How do you think Royal Brunei should have handled this?

[fiscal]

Hi All,

I just got back from a trip to Kota Kinabalu, and arrived at Perth to find that about 80% of the passenger luggage was left behind.

Let me tell you what appears to have happened.

We left Kota Kinabalu Ok, and arrived in Brunei for our connecting flight. It was supposed to be an A320. When we boarded it was in fact the same A319 that we flew in on. We were not informed at the transit desk that the plane needed to be downgraded due to a technical problem in the A320.

We got on the plane, with not one seat to spare. A Business class passenger was downgraded to economy with the promise of 2 seats, but that did not eventuate.

The flight is about 5 1/4 hours. The inflight entertainment was in German, or least for the 1st half of the plane. The meal was cold when it arrived at my seat, as the cabin attendants constantly had to move the cart back and forth due to passenger traffic in the aisle, so it was very slow.

The queue for the 2 toilets got to be about 10 passengers long at one time, meaning that a long queue formed at the rear of the plane, invading the personal space of the rear passengers, when constant traffic from the galley, and returning passengers all have to squeeze past the poor aisle passengers.

We finally arrived at Perth, and only when we got to the baggage reclaim area were we told that 80% of the bags were not there. We had to wait 90 mins in a queue to give our details to ground staff, so that the luggage could be delivered the next day (27 hours later in our case).

The reason, so we have been told, was that for a full A319 to make it to Perth, the baggage must be left behind or we would end up in the drink.

I had breathing equipment in my case, which prevented me from a having a safe sleep for the night, and another womans wheelchair was left behind.

So here are the issues. Should we have been informed first? What reasonable options should have been offered to us? and lastly do you think they acted responsibly and fair?

See ya

Tony

 

[moa999]

We left Kota Kinabalu Ok, and arrived in Brunei for our connecting flight. It was supposed to be an A320. When we boarded it was in fact the same A319 that we flew in on. We were not informed at the transit desk that the plane needed to be downgraded due to a technical problem in the A320.

Plane changes happen, most airlines do not inform about this.

We got on the plane, with not one seat to spare. A Business class passenger was downgraded to economy with the promise of 2 seats, but that did not eventuate.

This passenger clearly has a valid complaint

The flight is about 5 1/4 hours. The inflight entertainment was in German, or least for the 1st half of the plane. The meal was cold when it arrived at my seat, as the cabin attendants constantly had to move the cart back and forth due to passenger traffic in the aisle, so it was very slow.

I haven't imho seen many FAs do this in meal service (move cart out of the way). On a cold meal or IFE I would have complained on board.

The queue for the 2 toilets got to be about 10 passengers long at one time, meaning that a long queue formed at the rear of the plane, invading the personal space of the rear passengers, when constant traffic from the galley, and returning passengers all have to squeeze past the poor aisle passengers.

Typical A319 2 class layout - 2 toilets for circa 80-100 passengers. Would not normally cause issues. Again with the same passengers on an A320 may not have been better.

We finally arrived at Perth, and only when we got to the baggage reclaim area were we told that 80% of the bags were not there. We had to wait 90 mins in a queue to give our details to ground staff, so that the luggage could be delivered the next day (27 hours later in our case). The reason, so we have been told, was that for a full A319 to make it to Perth, the baggage must be left behind or we would end up in the drink.

Agree they should have potentially warned you that luggage may not make it and been more organised at the other end so you didn't have to wait 90min. 27hrs probably not too bad, came on next day's flight, plus 3 hrs for delivery.

I had breathing equipment in my case, which prevented me from a having a safe sleep for the night, and another womans wheelchair was left behind.

Rule 1. Never check any necessary medicines/ medical equipment. Always keep in hand luggage.

 

[NM]

Hi fiscal. While your experience was obviously disappointing for you, it seems the main issue is the delayed baggage. Airlines all over the world have to make last minute aircraft substitutions every day. Given the originally planned A320 aircraft was not available for the flight, I guess they had to choose between several options, some of which may have had different levels of inconvenience for the passengers and the airline:

• Cancel the flight and try to reaccommodate passengers on alternate options including the following day
• Delay the flight until the original aircraft was available (unknown delay time)
• Offload some passenger to allow baggage to be carried. This may have also caused departure delay as off-loaded passenger's bags would need to be located and off-loaded as well
• Carry all bags and passengers and end up in the drink (undesirable for both passengers and airline)

So they decided to carry the passengers and limit the baggage carried so they could get enough fuel on board for the flight. The next issue is how and when to inform the passengers that some of the bags won't be arriving. Again they have some options:

• Tell them before departure. This would likely result in lots of people wanting to know if their bag is on board of left behind, which is likely impractical for the airline to determine without causing significant departure delay.
• Tell them once on board at the start of the flight. Now passengers will be anxious all flight about whether their bags have made it.
• Tell them upon arrival at the gate. This may work but unless they can read out a list of names of those whose bags were left behind (they have had 5.5 hours to determine this and get the info to destination airport staff) nobody can start to process delayed baggage claims until they know if their bags have arrived or not.
• Wait until the delivered bags have all been claimed and then start to process paperwork for delayed baggage.

Sounds like they chose the last option.

You say the bags were delayed 27 hours, which implies they sent them on the next day's flight (probably the first realistic option for that route) and had to process them as unaccompanied baggage through customs. Given the bags were left behind, I think 27 hours is a good effort.

