Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

The Saturday 16 April QF94 departed LAX at 2330 hours, 75 minutes behind time, with Monday 18 arrival expected at 0805, 65 minutes late. Publicly, the Monday 18 QF93 remains showing as an 0915 hours departure but if formed by QF94 as usual, this will not be possible unless 94 picks up more time westwards across the Pacific than QF is currently alluding to.

QF16 appears to be more punctual than some of the SYD or MEL-bound flights ex LAX but on Saturday 16, it did not depart LAX until 2359, 39 minutes late and is expected to lose a bit of time on the way with Monday 18 April forecast arrival at 0715 rather than the timetabled 0610 hours.

UPDATE: QF93 on Monday 18 April has now officially been altered to a realistic 1005 departure ex MEL for LAX.

QF2448, the 0630 early morning departure for mining town MOV has been cancelled ex BNE.

UPDATE: QF2012, the 0655 hours SYD to TMW was also cancelled.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Monday 18 April QF2221, the 0810 SYD to WGA did not push back until 0903, with arrival estimated as 45 late at 1000.

QF419, the 0900 hours SYD down to MEL departed half an hour late but arrival is forecast to only be 12 minutes behind time at 1047.

QF129, the 0935 hours medium haul to populous PVG departed at 1027 from SYD. Arrival is suggested as only 20 minutes late but this forecast can be sometimes revised if the delay aiting for takeoff clearance is different to what was expected.

Hundreds of kilometres north, QF1706, the 1055 BNE to GLT is expected to depart half an hour late.

The early afternoon QF73 from SYD that travels to a most pleasant USA arrival port alternative to LAX in SFO is predicted to depart an hour late at 1400 hours.

UPDATE: The delay to QF73 (1300 SYD - SFO) became much longer. It did not depart until 1613 this afternoon, with same day arrival suggested as 1220 instead of 0930, so it will allegedly pick up 23 minutes start to end.

 

[Melburnian1]

The Sunday 17 April 2016 A388 operating QF12 from LAX was timetabled to push back at 2230 hours but did not do so until 0001 on Monday. Minimal time is anticipated to be gained en route with SYD arrival on Tuesday 19 April estimated at 0755 in lieu of the scheduled 0630. In contrast, MEL-bound QF94 is on time while QF16 to BNE, unlike the others a B744 flight, is an expected 15 minutes late.

One cannot assume because one is late ex LAX, all the Oz east coast bound QF flights will be late.

Of the three, QF16 easily has my vote as the most punctual. No need for a Newspoll. The Queen of the Skies wins by several lengths.

Sunday 17 April's QF8, normally punctual ex DFW, is expected into SYD half an hour late at 0635 on Tuesday 19.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Tuesday 19 April, QF2221, the 0810 hours SYD down to WGA is delayed for half an hour while QF461, the 0845 hours SYD to MEL has been cancelled.

With QF's reported slump in April and May bookings, expect quite a few more SYD - MEL - SYD cancellations although in some cases the weaker booking flights may be removed from the GDS (global distribution system) more than a week before it or they were scheduled to occur and in that case such a flight will not appear on the online timetable as a 'cancellation', nor be counted as such for statistical purposes by BITRE.

 

[Quickstatus]

So a flight which has poor bookings and cancelled a week before takeoff is not officially a cancelled flight as per statistics?.

Sounds like a Jetstar practice?

 

[Melburnian1]

Quickstatus, yes I believe that is the BITRE (government agency) definition.

On Tuesday 19 April, another cancellation is QF426, the 1100 MEL - SYD while QF130, the 1125 MEL - CBR is not expected to depart until 1230.

QF2052, the 0945 DPO up to MEL should depart a 1050 for an 1155 hours, 65 minutes late arrival.

QF480 from PER is forecast to arrive MEL47 minutes behind time at 1232. The 1245 hours to PER ex MEL, QF769 is predicted to depart 35 minutes late.

 

[Quickstatus]

Melburnian1 are you able to predict which SYD-MEL-SYD flights migh be at risk of a Bitre cancellation as part of capacity reductions?

Is QFi is affected as well?

 

[Melburnian1]

Quickstatus, no I am not.

However from past observation it appears that given QF has flights every quarter of an hour at the 'peak of the peak' between SYD and MEL, the ones that tend to be most at risk of not operating are the departures at '15' and '45' past the hour.

This may be because these flights almost always seem to be B738s rather than A332s.

The '00' hourly clockface departures from either end are the 'original' QF flights (with flight numbers such as QF400, 401 and so on depending on direction' where some of the '15' or '45' departures have been allocated numbers such as Q467 which as one can see was not in the initialy developed flight schedules dating to whenever QF changed its doemstic flights to start from '400' up.

So that's my best guess.

