Last weekend travelled via Lisbon by Easyjet.com to Lausanne, Switzerland to attend the semi-finals and finals of the annual Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition.
Some interesting observations:
1) My lifetime belief in 100% swiss efficiency was shattered upon arrival at Geneva International Airport, when the train I was supposed to catch was cancelled "for technical reasons". It is true that there was another one 15 minutes later, but that it not the point.
2) Then during the semi-finals of Prix de Lausanne itsself, held in the Palais de Beaulieu Congress Centre, the sound system and monitors constantly gave problems. In the end, the semi-finals had to be suspended for 30 minutes while the techs sorted everything out. Apparently, the problems had also occurred in early sessions during the preceding week.
3) The staff at the box office were also not exactly "on top of things"!
4) The Ibis Lausanne Centre Hotel where we stayed was fine except for the fact that the "magnetic card" readers in the two elevators were old and out of sync. We kept having to go to reception to request new keycards as we could not get to our room as the elevator would not move without them.
5) On my return trip, the chaos at the Easyjet check-in at Geneva Airport was worse than many airports. We already had printed our boarding cards on-line, but had a case to put in the hold.
There was no dedicated baggage drop counter and no signs clearly stating that passengers had to first go to machines nearby and print baggage labels, then go to one of then check-in desks and present their boarding card, then the baggage was put on the conveyor. Worse still, the ground staff who were supposed to be off assistance were surely and extremely unhelpful.
Not a good advert for easyjet.com and Geneva Airport.
Certainly, my belief in "Swiss efficiency" has been shattered!!!
