Stranded far from home

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acampbel

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Oct 31, 2005
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I had a day trip to Brisbane yesterday .... or at least that was the plan. Up at sparrow's fart to catch QF502, which was chockers. After taking off they announced that catering was a bit short, but I near enough to the front to get a hot breakfast and my conscience stopped me from grabbing a meal voucher on exit. I'm no hobbit!

After a long day in a rather steamy Brisbane I caught a taxi back to the airport with a couple of colleagues from Melbourne who were flying Virgin. We parted ways at Departures, little knowing that my arrogant "Sorry guys - I'm off the the QC for some refreshments!" was soon going to come back and bite me.

The security screening was a bit of a bother as they only had 1 X-ray machine working. Come to think of it .... the whole airport was a bit dim, which was a theme carried through to the romantically-lit QC. I was on a Red-e-deal but it never hurts to ask so I politely enquired whether I could make the 3rd last flight to Sydney rather than the last one. It transpired that they had already pushed back but the staffer said he would get me on the next one as "the sooner you're out of here the better". He also warned me that there would be no boarding announcements in the QC. I had time to grab some wine and cheese before they started boarding.

It was only at this point that I looked at my boarding pass - 4A. I don't like window seats as a rule but being just behind business would get me off quicker, which was to be a real plus later. Soon after boarding some worrying announcements started. First there was a problem with refuelling due to power problems, then they started talking about curfew into Sydney. The suit in 4C started cursing away as we sat and waited and waited to hear from Canberra about a dispensation. We were all closed up and ready to go when we heard that Canberra says no.

Feckity cough (or words to that effect) came from Grumpy to my right, and we all filed off to go down to the service desk. Due to my seat and some lazy J pax, I was second at the desk behind Grumpy. This was a good thing as they had announced that hotels were pretty full that night and it would have to be first in, best dressed. There was 1 other Qantas flight in the same boat (hopefully my original QF561) as well as a Virgin flight, so I doubt whether everyone got a room. Grumpy was berating the service desk staff as if the whole thing was their fault, and so I was first out the line with 2 taxi vouchers and the promise of dinner, bed and breakfast at the Hilton. I had also booked myself on QF501 the next morning (at 5am!).

So sorry about the long-winded story, but after posting some messages mildly critical of Qantas I thought it only fair to say that being put up in a 5-star hotel for free after paying for a cheap ticket is pretty good value. I know that Jetstar would have just booted me out of the terminal but I wonder if anyone was on the Virgin flight and could tell me how they went. It might be useful for future reference.


Cheers,


Andrew


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That's better than I got as elite flying business on NZ earlier this year when we got stuck in PER overnight.
 
Handy tip to save time if there is a problem that requires an overnight stop. When I was on a flight that had to return to Brisvegas, whilst waiting on the plane, I got my mobile out and booked a hotel. On the way to the hotel I called QF reservations to rebook me on a flight the next day. Saved faffing around an airport waiting for QF to sort it out.

The next day, I just wrote a letter to QF enclosing the receipts for hotel, taxis and breakfast and a few days later received a cheque through the post to reimburse me

Dave
 
I had actually tried the Sofitel whilst walking to the service desk as we had been there that day running a customer event and some other colleagues were staying the night. As it turned out the Sofitel was booked out and my colleagues weren't answering their phones (I would have been willing to bunk in if necessary), so I was happy enough to wait 2 minutes whilst Qantas sorted me out for the night. There was a very long queue behind me so I would certainly have pursued the DIY option if I was stuck at the back. Good to hear Qantas will reimburse based on receipts.

I am still curious to know what Virgin arranged for their pax, but it seems no-one who frequents this forum was on that particular flight.



Cheers,


Andrew

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I too had a similar thing happen, flying BME -> PER, flight was overbooked, and no space to upgrade me to business, so they gave me 2 taxi vouchers, dinner and breakfast for the next day and a night in the Cable Beach Club Resort - couldn't complain about that!
 
I just have to add this footnote .... even if it gets on peoples' tuts (as the Kiwis would say).

Got a letter from Qantas yesterday :-

"I was sorry to hear about the delay you experienced with your flight ...... issue with refueling ...... decision made to cancel your flight and rebook you .... would have been most frustrating ....." [I'm paraphrasing to get down to the good bit]

"This Qantas Gift Voucher comes with my apologies for disappointing you on this trip."


Bleeding eck - a $200 travel voucher!!!

I must remember to book the last flight out of Brisbane more often!



Cheers,


Andrew

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Sheisers!

I must get myself onto cancelled flights more often :)
 
Meanwhile my cancelled QF flight I get the option of a token refund (calculated based on fare differences between flights flown and total), use the coupons at a later date but only in the same booking class (and pay my own way to get to that airport), or credit to the token amount. :(

NZ were much more reasonable with a recent cancelled flight with them. Rebooked for another date convenient to me, including the already flown sectors, and rebooked in whatever booking class was available (only higher ones were available on the chosen date).
 
I think you succeeded in getting on peoples tuts!

I have never managed to get anything other than a voucher for an airport eatery!
 
Congratulations.

A $200 travel voucher! That is great customer service and another reason to avoid LCCs as much as possible.
 
The same thing could happen again tonight due to storms in SYD:

QF555 Sydney 18:45 20:30 Departed
QF561 Sydney 20:10 20:20 Cancelled

No later flights. Hopefully the planes aren't full. Otherwise they'd have to bump some pax.

Oops!
 
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