QANTAS Cancelling Flight QF 517

[moffat39]

Not sure if this is the correct thread for this but will give it a go.

My wife had a MH Business class Enrich redemption booked earlier this year Brisbane to London leaving today. With MH not flying out of Brisbane any more her booking was changed Brisbane to Sydney on QF 517 today which departs at 9.25 and MH 122 which departs Sydney at 15.30. I dropped her off at the airport at around 8.25 and she was to phone me once in the lounge. I received a call around 9.00 to tell me she had missed her flight! When checking in she was told QF 517 had been cancelled and she had been changed to the QF flight leaving at 8.55 and check in for that flight had closed. When she told them that she had received no notification of the change by phone, email or text the response was to the effect that they do not get to everyone however no problem in rebooking her on the next flight QF 521 at 10.25.

My wife still arrived in Sydney in time but the experience was a lot more stressful than it should have been. We have Tripit Pro and ordinarily rely on it for updates and also we get updates via google as well neither of which gave any updates. Have no idea when QANTAS cancelled QF 517.

My question is as I have not previously monitored my departing flights before should I be doing so in the future? If so what is the best means to do so given that some passengers may leave home 2 to 3 hours before their flight?

If it is the airlines responsibility to advise passengers then should it have been QF or MH job to so?

 

[Hvr]

Yes always monitor your flights.

Re advising you, who ticketed the trip? They have the responsibility to inform you of changes.

 

[moffat39]

Was MH who ticketed.

Have checked QANTAS travel updates but no mention of QF 517.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

My wife had a MH Business class Enrich redemption booked earlier this year Brisbane to London leaving today. With MH not flying out of Brisbane any more her booking was changed Brisbane to Sydney on QF 517 today which departs at 9.25 and MH 122 which departs Sydney at 15.30. I dropped her off at the airport at around 8.25 and she was to phone me once in the lounge. I received a call around 9.00 to tell me she had missed her flight! When checking in she was told QF 517 had been cancelled and she had been changed to the QF flight leaving at 8.55 and check in for that flight had closed. When she told them that she had received no notification of the change by phone, email or text the response was to the effect that they do not get to everyone however no problem in rebooking her on the next flight QF 521 at 10.25.

My wife still arrived in Sydney in time but the experience was a lot more stressful than it should have been. We have Tripit Pro and ordinarily rely on it for updates and also we get updates via google as well neither of which gave any updates. Have no idea when QANTAS cancelled QF 517.

My question is as I have not previously monitored my departing flights before should I be doing so in the future? If so what is the best means to do so given that some passengers may leave home 2 to 3 hours before their flight?

If it is the airlines responsibility to advise passengers then should it have been QF or MH job to so?

The original booking was made in the MH system so when the BNE/KUL was cancelled and your wife was subsquently rerouted BNE/xSYD/KUL MH would not have conveyed any phone contact details to QF. I'm assuming that you didn't update any contact details or add your QF ffn via the manage my booking feature on the QF site? If not then QF would have had no way of contacting you.

Pax who had a mobile contact number in their pnr in contact details or had their ffn in the pnr would have received an sms once the flight was cancelled.

MH would have received notification when the QF flight was cancelled by way of the pnr being queued back to them but it could've ended up on a queue that had thousands of bookings on it requiring action so by the time someone at MH looked at the booking it was probably well after the flight departed.

I'd say it was a late cancellation either due to a mechanical issue in BNE or possibly with the inbound flight ex SYD(?) as it wouldn't be normal for that flight not to operate. If you dropped your wife off at the airport "around 0825" that is right on baggage close-off so by the time she's made her way inside the terminal and to the checkin counters, even if there was no queue the flight would already have closed for checkin.

The main thing is that even travelling on the later QF521 at 1025, she would've arrived in SYD local time at 1300 so would still have had 2.5 hours before the departure of the SYD/KUL flight. Baggage would've been checked through to LHR and all boarding passes issued in BNE so that's plenty of time to get from T3 to T1 on th shuttle bus.

 

[moffat39]

Oz thanks for your comprehensive response. It fills in the gaps and we have learnt from the experience. MH had our contact details including mobile numbers and I know when can no rely on them to contact us in the event of changes.

I was not aware that we could use the manage my booking feature on the QANTAS website even though booking was with MH. I am joining my wife next week in Europe and we come back to Brisbane from Dubai with MH. We fly into Sydney and after a night in Sydney we leave at 9.05 to Brisbane. I will now put my details into manage my booking.

It all ended well but the layover in Sydney was an hour less so I should be happy that my wife d less time for shopping!

 

[serfty]

....

It all ended well but the layover in Sydney was an hour less so I should be happy that my wife d less time for shopping!

All's well that ends well.

...

I'd say it was a late cancellation ...

I have checked and QF517 for November 16th was cancelled on or before October 14th.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

All's well that ends well.

I have checked and QF517 for November 16th was cancelled on or before October 14th.

In that case given that MH had their phone numbers you could assume that it's not safe to rely on them to advise you of any changes.

 

[moffat39]

Have been able to include contact details with my QANTAS ff number in the manage my booking and the booking shows up as KL to Brisbane. As I made the booking with Enrich my contact details were not included. No idea why MH did not make contact if QF517 was cancelled more than a month ago.

Lesson learnt is to always check flights! Never had to do that before.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Have been able to include contact details with my QANTAS ff number in the manage my booking and the booking shows up as KL to Brisbane. As I made the booking with Enrich my contact details were not included. No idea why MH did not make contact if QF517 was cancelled more than a month ago.

Lesson learnt is to always check flights! Never had to do that before.

Your contact details may have been in the MH pnr however they wouldn't have passed that on to QF when QF517 was booked hence QF would not have any contact phone number for you.

Right now you're looking at the QF pnr with the QF flight SYD/BNE which displays the incarriage flight on MH KUL/SYD but it won't display the LHR/KUL flight in QF MMB.