Passenger believes they are entitled to va Lounge after flight delayed

[MEL_Traveller]

The consumer demands poor service.
The consumer demands lower fares, and as everyone lowers fares & gets rid of employees how can service do anything but go backwards?

I’m not entirely convinced it is the consumer demanding lower fares. Very few people ‘need’ to fly for a weekend break in Sydney for $29 each way. Unless perhaps you have a sick or dying relative.

Consumers have discretionary spending money, airlines want to tap in to that, so they offer fares that will attract that money (instead of it going somewhere else).

If a customer chooses that $29 fare, there’s no caveat attached to that saying ‘you’ll only get poor service’.

I see it more of a case that the airlines should be grateful they get our discretionary spend, rather than us being grateful we can fly to Sydney so cheaply.

On that basis i’m a total advocate for schemes like EU261. Fares in europe haven’t skyrocketed because of it, and it holds airlines accountable. If the mother with baby was due for $300 compensation for the five hour delay she could have bought lounge access.

Re lounge access I agree with the comments above... members (paid or status) should absolutely be entitled to enter the lounge, get a seat, and have food and beverage. But outside that, if the airline wants to grant access due to a particular set of circumstances (for example a significant delay), it’s up to them. The caveat being lounges which are service orientated (first class for example), where they don’t have the staff to cope at capacity.

 

[opusman]

I love it that the ‘adults’ here who apparently never themselves were considered a pain in the **** by everyone else ‘screaming in the corner’ brats from their ‘breeder’ parents. Ironic that they wouldn’t be here rudely complaining otherwise.

I guarantee my parents never took me into an airline lounge

 

[get me outta here]

When I was a lad there were no airplanes.

 

[flying_duck]

I guarantee my parents never took me into an airline lounge

I can guarantee I slept on the floor of departures like everyone else from a very early age despite Mum being staff and me a child.

 

[Moody]

yeah yeah ...... and my whole family of 160 used to live in a shoebox in middle of road

Some people here need to take their hands off it. I haven't paid for lounge access for years, and have no problems with who the airline allows in ... and if I did it certainly wouldn't be parents with babes in arms that I would choose to evict.

 

[Forg]

Some people here need to take their hands off it. I haven't paid for lounge access for years, and have no problems with who the airline allows in ... and if I did it certainly wouldn't be parents with babes in arms that I would choose to evict.

The reaction isn’t isn’t to the screaming children ... it’s the screaming parent, demanding free access to things everyone else who got access paid for & which us statusless non-screamers don’t get at all.

 

[Haplo]

I agree the comments that parents sometimes feel entitled to things because they are a parent. Having a family gives you preference but does not confer any right.

I think the lounge staff is right to deny access, as allowing it would set precedence to an exception to the normal admittance process. Offering a meal voucher on the other hand is a standard operating practice of a delay and should be an acceptable outcome for both the airline and the passenger.

 

[drron]

Well no plane trips when I was a lad and the only hotel I can remember staying in was the Royal hotel glen Innes.We didn't find their exec lounge.
Besides as children we were always told children should be seen not heard.

 

[JohnK]

The consumer demands poor service.
The consumer demands lower fares, and as everyone lowers fares & gets rid of employees how can service do anything but go backwards?
This woman effectively DEMANDED poor service!

Not sure I agree.

Domestic airfares are at their highest in the 10+ years I've been commuting. In that time customer service has taken huge hits with call centres moved offshore and longer waiting times on phone.

Award charges have also increased and continue to increase.

 

[serfty]

That delay cost me meals, land transport and accommodation. Compare that with the 5 hour delay in this story.

These days if such a delay was due to an aircraft going "tech"; under current US regulation AA would have to provide any such said meals/transport/accommodation. (Weather caused delays are excluded.)

But no, that makes a 300 minute delay rather less significant, even with any "degree of difficulty" 'cause child.

 

[Forg]

Not sure I agree.