Delayed baggage claims require lodgement using the right forms/systems and that does take time. About the only thing the airline could have done differently in this case would be to provide more ground staff to help process. However, they may have been limited by the number of computer terminals available or staff trained/qualified to lodge the claims and even 5.5 hours notice of limitation may not be enough to overcome such a limitation.

You should be able to claim compensation for costs incurred by the delayed baggage, such as needing to purchase toiletries, fresh underwear etc. But if PER is your home destination, it may be difficult to justify the expenditure for costs incurred by the delay. If you had to hire temporary breathing equipment as a result of the delay, then the airline or your travel insurance provider should compensate you for the incurred expenses.

The cold meal, German IFE and queues at toilets are unfortunate. Some airlines provide compensation for broken IFE, but I expect on an A319 the IFE system was pretty basic and even on the scheduled A320 was unlikely to encompass personal screens and AVOD. Toilet queues happen on every flight of similar length and unless caused by one or more inoperable toilets, there is nothing the airline can do differently. Cold meals are unfortunate and disappointing, but you suggest this was caused by excessive passenger movements around the cabin. Again not much the airline can do to stop that except perhaps have the captain leave the seatbelt sign on during the meal service.

 

[fiscal]

Rule 1. Never check any necessary medicines/ medical equipment. Always keep in hand luggage.

Point taken, but the problem in my case is the weight and size issue. The machine is bulky and has a long flexible tube and mask that is not that flexible. with my normal cabin luggage requirements I would exceed the dimensions and weight for cabin baggage.

I suppose I have been lucky that in 33 years of flying I have not had a bag delayed. Anyway, I suppose the irritating fact is that we were not informed that the baggage was to be left behind, as it meant I had no options open to me to make other arrangements before the flight left.

Perhaps I should ask the airlines in the future if I can take the medical equipment into the cabin as extra cabin baggage - Never having asked this before I am not sure of their attitude. My next flight is with QF, so I will drop them an email today.

 

[dot]

Perhaps I should ask the airlines in the future if I can take the medical equipment into the cabin as extra cabin baggage - Never having asked this before I am not sure of their attitude. My next flight is with QF, so I will drop them an email today.

I presume you are talking about a CPAP machine - a friend of mine at work uses one and he ALWAYS takes his onboard as carry on - in fact, I think he has used it in the past to justify flying in J rather than Y.

In the US at least, CPAP machines are exempt from carry-on restrictions as they are medical machines.

If you intend to travel a lot, perhaps you should invest in a compact CPAP machine - cpap.com seem to have a number of quite portable units. (from a complete CPAP ignorance point of view anyway).

 

[fiscal]

Thanks for the info on the CPAP web site. Made interesting reading. All I need now is a nice bag to put it all in.

Tony

 

[Ric]

Resmed's comes with a compact carry on bag.

 

[Evan]

Have a friend that needs a CPAP and he purchased a nice new model about 2 years ago and said it was much better but also has features such as battery backup and being much smaller than the older model made it a lot easier to take it on planes.

As for the flight, well i guess it just sounds like you had a bad day not all that much to it. I can say i have had similar bad days before. Sometimes it happens, maybe early at check-in the could have asked if a few people wanted to stay an extra day but even then the Friday flight may have been full so not much benefit with doing that.
The best peice of advise i can give people when traveling is try not to stress, just relax and take it as it happens (Once you transit LHR a few times you have to get used to it because half the time is a bay day !)

E

 

[fiscal]

Have a friend that needs a CPAP and he purchased a nice new model about 2 years ago and said it was much better but also has features such as battery backup and being much smaller than the older model made it a lot easier to take it on planes.

I have a new newer model, but always left it in the check in baggage to save carrying it around the airport along with my portable office, which is heavy enough. If I can find a nice bag to store it all in, then I will carry it on.

Once you transit LHR a few times you have to get used to it because half the time is a bad day !
E

Been there and done that, especially on the last leg of the day, and each preceding one added a bit more to the delay. Happenned a couple of weeks ago when I went to Broome. The Virgin site said it was on time, Perth Airport said a 2 hour delay, and the Virgin call centre said it was on time, and guess what - a 2 hour wait in domestic when I checked in 1 hour later. It was caused on the first leg of the day, but obviously Virgin were optimistic<g> they could make the time up by mid afternoon.

 

[Evan]

I<..>
Been there and done that, especially on the last leg of the day, and each preceding one added a bit more to the delay. Happenned a couple of weeks ago when I went to Broome. The Virgin site said it was on time, Perth Airport said a 2 hour delay, and the Virgin call centre said it was on time, and guess what - a 2 hour wait in domestic when I checked in 1 hour later. It was caused on the first leg of the day, but obviously Virgin were optimistic<g> they could make the time up by mid afternoon.

Yes, later flights can be difficult, one of the times i have been very glad to be oneworld emerald, Flying BA an the last flight out is already full or going to be canceled, and i was given the best possibles choices without question, a flight on LH or a night's accommodation etc. I choose the LH flight.
I waited for 1 person in the line in front of me, last i saw my seat companions also going in the same direction of me they were in the economy queue about 50-60 people deep !

Better luck next time.

You can probably see why so many people travel light where possible, sadly its not as easy as it sounds !

E