Middle East Airspace Diversions/Cancellations

[MEL_Traveller]

Goodness, you have been very fortunate indeed with your current experience of only waiting an hour to get through to Qatar, I assume you are a premium tier member. Certainly in Spain yesterday there was no response despite the several hours I tried to get through on chat and stories posted on Flyertalk of one poor soul being on phone hold for 17 hours. Others trying different phone numbers and language options in attempts to get through. GIven the increasing tranches of flights Qatar are having to cancel I think they are now just totally overwhelmed over here in Europe but maybe things are different for contacting them locally back in oz at the moment

I read that too! I don’t understand how anyone was on hold for 17 hours? But I agree… no one is saying this is ‘easy’ and doesn’t require anything short of a marathon effort!

 

[RooFlyer]

I don’t understand how anyone was on hold for 17 hours?

Remember the Covid phone queue stories?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Remember the Covid phone queue stories?

Exactly!

But I’m not sure if the 17 hours was a single hold, or multiple holds of less than an hour each, or what.

I mean you’d have to think, at some time in that 17 hours, that you might not actually be in the right queue?

 

[jase05]

I mean you’d have to think, at some time in that 17 hours, that you might not actually be in the right queue?

Definitely in the far queue

 

[Seat0B]

. I am contemplating trying to find some oldschool voip service or something,

After having a similar experience stuck in Japan at the onset of COVID, we were very glad to reactivate an old school VOIP account with CrazyTel. I think that is a good option for you.

 

[serfty]

Question - does this (EU261) apply if it’s MEL to DOH to FRA? Or only the other way around?

ONLY ex FRA (or EU/UK in general) as you are not booked on an EU/UK based carrier.

 

[kamchatsky]

CX has additional flights from HKG to LHR:


They must be making so much money on Europe flights right now. One of the quotes of the article below is:

"Operators of the Instagram account @dmarge just posted a screenshot of a business class fare (with one leg in first class) from Sydney to London on Cathay Pacific for almost $40,000."

$11k for an economy flight to London? Why airlines are not your friends

Airlines always like to pretend to be your friend. Until they sniff a little desperation and then they absolutely fleece you for all you’re worth.

www.smh.com.au

 

[MEL_Traveller]

They must be making so much money on Europe flights right now. One of the quotes of the article below is:

"Operators of the Instagram account @dmarge just posted a screenshot of a business class fare (with one leg in first class) from Sydney to London on Cathay Pacific for almost $40,000."

$11k for an economy flight to London? Why airlines are not your friends

Airlines always like to pretend to be your friend. Until they sniff a little desperation and then they absolutely fleece you for all you’re worth.

www.smh.com.au

You can find any fare you want to support a spurious argument.

I mentioned above that yes, same day walk up fares ex Europe to Australia can be expensive… AUD3000-4000. But wait just one day and the same fare is only $1940. Or wait two days and extend your travel time from 24 hours to 36 hours and you can get home for under $1000… avoiding gulf carriers.

Click bait.

And many of the people on those flights won’t be paying those fares at all… other airlines re-routing pax will be picking up the bill.

 

[Saab34]

News still in the early stages but a USAF KC135 is apparently down.

 

[serfty]

News still in the early stages but a USAF KC135 is apparently down.

Seems an accident ...

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 refueling aircraft has reportedly gone down in friendly airspace in western Iraq during combat operations against Iran, U.S. Central Command announced in a release Thursday.

Two aircraft were reportedly involved in the incident, the statement read, and “one of the aircraft went down.” The second aircraft landed safely, it added.

“The incident was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” the release said.

The CENTCOM statement did not clarify whether the aircraft had crashed, noting only that “U.S. Central Command is aware of the loss a U.S. KC-135.”

https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/4432850/loss-of-us-kc-135-over-iraq/

 

[OATEK]

News still in the early stages but a USAF KC135 is apparently down.

Just announced on the TV news that it was an accident, the tanker went down and the other aircraft landed safely.

 

[Saab34]

I guess Iraq is a non radar environment?

 

[markis10]

I guess Iraq is a non radar environment?

Probably plenty around, not that they use radar during inflight refuelling, optical nigs just like your plane going to the gate. Any separation would be provided by the Hawkeyes/E3s and RAAF wedgetail airborne. The incident involved two KC135s.

 

[Rembrandt]

And many of the people on those flights won’t be paying those fares at all… other airlines re-routing pax will be picking up the bill.

Are the ME3 actually re-routing pax? I thought they were just cancelling flights for people not stranded in the gulf.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Are the ME3 actually re-routing pax? I thought they were just cancelling flights for people not stranded in the gulf?

Yes.

A lot of the discussion over the last few pages has been around the ME3 rerouting. EK has actually resumed (limited) commercial operations.

QR is rerouting either under the JWC policy or EU/UK261.

EY I haven’t done any research into.

 

[elanshin]

Are the ME3 actually re-routing pax? I thought they were just cancelling flights for people not stranded in the gulf.

Yes, but keep in mind you're talking about hundreds of thousands of people PER day that needs to be rerouted. This number compounds into a bigger and bigger number with each passing day.

There frankly is not enough capacity with every other airline combined to handle the rerouting. This is why we're seeing a lot of must fly people taking the long way around to Asia from Europe.

F1 for example, a lot of their crews flew 40-50 hours to get to Melbourne.

 

[Rembrandt]

Ok thanks for the clarification. What about reward seats are they re-routed or just generally cancelled?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Ok thanks for the clarification. What about reward seats are they re-routed or just generally cancelled?

Rewards seats are being treated the same as revenue.

VA however - from what I can read - is simply offering a refund or change to a later date. No re-routing.

With EK’s limited resumption of commercial flights you may be stuck with a flight via the gulf rather than a reroute. I dunno what happens in that scenario if there’s still a ‘do not travel’ in place.

 

[Rembrandt]

VA hiwever - from what I can read - is simply offering a refund or change to a later date. No re-routing.

Thanks for confirming. Grrr..I have a VA reward seat flying with QR. My flights are not until April 19th and as other have said travel will be the least of our troubles if the gulf is still closed then..

 

[kamchatsky]

You can find any fare you want to support a spurious argument.

I mentioned above that yes, same day walk up fares ex Europe to Australia can be expensive… AUD3000-4000. But wait just one day and the same fare is only $1940. Or wait two days and extend your travel time from 24 hours to 36 hours and you can get home for under $1000… avoiding gulf carriers.

Click bait.

And many of the people on those flights won’t be paying those fares at all… other airlines re-routing pax will be picking up the bill.

From Europe/UK, they would do free re-route, but not from anywhere else though.