We were flying Pegasus from CDG, a recent change for the airline from Orly. At check in we encountered a difficult supervisor (not a Pegasus employee, I should add) who appeared to make the arbitrary decision to demand that all passengers place their hand luggage in the hold. This, according to her, was because the plane was full and that if we did not abide by her request, it was likely going to delay the flight. It was an extraordinary request, one which I said I was not going to accept as I was only carrying hand luggage and it contained fragile video equipment. And this was all happening at a time some 2.5 hours away from the flight and only 20 people at most had checked in!
After our exchange, I was finally allowed to carry my hand luggage onto the plane, but my travelling partner placed hers in the hold. We were curious as to why such a request had been made, so when on the plane we asked the Cabin Service Director whether she was aware of any such directive to the airport by the airline. She was not. Her colleague also observed that all cabin crew were surprised at how little hand luggage passengers had with them when boarding. Now if, in fact, the plane was full, you would reasonably expect some passengers to be invited to leave their hand luggage to be stored in the hold. But the real truth of the matter was that there were 15 empty seats, that there was plenty of space in the cabin racks and that the check-in supervisor had clearly overstepped the mark with both attitude and an economy of truth. Front line impressions are important for every airport, and hers did not help one iota.
But before boarding the plane, we entered Extime, Groupe ADP’s extraordinary new retail and hospitality brand. I only had a very short time to capture the size and scale of the location, but one thing is for sure – it genuinely provides a brand new benchmark for the industry.
In a cathedral-like setting, and as you will see from the images below, captured on my Samsung Flip 3 mobile, it houses the very best of global fragrance houses and fashion brands. It is a riot of colour, a place easy to navigate, a place to experience and will doubtless succeed.
