Qantas Changed Flights - Not Happy

[eden62]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum so sorry I don't know all of the terminology.

I booked 2 flights to LAX to Adelaide via Auckland back in March for August 25th departure, using QFF points.

I have just checked my Qantas account online, and found that the flight has been changed to LAX - Auckland - Melbourne - Adelaide with a 3hour stopover in Melbourne.

As you can imagine - I'm not particularly happy a) that they didn't bother to notify me even though they have all of my contact details and b) that I now have another leg to the journey and another 3 hour stopover.

I have called QANTAS but got nowhere - they say that the only flight now available would be LAX -Mel-ADL but that the Mel-ADL leg would mean spending overnight in Melbourne.

Is there anything that can be done or is it a matter or bad luck?? I must admit that it took me ages to get these tickets in the first place as I waited so that I could get a reasonably direct flight and to find now that they've changed it - I'm poohed off! :evil:

 

[NM]

Given that QF no longer fly AKL-ADL, there is no way they can carry you non-stop between those two places. It would seem logical to me to have you continue on QF26 all the way from LAX to MEL (via AKL) and pick up a MEL-ADL flight from there.

Note that you may have an arrival into ADL that is scheduled to be 3 hours later than the original plan. How would you have been affected if the original flight had been delayed by 3 hours, which is quite possible?

Given that the original route is no longer operated by Qantas, what would you like them to do?

 

[eden62]

Perhaps letting me know that the flight had changed would have been nice. As I said, I am a newbie and had no idea that Qantas no longer flew this route. Would it not be possible for them to change me to a LAX-Mel-ADL or LAX-SYD-ADL?

I do realise that these things happen, but just wish that it didn't happen to me on my first long haul flight. But so be it - there is obviously nothing that I can do about it but sit back and try to relax!

 

[NM]

Yes, QF is often slow at contacting people when they need to make changes. I expect that when they dropped the AKL-ADL flight, they would have had a lot of people to re-accommodate and are probably working through the process in order of those affected earliest. So yes, they should contact you, but ion most cases they don't until a few days before departure. Many people have made the same observation/complaint.

I expect they chose to leave you on the same initial departure flight from LAX (QF26) so that if they were not able to contact you, at least you would be checking-in at the same time and place as you expected. Moving you to different flight combinations would then be based upon availability. They have provided you an alternate routing, so have met their commitment. If you want to change that to a different flight combination, then they will probably look at that as a voluntary re-route which will incur a points penalty and is subject to award seat availability. You only hope to getting such a change for no cost is if you can show the new arrival time into ADL is unsuitable (such as causing you a misconnect on another departure or to miss a meeting etc). But giving that the new arrival time is only a matter of a few hours later, that may be hard to justify, especially since its not uncommon for long-haul international flights to run 3+ hours late and you could be similarly affected by such a delay.

If you have QF Platinum status, you could try to make your case to the QF FF Premium Desk agents. However, I think you will find that QF is operating within their terms and conditions that apply to award flights, so you have no real leverage to force changes.

 

[serfty]

Your only real option is to juggle the departure time for MEL-ADL if possible. In reality your travel will not be much different, maybe better as the 747's AKL-MEL tend to be more comfortable than the Domestic 737 that would have taken you to ADL from AKL.

If you have already contacted Qantas and when you look your booking up on Qantas.com it indicates confirmed it's too late to much at all.

 

[Zulaiha]

I believe Qantas sent me an automated email message when they changed my booking the day they changed my booking. Was that mainly because I paid my ticket, I really can't tell you.

I am sorry that your plan was changed, I can understad how upsetting that can be, it happened to me before.

 

[dajop]

Your only real option is to juggle the departure time for MEL-ADL if possible. In reality your travel will not be much different, maybe better as the 747's AKL-MEL tend to be more comfortable than the Domestic 737 that would have taken you to ADL from AKL

QF 26 AKL-MEL arrives at 8:20, timetable shows this connecting to QF679 at 10:20, which there is award availability on (at least for SG's & WP's) - that would save an hour, but that's the best you could hope for.

 

[NM]

QF 26 AKL-MEL arrives at 8:20, timetable shows this connecting to QF679 at 10:20, which there is award availability on (at least for SG's & WP's) - that would save an hour, but that's the best you could hope for.

And that would have an 11:10am arrival into ADL actually be an earlier arrival than the original AKL-ADL that was scheduled for 11:40 into ADL.

The OP mentioned not wanting a 3 hour transit in MEL. But the original plan would have seen a 4:45am arrival into AKL and a 9:15 departure to ADL, making for a 4hr45min transit and then needing to clear immigration and customs in ADL. This would have had an 11:40am arrival into ADL.

