compensation for missed flights due to travel agent error

[Dave Noble]

No, Dave, not true, my friend.

The JQ web site says check in (dom) desks close 30 minutes before departure (which is not practically true sicne they continue process pax after this time).

It also says you need arrive before check in closes NOT check in before check in closes.

"Passengers who arrive after check-in has closed will not be able to board the flight and may forfeit their entire fare"

This implies closing of check in is practically speaking a closing off of the end of the check in queue...

How on earth do you come up with that logic

Check Closes at 30 minutes before departure .. if not checked in before check in closes , then you cannot check in

Dave

 

[Platy]

Crabby, would you tell us/me openly what time you actually arrived at LAX prior to your flight? That (to me) is the critical factor here.

If you feel you need to ask these details, Alanslegal, surely better to know times arrived at check in area and time arrived at check in desk to defend the ongoing pro-airline broadside from the last few posts...

...better also clarify whether economy or biz desks used (any priority expected as FF etc)...

 

[Dave Noble]

So by your logic, IF a passenger isn't processed at the check in desk by the cut off time they are stuffed, even if they have been queueing faithtfully in a line for equal or more than recommended check in time?

correct. If check in is closed, then check in is closed.

Dave

 

[Platy]

How on earth do you come up with that logic

Check Closes at 30 minutes before departure .. if not checked in before check in closes , then you cannot check in

Dave

All I can say politely as a research scientist is that our brains are differently wired. In a genuine spirit of bonhomie, vive la difference!

The JQ website does NOT say be checked in by 30 minutes, it says arrive by 30 minutes - the two are different.

People are turned away from JQ when they arribve at check in area less than 30 minutes (this has happened to bjusiness colleagues).

Pax are processed < 30 minutes at check in - I have seen it happen.

Pax are not turned away because JQ are slow to process them once they have arrived at the check in area > 30 minutes.

 

[Flashback]

All I can say politely as a research scientist is that our brains are differently wired. In a genuine spirit of bonhomie, vive la difference!

The JQ website does NOT say be checked in by 30 minutes, it says arrive by 30 minutes - the two are different.

People are turned away from JQ when they arribve at check in area less than 30 minutes (this has happened to bjusiness colleagues).

Pax are processed < 30 minutes at check in - I have seen it happen.

Pax are not turned away because JQ are slow to process them once they have arrived at the check in area > 30 minutes.

I have read on here numerous times of people being turned away on LCC even though they were in line, but not checked in.

 

[Platy]

I have read on here numerous times of people being turned away on LCC even though they were in line, but not checked in.

A great reason not to go on Jetstar - thus you could arrive in good time and still be denied check in....nuts...

 

[JohnK]

Even with QF check-in closes 30 minutes before the flight. Back in January I got to SYD airport around 35-40 before my flight to BNE and was waiting in the business class check-in queue. Finally got to the front of the queue when they called passengers for my flight, who are not already at the front of the queue, to go to counter xx. I waited and did not get called to the busiess check-in desk for another few minutes at which point the check-in agent said the flight was closed. She had to call her supervisor to re-open the flight and I was then checked-in.

Not sure whether I am defending the airline in this case but if the OP turned up to the airport at the recommended time of 9:10pm they would have easily made the 1 hour check-in cutoff for the re-timed flight. I would suspect the OP turned up to the airport sometime after 10:00pm and missed the re-timed flight.

 

[Travel Guru]

as a research scientist

That certainly answers alot...

TG

 

[Travel Guru]

A great reason not to go on Jetstar - thus you could arrive in good time and still be denied check in....nuts...

There are many reasons not to fly Jetstar but I fail to see how this is one of them, if you don't allow adequate time to check in then whose fault its no ones fault but yours??


I'm with you NM, checkin closes 30 mins before, if you're not checked in, you don't travel, simple as that.
Just because occasionally a JQ staff member will use discretion to overrule it doesn't make it airline policy.

TG

 

[MelUser]

Not only would it be useful to know what time (and date) Crabby actually approached the check in counter (I don't want to have that argument on this thread) but also:

- when did Crabby become aware that the Travel Agent had not emailed him. IE - at what point in time did "lets go after the Travel Agent" arise [as per the title to this thread]?

