Attention BWI travelers, you are no longer wanted on the yellow courtesy phone

[microg]

The voices that ring out across Baltimore's airport terminals, paging lost travelers and steering foreigners to a meeting spot, will be a service of the past starting next month. And if you want to get a live person on the line when calling the airport's toll-free number for general inquiries, forget about it.

The Maryland Aviation Administration is closing the communications center at Baltimore- Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, a move prompted by state budget woes that will save $450,000 a year.

I was never paged to the phone and never paged anyone but it still seems like a staple of any airport.

Edit: Forgot to add link: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar...,2090609.story

[Lazarus]

From today's Sun: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar...,2090609.story

How the hell can you want your "international airport" to be taken seriously if you don't have a paging capability?

I fly out of BWI often, and that paging system is used to unite people, to summon folks who've left laptops at checkpoints or credit cards at restaurants to return to get them, to announce delayed flights, and for a hundred other things.

Bad move. Stupid move.

[Baltimatt]

Probably with so many people having cell phones, there was not that much of a call for the service any more.

BTW, do you have a link? Where did that quote come from?

[cprenegade]

Probably with so many people having cell phones, there was not that much of a call for the service any more.

BTW, do you have a link? Where did that quote come from?

I was thinking that myself. In the past, if you went to the airport to pick someone up, and you couldn't find your party, paging them was about the only way to get in touch. Now, with cell phones, it seems that this service might no longer be used nearly as much.

[sonofboh]

i heard the same on ed norris this morning

[discojamal]

OMG - what's next? will they get rid of payphones?

[sonofboh]

OMG - what's next? will they get rid of payphones?

all 10 of them left in the city

[Red Baron]

BTW, do you have a link? Where did that quote come from?

Today's Sun-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar...,2090609.story

[Lazarus]

Matt, cprenegade and others...

There are many, many things that an airport paging system is used for that cannot be done with cell phones.

If you leave your laptop or wallet or passport at a security checkpoint, TSA will have you paged to return for it.

If you leave your debit card at a store or restaurant, the merchant will have the airport operator page you to return to pick it up.

If an airline needs a wheelchair attendant at a particular gate to meet a flight, the paging system is used to communicate that.

If a soldier has left a bag at the USO, the paging system will be used to summon him to return.

If a flight has been delayed, and then is un-delayed, the paging system is used to notify people who might have left the area of the boarding gate for some reason.

The above are just a few examples of the uses for that paging system, uses that cannot be supplanted by a cell phone. Given time, I could probably think of many more...

It is downright silly, in a large international airport, not to have a facility-wide paging capability.

[Sprightly]

Shocker #1 - not everyone has mobile phones. Shocker #2 -- not every international traveler has mobile service here. Shocker #3 - everything that Lazurus said.

[John Henneman]

It would never had happen under Governor William Donald Schaefer!

[JustaslowZ06]

Their only shutting down the com center, where you would call to page someone. All other services such as the whole wheelchair needed at a gate, or a lost wallet or whatever would still be operational. As most with the exception of a left bag, or wallet are dealt with through 2-way radios now. The other will still be accesible.

Basically their saving the money by firing all the translators to locate lost people in your party. And at the cost I don't blame them. I've been to BWI a ton of times over the past few years and don't remember anyone bing paged over the intercom's.

[Lazarus]

Their only shutting down the com center, where you would call to page someone. All other services such as the whole wheelchair needed at a gate, or a lost wallet or whatever would still be operational. As most with the exception of a left bag, or wallet are dealt with through 2-way radios now. The other will still be accesible.

Huh?

Two-way radios? Only airport employees carry those, to communicate with each other. They can't be used to make an airport-wide announcement; only the paging system does that.

After October 1, if a passenger leaves his credit card at a restaurant, there will be no way to contact him to return to get it. If he leaves his laptop at a checkpoint, there will be no way to summon him. It might be possible for airline gate agents to go on the main paging system to summon a wheelchair, but I don't think so.

Basically their saving the money by firing all the translators to locate lost people in your party. And at the cost I don't blame them. I've been to BWI a ton of times over the past few years and don't remember anyone bing paged over the intercom's.

That's because you weren't the one being paged. I fly frequently, and hear those paging announcements regularly. Closing that paging system is one of the dumbest budget-cutting moves I can imagine.

[songfourone]

Why does it cost $450,000?

[golgo]

The last time I remember hearing someone get paged at the airport, I heard the following:

"Paging Mike Rotch... Paging Mike Rotch. Mike Rotch, please come to the courtesy desk."