This doesn't mean that on occasion an '00' or '30' departure won't be cancelled.

Those who check Expert Flyer may be able to be more accurate in their predictions if say they do it a couple of weeks out but surely there must be a lot of late bookings on these domestic sectors: businessmen and women travelling suddenly for a salespitch or an urgent meeting, leisure travellers having to attend a funeral, health worries for a relative meaning a sudden flight has to be taken and so on. There are also many times that business travellers switch flights because appointments change.

One other consequence of lower bookings may be that many more QF (and VA, since it must also be affected) staff go on what from memory is called 'reserve': not as much flying in a month and hence (for cabin crew) lower pay due to fewer allowances being paid. No need to be made up if you don't fly that day!

 

[Melburnian1]

The Tuesday 19 April arrival of QF12 ex LAX pulled up stumps in SYD at 0808, 98 minutes late.

On Monday 18 April, the B744-operated 'tag flight' QF12 (JFK - LAX sector) departed at 1946, 96 minutes late, arriving after its transcontinental slog at 2222, 77 minutes late.

Vying not to be outdone by much, the Monday 18 April departing QF12 from LAX was timetabled to push back at 2230 but did so 83 minutes late at 2353. SYD Wednesday 20 April arrival should be at 0745 hours, 75 minutes late.

The B744 operating the Monday QF16 pushed back at LAX at 0031 on Tuesday 19 April, 71 minute late and on Wednesday 20 should arrive BNE at 0700, 50 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF93, the 0915 hours MEL longhaul flight across the Pacific to LAX on Wednesday 20 April has been hugely delayed and is expected to depart this evening at the most unusual time for this route northeastbound at 1930 hours. Arrival should be same day at 1620 instead of 0635 hours.

The Monday 18 April departure of QF94 ex LAX has already landed in MEL at 0640 hours on Wednesday (20 minutes ahead of schedule), so it may be that something requiring significant repair was discovered post landing - in the last 90 minutes as I write. There was nothing publicly displaying last night at 2230 to indicate that today's QF93 would be delayed.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF29 (1020 hours MEL - HKG) departed 62 minutes late on Wednesday 20 April; arrival is estimated 55 late at 1855.

QF1 on Wednesday 20 pushed back 69 minutes lat 1659 which is quite unusual. DXB arrival is forecast as 50 minutes late at 0115. With some fancy footwork the slow schedule between DXB and LHR may see the flight not very late into the world's financial capital.

Tuesday 19's late evening QF18, the 2335 hours LAX to SYD departed at 0025 on Wednesday 20 - 50 minutes late - and should be in the Australian major harbour capital at 0800 on Thursday 21, 40 minutes behind time.

The B744 operating the Tuesday QF16 (scheduled out at 2320 hours from LAX) has supposedly been delayed until 0130 hours on Wednesday (which was more than half an hour ago) with arrival estimated in BNE at 0810 hours on Thursday 21 April, two hours late. The 1000 hours BNE to LAX on Thursday (QF15) is highly likely to be late departing.

QF125, the early evening 1855 hours from BNE to AKL is expected to depart at 2045 on Wednesday 20 while a slightly earlier departure, QF1522 (1830 hours CBR short hop to SYD) is suggested as pushing back an hour late.

UPDATE: The 10 hour late QF93 has just become airborne from MEL at 1950 hours. A388 VH-OQH is the aircraft. Same day arrival remains at 1620, so hopefully this should be in plenty of time to form QF12 on Wednesday evening back from LAX to SYD - apparently these aircraft mostly swap in LAX so QF93 does not (as one might expect) form QF94, but QF12, which assists with maintenance given that the base is in SYD not fast growing MEL.

The delayed Tuesday evening QF16 (LAX to BNE) finally pushed back at 0249 on Wednesday so arrival has again altered to a projected 0920 hours on Thursday 21 April. Something must have gone wrong in LAX because QF12 (the same plane) from JFK to LAX was only 16 minutes late arriving at 2121 hours on Tuesday 19.

Expect QF15, assuming nothing untoward occurs, to get away at roughly 1100 to 1120 tomorrow morning on its return to LAX ex the Sunshine State. QF has yet to update its website for the latter delay so booked travellers may not yet have received notification on their 'device.' I don't know whether the times need manual intervention by QF staff to be adjusted but they are often slow to do this compared with how many of us can deduce that if flight A is late, flight B will have to be because there is no other identically configured aircraft that will (in this case) be sitting in BNE tomorrow morning.

 

[QF029]

QF 11 LAX-JFK on Thursday 21st April has been cancelled due to extremely delayed QF15 out of BNE. Long delays at MEL F check in as many passengers not informed and were arguing against the long layovers and downgrades. I lost my points upgrade Y to J on QF11 and now have an 8 hour layover at LAX waiting for an AA flight.

