Shortened connection time.

[davocns]

Hi, looking for some advice on what I see as a potential problem !I have booked and been ticketed (eticket) on QF 921 / QF 123 for 29 April. When I made the booking the connection time was 1 hour between flights , I see now that it has been shortened to 45 mins. My queries are , what happens if my flight from CNS to SYD is late, or for some reason I don't get to T1 in time to make 123, does QF have to arrange alternative flights for me etc ? I have only noticed the flight time change in the last 2 days, I have had no notification from QF. Your thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.

 

[Dave Noble]

Hi, looking for some advice on what I see as a potential problem !I have booked and been ticketed (eticket) on QF 921 / QF 123 for 29 April. When I made the booking the connection time was 1 hour between flights , I see now that it has been shortened to 45 mins. My queries are , what happens if my flight from CNS to SYD is late, or for some reason I don't get to T1 in time to make 123, does QF have to arrange alternative flights for me etc ? I have only noticed the flight time change in the last 2 days, I have had no notification from QF. Your thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.

I would contact them and get rebooked onto another flight which meets the 1 hour minimum connection time. If you do not, then I am pretty sure that closer to the date ( it is still over 3 months away) , they will contact you to rebook since 45 minutes is below the minimum connecting time. Check out other options and find that which works best for you and then contact QF to get rebooked onto a legal connection

This is assuming that you have booked a through ticket. If you have booked separate tickets then you may well need to pay the appropriate fees to change

Dave

 

[Evan]

If its one booking its QF's issue. 45 min is difficult i think but i have made it plenty of times in 50 minutes and thats what i believe to be MCT.
I think QF may call you but then again maybe they know its tight but think they will make it.

If your on 2 separate tickets then forget it !

E

 

[davocns]

I have a through ticket. As it is,QF 921 is the first flight of the day out of CNS to SYD (05.45 dept)The only possible alternative is to fly down to SYD on the afternoon of the 28th necessitating an overnight stay. If that becomes the solution do QF absorb fees atc for changing flights . By the way QF 123 (SYD- BOM) operates 3 days per week ,with all flights dep at 09.30 !
Thanks guys.

 

[Dave Noble]

I have a through ticket. As it is,QF 921 is the first flight of the day out of CNS to SYD (05.45 dept)The only possible alternative is to fly down to SYD on the afternoon of the 28th necessitating an overnight stay. If that becomes the solution do QF absorb fees atc for changing flights . By the way QF 123 (SYD- BOM) operates 3 days per week ,with all flights dep at 09.30 !
Thanks guys.

Change fees will not be applicable in this case. The 921-123 is not a valid connection on that date so they will change the connection free of charge

I think that the overnight stay costs are unlikely to be met by QF

Dave

 

[pyffii]

A few years ago my son and I were flying Melbourne-Cairns-Port Moresby and sometime after ticketing Qantas changed the flight times on our first leg which meant we would miss our connection to Port Moresby...We had to overnight in Cairns so after a short chat with the Premium desk (only Gold ) Qantas agreed to foot the bill for the overnight stay plus food vouchers plus transfers !!!

Guess you just need to put your case forcefully but in a nice way and see what happens...Good luck

 

[MrHyde]

45 mins is a very short amount of time. The problem is the shuttle bus that takes you between terminals. That itself can take about 30 mins depending on when the next one leaves. Immigration and security is normally quite quick.

On my last flight MEL - SYD - WLG, there was a 1 hour stop and we just made the next flight... we were the last ones to board the WLG flight. Before that, our MEL-SYD flight was delayed and we missed the next one, in which case Qantas put us up in Sydney for the night.

 

[davocns]

Hi guys.Just an update, QF (without any prompting) have given me a choice of flights to use on the 28th and will cover the cost of overnight accommodation in SYD ( at a hotel of their choice - yet to be named). I think thats a pretty good outcome.

 

[Evan]

Hi guys.Just an update, QF (without any prompting) have given me a choice of flights to use on the 28th and will cover the cost of overnight accommodation in SYD ( at a hotel of their choice - yet to be named). I think thats a pretty good outcome.

Don't worry the hotel should be a rather reasonable one based on all the ones i have enjoyed over the years.
I would say you have been well taken care of. This is one of the reason i love QF (And other full service carriers)

QF comped me a night in CP SIN airport the other day because my plane was late (no i did not have a connection, i simply had arrives at 3:30am instead of 9:30pm so missed out on my night in a hotel, without asking they picked up the tab.)
I would suggest my expereinece is not normal practise but i am OWE and do whenever possible fly QF and i am sure they see all my forward bookings etc.

E

 

[N860CR]

Thats quite a good outcome. I think Qantas systems will often allow an illegal connection and require somebody to manually stop in and fix it. I have a number of ROK-BNE-SYD flights booked and about 3 of my ROK-BNE sectors were changed from say a 1830 arrival to a 1930 arrival, when my legs to SYD were sch to depart at 1915.

The computer happily made the changes and still listed them as connecting flights even though I would arrive in BNE after the flight to SYD had left. Was fairly easily fixed up with a phonecall, however it pays to keep an eye on your bookings if you make them a little while in advance.

 

[JohnK]

If its one booking its QF's issue. 45 min is difficult i think but i have made it plenty of times in 50 minutes and thats what i believe to be MCT.
I think QF may call you but then again maybe they know its tight but think they will make it.

If your on 2 separate tickets then forget it !

Not always true.

A few years ago I booked an award ticket DRW-SIN, when QF81 used to stop in DRW and then I purchased a cheap O class fare SYD-ADL-DRW, for the SCs, which left plenty of time to connect to QF81. A few months later QF changed the scheduling of QF81 to the previous day which meant that my paid flights were now useless.

I called QF and mentioned that the change in dates for QF81 did not suit me, I also had onward travel booked from SIN and I could not leave a day earlier anyway, and I wanted to cancel the award booking and the paid flights. Not a problem at all. Within a week I received a full refund of the QFF points and taxes and surcharges for the award booking and the full refund of the paid O class flights.

And no this was not a once off occurence. I had a series of one-way bookings and bus trips booked for last years Queensland Mining Towns Tour and QF changed the time of one of the flights out to BCI and LRE. I had booked BNE-BCI-LRE//BKQ-LRE-BNE and the new arrival meant that I would not make the bus connection from LRE to BKQ. I called QF and got the routing changed to BNE-BCI//BKQ-LRE-BNE without incurring a change fee.

 

[straitman]

I agree with JohnK on this one.

On a number of occasions I've had separate bookings, one after the other that have gone askew for various reasons. I always ring before hand to ensure that the airlines note the connections and on each occasion they have come to the party with sorting out the problem of their creation. I do ensure that that they are the same alliance ie QF - LAN or QF - JQ bookings and there has never been an issue.

 

[Evan]

My point was not that the airline wont change/refund etc if you have separate tickets mainly that its a risk to take the risk on separate booking and just hope. There is a vast different between ringing up before the flight and saying look you changed the flights what can we figure out to just not connecting and hoping at that time the protect you (I am sure they usually would but still its a stress most can do without)

E