Domestic airfares are at their highest in the 10+ years I've been commuting.

Really? I'm not commuting regularly so maybe my experience is different to yours, but I'm generally paying around $100 (each way) to get to anywhere except Tassie or NZ which are about $200. I know there were a lot of specials around 10-ish years ago, but they were always $29 one way & then $290 on the way back!
It being cheaper to fly than drive to Melbourne, Brisbane or Adelaide is a very modern thing!
My uncle (QF flight engineer) took myself & my cousins into the flight-deck of one of the then-new 744's in '86, and from memory the cost of flying to the UK in J was ~$8k and F was ~$16k. That's about the same as now, after 30+ year's worth of inflation; and wow the product is better now! And circa 2001 when some mates & I were looking for fares to Europe (anywhere in Europe) we were super happy to pay $1900 ... nearly 20 years ago, and that's doable on QF for ~$1300 now and on an airline which will give you food-poisoning & probably die in a fiery plane-crash you can do it for ~$1k!

 

[Happy Dude]

The disgruntled pax cannot use the excuse of needing lounge access as a quiet or comfortable place to nurse their infant. I'm struggling to think of a quieter airport than CBR, especially at 12:30 on a weekday, and there's many suitable areas to park a pram with a 5 month old.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I think the lounge staff is right to deny access, as allowing it would set precedence to an exception to the normal admittance process. Offering a meal voucher on the other hand is a standard operating practice of a delay and should be an acceptable outcome for both the airline and the passenger.

It didn't seem that the meal voucher was offered, more that it came about after the mother of the child turned on the waterworks. It sounded like a case of squeaky wheel getting the most oil as opposed to something that was offered to all disrupted pax.

 

[Flying_man]

Meal voucher is better than lounge access due to inferior food in lounge.
Virgin can please release CCTV to prove that passenger was being threatening to staff?

 

[Forg]

Meal voucher is better than lounge access due to inferior food in lounge.

This was indeed true when we got a voucher from QF in HBA (SMS 2 days before 2 tell us 2hrs late was brilliant, SMS day before to say an extra hour late was also great to be informed - but then an extra 2hrs when we baggage-dropped was annoying).
Better half had status, but the lounge was jammed & unless your goal is jamming back booze it's for-the-suck.
Problem is a $10 voucher gets you not-much in an airport ...

 

[Milboo]

Why are people so hung up on getting meal vouchers?

I’m quite capable of purchasing my own food should I be hungry, and am also quite capable of not eating between meals.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Why are people so hung up on getting meal vouchers?

I’m quite capable of purchasing my own food should I be hungry, and am also quite capable of not eating between meals.

The cost of airport food can be prohibitively expensive. If you flew as planned, you wouldn’t be faced with the extra expense.

 

[suze2000]

I think a 5-hr delay would mean most people would require sustenance either before or during the flight. Given how little most airlines give you on the plane nowadays, I think it's reasonable to expect to eat during the wait. And since the wait is not your fault (and might be ruining plans on the other end of the journey), a meal voucher is reasonable. And it needs to be more than a lousy tenner.

 

[Denali]

Why are people so hung up on getting meal vouchers?

I’m quite capable of purchasing my own food should I be hungry, and am also quite capable of not eating between meals.

Someone in my family is low income. They save all year, collect cans, boot sales for their Jetstar flights to QLD to visit family and give their kids a good time, qld theme parks, fishing and camping, a movie but staying with family ect

I'm guessing feeding a family of 4, especially two growing boys, would be $80-$100, not chump change for some. Someone like you and me might hand the meal vouchers to a family to use but at least it reduces the cost for some.

 

[Forg]

Why are people so hung up on getting meal vouchers?

Because when you're stuck at the airport in Hobart, there's really nothing to do apart from buy food & eat it.

Plus my wife feels ill eating most food they serve in Y, and 5hrs plus a flight is a reasonable time to go without a meal (particularly if you've not eaten before you left for the airport etc etc).