Do I expect too much of Qantas?

[DC3]

Yes, the travel insurance should usually cover weather delays. My TID policy certainly covered accommodation, meals and some incidentals when I lodged a claim after being stuck in SEA trying to get to LHR on BA, with the Icelandic volcano in April 2010. Mind you, BA pulled a rabbit out of the hat in any case.

Anyway, I would never travel without insurance cover (< $400 for two, from memory). Anyone who doesn't take out insurance is effectively self-insuring and will need to take the risks that go with that.


Edit: I try not to book onward flights for the same day connecting international to domestic or vv, or international to international, and always leave one day in between as a minimum. No guarantee, but it puts in a buffer.

 

[Ansett]

The AA connections policy is a new one to me and has obvious attractions when trying to juggle various booking types. What a shame it couldn't be adopted by all oneworld airlines

My Bolding I couldn't agree more but sadly it seems OneWorld Different Planets may be a better name for OW LOL

 

[Himeno]

Yes, you expect too much. QF expected you to book QF2>QF8434 LHR-xDXB-BNE, not BA to JFK then QF108>QF16.

 

[casanovawa]

Can't you see that as a loyal QF member you should confine yourself to only flying to the handful of places QF flies to internationally anymore!!!!

Its wise to have a low expectation of most things these days, about the only way to not be serially disappointed...

 

[Buzzard]

I feel for the OP and yes it is disappointing but given that the Q component is a separate booking you are a no show. Without going back to the original post, didn't they put you on a flight at minimum cost even if it was 5 days later when they could have wiped you? IMHO we sometimes expect others to fix problems of our own making instead of accepting responsibility. For example, not having adequate insurance, allowing appropriate transfer times etc. This is a general observation and not a shot at the OP.

 

[medhead]

Really BA should've sorted this out. Shame QF didn't want to play ball.

 

[Pleb Status]

Can't you see that as a loyal QF member you should confine yourself to only flying to the handful of places QF flies to internationally anymore!!!!

Its wise to have a low expectation of most things these days, about the only way to not be serially disappointed...

The funny thing is that the OP could have easily flown on all QF metal for their journey, LHR-DXB-SYD/MEL-BNE. Most likely would have been quicker as well. Accepting the EK codeshare DXB-BNE would have got the journey down to one stop.

Also, with numerous QF/EK daily flights DXB-Australia, the chance of an onward flight being available after a misconnect would have been far greater as well.

 

[Himeno]

Really BA should've sorted this out. Shame QF didn't want to play ball.

I had a problem last year (BA107 > QF1 on the same ticket) where BA caused a misconnect. BA would do nothing about it.

 

[medhead]

I had a problem last year (BA107 > QF1 on the same ticket) where BA caused a misconnect. BA would do nothing about it.

Still if BA issued board passes all the way to Australia, I'd say that means they've committed to getting the pax to Australia.

 

[MelUser]

I'm guessing reservations were doing everything by the book and looking for I class.

Problem is that I class is very hard to find on Qantas 1 week out from travel.

Your best bet is someone (if you can find someone) at the airport.

I know that QF in LAX will do absolutely everything to get you on a plane if you are at the airport. Even if this means routing you through BNE - they have the attitude of doing whatever it takes to get you on board. I have seen them personally override tickets that aren't properly revalidated (eg due to a date change not being reticketed/Validated or AA taking over booking and sticking in 001 tickets numbers).

 

[DC3]

Nowhere near as bad as the issue, above, but I had some luck about 12+ months ago with QF.

About 24 hours out from my LAX-SYD flight, I noticed that the A380 had been subbed for a 747. And the following day was also to be a 747.

Rang QF in Australia, and after a short time on hold, my request to be rebooked onto the following day's A380 to MEL was done. As the booking was in F, I preferred the A380, rather than the J seat on the 747, and they managed to do it. So, pretty happy with their response with that one. Completely dependent upon seat availability though in my case.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

We take a lot for granted and we are at the mercy of the airline and their stupid terms and conditions.

In hindsight even 3-4 hours is not enough connection time if things go wrong on separate tickets. Sometimes it's best to suck it up and schedule an overnight stopover.

Definitely, and take out travel insurance as well. Connecting from an award to a revenue ticket probably means you won't be covered by travel insurance from a credit card which typically require you to pay for return tickets originating in Australia to be covered.

 

[harvyk]

Still if BA issued board passes all the way to Australia, I'd say that means they've committed to getting the pax to Australia.

No, all it means is they've issued boarding passes for QF flights as a courtesy. For them to have committed to getting the pax all the way to Australia, the ticket would need to have been sold as a LHR-BNE ticket by BA.

 

[medhead]

No, all it means is they've issued boarding passes for QF flights as a courtesy. For them to have committed to getting the pax all the way to Australia, the ticket would need to have been sold as a LHR-BNE ticket by BA.

That's not really how the industry works, is it?
Two conclusions are apparent:
BA clearly dropped the ball on this one. Separate bookings are irrelevant.
The OP was entirely within the conditions of the fare to have the QF flight changed after the original departure date. There was no special treatment here.

