Does Qantas domestic scheduling have issues?

[JohnK]

Arrived at BNE airport earlier this evening and waited in the business queue for 20+ minutes as there wasn't anyone at business class check in and the Qantas club check in alternated between the two queues. Then it was announced QF555 was cancelled and anyone on that flight to go to the ticket desk. I quickly rushed over and after waiting for 15 minutes I was given a boarding pass for 8D on QF559. Then back to the check in queue and another 15 minutes waiting.

Go to the lounge only to find out that QF559 is going to be late. Originally due to take off at 19:45 it is now due to board at 19:50 with an estimated take off of 20:10. Any more delay and it is going to struggle to make curfew. Sitting here now and still no sign of boarding.

I should be grateful I have a seat on the last flight of the night and the reason given for QF555 cancellation is lightining strike. I was also supposed to meet docjames at the Business lounge but this did not eventuate. Sorry James....

 

[Mal]

You will be struggling for curfew. Perhaps you'll have the night in Brisbane tonight.

QF559 Sydney 19:45 20:10 Estimated

If it hasn't boarded yet, then don't expect a departure before 20:30. It's at least 60 mins to Sydney, plus a bit more, so you'll either scrape curfew or have to turn back.

Will be interesting to see how you go.

BTW - QF665 (BNE-ADL 18:00) has been delayed until 21:00. Perhaps they've swapped some planes around...

 

[nlagalle]

You will be struggling for curfew. Perhaps you'll have the night in Brisbane tonight.

QF559 Sydney 19:45 20:10 Estimated

If it hasn't boarded yet, then don't expect a departure before 20:30. It's at least 60 mins to Sydney, plus a bit more, so you'll either scrape curfew or have to turn back.

Will be interesting to see how you go.

I'm curious, if the fligt turns back to you get any credits for it? or only on the flight that you actually get on?

 

[Mal]

I'm curious, if the fligt turns back to you get any credits for it? or only on the flight that you actually get on?

I don't believe there is a set rule - like most other 'unusual' situations, it can go both ways - points for both or points for one.

Presume it depends on when the flight is cancelled, how the staff handle the situation and various other factors.

Flight is still showing 'Estimated' at 20:10 (Brisbane time) for departure. Unless JohnK has either boarded, or boards in the next few minutes - my bet is on the plane missing curfew. While the flight is booked at 1:30, this includes a bit of extra time for traffic control, Qantas pilots cruising at optimal (rather than max) speeds etc. I think the best they can do is about 1:15/1:20, but others would need to chime in with their own experiences.

Of course Sydney can grant dispositions to allow a flight to land post-curfew (and I believe Qantas can 'choose' to land post curfew and suffer a very huge fine), so regardless of when the flight boards - it can still land in Sydney if everything goes right.

 

[Mal]

Now showing:

(Departure)
QF559 Sydney 19:45 20:19 Departed

(Arrival)
QF559 Brisbane 22:15 22:40 Estimated

So JohnK should make it home within curfew.

 

[NM]

I'm curious, if the fligt turns back to you get any credits for it? or only on the flight that you actually get on?

If the flight turns back to BNE then its routing is BNE-BNE which by anyone's calculations is 0 miles, which means you are entitled to exactly 0 SCs for the 0 mile flight.

 

[oz_mark]

If the flight turns back to BNE then its routing is BNE-BNE which by anyone's calculations is 0 miles, which means you are entitled to exactly 0 SCs for the 0 mile flight.

I believe the SC table specifies 10SC for a flight from 0-600 miles, thus 10SC would be correct.

 

[nlagalle]

I believe the SC table specifies 10SC for a flight from 0-600 miles, thus 10SC would be correct.

So based on that you'd also get the minimum 1,000 points too....

 

[NM]

I believe the SC table specifies 10SC for a flight from 0-600 miles, thus 10SC would be correct.

Well I can tell you from personal experience that they do not pay 10SCs for a BNE-BNE flight.

 

[NM]

So based on that you'd also get the minimum 1,000 points too....

