September 12-14 2001 - when Ansett came crashing down

[serfty]

...

When we switched toQF as our corporate carrier it was much harder to get QP membership paid as well..

A friend of mine who was GW 3 star/diamond missed their lounge access during his bi-monthly commutes to SYD.

Employer would ante up for Business class but that did not allow lounge access. He cottoned on to the QF21 evening feeder MEL-SYD flight from what is now T2 which did give him (international) business lounge access.

That only lasted a few months before he garnered the required SCs for Gold status with it's Lounge access in early 2002.

 

[dfcatch]

Country areas only ever get the first edition (time it takes to transport) so they never would have gotten the drop in and those subsequent editions. So those areas would have had a paper that was totally out of date by the time they recevied it. It's not very often that something like that happens that would render the newspaper like that. It's also a mammoth task to re-do the entire paper including changing colour falls, press times and delivery schedules.

Modern technology of television kinda made the paper obsolete that day.

 

[richie9x]

We were just really pissed at Helen Clark!

That reminds me. On the 14 September some Ansett workers used their vehicles to block an Air New Zealand plane at Melbourne airport. Although they didn't know it, Helen Clark was scheduled to leave on that flight. I believe they ended up flying her to an Air Force base and a RNZAF plane flew over to pick her up.

 

[suziec]

My boss and I were booked to fly Ansett SYD to LSY on the Sunday after the collapse. I spent hours on the phone before managing to rebook with QF to BNK. Then by the end of the week when we were due to return I had the sh*ts with my boss and his bad driving, so told him to leave with the hire car and head back to BNK and SYD without me. How will you get home, he asked? I'll work it out!

I then spent more hours on the phone and luckily discovered that QF were sending a plane to LSY the next morning to collect stranded passengers. So of course I went out drinking with a friend in LSY that night and was very hungover when I had to catch the crack of dawn flight. I was hungry and dehydrated but all the shops at LSY had closed down because it was an Ansett only airport. (Ansett staff were not the only casualties.) And there was no cabin service on the flight. I had to make do with a packet of chips from a machine. And those chips were making me thirsty!

Still, I made it home and didn't lose my job, unlike so many others.

Other posters are right about the lack of coverage at the time due to concurrent world events. The Ansett news broke slowly and information was hard to come by.

I hope those who lost their jobs are doing well now.

I loved Ansett.

 

[nlagalle]

Modern technology of television kinda made the paper obsolete that day.

true there, but in general unless something major has happened overnight, there won't be a huge shift in news until the evening. Sport is generally the one that changes constantly (US open yesterday and today).

 

[straitman]

That reminds me. On the 14 September some Ansett workers used their vehicles to block an Air New Zealand plane at Melbourne airport. Although they didn't know it, Helen Clark was scheduled to leave on that flight. I believe they ended up flying her to an Air Force base and a RNZAF plane flew over to pick her up.

East Sale was the base.

 

[jukebox333]

Thankfully I had arranged award flights for me, +1 & 2 kids for ADL-SYD, CBR-ADL in August, a month or two before the crash.

With the flights I was left with about 100 points left in the kitty...

You're lucky! On the morning of Sep 12, seeing the writing on the wall, I called up and used my points to book two seats SYD-SIN-FRA-BER return on SQ/LH for 11 months away. The guy at the call centre was quite chipper about his prospects, and after about 30 mins of working through the itinerary, I was given my record locator number, and he told me that I would get my tickets in the mail the following week...

Of course by Friday, AN was fingered, and because my flight had not been ticketed, the booking was worthless. 350,000+ points down the toilet. But unlike the call centre dude, I still had my job, and unlike those ~4000 helpless souls in the USA, I was alive and well.

It's all relative - a bummer, but not life changing.

 

[drron]

You're lucky! On the morning of Sep 12, seeing the writing on the wall, I called up and used my points to book two seats SYD-SIN-FRA-BER return on SQ/LH for 11 months away. The guy at the call centre was quite chipper about his prospects, and after about 30 mins of working through the itinerary, I was given my record locator number, and he told me that I would get my tickets in the mail the following week...

Of course by Friday, AN was fingered, and because my flight had not been ticketed, the booking was worthless. 350,000+ points down the toilet. But unlike the call centre dude, I still had my job, and unlike those ~4000 helpless souls in the USA, I was alive and well.

It's all relative - a bummer, but not life changing.

i was basically in the same boat but we always plan 12 months ahead.September 12th was the day I was always going to ring to get our first F awards to the States.So for 24 hours had hoped we had used most of the 500000 points we had.Unfortunately also not ticketed so no go.
Mrsdrron also found her Lifetime Golden Wings membership had a different meaning to what we had thought when it was purchased.Fortunately I had purchased lifetime QP.
So generally we have used up our points ever since-though have a fair stack at AA owing to my quest for LTP there-12 months should see those virtually disappear.
Travelling from MCY has not been the same since.
Also a noticeable Ansett air freight sign at DPO.
But again compared to the effect it had on staff our problems were nothing.