 

[harvyk]

That's not really how the industry works, is it?

I'm going to say yes it is. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place.

Two conclusions are apparent:
BA clearly dropped the ball on this one. Separate bookings are irrelevant.
The OP was entirely within the conditions of the fare to have the QF flight changed after the original departure date. There was no special treatment here.

How did BA drop the ball? Do they have some sort of magic weather controlling machine? If so it seems a little funny that they turned it to the bad weather setting which only worked to screw themselves over.

Yes, J fares can be moved up to 24 hours after the departure date, however the pax still must pay for any additional fare differences.

Separate bookings are entirely relevant. By having a single booking the airline has specifically said "we will get you to your destination", which BA did, by getting the OP to JFK, as they agreed they would. They have specifically accepted any risk of missed connections. By having separate bookings BA have specifically said "provided you turn up at LHR on time we will get you from LHR to JFK", and QF have said "provided you get to JFK on time, we will get you from JFK to BNE".

To put it in a non aviation context, it would be like you purchasing a blue widget from me, and you purchasing a red widget from John Smith down the road. I had no idea that you had purchased a red widget but you come storming back into my store stating the blue widget was not compatible with the red widget, you had made the assumption that both would work with each other, but neither me or John had made a guarantee that they would, and neither me or John knew you where also dealing with the other party until after the purchases had been made.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Really BA should've sorted this out. Shame QF didn't want to play ball.

Yes, as the airline "at fault", it was actually BA's responsibility to fix it (if you accept that the 'separate tickets' bit should be overlooked).

But for all of those lauding AA's policy - the policy actually says it's up to the airline "at fault" to fix it - so AA's policy, in this instance, says BA should have fixed it! I'm not sure how AA would actually enforce its policy on BA.

 

[medhead]

I'm going to say yes it is. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place.

Guess what. My opinion is unchanged.

How did BA drop the ball? Do they have some sort of magic weather controlling machine? If so it seems a little funny that they turned it to the bad weather setting which only worked to screw themselves over.

My comment has nothing to do with changing the weather. Rather ludicrous to suggest it does. BA is the carrier that needs to sort the onwards connection. They didn't.

Yes, J fares can be moved up to 24 hours after the departure date, however the pax still must pay for any additional fare differences.

And the post that my comment is about was trying to make out Qantas did something extra special by changing the flight. When the reality is Qantas just followed their own terms and conditions. The fare difference wasn't mentioned in that other post and is irrelevant to my point now.

Separate bookings are entirely relevant. By having a single booking the airline has specifically said "we will get you to your destination", which BA did, by getting the OP to JFK, as they agreed they would. They have specifically accepted any risk of missed connections. By having separate bookings BA have specifically said "provided you turn up at LHR on time we will get you from LHR to JFK", and QF have said "provided you get to JFK on time, we will get you from JFK to BNE".

Again how precisely do we book an award and a cash fare in one booking?

To put it in a non aviation context, it would be like you purchasing a blue widget from me, and you purchasing a red widget from John Smith down the road. I had no idea that you had purchased a red widget but you come storming back into my store stating the blue widget was not compatible with the red widget, you had made the assumption that both would work with each other, but neither me or John had made a guarantee that they would, and neither me or John knew you where also dealing with the other party until after the purchases had been made.

That's a false analogy as it lacks the partnership aspect. The fact is you an the shop down the road are partners, who have specifically advertised the fact that your widgets work together. The fact that BA issued boarding passes for the red widget says that you did know that the customer was going to buy a red widget. If you're going to make up a story how about making it match the situation, rather than matching what you want it to be.

 

[serfty]

...

But for all of those lauding AA's policy - the policy actually says it's up to the airline "at fault" to fix it - so AA's policy, in this instance, says BA should have fixed it! I'm not sure how AA would actually enforce its policy on BA.

AA would in all likelyhood enforce via some remittance reconciliation in line with the "Endorsement Waiver Agreement".

 

[Nizar]

I sympathise with OP and as many have said this is definitely BAs fault as they caused the misconnect. Surprised that your travel insurance doesn't cover it I'm pretty sure mine with TID would.

Also - I am sorta hijacking the thread and this is a touch off topic but does anyone here know if ORD is known for having bad weather/storms in around March lol ? Is it their cyclone season or something like that lol ?
Have a HKG-ORD-JFK flight that I am about to book and left 3.5 hours between international arrival and the domestic leg on one ticket however an award ticket and considering if I need to move the ORD-JFK to a later time ?

 

[dajop]

Have a HKG-ORD-JFK flight that I am about to book and left 3.5 hours between international arrival and the domestic leg on one ticket however an award ticket and considering if I need to move the ORD-JFK to a later time ?

If it's all on the one ticket I wouldn't be so concerned - 3.5hrs is reasonable, gives you basically a 2 hr buffer, allowing 1.5hr for immigration and security. ORD can be subject to snow/ice still during March so there's always chance of delays.