I was recently flying SYD-BNE-MKY-ROK in QF reward business class with an overnight in MKY. The connection in BNE was 55 minutes (which is more than the MCT (which I think is 25 minutes) but still a little tight). The BNE-MKY flight was the last of the day - I really needed to be in ROK the next morning. The MKY detour was because the flights to ROK that afternoon were crazy prices and there were reward seats to MKY (and there is an airport hotel right at the terminal at MKY).
When OLCI opened the day before I just couldn’t get it to work – it just kept spitting out a generic error message. I tried on my phone through the app and on the website through my windows laptop. I tried at various times throughout the day and again early the morning of the flight. No luck. Same generic error message each time.
As it happens that same morning I was flying on a separate (reward economy ticket) ticket ROK-BNE-SYD. I figured that the computer just wasn’t coping with the different bookings (and slightly crazy routings).
When I checked in at ROK (desks only) for the 9am flight – I asked if they could also check me in for the evening flights. They initially said yes, but after much tapping on the computer and puzzled looks they said that I’d have to try in Sydney. I had a bit of a connection in BNE so asked again at the BNE lounge. I got a ‘sure’, then lots of tapping and puzzled looks and told I’d need to sort it in Sydney.
When I got to Sydney, I was just getting my family and their luggage in a car and staying at the airport for the return to central Queensland. There was about 4 hours between flights.
I tried the checkin machines – the best it could do was tell me to see staff. The staff assisted checkin area was a zoo – so I went to the business lounge (I had no checked baggage).
After much tapping away, I was told that the SYD-BNE was oversold in business. The best they could do was the flight 30 minutes later or economy on the flight I was booked on [I'm going to be charitable and say that this was an error and they didn't actually mean this]. I said that I wasn’t keen on a 25 minute connection in BNE (as it happens I’d done that exact SYD-BNE-MKY 25 minute connection 3 weeks earlier after a schedule change and after running as fast as my little legs could carry me through the terminal I only just made the MKY flight). I asked if there was really nothing sooner in business class – there were 3 hours until the original flight departure and at least 4 or 5 flights. After a call and some more furious tapping I was given a boarding pass for a flight about 45 minutes later. This flight went out full in business.
I can’t help but wonder if the tactic to solve the overbooking problem was to just make it hard to checkin and invariably someone cutting it fine would miss the checkin cutoff and then the problem would be theirs and not QFs. If you are in the habit of turning up to the airport ~45 minutes before departure - then if you can't OLCI or use the machines, there's a fair chance you aren't going to have a boarding card in your hand before checkin closes. Am I being uncharitable?
I completely understand the need to overbook. But when it doesn’t work out – there are so many better ways to deal with it than this. At least give me a message which says ‘online checkin not available – please see the staff at the airport’. That will at least mean that I don’t waste my time thinking that it might be me or my devices causing the problem.
When OLCI opened the day before I just couldn’t get it to work – it just kept spitting out a generic error message. I tried on my phone through the app and on the website through my windows laptop. I tried at various times throughout the day and again early the morning of the flight. No luck. Same generic error message each time.
As it happens that same morning I was flying on a separate (reward economy ticket) ticket ROK-BNE-SYD. I figured that the computer just wasn’t coping with the different bookings (and slightly crazy routings).
When I checked in at ROK (desks only) for the 9am flight – I asked if they could also check me in for the evening flights. They initially said yes, but after much tapping on the computer and puzzled looks they said that I’d have to try in Sydney. I had a bit of a connection in BNE so asked again at the BNE lounge. I got a ‘sure’, then lots of tapping and puzzled looks and told I’d need to sort it in Sydney.
When I got to Sydney, I was just getting my family and their luggage in a car and staying at the airport for the return to central Queensland. There was about 4 hours between flights.
I tried the checkin machines – the best it could do was tell me to see staff. The staff assisted checkin area was a zoo – so I went to the business lounge (I had no checked baggage).
After much tapping away, I was told that the SYD-BNE was oversold in business. The best they could do was the flight 30 minutes later or economy on the flight I was booked on [I'm going to be charitable and say that this was an error and they didn't actually mean this]. I said that I wasn’t keen on a 25 minute connection in BNE (as it happens I’d done that exact SYD-BNE-MKY 25 minute connection 3 weeks earlier after a schedule change and after running as fast as my little legs could carry me through the terminal I only just made the MKY flight). I asked if there was really nothing sooner in business class – there were 3 hours until the original flight departure and at least 4 or 5 flights. After a call and some more furious tapping I was given a boarding pass for a flight about 45 minutes later. This flight went out full in business.
I can’t help but wonder if the tactic to solve the overbooking problem was to just make it hard to checkin and invariably someone cutting it fine would miss the checkin cutoff and then the problem would be theirs and not QFs. If you are in the habit of turning up to the airport ~45 minutes before departure - then if you can't OLCI or use the machines, there's a fair chance you aren't going to have a boarding card in your hand before checkin closes. Am I being uncharitable?
I completely understand the need to overbook. But when it doesn’t work out – there are so many better ways to deal with it than this. At least give me a message which says ‘online checkin not available – please see the staff at the airport’. That will at least mean that I don’t waste my time thinking that it might be me or my devices causing the problem.
