QF1 - a long flight with no water!

[Chesty]

I received an official apology today on email from Loula at Executive Relations. She states that if I wish to add comment to direct them back to her.

I think they must have been inundated with feedback from pax.

 

[Pinkmoose]

I received an official apology today on email from Loula at Executive Relations. She states that if I wish to add comment to direct them back to her.

I think they must have been inundated with feedback from pax.

After all you and fellow passengers went through, no compensation?

 

[anat0l]

I think I would much rather try to get to my destination on time (or sometime close) than worry about having no water to drink, flush the loos or wash my hands.

EH

How do you justify holding that opinion?

 

[Chesty]

Nothing offered in regards to compensation.

 

[wingspan]

Out of interest what would be the average length of each announcement? 1-2 minutes? And you get the privilege to be interrupted for 4x the time it takes for 1 announcement with the IFE off air for each announcement!

This was one of my biggest gripes on an MH HKG-KUL flight where they had announcements in 4 different languages and by the end of the flight it felt like I had use of the IFE for ~1 hour. On this particular flight there must have been 10-15 announcements. Very frustrating.

On QF1 last week it was the English and Arabic announcements that lasted the longest - I assume they were saying the exact same thing. The French and German were abridged versions of the announcements (eg instead of saying "The captain has advised we've encountered some turbulence, please return to your seats, fasten your seatbelts, and we will wait for the seatbelt sign to switch off before resuming service", they just said something like "The seatbelt sign is now on - please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts"). So it wasn't too long for all the announcements, but I know what you mean. That time can add up.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I received an official apology today on email from Loula at Executive Relations. She states that if I wish to add comment to direct them back to her.

I think they must have been inundated with feedback from pax.

I received the same email. I will definitely be contacting QF regarding this. Due to the lengthy delays I missed a BA flight in LHR ( original connection time 4 hours) and had to re-book myself on another flight GBP200. Yes they were separate tickets but given the delays I wanted someone at QF in DXB to at least help me contact BA but no help forthcoming.
I received what I was told was an op-up to F at the gate for DXB-LHR. Turns out it was a points upgrade .
I'm a little bit peeved at that although the F seat and service was very welcome after the issues previously.

 

[mickeyc747]

I received the same email. I will definitely be contacting QF regarding this. Due to the lengthy delays I missed a BA flight in LHR ( original connection time 4 hours) and had to re-book myself on another flight GBP200. Yes they were separate tickets but given the delays I wanted someone at QF in DXB to at least help me contact BA but no help forthcoming.
I received what I was told was an op-up to F at the gate for DXB-LHR. Turns out it was a points upgrade .
I'm a little bit peeved at that although the F seat and service was very welcome after the issues previously.

The least they could do is re credit your points and compensate for the missed BA flight.

 

[Princess Fiona]

The least they could do is re credit your points and compensate for the missed BA flight.

I agree that would be a good gesture. We'll see what happens when I reply to Loula's email.

 

[TonyHancock]

I think I would much rather try to get to my destination on time (or sometime close) than worry about having no water to drink, flush the loos or wash my hands.

EH

How do you justify holding that opinion?

I must confess to sharing EH's view.

I feel like I live on an aircraft sometimes and whilst many here see the flight as something to be enjoyed, I see it as the means to get somewhere...and I want to get there as quickly as possible.

Clearly it was not the most pleasant experience for many, but it was not the end of the world.

...of course I would draw the line at having to use, Gin, Vodka, Wine, Beer etc to flush the loos. (It's bad enough wasting alcohol in had sanitizer)

 

[JohnK]

I received the same email. I will definitely be contacting QF regarding this. Due to the lengthy delays I missed a BA flight in LHR ( original connection time 4 hours) and had to re-book myself on another flight GBP200. Yes they were separate tickets but given the delays I wanted someone at QF in DXB to at least help me contact BA but no help forthcoming.

I know you were on separate tickets but Qantas should have responsibility in the delay. Were Qantas aware you had a connecting flight on another Oneworld carrier?

I received what I was told was an op-up to F at the gate for DXB-LHR. Turns out it was a points upgrade .

When did Qantas start processing points upgrades at the gate?

 

[Princess Fiona]

DXB-LHR was flown by Richard Champion de Crespigny. He was very pro-active during the delay at DXB and could be heard making several announcements at the gate to the Y passengers below. He also visited the F Lounge but I missed him as I was on a fruitless search to get QF staff to help me with my connecting flight.
He made an inflight announcement that one of the controllers for the two water pumps failed during SYD-DXB. Software issue apparently and both controllers were replaced in DXB.

 

[markis10]

DXB-LHR was flown by Richard Champion de Crespigny. He was very pro-active during the delay at DXB and could be heard making several announcements at the gate to the Y passengers below. He also visited the F Lounge but I missed him as I was on a fruitless search to get QF staff to help me with my connecting flight.
He made an inflight announcement that one of the controllers for the two water pumps failed during SYD-DXB. Software issue apparently and both controllers were replaced in DXB.

Sadly I only saw your post after the flight took off, both QF WP and myself have the local station head contact details whom I sure could have assisted.

 

[anat0l]

I must confess to sharing EH's view.

