QF693 this afternoon, while at the aerobridge, I noticed a male and female pax looking pretty unhappy talking to the CSM (in the corner close to where the headphone trolleys were located). Overheard that the female pax was intoxicated and was denied boarding (well within Qantas’ rights). After some time, when everyone had boarded, about 10 passengers decided to leave the plane (they must be travelling in a group). Then came the announcement from the flight deck that there were 20 bags to offload (Ready for Take Off film crew would have had a field day on this one!) Overall about 50 mins delay on the tarmac. I thought the situation was handled professionally and the ground team did quite well to locate 20 bags in that time.
Which got me thinking, what is Qantas’ obligation to those passengers who were not intoxicated but chose to not fly due to one of their friends being denied boarding? Also, what about their intoxicated friend - should/would Qantas need to accommodate her on another flight? IMO, I think each of them should be responsible for their own decision to leave the plane and Qantas should not be bending over backwards to accommodate them. Everyone else on the plane had been inconvenienced by their actions. Anyway, interested in AFF’s thoughts on this on this matter.
Which got me thinking, what is Qantas’ obligation to those passengers who were not intoxicated but chose to not fly due to one of their friends being denied boarding? Also, what about their intoxicated friend - should/would Qantas need to accommodate her on another flight? IMO, I think each of them should be responsible for their own decision to leave the plane and Qantas should not be bending over backwards to accommodate them. Everyone else on the plane had been inconvenienced by their actions. Anyway, interested in AFF’s thoughts on this on this matter.