 

[tonybne]

So true about "sliding doors" !! My wife and I both worked for AN. She till the bitter end. I left in the late 90's even then the writting was on the wall. As all have said before great family to work with.My better half is now in a job for far more $ than I or even what she "might" have earned with AN as it would have been now 25+ years of service. BUT so many were no where as lucky as we were. My heart and thoughts go out to all who suffered though the death of AN.

My husband was working for Ansett and had been promoted only the week before (how optimistic was that lol!). I was 7 months pregnant with our first child, so we were facing going from double income no kids, to no income one kid. The worst thing was all the attempts to refloat the airline made it really difficult for staff to pick up other employment. It was also disappointing as he really loved the airline and it had some great people working for it. We were just really pissed at Helen Clark!
As with most things in life, it just succeeded in opening other opportunities and everything has worked out well since then. If I could have a Sliding Doors moment though, that would be it.

 

[rechoboam]

I know a few people who lost their jobs that day. They loved Ansett too. Maybe someone here could explain what about the company inspired such loyalty and even love in its employees? I would find that interesting.

 

[Mal]

While I feel for those Ansett employees who lost their jobs, what total % of entitlements were paid out? (I think it was close to 100% thanks to the Ansett Levy we all paid and the assets left from the shell).

This is much better than many other organisations that fold...

 

[Danger]

Isn't the Ansett levy still in place?

 

[markis10]

While I feel for those Ansett employees who lost their jobs, what total % of entitlements were paid out? (I think it was close to 100% thanks to the Ansett Levy we all paid and the assets left from the shell).

This is much better than many other organisations that fold...

That may be the case however a significant portion of that was at least 5 years after the fact and not in 2001 dollars.

It is worth remembering also at this time that some 200+ families will be commemorating the loss of a loved one from suicide as a result of the demise of Ansett over the coming days/months, something that is mentioned very rarely by the press.

 

[tuapekastar]

Minor impact here. Lost ~21K points and that's it. Two course-givers I encountered (one a year or two prior, one a year or two later) respectively lost a 'bargain' lifetime GW membership - about $500 to purchase - and the other lost around 900K points.

All very small beer compared with what else was going on in the world at the time, but we're still allowed to discuss these things.

 

[straitman]

While I feel for those Ansett employees who lost their jobs, what total % of entitlements were paid out? (I think it was close to 100% thanks to the Ansett Levy we all paid and the assets left from the shell).

This is much better than many other organisations that fold...

This was all closed off in the last few weeks with people supposedly getting 98% of entitlements.

 

[drron]

This month in fact-
Ansett employees receive final payout | Herald Sun

 

[Major]

The OH and I had just completed a points trip SYD-DPS in J and only lost about 40K points when the curtain came down. It was a shock which makes me think about accumulating too many points in any programme.

I had been having some problems with AN in the 90's and switched from Golden Wings to the QP. If I had stayed with AN my points loss would have been greater, but compared with a job loss it was no big deal.

 

[Dee Thom]

Like drron I also used to fly Air N.S.W. F-28 'Pocket Rockets', and then on Ansett A320's MCYtoMEL and SYD quite regularly, and have nothing but praise for that Company, but in the words of Rod Eddington :-

"Ansett is a great airline, but lousy business !"

Ansett also missed a golden opportunity to start up a low cost carrier when they took over East West Airlines in the late eighties, turning it into a leisure Airline instead, then terminating it.

Cheers Dee.

 

[BAM1748]

Having done a bit of reading up, it seems like Reg Ansett was a stubborn old coot who locked out Bob Ansett his son, but it was Bob who was the innovator in business (but later had his own troubles with Budget) and had Bob been part of Ansett during the 80's and 90's he may have got them across the line and kept aircraft in the air by being better prepared for the 21st century.

All history now of course. Here is another great story of a failed airline Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines worth a read.

Matt

 

[docjames]

Was just chaos at the time with my parent stuck in CUn with no idea when the airspace would open to get them home (on QF fortunately). The lost 600,000 Ansett points werent really an issue.

Knowing a couple of ex-AN employees their lives (financially especially) have never really recovered. Note that although the employees have now received 90%+ of their entitlements, it hasnt accounted for 10 years of stress, nor the lost opportunity cost in their lives (having to keep working etc instead of retiring in the case of the couple I know). 90% of the money 10 years ago is worth a lot more than 90% ten years later.