There are 3 morals of this story:

(1) Check in on time or even ahead of time;

(2) Use checkmytrip in the 24 hours before your flight;

(3) Fly Qantas from LA to Australia as there are many planes and therefore you won't wait too long [ie no more than 24 hours] until the next one;

 

[Platy]

There are many reasons not to fly Jetstar but I fail to see how this is one of them, if you don't allow adequate time to check in then whose fault its no ones fault but yours??


I'm with you NM, checkin closes 30 mins before, if you're not checked in, you don't travel, simple as that.
Just because occasionally a JQ staff member will use discretion to overrule it doesn't make it airline policy.

TG

Hold on. What you are saying is that it is possible for a customer to arrive in good time at an airport, but fail to board an aircraft because the airline fails to manage its check in processing efficiently. The airline can be as slack as it likes and blame the customer.

How can a passenger judge the processing time?

Even arriving on or before the recommended time would be no guarantee.

Above it's claimed China Airlines has a 3 hr recommended check in time. But do they open their desks at -180 minutes like most?

If so, how is it humanly possible for most folk to get checked in on or before the recommended check in time?

 

[NM]

A great reason not to go on Jetstar ...

I see it as a good reason to be at the check-in area in plenty of time to take control of your own destiny.

 

[Dave Noble]

I see it as a good reason to be at the check-in area in plenty of time to take control of your own destiny.

Indeed... Every airline has a check in closure time.... when check in is closed then no one can be checked in. Up to the passenger to arrive in time to complete formalities and be checked in by the check in closure time

Dave

 

[Nigelinoz]

The China Airlines website is interesting,on it's FAQ page it has these points.

2. ​

Q.
Do I need to reconfirm my onward or return flight upon arrival?

A.
Reconfirmation is not required if your schedule remains unchanged and your local contact has been provided.

5. ​

Q.
If I don't have a local contact, what should I do?

A.
We recommend you to contact our reservation office for updated flight information prior to your flight departure.


It appears to me that a reasonable question might be 'What is "prior to your flight departure" meant to mean,does it mean one week,one day,or 5 hours before?.
Their website also has this in relation to check in.
Checking in for your flight
Have plenty of time to complete check-in and necessary security, immigration and/or customs formalities are necessary for you to assure you onboard your scheduled flight.
Hours of operation for China Airlines check-in counters and the time required for pre-boarding procedures vary from airport to airport. In general, we recommend that you check in 2 hours before the scheduled departure time, but you may need 3 hours or even more for some busy airports with strict procedures such as those in the U.S.
How do you define "busy airport",all airports in the world are "busy" at some point.so Johnk's point of "I would suspect the OP turned up to the airport sometime after 10:00pm and missed the re-timed flight" may be spot on,
Now,I agree that even if the OP had arrived at the airport in time to make the flight at what they thought was the correct departure time-ie,22.00 for a post 23.59 departure then they should still have been able to make the flight which was departing at the new time of 23.10
but maybe it was a very busy night and by the time they got to the desk the flight was closed.
Either way I still say the agent should have notified the passengers.

 

[NM]

Hold on. What you are saying is that it is possible for a customer to arrive in good time at an airport, but fail to board an aircraft because the airline fails to manage its check in processing efficiently. The airline can be as slack as it likes and blame the customer.

That is not relevant to this case. The recommendation from China Airlines is to be at the airport (and I assume they mean the check-in area) 3 hours before departure for flights from the USA. This is to allow sufficient time for the check-in process, security screening etc.

I have not seen anything here to suggest the passengers arrived at LAX check-in area at or before 3 hours prior to the original departure time, and hence 2 hours before the revised departure time, and found check-in closed before while they were waiting in the queue. It has not been suggested that China Airlines closed check-in at 2 hours before departure, or that China Airlines check-in process was so congested or slow that the passengers at the end of the queue were denied boarding because they closed check-in with people still waiting in the queue.

I do believe that if someone arrived at LAX at 21:10 anticipating a 00:10 departure, that they would still be able to check-in a travel for a revised departure time of 23:10. However, if they arrived at 22:10 or even later it is likely to be a very different story.

