Stuck in an overseas airport - what to do, how to contact anyone?

[FlyboyAl]

I've been reading the discussions in the Delays and Cancellations forum about the challenges faced by passengers in Dubai last week, and it got me to thinking (not always a good thing!!)
Having been stuck in LAX, SFO, MEL and SYD whilst with Qantas, I've never had a big issue. Reasons have been varied from a sick pilot to weather to "maintenance issues".
In all my cases, there were Qantas staff present, and all english speaking.
The Dubai story has me wondering what happens when Qantas staff are not there (according to reports I read) and communication has not been good with passengers.
What do people do, or expect?
I suppose status will have some bearing on how you are treated, but if (for the sake of discussion), you are stuck in Muscat or Dubai due to the aircraft going tech, and you feel you are not being "communicated with", what do you do?
Do you carry a list of the local Qantas contact with you to call them?
Do you find a lounge (if you have access) and talk to them?
Do you call Qantas in Oz?
I'm just interested to get others views as I'm doing the QF1/QF2 trip in early Feb and if this had been me, I'd have added it to the list of travel adventures that I've had, but I'm sure others would think differently.

 

[moa999]

I think part of the issue is what people expect?
They want answers immediately,
When oftwn the frontline staff are reliant on the ops centre making a decision, who are in turn waiting from info from the engineers, who are liasing with the spare parts depot and Airbus.

And then if there is a lengthy delay you need to activate whole other teams for rescheduling, buses, hotels, etc etc.

All of this takes time, and often all the frontline staff can say is they don't know.

 

[RooFlyer]

I think part of the issue is what people expect?
They want answers immediately,
When oftwn the frontline staff are reliant on the ops centre making a decision, who are in turn waiting from info from the engineers, who are liasing with the spare parts depot and Airbus.

And then if there is a lengthy delay you need to activate whole other teams for rescheduling, buses, hotels, etc etc.

All of this takes time, and often all the frontline staff can say is they don't know.

Fair enough, but there have been a number of cases reported where there simply is no person from Qantas making an appearance, to say they don't know, or anything else. In Dubai especially, it seems that EK has been delegated to handle things, but some-one forgot to tell EK.

<snip>
The Dubai story has me wondering what happens when Qantas staff are not there (according to reports I read) and communication has not been good with passengers.
What do people do, or expect?
I suppose status will have some bearing on how you are treated, but if (for the sake of discussion), you are stuck in Muscat or Dubai due to the aircraft going tech, and you feel you are not being "communicated with", what do you do?
Do you carry a list of the local Qantas contact with you to call them?
Do you find a lounge (if you have access) and talk to them?
Do you call Qantas in Oz?
I'm just interested to get others views as I'm doing the QF1/QF2 trip in early Feb and if this had been me, I'd have added it to the list of travel adventures that I've had, but I'm sure others would think differently.

I do have QF numbers at all the ports I'm transiting/destination with them in my phone (same with other airlines I fly with).

If there isn't some-one local helping / or everyone absent at the airport when my plane goes tech, I'd first call the local Qantas number (not very optimistically) and then probably the Qantas FF Plat number in Oz. They probably won't have any info, but I'm 'on the record' as trying to have sorted something and hopefully near the front of the queue (plus status) if an alternative flight needs to be found. If no info those 2 ways, I'd be happy to arrange my own hotel accom etc and claim it back, demonstrating I tried to get info from Qantas.

 

[Himeno]

Other then delays (which in two cases have resulted in reroutes with me contacting ground staff about the issue before they had any idea there was an issue [even with ongoing weather/atc related delays]), I've had 2 times where I've ended up somewhere unplanned.

Once, QF32. Landed at KUL instead of SIN due to weather and ATC holds for SIN. No one allowed off. Headed back to SIN after ~3 hours. My plan that trip had been a day in SIN followed by a JL flight to KUL that evening (when JAL had a KIX-SIN-KUL tag).

Then, just after the QF move to DXB, was flying BA to DXB, connecting to QF. BA refused to check through (same ticket), flight was late. None of the DXB transfer desks would check me in for QF. Got through transit security without a boarding pass and made it to the lounge just before the flight closed. Explained to the EK staff what was going on, but by the time they got in to the booking, the flight was closed.
EK tried to contact BA, no answer. Tried CX (ticket issuer), no answer. Tried QF. QF rebooked impacted flights, booked a hotel room and stuck in DXB for 24 hours.