Heard a family of 4 in F (MEL-LAX) who had not been notified. They were ropeable as they'd been originally been on yesterday's significantly delayed QF93. Poor communication by QF all around.

 

[Melburnian1]

Also on Thursday 21 April, QF1760, the early morning 0620 hours BNE - MKY was cancelled while QF2429, the 0625 hours BNE down to NTL departed 70 minutes late. Arrival of the latter is expected at 0906, 71 minutes behind the schedule.

QF1545 (0845 hours BNE south to CBR) should depart 90 minutes late.

As AFF member QF029 kindly alluded to in the previous post, the delay to QF15 (B744 due out of BNE at 1000 for LAX) has become far greater overnight with a new departure time of 1800 hours, which is eight hours late. LAX arrival is forecast for 1340 hours instead of 0600. Member QF029 is unlucky as it is rare for the QF11/QF12 B744 sectors from LAX to JFK and return to be cancelled. I cannot recall previously seeing this, although one can always miss some days.

 

[mole]

I was scheduled for QF15 today at 10 am out of Brisbane, received a call from Qantas at 5.30 am, departure is now 6 pm. Unfortunately we had a connection through to Chicago which should have left at 9.30 am but due to arrival into LAX at 1.40pm (local time) have been rebooked on to the 'earliest' flight at 10.55 pm with an arrival into Chicago at 4.55 am the next morning.

 

[Melburnian1]

The 21 April delay to QF1545 has now extended to become an 1130 departure, two and three quarter hours late for the trip from BNE to CBR.

The SYD - BKK QF23 departed 33 minutes late at 1023 and is expected to arrive 45 minutes behind time at 1725. QF24 is due out of BKK at 1825 so it will be at least marginally late as the quickest achievable turnaround for an A332 or A333 seems to be 65 to 70 minutes.

Lomghaul B744 QF63 is forecast to depart SYD half an hour late at 1120 for JNB.

 

[Melburnian1]

The delay to QF63 ex SYD on Thursday 21 April has blown out to an expected hour and a half. Hopefully pushback will occur shortly - at 1220. Expected JNB arrival has been amended to same day at 1815 hours, 65 minutes late.

It will be impossible for QF64 tonight South African time to depart at its scheduled 1910 hours. QF has yet to publicly amend this on its website.

 

[docjames]

QF 11 LAX-JFK on Thursday 21st April has been cancelled due to extremely delayed QF15 out of BNE. Long delays at MEL F check in as many passengers not informed and were arguing against the long layovers and downgrades. I lost my points upgrade Y to J on QF11 and now have an 8 hour layover at LAX waiting for an AA flight.

Heard a family of 4 in F (MEL-LAX) who had not been notified. They were ropeable as they'd been originally been on yesterday's significantly delayed QF93. Poor communication by QF all around.

I was scheduled for QF15 today at 10 am out of Brisbane, received a call from Qantas at 5.30 am, departure is now 6 pm. Unfortunately we had a connection through to Chicago which should have left at 9.30 am but due to arrival into LAX at 1.40pm (local time) have been rebooked on to the 'earliest' flight at 10.55 pm with an arrival into Chicago at 4.55 am the next morning.

Ouch and Ouch.

 

[clifford]

The SYD - BKK QF23 departed 33 minutes late at 1023 and is expected to arrive 45 minutes behind time at 1725.

That doesn't seem to be all that unusual for this flight. I've been monitoring it for a little while now, as I'm booked to fly on QF23 next month, connecting to a UL flight at BKK, with a scheduled connect time of about 5 hours. It seems to be routinely a little late but hopefully nothing major.

 

[Himeno]

Member QF029 is unlucky as it is rare for the QF11/QF12 B744 sectors from LAX to JFK and return to be cancelled. I cannot recall previously seeing this, although one can always miss some days.

It tends to get cancelled when there are weather issues in New York.

 

[Quickstatus]

QF 11 LAX-JFK on Thursday 21st April has been cancelled due to extremely delayed QF15 out of BNE. Long delays at MEL F check in as many passengers not informed and were arguing against the long layovers and downgrades. I lost my points upgrade Y to J on QF11 and now have an 8 hour layover at LAX waiting for an AA flight.

Heard a family of 4 in F (MEL-LAX) who had not been notified. They were ropeable as they'd been originally been on yesterday's significantly delayed QF93. Poor communication by QF all around.

Hopefully it all gets sorted out soon. Sounds like a big "my bad" by the airline.
A downside for the airline raising its prices is that passengers' expectations rises by a greater percentage.

BTW Melburnian1 always encourages contributors to report from the coal face as you have done.
I think that makes you one of Melburnian1's "esteemed" contributors!.