Qantas Schedule Changes

[ajw373]

Booked flights 3 weeks ago with Qantas to fly in economy CBR-MEL-(PER)-LHR then EK LHR-DXB-BKK and Qantas BKK-SYD-CBR leaving late October.

Anyway in the 3 weeks since I have booked the flights Qantas have made 3 seperate changes to our flights.

First of all the timing of QF9 was changed by 5 minutes. Then a couple of days later our CBR-MEL flight was changed from a 717 to a 737 departing 15 minutes earlier, 717 canned. And today found our SYD - CBR 717 flight (on a Saturday morning) has been canned and we have been booked on a Dash-8 45 minutes later.

Anyway no great drama of course but interesting to see so many schedule changes in such a short period of time.

I am curious as to weather others have had a spate of schedule changes recently. Looks like Qantasbia doing a lot of last minute schedule changes.

Oh and one thing I’ve never seen before is I can see my seat allocation for the Dash-8 flight. But if I go to change it I just get the usual choose isle or exit options. And no it wasn’t my old 717 seating allocation.

 

[justinbrett]

Booked flights 3 weeks ago with Qantas to fly in economy CBR-MEL-(PER)-LHR then EK LHR-DXB-BKK and Qantas BKK-SYD-CBR leaving late October.

Anyway in the 3 weeks since I have booked the flights Qantas have made 3 seperate changes to our flights.

First of all the timing of QF9 was changed by 5 minutes. Then a couple of days later our CBR-MEL flight was changed from a 717 to a 737 departing 15 minutes earlier, 717 canned. And today found our SYD - CBR 717 flight (on a Saturday morning) has been canned and we have been booked on a Dash-8 45 minutes later.

Anyway no great drama of course but interesting to see so many schedule changes in such a short period of time.

I am curious as to weather others have had a spate of schedule changes recently. Looks like Qantasbia doing a lot of last minute schedule changes.

Oh and one thing I’ve never seen before is I can see my seat allocation for the Dash-8 flight. But if I go to change it I just get the usual choose isle or exit options. And no it wasn’t my old 717 seating allocation.

It's the time of year - new schedules are effective October and April due to Daylight savings both here and abroad - this is a complex process as slot times have to be negotiated and tweaks will occur up until the effective date. I had a trip last year around the same time and it seemed like there was a change every week.

 

[ajw373]

Figured it was related to that, but felt the timing was a bit late. Especially when all the changes have in essence been domestic which are not so dependant on global schedules. Even the retiming of QF9 was only at the Australian end. It still arrives in LHR at the same time.

 

[justinbrett]

Figured it was related to that, but felt the timing was a bit late. Especially when all the changes have in essence been domestic which are not so dependant on global schedules. Even the retiming of QF9 was only at the Australian end. It still arrives in LHR at the same time.

Yes, but they might of needed the slots in MEL/SYD for other services. It could even have been a complex trade with another airline. It certainly happens though.

 

[stevenaus]

I have had 6 schedule changes come through in the last 2 weeks for flights in 2019 that I booked earlier than I normally would due to DSC promotion. Normally I would have waited longer to book. My HNL-SYD flight booked for Sunday March 10the 2019 has been cancelled this far out.

 

[Monya Meow Meow]

I did realize last week when I logged on to my Qantas account to find that my MEL-CHC flight time for this December had been changed without even any sort of notice!

Was supposed to leave Melbourne around 5pm and reach CHC close to midnight but I'm now leaving at 11:55am and arriving 5pm.
Obviously the change in timing works to my advantage but geez, they should at least send me a notification of some sort

 

[jad01]

Don't get me started on schedule/aircraft changes.
I recently came back to QF after 8yrs of not flying with them, so here's my welcome back package.

1, BNE-PER in business on A330 downgraded to 737
2. SYD-HNL-SYD business changed from A330 to a stinking old 747
3. BNE-MEL & MEL-BNE both rescheduled
4. Another BNE-MEL-BNE with aircraft changes.

So out of the most recent 10 sectors booked, 100% were changed in some way, which makes me now less likely to book particularly on tight timeframes, internationally and where there is a connection because what you get isn't what you book and pay for.
Their attitude is one where they know they sold you something they won't honor, but T&C's say they can, so get over it.

As I have recently returned to QF I don't know if this a temporary issue or just part of an ongoing circus.

JASON

 

[FromTheRail]

I've only had one change recently, it was on a red eye PER-MEL, luckily they just exchanged one A330 with another A330, only know about it from an expert flyer notification

 

[Scott K]

I have already seen 4 schedule changes for a flight I have booked for early next year - that I booked a month ago!
I used to use online agents for booking flights through sky scanner. However these guys hit you with a fee when there's changes- usually around the $100 mark. I'm glad I am now booking directly through the airline now and I'm a lot wiser on how to do this at a better price. I'd hate to see how I would have been gouged on those changes.

