Delays everywhere and it is not Friday evening

[nlagalle]

This is what I said. Any inference the two are related are yours.



He flew to Sydney. Adelaide is having gale force winds too, we just dont get the airplay when the same thing is happening in Melbourne and Sydney.

Your wording leaves it open. Perhaps not inferring strike and being in row 3 to make it more neutral?

 

[niemann]

Apparently most of the dealys are due to bad weather in SYD and they are down to 1 runway.

The airlines are also still getting over yesterday's storms in Melbourne. Lots of aircraft/crew in the wrong places, and very full flights due big sports weekends in VIC/NSW. The aircraft/crew thing takes at least 2 days to wash through the system unfortunately.

 

[simongr]

Two hour delay MEL-SYD today and switched to an int'l A330 sky bed equipped aircraft - sadly i was in whY and went from a comfy aisle seat with no-one in front to a centre seat with no meal or drinks (I might have been asleep).

Frankly a cr4p experience.

 

[mannej]

Two hour delay MEL-SYD today and switched to an int'l A330 sky bed equipped aircraft - sadly i was in whY and went from a comfy aisle seat with no-one in front to a centre seat with no meal or drinks (I might have been asleep).

Frankly a cr4p experience.

I think that seems to be the order of the day for those who had to be stuck on a metal tube yesterday or today

 

[JohnK]

Karma, perhaps?

Karma? What karma? Are you winding me up?

In the past 3 years on AFF there are no commuters that are even remotely close to what I have been through with flight delays.

And I am just about to draft a feedback letter to QF.

Forget fare classes.

Forget status.

Forget what management thinks is the right answer.

If a customer asks you to go on an earlier flight then just put them on an earlier flight and keep everyone happy.

QF557 BNE-SYD cancelled
QF556 SYD-BNE cancelled

Some of those could have got to their destination on time if staff had bothered about customer service....

 

[Sprucegoose]

Weather issues along the whole SE of Oz.

I believe MEL has been restricted to 34 for all takeoffs landings due to gale force winds.


128 km Melbourne Doppler wind (Check the Doppler wind)

National Loop

My driver told me of his pax due to arrive Mel at 1830 were not let off the aircraft until 2300!!!

Yikes, that's half way to BKK!! And quite possibly no catering.

Storms prevented disembarkation.

 

[serfty]

...
Storms prevented disembarkation.

To be specific - lightning.

Rain and wind by themselves are an issue but don't prevent ramp operations - thunderstorms do.

 

[pauly7]

Qantas operated their first domestic A380 flight between Syd-Mel yesterday I believe to help clear the back log from the bad weather.

How exciting for the people who were on that! Pretty cool.

VA cancelled over 20 flights. First time flying them as a comped Plat. Their staff really reverted to LCC under pressure, shouting at people through megaphones and screeching 'funny' lines about the weather. They need to work on their approach in these situations. Drafting a feedback letter to help!!

 

[Austman]

A friend had her trip to Europe ruined yesterday due to the chaos. She was flying, all in J-class, MEL-SYD on QF then SYD-HKG-LHR on VS (she was meeting another passenger in SYD). She checked-in very early at MEL. Although I suspect she had separate tickets, the Qantas check-in agent could see all the flights and checked her luggage through to LHR. At that time there were at least 3 earlier flights to SYD that she could have been moved to - but nothing was offered - perhaps they were full. Then her booked flight, while pax were waiting at the boarding gate, suddenly showed a 2.5 hour delay. That made the SYD connection impossible. Qantas said they could do nothing and blamed the problem on weather. She ended up coming home. She was off to attend a function and a 1 day delay would mean missing the main part of it. So she cancelled her trip - she didn't want to have to buy a new ticket on other airlines and try for a refund - which became her only option.

Although it's probably true that QF was not technically at fault, they did have a long lead time to try and sort out some of the issues (many stemming from the day before). And perhaps their systems could have prioritised pax who had onward international connections and attempted to get them automatically on an earlier flight if they checked-in early. Perhaps it just wasn't possible. Why a flight went 2.5 hours delayed just minutes before the scheduled departure is a bit strange too - some more notification of that might have helped.

All in all - not a great day for travelling.

 

[pjohn]

Well I'm still in transit, was due out yesterday ex SYD to PER at 1pm to connect on QF303 to JHB. Was re-routed via ADL as the flight was overbooked. Was told "there'll be plenty of time to get your connection to PER sir". Didn't quite work out that way as that flight was delayed 2hrs. When we landed in ADL there was a flight blocking our gate, turned out to be the flight I needed to PER. Was then put on a return to SYD to stay the night and leave on QF63 at 11am this morning. Arrived back to SYD at 10.30pm to find my luggage had gone missing.
Am sitting in the J lounge waiting for the delayed 11am service to JHB. With a rebooked JHB-CPT flight tonight.
What an adventure! :shock:

 

[JohnK]

Yesterday at BNE airport was chaos like I have not witnessed before. It was also chaotic when I arrived back in SYD ~10:00pm.

I know many do not agree with me but I am a firm believer in flow forwarding. If there is a spare seat on a flight and someone asks for it then give it to them regardless of their fare class.

I feel sorry for people that had to turn around and go back to home/hotel or have had their travel plans ruined.

Is it any better today? Hopefully the planned industrial action does not cause too many more delays and/or cancellations.

 

[medhead]

SYD QF J lounge staff were great last night under the pressure

Why a flight went 2.5 hours delayed just minutes before the scheduled departure is a bit strange too - some more notification of that might have helped.

