Article: Irregular Operations: Great Communication Makes All The Difference

[AFF Editor]

Canonical URL

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/irregular-operations-communication/

Irregular Operations: Great Communication Makes All The Difference is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Irregular Operations: Great Communication Makes All The Difference

Excellent communication makes all the difference when a flight is disrupted. My recent Virgin Australia flight, which diverted shortly after take-off, is a great example of that.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[Melburnian1]

Did the Captain use the PA system so passengers at the back could hear him, or did his voice naturally just carry the distance to the back rows?

Agree that cancelled 'due to operational requirements' is insufficient.

Gate staff in Australia can be passive-aggressive, though it's probably wearing if they have to field similar queries several times a day, or many times an hour if there's a major disruption.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not only for insurance purposes, but also for ACL and the contract of carriage!

Australian consumer law has different outcomes whether something is within or purpose and airline’s control. Same for the contract of carriage.

Airlines are absolutely required to tell you the reason for the delay based on those two areas alone.

Agree that ‘delay due to the late inbound’ is a pretty poor excuse. It doesn’t work in Europe or the UK where EU/UK261 applies.

The reason for the delay is that the airline doesn’t have a plane to operate the service.

 

[MollyJones]

I will always judge a business based on how they handle things going wrong.
There are always going to be problems that arise because, well, life. But when a business empowers it employees to make customer focused decisions, when they inform you not only of the problem but also what they are doing to address it, when they acknowledge that the problem is inconvenient and tell you how long it might take to remedy, well, they are the businesses I return to.

 

[BCons]

We're not in kindergarden (well not most of us..) so just give an explanation of the issue and dont do the old namby pamby 'delay due to the late arrival of the aircraft on its previous flight'. We can see that just by looking..

 

[VZ1_60]

Airlines are generally notorious for poor communication. Last year we had a delay in Singapore. By the time of the flight there had not been much communication however about 15 minutes after the flight time the Captain came out and spoke with all the passengers explaining the issue and detailing the proposed solution and timeframe. It was quite refreshing and very clear and concise communication.

 

[Bus970]

Irregular Operations: Great Communication Makes All The Difference is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Irregular Operations: Great Communication Makes All The Difference

Excellent communication makes all the difference when a flight is disrupted. My recent Virgin Australia flight, which diverted shortly after take-off, is a great example of that.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

On 11/24 I was travelling with Virgin from Brisbane to Melbourne via Sydney. I arrived 3 hrs before (nothing to do) and I noticed that my flight was coming from Bali was getting delayed. I asked staff at the desk and a “supervisor” said that they aware of it but were not going to find alternative flights for the 35 effected passengers but make the “plane in Sydney to wait” for MEL. He was actually telling me to move away and not “harass” checking staff. After I checked in I tried some of the gates that had earlier flights to help me to travel earlier if they had space in earlier flight. I was asked to leave and they said No. My flight left late by 95 minutes. I was never given information about my connecting flight at the gate and Sydney staff said that Brisbane had flights with empty seats before. I managed to find out that I was transferred to the last flight with Qantas to Melbourne. At the Q desk the staff found me an earlier flight to Melbourne.
I had a car waiting for me at Melbourne airport, a dinner booking which all was cancelled and finally made it to my hotel 12.30 am, with a meeting at 8 am to attend.
I wrote 2 emails to Virgin, no reply ever and the expenses on premium economy seat and hire car was never compensated or ever discussed. Sorry but Virgin is not an “I care airline” and one of their staff in Sydney said the Brisbane are known for being lazy in helping in certain situations. And head office have never replied.

 

[sudoer]

premium economy seat

EconomyX perhaps?