Excuses, excuses - you missed your flight because.....

[ozbeachbabe]

Missed QF74 SFO-SYD a few weeks ago because my DFW-SFO flight was delayed by more than an hour.

We were at the gate ready to push back and we get told "this plane's been de-commissioned. Everyone off the plane, we're gonna need a new one," by the pilot. I watch my 65 minutes connection time roll away (I told QF it wouldn't work, but they wanted me to pay $300 to go on an earlier flight, which I was so NOT going to do) and end up spending the night in San Fran.

Of course, there's a dozen of us on the flight and I'm the only one who's luggage doesn't turn up.

San Fran was nice though

L.

The legal minimum connection time in SFO from AA domestic to QF international is 1hr 15mins so it should have been changed by QF with no penalty. Was there more time when the booking was first made making it a legal connection then scheduled changed down the track?

In any case it's always a good idea to know what the legal connection time is so you can tell the airline it's not legal and ask them to book you on another flight which should be at no cost to yourself.

Generally speaking the first airline ie AA at DFW would get a prompt when trying to issue a bag tag informing them that the connection time wasn't legal & only check your bag as far as SFO.

Where did your luggage not turn up at SFO or SYD?

 

[liamg]

It was originally around 2hrs, then changed to 70 minutes. I told the Qantas lady on the phone when she called me to advise of the change that I thought it was too short; she said the MCT was 60 minutes and refused to let me change the flight without further (excessive) charge, which I was never going to pay.

My luggage never came off the carousel in SFO, because it apparently had never been put on in DFW. SFO check-in the next day said they had it now, and it was all good when I got to SYD. Annoyingly, I was the only one of the dozen of us to not have their bags. Everyone else got to have clean clothes, etc. where I was forced into buying a fresh toothbrush, etc. I was pretty pissed at AA.

And then at QF when I got to SFO only to realise the JL lounge there doesn't have showers. I mean, come on. Seriously? And then I was denied entry with my QF Gold/OW Saphire to the BA J lounge. Apparently only for Platinum/Emerald, despite the sign on the door. Very disappointing...

L.

 

[notzac]

And then at QF when I got to SFO only to realise the JL lounge there doesn't have showers. I mean, come on. Seriously? And then I was denied entry with my QF Gold/OW Saphire to the BA J lounge. Apparently only for Platinum/Emerald, despite the sign on the door. Very disappointing...

Possibly worth following up with QF/BA - AFAIK, you *should* have had access to the BA J lounge as a QF Gold.

 

[anat0l]

Possibly worth following up with QF/BA - AFAIK, you *should* have had access to the BA J lounge as a QF Gold.

As long as you were travelling on a oneworld carrier, you should have been allowed in the SFO BA J lounge.

Once again, BA displays its contempt to recognise other oneworld elites and their respective benefits accurately. Not QF's fault at all, and probably a waste of time and effort to chase up BA, but next time it does happen I would stand my ground and get them to look up the rules on either the QF or BA websites. Now unless the dragons were really, really stubborn then I would note their names and then report them.

Honestly, they have fairly comprehensive manuals which tell them if you have access or not (I've seen these used at LHR T5). Perhaps outside UK they do not have these, but still no excuse for not knowing the rules.

...the JL lounge there doesn't have showers. I mean, come on.

A showerless lounge is not as uncommon as you think.

In HKG, the JL lounge does not have showers. Then again, with the exception of the Gate 16 lounge, all the other oneworld lounges do.

In BKK, the JL lounge is the only other oneworld lounge that has a shower (the two QF/BA lounges have showers, but they do not open until about 1400h). The two CX lounges in BKK have neither showers nor toilets.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

A pax recently arrived at the airport around noon eg 26 May to catch a red eye flight at 0145 which of course had already depart 12 hours before or thereabouts. Travel agent had booked her accomm checking out 26 May so agent clearly didn't get it either otherwise they would've said something like:

"you check out of your hotel on 25 May & that night go to the airport around 2300 as your flight departs at 0145 on 26 May".

If pax then wanted the hotel room up to 2300 when they leave for the airport, they would then need to book the extra night despite not getting to actually sleep in the bed.

Pax did say "why would they have a flight at that time of night"? Never assume that just because your hometown has a curfew that it's the same everywhere else.

Have also seen pax holding travel agent itineraries for the red eye but have sightseeing tours booked by same agent for 12 hours after the flight departed & as pax said "if our flight was leaving at 1.45am why would the agent book us a jumping crocs cruise later that afternoon".

If travel agents can't embrace these unusual departure times what hope has the passenger got?

Oz

 

[anat0l]

Yesterday on my journey home from ADL to BNE, I had lined up ADL-SYD-MEL-SYD-BNE, with MEL-SYD being a JQi flight but otherwise the rest were QF on the same PNR. I had one checked bag from ADL.

The connecting time between my ADL-SYD and SYD-MEL flight was 40 minutes, the requisite as dictated by the QF search engine. Bag was routed to MEL.

We boarded rather early but we couldn't take off early on account of SYD ATC rules. Then, once in the air, we had been advised due to strong winds at SYD, we would need to be delayed by 20 minutes. We were about to land on SYD when suddenly we pulled up again. Dammit! A go around! Captain came on and apparently another aircraft had entered our runway without instruction from ATC, which forced us to go around.

Finally we made it to the terminal, where I had very clearly misconnected. Fortunately they bumped me onto the next flight with a decent seat. My bag didn't make the transfer and instead was put on second to next flight after mine. When I explained my itinerary to Baggage Services at MEL, the kind gentleman behind the counter suggested that if I file a report now, I could go check-in for my JQi service, and when the bag arrives in MEL it will be tagged to go direct to BNE. Not wanting to miss the JQi check-in deadline and more F Lounge time, I thought this was a great idea. Full marks to Fab from QF Baggage Services in MEL.

My bag did make it to BNE early and I confirmed the details to pick it up.