Should an airline notify you if your flight is moved forward by 30 mins at departure?

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Mal

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Had an interesting one today.

Same day return flight. Picked up both boarding passes at 8am this morning.

Flew where I needed to be and did the things I needed to do in that town.

Arrive back at the airport around 60 mins before flight. Look at monitors. Flight still on schedule.

about 10 mins later, the "First and Final" boarding call is announced. Huh?!

Passengers board. Couple of Straglers turn up and flight leaves 30 mins early.

I believe weather played a part in wanting to get the plane away early.

The Qantas page on same day returns says you only have to be at the boarding gate 20 mins before the flight. (The same page also mentions 45 mins before flight to be clearing security etc, but not under the same heading as Same Day Returns.)

Considering that you can't always hear announcements in all parts of the airport, shouldn't Qantas have called/sms'd to let me know the plane was due to leave 30 mins early? Surely they'd have known about their wish for an early departure well before they made the boarding announcement. What if I was outside dealing with things like dropping off rental car, or (not that I am a smoker) having a last minute fix.

I could just imagine the death stares I would get hopping on the plane at the 20 min before departure mark after everyone was sitting on the tarmac for around 30 mins. Or alternatively the plane leaving without me. Would I be eligible for "distressed pax" type support (eg hotel) as it was the last flight of the night?
 
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Re: Should an airline notify you if your flight is moved forward by 30 mins at depart

Would definitely expect a contact in that case.
Was your mobile in the FF system linked to the booking??
 
Re: Should an airline notify you if your flight is moved forward by 30 mins at depart

Yeah Qantas has all of my details...

I normally turn up early for all of my flights, but this one struck me as being very unusual and could lead to bad things for a pax that turned up at the time they were expecting the plane to be leaving.
 
Girlfriend got a call the other morning to tell her that her plane would be 1 hr later, and nicely timed it was before we left the house for airport.
And she has no status.
I have also been SMS'ed when holding the return boarding pass already.

Was there another later flight ? maybe they just figured you could catch that should you miss the one leaving early ?? still poor service. I would let them know (in a nice way).

Evan
 
Given that QF provides (ime) accommodation when flights are cancelled for weather delays, I suspect that they would rather just pay up for a few hotel rooms for those that didnt get to the airport in time for a 30min early departure rather than pay for a whole flight load of passengers and that you would have been suitably looked after

Dave
 
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