But as I have noted previously, I do still believe someone (airline or TA can be argued by others) should make every effort to notify the passenger of any alteration to the schedule. I also believe it is wise for passengers to make some effort to verify flights are expected to depart at the time they have been provided. I am not saying its an essential requirement, just wise practice to do so. But not everyone has the benefit of hindsight or the experience of many of the members of a forum such as this, so the airlines and TAs should not rely on passengers making such personal verification.

 

[Flashback]

Especially so if you booked them more than 6 months in advance, as schedules have a tendency to change. That being said though, to someone who is not a regular traveler things like this may be missed.

 

[medhead]

I see it as a good reason to be at the check-in area in plenty of time to take control of your own destiny.

It is of great interest following this arguement back and forward. I have to agree that the passenger needs to arrive in plenty of time. But I also have to agree with Platy's point that even if you arrive in plenty of time, it is the airline's actions that are going to control your destiny. If the airline is processing check in so slowly that you are in a 3.5 hour queue when you arrive 3 hours before the flight, you have lost control of your destiny.
Except to be pushy.

 

[Platy]

It is of great interest following this arguement back and forward. I have to agree that the passenger needs to arrive in plenty of time. But I also have to agree with Platy's point that even if you arrive in plenty of time, it is the airline's actions that are going to control your destiny. If the airline is processing check in so slowly that you are in a 3.5 hour queue when you arrive 3 hours before the flight, you have lost control of your destiny.
Except to be pushy.

Exactly. In other words you can never actually gain control of your own destiny! You are always at the mercy of the airline. All you can do is attempt to reduce the risk of missing a flight. That risk analysis comes down to personal perception (and how airlines apply the rules in each case).

Thus IF the airline has insufficient check in agents (like the QF BNE fiasco), or screens are down (happened to me in HNL checking onto JQ although I did not miss the flight) - those things cannot necessarily be controlled by arriving early.

At what point to we as customers become so stupidly subservient to the product provider that all arrive ridiculously early just in case the airline stuffs up that day...

As far as I can see it is possible for the OP to have arrived in time to catch the original flight, but not the re-scheduled fight, although since that info has not been shared we are all simply running hypothetic scenarios. Of course anyone out there could say the Op was "wrong" and didn't leave enough time however early (or late) the OP was, someone out there will have the perception that arriving even earlier would have been more prudent!!!

Personally, I don't mind arriving very early - in fact too early for my last two international flights - I counldn't check in and get more FLounge time (desks not open until -180 minutes) which seems ridiculous given transfer pax can get a bp at > 180 mins.

Folk, the airlines are running rings around ya all...

 

[JohnK]

(2) Use checkmytrip in the 24 hours before your flight;

To be fair to the OP they did try to reconfirm the flight online but had some issues.

Firstly, our itinerary DID ask us to reconfirm our flights 48 hours prior to departure. We tried to do this on the airline website but were unable to log on using the reference number given to us by the TA. We later found out that this was because they gave us a TA ref number not the airline ref number that could be used via the airline website. Because of this, we could not use the e-check in feature which we normally do to reconfirm our flights and choose our seats. Instead we could only use the 'e-ticket search' feature by entering our ticket number and last name. This was checked less than 14 hours before our scheduled departure time and still showed the departure date as the 25th. The rescheduled departure date was the 24th.

Was this sufficient effort? Can't comment as I do not know the China Airlines website.

Hold on. What you are saying is that it is possible for a customer to arrive in good time at an airport, but fail to board an aircraft because the airline fails to manage its check in processing efficiently. The airline can be as slack as it likes and blame the customer.

I can't comment on what happens with Jetstar check-in but with both Qantas and Virgin check-in they call anyone on flight xx_ to please proceed to counter xx ~35 minutes before departure. So if you arrive in good time you will be checked-in for the flight.

 

[Travel Guru]

I'm not suggesting for a second that you're wrong when you say it's not right that someone should have to predict checkin situations beyond their control, what I am arguing is that it is what it is, right or wrong, you turn up under 30 mins with QF, DJ and JQ and you (in most cases) wont be on the flight.

I've missed a QF flight for being 2 mins under the time before, and was turned away and send back from BNE to the Gold Coast and told to return the next morning as it was the last flight...was I happy? hell no! but it is what it is, you just have to make the best of a bad situation.

In an ideal world, i'd be flying on my Gulfstream, but as it is until I manage to afford one i'm stuck on commercial so put up with the cough that comes with flying with the GP.

TG