lovetravellingoz
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2006
- Posts
- 12,684
QF6161...or SYD to MEL on the A380 in 21 hours....
Sometimes in life decisions can have a silver lining, even when they start out bad.
Booking to come back SYD to MEL opted for Jetstar at 6.30PM over an 8.30PM QF flight to get myself how two hours quicker after 4 busy work days in Sydney.
Arrived an hour early and had just finished two nice glasses of shiraz when all of a sudden an announcement goes over the PA for all those on JQ525 to go back out through security and to get new boarding passes from Desk 26 as the flight had been cancelled.
At that stage I was blissfully unaware of the storms that has hit Melbourne causing havoc an airport closure and many postponed or cancelled flights.
Arrived initially a a little annoyed and just queued up expecting to be quickly re-issued a boarding pass for another flight.
However it quickly became evidently that absolutely NOTHING was happen except chaos. Withing about 15 minutes it was evident that two flights had been cancelled and say 300 odd people were all queued up at ONE desk, with absolutely no movement in the queue occurring and no information from Jetstar as to what was happening, or rather not happening.
30 minutes on, and still nothing. Then eventually a lady with clipboard emerged staying that anyone that cancelled would be refined by giving her your details. Note that was what you paid...which would not cover re-booking etc.
Eventually by asking several times it emerged that the staff would try and rebook that night, but that there were only about 10 seats available r ob later days on Qantas or Virgin.
I felt sorely for the Jeststar staff there as obviously was ay play was inaction by senior management leaving several desk staff to face 300 aggrieved customers with no solutions available.
We only had about a dozen people in front of us but it took over an hour for us to get served, and so I do not know how long it took the other 290 odd!!!! Hours I expect.
On gaining the head of the queue we were advise that they could get us on a QF flight at 5.30PM the next day. A solution at last even if it had taken an extraordinary amount of time...and when most desks were empty of customers but with staff at them, why oh why only one desk for 300?
It was a bit like spartans of old perhaps where 300 had to take on the might of a larger face at a narrow pass!!!
So despite it being almost a day later we accepted the flight change, together with a nights accommodation at Mercure plus food.
Quite the irony now though that if I had plumbed for that 8.30 PM QF flight in the first place that I would have made it home that night.
So onwards then to the shuttle bus to the Mercure, to be greeted by Mr Smiley (not!!!) the driver of our mini-bus. When those all those Eastern Bloc weightlifter were defecting and fleeing Australia to lift for Gold for our sports team obliviously some missed out to become bad tempered shuttle bus drivers.
Questions by use and other passengers were met with grunts, and on arrival at the Mercure to find several cars parked blocking the arrival area our driver entered a rage of curses, and rapid driving turns to cut around and in front
of the offending cars and one taxi.
As Mr Smiley then bounded out to enter a chesting competition with the taxi driver who wanted to leave, we took the opportunity to retrieve our bags from the trailer before the fisticuffs broke out.
Onward and into the Mercure, which I must admit by that stage was blissful.....and taking our dinner voucher we enter the dining room and watched over the next hour or so as the some of the remainder of the 300 trickled in bus by bus...
With a late flight we decided to sleep in and woke up late to enjoy an excellent, but late breakfast.
We decided to try our luck with getting an earlier flight as both were QC members, and if failing that would work out of the QC for the day.
Our luck was in as QF6161 has been announced as an extra flight to soak up some the huge backload caused by the delays, and acerbated by school holidays having caused high flight loads.
Sometimes in life decisions can have a silver lining, even when they start out bad.
Booking to come back SYD to MEL opted for Jetstar at 6.30PM over an 8.30PM QF flight to get myself how two hours quicker after 4 busy work days in Sydney.
Arrived an hour early and had just finished two nice glasses of shiraz when all of a sudden an announcement goes over the PA for all those on JQ525 to go back out through security and to get new boarding passes from Desk 26 as the flight had been cancelled.
At that stage I was blissfully unaware of the storms that has hit Melbourne causing havoc an airport closure and many postponed or cancelled flights.
Arrived initially a a little annoyed and just queued up expecting to be quickly re-issued a boarding pass for another flight.
However it quickly became evidently that absolutely NOTHING was happen except chaos. Withing about 15 minutes it was evident that two flights had been cancelled and say 300 odd people were all queued up at ONE desk, with absolutely no movement in the queue occurring and no information from Jetstar as to what was happening, or rather not happening.
30 minutes on, and still nothing. Then eventually a lady with clipboard emerged staying that anyone that cancelled would be refined by giving her your details. Note that was what you paid...which would not cover re-booking etc.
Eventually by asking several times it emerged that the staff would try and rebook that night, but that there were only about 10 seats available r ob later days on Qantas or Virgin.
I felt sorely for the Jeststar staff there as obviously was ay play was inaction by senior management leaving several desk staff to face 300 aggrieved customers with no solutions available.
We only had about a dozen people in front of us but it took over an hour for us to get served, and so I do not know how long it took the other 290 odd!!!! Hours I expect.
On gaining the head of the queue we were advise that they could get us on a QF flight at 5.30PM the next day. A solution at last even if it had taken an extraordinary amount of time...and when most desks were empty of customers but with staff at them, why oh why only one desk for 300?
It was a bit like spartans of old perhaps where 300 had to take on the might of a larger face at a narrow pass!!!
So despite it being almost a day later we accepted the flight change, together with a nights accommodation at Mercure plus food.
Quite the irony now though that if I had plumbed for that 8.30 PM QF flight in the first place that I would have made it home that night.
So onwards then to the shuttle bus to the Mercure, to be greeted by Mr Smiley (not!!!) the driver of our mini-bus. When those all those Eastern Bloc weightlifter were defecting and fleeing Australia to lift for Gold for our sports team obliviously some missed out to become bad tempered shuttle bus drivers.
Questions by use and other passengers were met with grunts, and on arrival at the Mercure to find several cars parked blocking the arrival area our driver entered a rage of curses, and rapid driving turns to cut around and in front
of the offending cars and one taxi.
As Mr Smiley then bounded out to enter a chesting competition with the taxi driver who wanted to leave, we took the opportunity to retrieve our bags from the trailer before the fisticuffs broke out.
Onward and into the Mercure, which I must admit by that stage was blissful.....and taking our dinner voucher we enter the dining room and watched over the next hour or so as the some of the remainder of the 300 trickled in bus by bus...
With a late flight we decided to sleep in and woke up late to enjoy an excellent, but late breakfast.
We decided to try our luck with getting an earlier flight as both were QC members, and if failing that would work out of the QC for the day.
Our luck was in as QF6161 has been announced as an extra flight to soak up some the huge backload caused by the delays, and acerbated by school holidays having caused high flight loads.
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