The new schedule has a 1hr15min same plane transit in AKL and a 3 hour connection in MEL during which immigration and customs will be completed before the domestic departure to ADL. Assuming QF681 is the MEL-ADL flight to be used, then the ADL arrival would not be noon.

So the eventual arrival into ADL is now 20 mins later, but as a domestic arrival rather than international so no immigration and customs processing upon arrival. I really don't think this is such a bad re-routing that would warrant stress or pursuing a complaint against Qantas. And given that it means the passenger is on the same departure from LAX, then even if QF was unable to contact the passenger at least they arrive at the right terminal at the right time anyway. It would seem to me that apart from not notifying the passenger of the change, Qantas has done a reasonable job of reaccommodating the passenger.

 

[eden62]

No, actually the arrival into AUK was 0445 and departure 0620 - arrival into ADL 0845. So there is actually quite a large difference in that we now arrive into ADL at 12.25pm.

Sorry to be complaining about all this, but as I said before, I am a newbie and was just disappointed that the flights that I had waited quite a long time to get in order to get the most direct route, have now been changed to (what seems to me) quite a bit of messing around.

It may be that this is quite a normal occurrence, but as this is my first time using my FF points, I was disappointed.

 

[serfty]

FWIW, the QF AKL/ADL has been only around for 2 years or so; loads made it borderline for that whole time; in the end QF decide it was "Revenue negative".

 

[pauly7]

FWIW, the QF AKL/ADL has been only around for 2 years or so; loads made it borderline for that whole time; in the end QF decide it was "Revenue negative".

Did QF operate this route or Jetconnect? Because I saw on another board that Jetconnect were looking into expanding into secondary Australian ports...?

 

[serfty]

Did QF operate this route or Jetconnect? Because I saw on another board that Jetconnect were looking into expanding into secondary Australian ports...?

I believe it was Initially QF and more recently Jetconnect.

 

[NM]

I believe it was Initially QF and more recently Jetconnect.

Yes, QF first announced the route in April 2004 for a December 2004 commencement to be using 737-800 aircraft.

The in February 2007, the announced that from April 2007 it would be operated by JetConnect using 737-300 aircraft and altering the schedule to a 9:15am departure from AKL with an 11:40am arrival into ADL.

 

[NM]

No, actually the arrival into AUK was 0445 and departure 0620 - arrival into ADL 0845. So there is actually quite a large difference in that we now arrive into ADL at 12.25pm.

Those times were when it was operated by Qantas 737-800 aircraft. The schedule changed in April this year (announced in February) to a 9:15am departure from AKL and an 11:40am arrival into ADL. This happened at the same time as the operation was moved to JetConnect 737-300s.

 

[eden62]

This is getting even more confusing then. I booked the flights on 24th March 2007 with flight QF26 arriving into Auckland at 0445, then QF54 departing at 0620, which was being operated by Jeetconnect

Not once did I receive notification from QANTAS that this had been changed.

 

[N860CR]

Qantas are terrible with notifying flight changes. I was booked on QF31 when it used to be a late night departure and it was changed to an afternoon one (arriving a day earlier into SIN). Qantas never informed me, luckily I keep track of things... I always wondered what happened to the "normal" pax who don't frequently checkup on flight changes.

It's pretty sad when both DJ & JQ can have emails automatically sent out when flights change, but QF can't (yes, it was e-ticketed from qantas.com.au)

 

[pauly7]

Qantas are terrible with notifying flight changes. I was booked on QF31 when it used to be a late night departure and it was changed to an afternoon one (arriving a day earlier into SIN). Qantas never informed me, luckily I keep track of things... I always wondered what happened to the "normal" pax who don't frequently checkup on flight changes.

It's pretty sad when both DJ & JQ can have emails automatically sent out when flights change, but QF can't (yes, it was e-ticketed from qantas.com.au)

My parents had to fly DJ because QF was booked out earlier this year, they had connecting international flights (obviously not with DJ!) but Virgin changed the flight time by 2.5 hours, didn't notify anybody, people just rocked up and were told at the terminal... anyway obviously very annoying for all involved and their connection time was reduced to about 30 mins, they made it, only just though!

(2 passengers at check in had to be calmed by security staff for verbally abusing the DJ check in attendents)

 

[Evan]

I am afraid to say i have had issues with DJ before. Yet QF seem very good at notifying me. Like everything, there will be good and bad experiences.
What one person considers acceptable notice another will not. I always try to fly the same alliance when i have connections, unless its a couple of days stopover.
Evan

 

[pauly7]

I am afraid to say i have had issues with DJ before. Yet QF seem very good at notifying me. Like everything, there will be good and bad experiences.
What one person considers acceptable notice another will not. I always try to fly the same alliance when i have connections, unless its a couple of days stopover.
Evan

I completely agree and in the case of my parents, QF was booked out so they were forced to fly Virgin and no notice is unacceptable in anyone's eyes I'm sure.