May I see your passport please!?

And so this week had to come to an end to. Today’s class contained (almost) everything we need to know about various forms of ID that than be used for travel such as passports, national id cards etc. etc. and basic tips how to detect a fraud.  The final hour was role play where we were assigned different passenger roles that the poor check-in agent had to face. I put on my angry Norwegian and Norwegian on holiday costume. The instructor laughed so hard at everyone’s acting that he had to hold on to the bench in order not to fall on the floor. 

 

                                              No, I will NOT upgrade you to business class!

Sorry for perhaps not providing you with the most elaborate blog entries this week, but I hope this will improve starting next week when I face reality.

MAYBE, there will also be some room for flying this weekend if SMHI allows me.   

Anyone around Arlanda next week?

Then do look out for me when I am out in reality (most likely without a uniform as the delivery time is long):

Mo: 0430-1100
Tu: 0815-1600
We: 0815-1515
Th: 1430-2300
 Fr: 1045-1800

PACS

The last two days have been spent working with reality i.e. the system called Passenger Aircraft Coordination System (PACS) which is more or less the system we use for checking in our passengers, regardless of airline.

This system allows us to keep track of the passenger and any service requests they may have. We can also use it to register API (Advanced Passenger Information) for flights to the US and find information regarding customs procedures/visa information etc.

Furthermore, it is also used at the gate to handle the boarding of passengers as well as upgrades.

To get a better grip of it, we spend the majority of the day carrying out a vast number of exercises with different passenger scenarios both individually and in groups.

 I was hoping to give you a screen dump of the system but I haven’t been able to get a good screen just yet so it will be put on my “to show” list.

Tomorrow: DGR (dangerous goods)

I can now make your bag look like a Christmas tree and send it to HVN or HEL.

 

Monday and a new day at “school” facing the topic of baggage, one open to a lot discussion between us behind the desk and the passenger we face. During this part of the course, we looked at weight vs. piece concepts i.e. if your baggage allowance is based on weight or the number of items, the various exceptions to the standards and the various ways of tagging bags. One example we hade made the bag look like a Christmas tree with a multitude of tags for various purposes. Finally, we looked at special baggage such as skis, golf clubs and bicycles and the general rules for overweight and insurance of checked luggage for different carriers.  Even if I am not saying that the rest of the course as not been interesting, it will still be fun tomorrow when we start putting the pieces together in our PACS workshop.  Oh, and by the way: Don’t try to ask me to get away from the overweight charge

Tickets please…. and a new toy

All good things must come to an end and the first week of the course was no exception to this rule!

   The subject of the course for the day was “Tickets” and I think it is quite self explanatory.  We looked at various forms of tickets such ast TATs, MITs, ETKTs, ETPLs, ATBs etc. as well as various FOIDs (Forms Of IDentification) that we may see when we are at work. This included how to retrieve ticket info from PACS, Amadeus and Resaid as well as what we can and can not do.  The day was concluded with some individual exercises.

Since I was heading up to Uppsala for the evening/night, I offered Johanna, Emilia and Frida a lift since they were heading the same way and left them at ICA in Flogsta before continuing to I where I enjoyed a shellfish soup and (too much) good white wine. The evening included also included a meeting with Winston, the puppy belonging to I’s family.

 When heading down this morning, I found myself having left the keys at home and since no one was going to be home before 1500, I drove to Vassunda airfield for a snooze. After a while, aviator supreme Anders arrived with SE-ESD and I helped him park and joined back to Sigtuna for a coffee and a chat.

Now, full after dinner, I am enjoying my new little toy, the Nokia N95

This entry cnxled due to confidentiality reasons….

Too bad I can’t write anything worth writing about, as all we discussed today is strictly confidential. New entry either tomorrow or Sunday.

There are passengers and then there are passengers…

…or PAX as we can also call them.

 After the introduction yesterday, we now started to look at the various types of people we will face, once out in reality.

Som of the passenger categories we discussed today were:

- UMNR  = Unaccompanied Minor and our responsabilities when dealing with them

- INF     = Infants

- PRM = Passengers with reduced mobility

- MAAS = Meet and Assist

- LANG = Language (if the passenger is unable to speak english/(local language)

- BLND = Blind passengers

- DEAF = Self explanatory?

- Incapacitated passengers.

- Different types of wheelchair categories and the treatment of those pax.

- People needing an extra seat

-Patients

-Pregnancies

-VIPs

- Commercially Important Persons

- Deportees

- Inadmissibles

- ID pax

etc.

Tomorrow we will have a mandadtory Airport Security Course

Hello, my name is Amadeus – introduction to various systems

Another fine day for me, starting about 15min before any alarm clock had the chance to take action to get me out of me.  With a big sturdy breakfast and a quick phone call to wake Ms. I up, I crossed the hill to have a cup of coffee with Pirjo and Therese and the sports centre and catch up on some gossip.

At 0715, I rolled down the hill towards the bus station in Sigtuna and joined the people awaiting the 803 bus towards Arlanda. As usual with the 803 it arrived seven minutes late and well onboard I started my iPod and picked up the latest “Metro”.  Some 25 minutes later, I arrived at the SAS hangar and walked right through security and up the stairs to the third floor, where I arrived as the second in my class, still with 40 minutes to spare allowing coffee and time to watch the planes land on rwy 01R.

  Once everyone had arrived our instructor Ewa showed us in to our classroom, our “home” for the coming weeks.

“New York”

We started by looking at SGS Wizard and EDM (Electronic Data Manual, containing all the essential information/procedures for “our” various customers.) The next system we were introduced to was Amadeus, the CRS. Here we learnt the basic information search strings, should we be asked my passengers for transfer, timetables, lounge access and other aspects related to the journey.

Finally, we looked at how to retrieve flight information and other “goodies” from SAS OP.

  All in all, a basic introduction to what we will be facing

 

 

 

Welcome to SGS, my first day in the airline industry

Having waited for this day for almost a month, well quite frankly for most of my life, the first thing I realized when I woke up just after 6.am was that this was to be my first day as an employee in the airline industry.

  Took plenty of time to read the newspaper and have a steady breakfast before starting up the Renault  and heading out on the 263 towards Arlanda where I arrived at the staff parking (a.k.a “Beta”) less than 15 minutes after leaving home (a lot different compared to 90 minutes when I worked in Stockholm).

 On the bus towards the terminal everyone but myself was wearing a uniform of some sort and it was now I truly started to feel the airport community atmosphere and with just over one hour to spare, I set off to explore my new workplace.

Morning lineup at “Pier A”

 As 0830 approached, I moved towards terminal 5 and the meeting point and arrived as number 3 (of 10). We were then escorted by a PM (production manager) to a conference room where most of the day would be spent.

Welcome to SGS!

As this was merely intended to be an introductory day, we were “brain washed” with information about SGS, uniform code etc. as well as multiple names & codes to remember.

The afternoon was dedicated to various admin procedures such as the collection of parking permits and id cards and the fitting of uniforms, all three proving to be interesting in their own way. In terms of the uniform we had some difficulties finding the right sized jacket and coat. I shall leave out the details about the badge and parking permit from public view as I want to keep them for a while

 

 

My (censored)”badge”

This was “it” for the day and we meet again tomorrow morning for the first real course day at the SGS Learning Centre to soon become one of the first faces you might encounter when flying out of Arlanda.  

10,000!

Last night, this blog passed 10,000 readers since the start in February 2007 and this is around 9,000 more than I had anticipated. Glad you like the content (or at least pretend to )