My flight went from 20 minutes delayed due to a late aircraft to 90 minutes delayed as we were standing there waiting to board. Why? Because the rostered operating crew still had to arrive in SYD. It seems that there is very little knowledge of crew rosters outside the crew themselves. Certainly not with the guy at the desk who is trying to get a flight away. Which is probably these delays can happen at the last minute

 

[Bundy Bear]

I have been at BNE airport for just over an hour and the Qantas business lounge is chaotic.

For a change my flight was on time and I had a huge chuckle on my face at all the delays until I looked at the board and now my flight is delayed by ~50 minutes as well.

Oh you are such a positive person.

 

[JohnK]

Oh you are such a positive person.

You off all people on AFF should know me better. Delayed on a Friday afternoon. Delayed on a Sunday evening. Delayed on a Monday morning when you were on the same flight as me and you could not believe what a jinx I was at the time. There is no rhyme and reason to why my flights are delayed. Does being positive mean that I will get away on time more often? Is there some sort of mental telepathy thing going on where my negativeness cause delays?

By the way received an sms from QF at 10:38am today advising QF31 will be delayed and new departure is 5:00pm with arrival into SIN now 23:00! :shock: Not whinging but I am now starting to worry about my 1:15am connection in SIN and the 6 flights that follow.

I rest my case....

 

[JohnK]

And just to keep it consistent QF31 did not depart until just after 6:00pm which was ~2 hours late. Arrived into SIN just after midnight and ~1:30 hours late.

My bags were not checked through and QF cabin crew were very helpful seating me in the first row of economy for descent and letting me disembark with First Class passengers.

I had given up on the idea or running downstairs to collect luggage and check-in for 1:15am flight and went to transfer desk and was going to ask them to transfer luggage for me while i was in transit.

Noticed that CX714 was delayed 1:00 hour as well rolleyes so decided to go downstairs and buy duty free and put in checked luggage. Made it to check-in just before 12:30am anyway which was the cut-off for the old flight time. Bags could only be checked through SIN-HKG-TPE so will ask in HKG if they can redirect bags HKG-BKK as that is last flight of the night.

Fun, fun, fun and holiday has only just begun. Not to survive 6 flights in one day....

 

[Pushka]

The original Qantas flight my partner was booked on last night was delayed 2 hours at least (6.30pm original time) but the rebooked Virgin flight was on time. So he arrived home before the original flight had even boarded (Sydney-Adelaide). Feeling sorry for Qantas, this has been a week of bad timings for them with the weather, Union activity, Footy finals and school holidays so the spotlight has been on them. Hope it gets sorted soon as we need two strong airlines to keep competition going.

 

[reductionist]

Thur 29 was bad for JQ 29 too. Left 4 hours late.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Apparently most of the dealys are due to bad weather in SYD and they are down to 1 runway.

Stupid me had some printing to do for my trip tomorrow and did not bother asking for an earlier BNE-MEL flight when I got to BNE airport early. Not that Qantas would have obliged anyway.

At this stage it looks like a ~70 minute delays with an arrival into SYD at ~22:00 instead of 20:50.

Apologies to anyone who is travelling today....

A considerable amount of flights during the past few days have had a 'flow forward' on them so it's quite possible that had you asked for an earlier flight when you checked in (assuming there were seats on it) you would have got it.

Yesterday at BNE airport was chaos like I have not witnessed before. It was also chaotic when I arrived back in SYD ~10:00pm.

I know many do not agree with me but I am a firm believer in flow forwarding. If there is a spare seat on a flight and someone asks for it then give it to them regardless of their fare class.

I feel sorry for people that had to turn around and go back to home/hotel or have had their travel plans ruined.

Is it any better today? Hopefully the planned industrial action does not cause too many more delays and/or cancellations.

IMHO Industrial Action is barely noticeable & barely puts a dent in the operations of the airline, however I'm sure the organisers at the TWU would love to take credit for the chaos caused by the weather.

 

[QF029]

Karma? What karma? Are you winding me up?

In the past 3 years on AFF there are no commuters that are even remotely close to what I have been through with flight delays.

And I am just about to draft a feedback letter to QF.

Forget fare classes.

Forget status.

Forget what management thinks is the right answer.

If a customer asks you to go on an earlier flight then just put them on an earlier flight and keep everyone happy.

QF557 BNE-SYD cancelled
QF556 SYD-BNE cancelled

Some of those could have got to their destination on time if staff had bothered about customer service....

I was referring to the bit where you seemed to be taking pleasure (huge chuckle???) from others' delays until you were effected.

 

[Pushka]

IMHO Industrial Action is barely noticeable & barely puts a dent in the operations of the airline, however I'm sure the organisers at the TWU would love to take credit for the chaos caused by the weather.

I am not too sure about that. Just checked Qantas website for next weeks flights for my husband and found this:
The following flights will depart early or experience delays due to ALAEA industrial action on Monday 3 October 2011:
QF542 Sydney - Brisbane
QF551 Brisbane - Sydney
QF626 Melbourne - Brisbane
QF635 Brisbane - Melbourne
QF664 Adelaide - Brisbane
QF665 Brisbane - Adelaide
QF959 Brisbane - Melbourne
QF975 Townsville - Brisbane
QF824 Brisbane - Darwin
QF825 Darwin- Brisbane
The following flights will depart early or experience delays due to ALAEA industrial action on Tuesday 4 October 2011:
QF448 Melbourne - Sydney
QF450 Melbourne - Sydney
QF452 Melbourne - Sydney
QF454 Melbourne - Sydney
QF456 Melbourne - Sydney
QF545 Brisbane - Sydney
QF546 Sydney - Perth
QF548 Sydney - Brisbane
QF562 Canberra - Sydney
QF583 Sydney - Perth
QF743 Sydney - Adelaide
QF846 Sydney - Darwin
QF932 Sydney - Cairns