 

[eminere]

2. SYD-HNL-SYD business changed from A330 to a stinking old 747

This was announced back in April: link

 

[GoldCanyon340]

I had a fair few flights affected in this most recent schedule change but all were minor flight timings ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. I prefer them all done in big batches rather than sporadically through the year. It's all part of the game.

 

[AIRwin]

It's all part of the game.

Gives new meaning to game changing...

 

[kevrosmith]

It's the time of year - new schedules are effective October and April due to Daylight savings both here and abroad - this is a complex process as slot times have to be negotiated and tweaks will occur up until the effective date.

Close, but not quite related to daylight savings per se. It's just coincidence that daylight savings starts/ends around the world at a similar time. (DST in USA starts mid-March and ends early November these days). The international schedules are operated around two seasons that are called Northern Summer and Northern Winter. International Airlines Timetable Summary

Northern Summer always starts on the last Sunday in March and Northern Winter always starts on the last Sunday in October, which results in seasons approximately 31 weeks and 21 weeks respectively. There's two large annual conferences where airlines and airports get together to negotiate slots and schedules. (IATA - 144th Slot Conference) In Australia, lots of airports use Airport Coordination Australia (Airport Coordination Australia |) as their representative at these conferences.

Domestically, the airlines tend to work around these times as well, but not so strictly. Australian domestic schedules are more impacted by and centered around DST.

Back to the OP, and yes, I've had at least 3 changes to a schedule for flights in October which were booked last year, and flights I recently booked for March 2019 have already had 2 changes.

 

[ajw373]

Interesting been a regular Qantas flyer for years now and never seen such a spate of changes. One of the reasons I asked.

And I find it odd, like someone else mentioned Qantas doesn’t actively notify you of the changes. I only found out after going into MMB and seeing the change alert. Once you accept the changes they email through a new E-ticket pretty quickly. I assume if you don’t like what they have offered you can call and ‘negotiate’ an alternative that better suits. In my case there is no better alternative for the cancelled flights.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

I have had 3 notifications for changes to a JAL flight booked through Qantas. Trouble is I still can't identify any change whatsoever to the flight times, plane type, terminals etc

 

[justinbrett]

Close, but not quite related to daylight savings per se. It's just coincidence that daylight savings starts/ends around the world at a similar time..

And you honestly think it's a coincidence the periods they chose happened to be the same periods most airlines around the world would have to review their schedules due to DST starting or ending at many of their ports? Join the dots - it's not hard.

From the IATA website (IATA - Worldwide Airport Slots)

When do the summer and winter periods of slot allocation begin?
The northern summer season begins on the date of Daylight Saving Time (DST) introduction in European Union countries, which currently always takes place on the last Sunday in March. The northern winter season commences on the date Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends in European Union countries, which currently always takes place on the last Sunday in October.

 

[Mattg]

I've been getting regular schedule change updates over the past month or so for my QF international bookings. Most changes have only been minor.

 

[kevrosmith]

And you honestly think it's a coincidence the periods they chose happened to be the same periods most airlines around the world would have to review their schedules due to DST starting or ending at many of their ports? Join the dots - it's not hard.

From the IATA website (IATA - Worldwide Airport Slots)

Thanks for the clarification. I guess it depends what is defined as "most airlines", as DST in USA is different dates, and Australia, and most of Asia doesn't use DST at all. Interesting that it is Europe-centric, rather than North American, and , but I assume there's probably some historical political influence of IATA in that regard.

At work, we always found it tricky, as there was always a week or two at the beginning and end in Australia where times were shifting all over the place as Australian DST dates didn't align with the schedule changeover.

 

[justinbrett]

Thanks for the clarification. I guess it depends what is defined as "most airlines", as DST in USA is different dates, and Australia, and most of Asia doesn't use DST at all. Interesting that it is Europe-centric, rather than North American, and , but I assume there's probably some historical political influence of IATA in that regard.

A couple of things - the population of Europe is double that of the US

While the dates aren’t exactly the same, North America, Australia, NZ etc all change within a few weeks of the European dates, so they still need to change their schedules , and obviously they decided at some point to lock it to the European dates. Even though Asia doesn’t use DST they still have flights to Europe, Americas, Australasia etc so they still have to juggle their slot times.

 

[HS-TQE]

Don't get me started on schedule/aircraft changes.
I recently came back to QF after 8yrs of not flying with them, so here's my welcome back package.

1, BNE-PER in business on A330 downgraded to 737
2. SYD-HNL-SYD business changed from A330 to a stinking old 747

1. Seems BNE-PER is yield-wise the weaker of the East Coast-Perth Transcon routes
2. I wouldn't mind the 744, although product-wise it is a downgrade.