Seriously Qantas!

[benoles]

So, Im sitting at sydney airport awaiting QF81 to Singapore. Left the lounge as the flight was listed as 'gate open'. Arrived about 1 hour ago. Flight staff still sitting at the gate. No plane parked at the gate. Still showing 'gate open' . No announcements, no updates to the app, no explanation or updated departure time for everyone sitting at the gate. Seriously Qantas, how hard is it to keep people updated. Meanwhile, announcements apologising for a 10 minutes delay to a hong king airlines flights and cathay flight at the neighbouring 2 gates. Having flown multiple other international airlines this year, this is just really poor customer relations/service. No wonder people are upset with the airline. Rant over.

 

[Dmac59]

Notwithstanding that your flight is delayed, my interpretation of “gate open” is that airline staff are in attendance.
I never head to the gate until boarding call is made in the lounge, or I receive an sms regarding boarding.
I hope you are not not delayed too much longer.

 

[benoles]

Thanks, I understand that, but wanted to go for a walk. It is now 70 minutes since we were meant to depart. My frustration is that there had not been one announcement or update at the gate for the huge majority or travellers who were not in the lounge. Nor on the app. Looks like boarding now! Its the little things that make people really annoyed with Qantas.

 

[Warragul]

my interpretation of “gate open” is that airline staff are in attendance.

I agree.
Its the consistent inconsistency with updates though. By comparison a fortnight ago I received a text and app notification from QF about 90 minutes prior to STD that my flight from Cairns would depart 30 minutes late. Agent at check in asked if we'd been notified of delay. So it's not as if they don;thave the mechanisms to update people.

 

[SYD]

Going to a gate before at least “Go to Gate” is displayed is usually going to mean waiting.

Throw in QF81 and almost guaranteed.

Last time I flew it, I was in whY with carryon so went down from the F lounge before the boarding call (which the lounge staff had advised would be soon). I waited an hour before boarding started…

 

[elanshin]

Going to a gate before at least “Go to Gate” is displayed is usually going to mean waiting.

Throw in QF81 and almost guaranteed.

Last time I flew it, I was in whY with carryon so went down from the F lounge before the boarding call (which the lounge staff had advised would be soon). I waited an hour before boarding started…

Just for reference, got called at QF F for QF255. I took my time finishing my dessert and said goodbye to friend (he then got kicked out later).

Gate was a far gate at 37. Got there with no signs of movement and boarding started about 20mins after I got there about a solid 20mins after the supposed start of the boarding time.

We did still pushback roughly on time though.

 

[HMcM]

Definitely annoying but could be worse, I was flying BNE-MEL a couple of weekends ago as the final leg of a status run. We got notified that the flight was boarding at around 8pm (8:45 scheduled take off), and that because of this the lounge was closing. We got to the gate and very quickly found out the original jet was not going anywhere and at 8:19 got notified the flight would be delayed until 9:15 and then almost immediately told the delay would be until 10:55. None of us were allowed back into the lounge. So after the 8pm boarding call we didn't actually leave until 11:14 that night.

 

[Dmac59]

Definitely annoying but could be worse, I was flying BNE-MEL a couple of weekends ago as the final leg of a status run. We got notified that the flight was boarding at around 8pm (8:45 scheduled take off), and that because of this the lounge was closing. We got to the gate and very quickly found out the original jet was not going anywhere and at 8:19 got notified the flight would be delayed until 9:15 and then almost immediately told the delay would be until 10:55. None of us were allowed back into the lounge. So after the 8pm boarding call we didn't actually leave until 11:14 that night.

That is so disappointing, even dishonest by QF.

 

[aikman]

Its the little things that make people really annoyed with Qantas.

They may be annoyed but they are fiercely loyal, as proven by $1.46 billion in profit in just 6 months.

 

[Vic]

Has flown multiple international flights, thinks gate open means leave the lounge. Sits around for an hour with nothing happening and does not return to the lounge...
I say not a Qantas problem... Operator error on this one

 

[wenglock.mok]

So, Im sitting at sydney airport awaiting QF81 to Singapore. Left the lounge as the flight was listed as 'gate open'. Arrived about 1 hour ago. Flight staff still sitting at the gate. No plane parked at the gate. Still showing 'gate open' . No announcements, no updates to the app, no explanation or updated departure time for everyone sitting at the gate. Seriously Qantas, how hard is it to keep people updated. Meanwhile, announcements apologising for a 10 minutes delay to a hong king airlines flights and cathay flight at the neighbouring 2 gates. Having flown multiple other international airlines this year, this is just really poor customer relations/service. No wonder people are upset with the airline. Rant over.

Been in your situation with the QF81 (or QF291 when it was run by AY) before - as I understand it, the issue is they often need to get the aircraft towed across the main runway from their jet base near T3 to the gate at T1, and that towing process can take ages depending on how long it will take to cross the active runway. The ground crew often have no idea how much longer before the aircraft reaches the gate, which is why they can't push a new ETD.

I guess another reason they don't update with a new ETD is so passengers don't wander off as the intention is for them to board, close up and leave ASAP if they are already running late. Passengers who wander off will not help with that...

 

[mad_atta]

Just for reference, got called at QF F for QF255. I took my time finishing my dessert and said goodbye to friend (he then got kicked out later).

Gate was a far gate at 37. Got there with no signs of movement and boarding started about 20mins after I got there about a solid 20mins after the supposed start of the boarding time.

We did still pushback roughly on time though.

I've had similar experiences twice in a row in SYD, both with trans-Tasman flights that were leaving from one of gates 50-63, so a decent walk from the lounge. In each case they announced boarding about 15 mins sooner than I would have expected for a narrowbody.

The first time I was pretty sceptical, but still left the lounge within about 5 minutes of the boarding call and then spent a solid 15 minutes at the gate waiting for boarding to start.

The second time, travelling with my partner (who is a worrier), when once again they announced a suspiciously early boarding he insisted on rushing to the gate, whereas I ordered, received and consumed a pavlova and then sauntered to the gate, arriving with perfect timing about 20 seconds before boarding commenced.

I do wish they were a little more transparent with their announcements, ie 'boarding will start in x minutes but it's y minute walk to your gate' as opposed to giving you the impression that boarding has already commenced and you need to hustle your way there.

 

[markis10]

Been in your situation with the QF81 (or QF291 when it was run by AY) before - as I understand it, the issue is they often need to get the aircraft towed across the main runway from their jet base near T3 to the gate at T1, and that towing process can take ages depending on how long it will take to cross the active runway. The ground crew often have no idea how much longer before the aircraft reaches the gate, which is why they can't push a new ETD.

Spot on, and aircraft under tow cannot expedite crossing vs one under their own power. That crossing occurs at the end of the runway which has a hill in the middle, so a pilot taking off to the north often cannot see crossing traffic until well down the runway. As a result there have been a number of close calls so things may appear to be slow as caution is exercised.

As the surface movement controller @ Sydney I have had a tug waiting up to an hour for such a crossing.

 

[HMcM]

I do wish they were a little more transparent with their announcements, ie 'boarding will start in x minutes but it's y minute walk to your gate' as opposed to giving you the impression that boarding has already commenced and you need to hustle your way there.

100% this. I just wish that they were able to properly predict their boarding times and provide us with the information. If they know when boarding will start and even if they give a generous estimate of the walking time to the gate it would be much better than the current system. Then again I have had the opposite issue at times overseas where I have been boarding group 1 (or pre-boarding) but I have left the lounge when advised and by the time I got to the gate (I am a very quick walker) they were already boarding the last groups. That can also be pretty annoying.