... Have they (finally) been eliminated? My favorite is at ORD: "It is
41 CEO@AFG: Thanks for mentioning this, I agree it's THE most annoying recorded announcement period. You never seem to be able to get far away from them as you h
42 PanAm747: How about him recording announcements for the jetbridge for passengers that are leaving Cal-ee-for-knee-yah... "Hasta la vista...baby!!"
43 Pilotfox: Anyone notice announcements with grammatical errors. I've heard one that talks about bringing prohibited items onto "aircrafts"
44 PHLBOS: Does TOL still have Jamie Farr doing all the general recorded anouncements? At both ATL & CVG; the luggage announcement that is broadcasted (paraphras
45 PGNCS: I think the ATL announcements to the tune of "Shake Your Groove Thing" urging customers to clean up the airport are by far the most intrusive, pointle
46 Viscount724: That's a very common error by non-native English speakers who probably assume that since the plural of "airplane" is "airplanes", the plural of "airc
47 RedTailDTW: The one at DFW that goes off all the time really bugs me. It is the one that sounds badly recorded that talks about unattended baggage or something li
48 Jcavinato: At PHX, why do we have to listen to a robotic voice tell us inside security that we can only do the 3-1-1 when we are already inside? Absolutely ridic
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