One unhappy (and litigious) camper

[wanderer_au]

Qantas sued over rude staff, slow drink service, late flights

AN ADELAIDE man is suing Qantas over delayed domestic flights, rude and slow drink service and uncomfortable seats on an international flight.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/qantas-sued-over-rude-staff-slow-drink-service-late-flights/story-e6frfq80-1227275697537

 

[Pleb Status]

It is not April 1 just yet is it?

 

[anat0l]

He'll probably get something out of it.

But what would be the alleged charges for the court?

 

[Deleted member]

Silver..... Seriously..,!!! Silver.
God forbid he ever discovers the dizzy heights of SG !

 

[Hvr]

his trip was ruined because another patron in front had reclined his chair into his face.

Well what can I say? Ain't it lucky the 'tiser is on the case.
No Cookies | The Advertiser

 

[OzEire]

The guy doesn't have the shred of a legal case, but I suspect that is not actually the point... He has the press interested now so I'm guessing that the 'trial' (sic) has become moot.

 

[opusman]

I wonder what sort of lucrative business contracts a gun shop owner could be talking about...

 

[vetrade]

Legally he doesn't have a leg to stand on but surely anything that draws attention to poor service can't be a bad thing. Isn't that what we do every day in this forum?

 

[medhead]

It raises a very important issue about this complete BS that schedule is not part of the deal.

 

[Ansett]

It raises a very important issue about this complete BS that schedule is not part of the deal.

Agreed they have to provide a schedule. People use it as part of the decision making process therefore in my opinion it would be an integral component of the contract.

I can not however see the customer winning but as others have said it highlights the problem that many face each day and offers up opportunities for improvement.

 

[UP4014]

Sounds like many flights I've been on.

Offer him something, then in the conditions of settlement put he cannot travel QF again, ever.

Matt

 

[Hvr]

Sounds like many flights I've been on.

Offer him something, then in the conditions of settlement put he cannot travel QF again, ever.

Matt

Give him a free flight on JetStar and then tell him he's got nothing to complain about.

 

[Anna]

It's a shame that people with grievances like involuntary downgrades or removal of Chauffeur Drive or EK lounge access that existed at time of booking don't seem to resort to litigation, as they would have a much better argument for breach of contract or misleading & deceptive conduct than this guy has.

If he has a go arguing negligence over the delays he might have a stronger case, depending obviously on the reason for the delays, which we don't know. He needs full disclosure of documents about that. Also he would need to prove that the delays caused him to lose business, as opposed to any other reason why he might not have got it eg his price, quality of his goods etc. Might be an interesting argument.

 

[medhead]

Agreed they have to provide a schedule. People use it as part of the decision making process therefore in my opinion it would be an integral component of the contract.

I can not however see the customer winning but as others have said it highlights the problem that many face each day and offers up opportunities for improvement.

I don't disagree that the guy is pushing custard up hill if he expects to win

It's a shame that people with grievances like involuntary downgrades or removal of Chauffeur Drive or EK lounge access that existed at time of booking don't seem to resort to litigation, as they would have a much better argument for breach of contract or misleading & deceptive conduct than this guy has.

If he has a go arguing negligence over the delays he might have a stronger case, depending obviously on the reason for the delays, which we don't know. He needs full disclosure of documents about that. Also he would need to prove that the delays caused him to lose business, as opposed to any other reason why he might not have got it eg his price, quality of his goods etc. Might be an interesting argument.

I guess the counter argument is to ask why he didn't book a flight for a day earlier if arriving on time was that critical.

 

[mannej]

This bloke sounds vexatious, and would have complained about anything from that JNB flight it seems.

I don't know why the media don't give more airtime to those who have more worthy issues with airlines instead of people like this.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I don't disagree that the guy is pushing custard up hill if he expects to win

Yes but the publicity for his gun business and his SA shooting safaris is priceless.

I guess the counter argument is to ask why he didn't book a flight for a day earlier if arriving on time was that critical.

Never ceases to amaze me on those horror travel programs about airlines featuring RyanAir / Scoot / Tiger Airways when some group travelling to a marriage/wedding/funeral at 4pm in MLB have booked a flight leaving BNE at 1pm and are delayed. Then they spend the whole program bagging the airline and whinging about how the airline changed/cancelled/overbooked/etc causing them great grief and now their plans have been 'rooned' upsetting the '554' people waiting for them in MLB. If the appointment was so important why did they not fly the day before? (Ah yes. That must explain why TA and JH use the Govt jet at taxpayers' expense to go spruiking or lunch in SYD/MLB.)

Then again, a few years ago I was scheduled for a medical procedure, involving tubes and a small camera, scheduled for first thing on a Monday morning The specialist missed his 5 am flight from Melbourne after returning late from his African Queen Cruise adventure on the Sunday. The fact that he considered he could get a 5am flight then do procedures at 8am did not seem overly professional nor amusing to me when I finally found out the reason.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Qantas sued over rude staff, slow drink service, late flights

AN ADELAIDE man is suing Qantas over delayed domestic flights, rude and slow drink service and uncomfortable seats on an international flight.

Qantas sued over rude staff, slow drink service, late flights

Hunting trip - I think that says it all....

 

[opusman]

...group travelling to a marriage/wedding/funeral at 4pm in MLB...

Do you mean MEL? They would really be expecting a lot to get from BNE to Melbourne, Florida in 3 hours

 

[dajop]

Do you mean MEL? They would really be expecting a lot to get from BNE to Melbourne, Florida in 3 hours

To be pedantic ..... they would have 17-18 hrs to get from BNE to Melbourne, Florida depending on the time of year

 

[Anna]

I guess the counter argument is to ask why he didn't book a flight for a day earlier if arriving on time was that critical.

Actually that's an interesting point

If (if!) his argument is accepted that "QF had a contract to get me there at a certain time and the flight was late so QF breached that contract" then it is irrelevant to that breach that he could have booked earlier flights. You can't get out of a breach of contract by arguing "you should have put different terms in the contract and then we wouldn't have breached it and you wouldn't have suffered a loss".

If his argument is "the flight was delayed because QF were negligent, which caused me to suffer loss", is it a good argument to say in response "there was contributory negligence by you because you could have booked an earlier flight"? I don't know. It doesn't sound like a particularly good argument to me. It might depend on how much time he had actually left for himself to get to his appointment if there had been an on-time arrival.

A better response by QF to the negligence argument might be to say "too bad so sad if your flight was delayed because we were negligent, we don't have to compensate you for pure economic loss without proof of physical damage".