I feel like I live on an aircraft sometimes and whilst many here see the flight as something to be enjoyed, I see it as the means to get somewhere...and I want to get there as quickly as possible.

Clearly it was not the most pleasant experience for many, but it was not the end of the world.

...of course I would draw the line at having to use, Gin, Vodka, Wine, Beer etc to flush the loos. (It's bad enough wasting alcohol in had sanitizer)

I agree that I would like to get to where I want to go as soon as possible. But not at the expense of physiological well-being; water supply compromises that. Unless there was a short enough time to not really bother any more (i.e. maybe 2-3 hours out of destination).

It was not the end of the world obviously. Sure, no one died and I'm putting the house that no one was even admitted for any medical check-ups. The worst is probably a few people so parched that they started seeing oasis mirages, who inhaled the first bottle of water that was given to them upon disembarkation at DXB. But realising that and thinking what it could have been (honestly) are two very different things, especially as this failure occurred rather early in flight, not say in the last 2-3 hours.

 

[anat0l]

DXB-LHR was flown by Richard Champion de Crespigny. He was very pro-active during the delay at DXB and could be heard making several announcements at the gate to the Y passengers below. He also visited the F Lounge but I missed him as I was on a fruitless search to get QF staff to help me with my connecting flight.
He made an inflight announcement that one of the controllers for the two water pumps failed during SYD-DXB. Software issue apparently and both controllers were replaced in DXB.

Good on RdC... and probably concur with his remark that it was the worst day at the office (although he may change his opinion upon reflection after a while, don't know).

Damn software issues... surprised it was the software / controller that was the fault and not say a hardware fault with the water pumping system itself. If it was being diagnosed on the ground at SYD before its late departure, I guess one could argue either way whether or not it should've been successfully diagnosed. On one hand, they had some time and it was only a software fault - not say they had to locate and replace a part - but then software faults are as fickle as Queenstown twilight. Perhaps they should've just replaced the controllers in SYD as a full failsafe? Anyway, all reflection and conjecture...

Sadly I only saw your post after the flight took off, both QF WP and myself have the local station head contact details whom I sure could have assisted.

True, but the layover in DXB would have (or rather, could have) been very short (alright, in the end it turned out to be almost twice as long) and no guarantee that the station head could (a) be reached at the time they arrived (in the middle of the night), and (b) could assist in the mess anyway. I guess it may have been worth a try, but probably would be pushing to have someone (a proxy) help remotely; I assume Princess Fiona had no access to mobile in DXB.

I probably would've headed to BA first rather than QF. Yes, BA could've very well said, "Not our problem, good luck," in curt British fashion, but at least they would've had more power to do something over QF which, at best, would only have indirect control and a bunch of non-concrete assurances. That said, it may have also involved a time-costly run across the terminal in DXB, too.

If QF compensate for the onward flight, that'd be awfully nice, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it. I'd expect if they send monetary compensation of any kind it will be more for QF1 itself rather than you missing your onward. Maybe a refund of the points spent on the upgrade too, especially if you didn't request it.

When did Qantas start processing points upgrades at the gate?

You must have missed the announcement.

That said, did you really register for a points upgrade, Princess Fiona?

 

[Melburnian1]

While QANTAS News & Information - The QANTAS Source indicates that there were some delays in LAX with a QF A380 about the time of these 'waterless' incidents, wouldn't QF often have one of its 12 A380s spare in SYD?

Was it unavailable due to maintenance or as a side effect of the LAX delays?

 

[markis10]

True, but the layover in DXB would have (or rather, could have) been very short (alright, in the end it turned out to be almost twice as long) and no guarantee that the station head could (a) be reached at the time they arrived (in the middle of the night), and (b) could assist in the mess anyway. I guess it may have been worth a try, but probably would be pushing to have someone (a proxy) help remotely; I assume Princess Fiona had no access to mobile in DXB.

A plane load of passengers a little dry inbound with issues noticed ten hours out, I am sure the station head would have been on locale, and reachable, and most definitely empowered to make a difference.

 

[RooFlyer]

A plane load of passengers a little dry inbound with issues noticed ten hours out, I am sure the station head would have been on locale, and reachable, and most definitely empowered to make a difference.

Unfortunately not, according to Princess Fiona and her efforts. And not just Station Head, apparently.

I missed him as I was on a fruitless search to get QF staff to help me with my connecting flight.

 

[phily]

DXB-LHR was flown by Richard Champion de Crespigny. He was very pro-active during the delay at DXB and could be heard making several announcements at the gate to the Y passengers below. He also visited the F Lounge but I missed him as I was on a fruitless search to get QF staff to help me with my connecting flight.

Richard CdC is an impressive man, and very communicative with passengers. He's one of the very few QF captains who insists on doing a walk-through of the passenger cabin, and is very happy to stop briefly for a chat, as I have done with him. A must-read for any QF fan is his book "QF32".

 

[suze2000]

Good on RdC... and probably concur with his remark that it was the worst day at the office

At the risk of stating the obvious: surely not as bad a day as QF32?

(I think the man's a hero myself, but I'm getting off-topic)

 

[anat0l]

At the risk of stating the obvious: surely not as bad a day as QF32?

(I think the man's a hero myself, but I'm getting off-topic)

Hence the little tack-on in parentheses.