Not when it happened to me :evil:

 

[Mal]

Not sure what's happened with JohnK's flight

Qantas are listing it as:
(Arrival)
QF559 Brisbane 22:15 22:59 Estimated

Seeing it's 11:15pm now in SYD, yet the plane doesn't seem to have landed - I'm curious where it is. Perhaps it did get turned around back to BNE!

Edit - Sydney Airport seem to believe it's landed:

QF559 Brisbane 28/11/2008
10:15pm 28/11/2008
10:52pm T3 Landed

 

[oz_mark]

Not sure what's happened with JohnK's flight

Qantas are listing it as:
(Arrival)
QF559 Brisbane 22:15 22:59 Estimated

Seeing it's 11:15pm now in SYD, yet the plane doesn't seem to have landed - I'm curious where it is. Perhaps it did get turned around back to BNE!

Edit - Sydney Airport seem to believe it's landed:

QF559 Brisbane 28/11/2008
10:15pm 28/11/2008
10:52pm T3 Landed

FlightStats have it as having landed at 10:52pm

 

[JohnK]

Finally got home. The aircraft just made curfew. Did not take off until ~8:30pm which is not good enough. I thought we had landed at 10:53pm but 10:52pm is close enough. We had very turbulent weather out of BNE then halfway through the flight and again towards the end of the flight. There were a lot of unhappy people on the flight.

When I was going to the carousel in SYD I noticed that the second flight to MEL in the morning has been cancelled and one of the early flights from BNE has been cancelled as well.

I know any number of issues can affect scheduled times but every week is a new excuse and every week I am late. In my opinion this is not good enough but as mentioned many times I do not have much choice other than to leave at lunch time on Friday and hope to get to SYD by midnight. Does not leave much time to relax and enjoy being home....

 

[Dave Noble]

Well I can tell you from personal experience that they do not pay 10SCs for a BNE-BNE flight.

I have received SCs for a BNE-BNE flight. I was on a BNE-SYD which had to turnaround and return to BNE and then rebooked on another flight the next morning. Both flights credited

Dave

 

[Expon]

Of course Sydney can grant dispositions to allow a flight to land post-curfew (and I believe Qantas can 'choose' to land post curfew and suffer a very huge fine), so regardless of when the flight boards - it can still land in Sydney if everything goes right.

DOTARS are the authority that grant aircraft movements outside of curfew and they seldom do. In this situation you would not get one. If Qantas chose to land without the dispensation to break curfew they fines typically exceed $500k per offence, not to mention the PR problems about being renegade etc. The domestic airlines will always turn around, even the LCC's!

 

[serfty]

One of the bigger problems relates to Friday Evening is about the busiest time for PAX operations, closely followed by Monday Mornings/Sunday Evenings as people like John commute for their work week.

You'll rarely see N or O class available on a 6pm Friday flight between MEL/SYD/BNE/ADL, even 353 days out.

As John's recent anecdotes have indicated, it hard enough to get thing right when little goes wrong; If equipment goes cough up, it becomes really difficult.

 

[NM]

I have received SCs for a BNE-BNE flight. I was on a BNE-SYD which had to turnaround and return to BNE and then rebooked on another flight the next morning. Both flights credited

Didn't work for me. I was rebooked on the 5:05am departure the following morning and only received SCs and points for the rebooked flight. So I guess it really is a case of YMMV.

 

[Expon]

I suppose if we really wanted to read into posting of points for miles flown, the days where people experience over 60 mins holding into SY should get about 2000 points. After all they are flying in circles longer than it takes to fly ML-SY. Either way I think it would be a nice gesture to recieve the points if your flight has to return to its point of departure.

 

[JohnK]

You'll rarely see N or O class available on a 6pm Friday flight between MEL/SYD/BNE/ADL, even 353 days out.

Don't ask me how or why but I have managed to get sale airfares for 17:15 and 17:45 flights for most Friday nights back to SYD through to end March 2009.

 

[Actualise]

I was on QF665 that turned back yesterday

I'll report on this thread about what happens with the points. It is too soon for them to end up on the statement.

I'll start a separate report about the turn-back and debacle.

Cheers,
Andrew.