Do passengers have a right to know why their flight has been cancelled?

[Himeno]

No, late arriving aircraft is the reason... That is the reason you are delayed (or in the case of curfews, had the flight cancelled) because the aircraft has arrived late. You know that once the aircraft arrives you will most likely then depart. An estimate could even be given.

There are many reasons for "late arriving aircraft". The reason that caused the delay might have happened 5+ sectors ago, but that reason is what the airline is going to claim if they get a call for compensation or insurance payouts.

There are times when the fact the aircraft is late isn't good enough. Why is that aircraft late?

 

[OzEire]

What annoys me most is when the staff cant be bothered checking basic things (or to be fair, perhaps it is company policy). An example was an instance where the inbound a/c was late, I knew this from FR24 and confirmed it at the empty gate, but the display says go to gate or boarding...at an empty gate! Somewhere in the system a human should do the common sense check and intervene.

I had a VA lounge staff tell me that my flight was boarding (intimating that I shouldn't be coming in to the lounge) in this situation, when I said there's no plane at the gate she seemed surprised!

Ive also had a lounge 'final call all remaining pax proceed immediately to gate XX' but after the 5 min walk to the gate lots of pax standing around waiting for boarding to START !

 

[Himeno]

What annoys me most is when the staff cant be bothered checking basic things (or to be fair, perhaps it is company policy). An example was an instance where the inbound a/c was late, I knew this from FR24 and confirmed it at the empty gate, but the display says go to gate or boarding...at an empty gate! Somewhere in the system a human should do the common sense check and intervene.

Yep. There has been times where I've checked flight status on Expert Flyer, FR24, even the airlines own website and had more info about delays then airline staff.

 

[YSSY]

What annoys me most is when the staff cant be bothered checking basic things (or to be fair, perhaps it is company policy). An example was an instance where the inbound a/c was late, I knew this from FR24 and confirmed it at the empty gate, but the display says go to gate or boarding...at an empty gate! Somewhere in the system a human should do the common sense check and intervene.

I had a VA lounge staff tell me that my flight was boarding (intimating that I shouldn't be coming in to the lounge) in this situation, when I said there's no plane at the gate she seemed surprised!

Ive also had a lounge 'final call all remaining pax proceed immediately to gate XX' but after the 5 min walk to the gate lots of pax standing around waiting for boarding to START !

I have to agree that Qantas are particularly poor when it comes to delays, I've also had several occupancies of 'Final Call' yet waited another 30-45 mins for boarding to commence, and on some of those occasions the board hasn't shown a delay and any questions to the gate staff seem to give very vague answers of it'll board soon.

The worst I've had though was in Asia with a LCC (where you expect this kind of thing) flying from HKG to CEB with Cebu Pacific a few years back, we were stuck waiting for five hours for information at HKG airport, the local handling agent advised that they only know whether the aircraft is on its way once it enters HKG airspace, and and calls they made to Cebu airport and Cebu Pacific Ops were unanswered. No information at the time on FR24 etc. No information, and total surprise when the aircraft arrived. Oh well.

Positive experiences with delays have been phone calls before the flight offering free rerouting (US Airways) or email advising that the flight is delayed and giving a revised checkin time (Cathay). To be honest, most delays and IRROPS have worked in my favour with good airlines, giving you flexibility to reroute onto a route that might have cost more otherwise or suited better.

 

[mannej]

I thought Cathay were very poor handling a flight cancellation. A 10pm SMS the night before a flight notifying of the cancellation is quite poor if it doesn't have any further info. How hard is it to say flight CX521 cancelled please arrive for CX523 at 17:00.
I have been pretty lucky not to have too many delays, the last was the flight home from the QF lunch to which we all received a SMS at least 6 hours prior to the original flight time. It was explained to us that it was an earlier mechanical delay causing a roll on effect. What more do you need to know?

 

[OzEire]

What annoys me most is when the staff cant be bothered checking basic things (or to be fair, perhaps it is company policy). An example was an instance where the inbound a/c was late, I knew this from FR24 and confirmed it at the empty gate, but the display says go to gate or boarding...at an empty gate! Somewhere in the system a human should do the common sense check and intervene. !

Case in point right now. HLO, checked in at the lounge right on the normal boarding time (also shown on the display). I was very polite and friendly the whole interaction with lounge staff. I asked if the service was on time ? Perfunctory reply was yes, no smile the whole time, had a real "get outta my face" vibe. Sure enough after getting a drink and making a toastie (no other 'meal' choice avail) some 10 mins later still no call. Then I see my inbound aircraft arrive... ah, not quite 'on time' then.

Its now after the sched departure time and we haven't been called to board. I don't really care that much, its a minor inconvenience, but the lounge staff member could give half a stuff and just know which services are a few (in this case about 40) mins behind sched.

 

[JohnK]

I was thinking more about some overseas flights such as HKG-China where rolling delays of 1-2 hours are common due to ATC. In those circumstances CX/KA may move you, but not always. And they won't necessarily roll-forward cabins to accommodate pax delayed.

Qantas does service recovery very well. You don't notice it until you start to deal with other airlines in similar situations.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Jetstar cancelled their JQ720 departing Hobart @ 08:40 to Sydney (in August) and I was transferred to JQ724 departing @ 13:10. Really annoyed and expressed this, with the result I was offered a $25 voucher to use "for flights, DRINKS, LUGGAGE etc". However, upon receiving the voucher the terms printed seem to be for flights only - which doesn't surprise me. Jetstar is so incompetent I try to avoid them wherever possible. In Tasmania we don't have as many flight options as mainlanders. So, when going overseas I always book the domestic leg of my journey (not many direct overseas options from Hobart) for the day before an overseas flight due to the uncertainty. Now I won't have much time in Sydney to do the things I wanted to. VERY ANNOYED.

Precisely why I don't fly Deathstar!

 

[coolumbla]

anyone wanting to know why the wagga fights have been cancelled
look outside!
you can't see anything!