V Aust sold my Long Haul ticket, Should I be seeking Compensation?

[mmac]

I recently purchased a BNE - NYC econ ticket through V Aust. The first leg of the journey, BNE-SYD was delayed (not only by 'mechanical problems' but we sat on the tarmac while crew sought to find passengers to give up their seats for 2 pilots, one of which had been drinking and clearly wasn't needed for flying that night) I was travelling with only carry on to make the connections as smoothly as possible,as I was flying in the NYC for a total of 3 days to surprise a friend, a gift he husband and I been saving up for for sometime. The SYD - LAX flight was due to leave at 8:30pm, my delayed flight arrived in SYD at 7:20pm, which I believe was more then enough time to make the connecting flight, especially one through the same ariline. Approx 15 other passengers and myself were advised at SYD, after being taken to a 'holding room' and made to wait for a good 15mins while watching our LAX flight go from GATE OPEN to NOW BOARDING that we would not be making that flight. I was advised later that the assumption was made that we weren't going to make the 8:30pm flight and the decision was made to sell our tickets on to Passenger from another airline that had been delayed.
Has anyone experienced this on a Long haul flight before? Do I have a case for Compensation? The fustration of being at the airport with my gate open and being powerless to make what was a extremely important flight was infuriating!
I'd appreciate all feedback/suggestions for action. Cheers!

 

[markis10]

Welcome to AFF!

When did this happen (date) and what were you provided with as alternate arrangements, which may have satisfied the airline's obligations. It would be unusual for the seats to be made available for other airlines in preference to your own given the added costs of your delay being their responsibility in most cases.

 

[anat0l]

I seriously hope you are joking about the 'drunk pilot'. Even if he were merely deadheading, that is not something you want to portray in front of pax. (Of course I hope you're seriously joking that he was meaning to operate a flight). Anyway, that isn't relevant...

Arriving at 1920h to connect to a 2030h flight gives 70 minutes. That's cutting it short, but I thought that should be just sufficient to make the flight. The VA website won't let me book a connection shorter than 120 minutes, however; I don't know if this is their MCT (because I can't find it on the website either).

In cases like this, however, if the airline can't fly you on your original flight due to too short a connection (as how it seemed to play out), the airline could at best just get you on the next flight (without penalty or charge). I'm assuming this is what happened, plus you given a hotel for the night.

I don't know about the airline "selling" your ticket to another connecting pax - that doesn't quite make sense. Certainly not "another airline".

Some travel insurances say that if you are delayed on your way to a 'significant event', you can be covered to rearrange your plans to get to your destination as soon as possible. That probably wouldn't have helped, however, in your given circumstances.

 

[mmac]

Hi there, and thank you!

This happened Last Thursday afternoon, 29th July. I was offered a flight for 24hrs later, which wasn't going to work for me at all. I think having this discussion with them while the flight I was supposed to be on was still boarding wasn't helping my mood at all :evil:

I stayed at the counter for about 3hrs begging, pleading and screaming for a more suitable flight, which was humilating. I needed to be in NYC by Friday PM at the LATEST, that is all I wanted in the end. I was eventually offered a Delta flight for the following morning (which I'm sure would not have eventuated had I not got so emotional) But I was then left to sort a appropriate flight for the LAX-NYC flight myself, which was stressful to say the least. I was advised to call V Aust reservations line myself. Which i did, and had to relive the whole debacle again as they had no notes..they also 'couldn't see' the LAX-NYC VX flights that I had found for myself for the following day...another 2hrs of to and fro'ing. I'm drained just thinking back to that night! Was given a night in a Holiday Inn in SYD, a 2min phone call (!) and a meal voucher.
I was notified by a Virgin Blue Staff member that the tickets were sold onto United Airlines passengers, hence the deliberate hold up in SYD when we first arrived.

 

[markis10]

Odd - UA was delayed that date but left at 7.30. From what you have posted in terms of arrangements I would say they have done what they can but a written complaint would be in order without emotion and factual. There are not much alternates given you were on the last flight of the day.

 

[mmac]

..You are correct - the 'Drunken Pilot' isn't relevant, as I didn't see the pilot drinking myself I should not make comment, this was relayed to me on the fight by fellow passengers..

 

[Mal]

If it was ex-United States, then you should have been eligible for $US800 compensation under Denied Boarding rules. However I don't believe the same rules apply ex-Australia to the United States as V Australia is not a US based carrier.

The V Australia Conditions of Carriage are pretty vague:
V Australia > Conditions of Contract

You may be entitled to compensation if You are refused carriage because Your Flight has been overbooked and You hold a valid ticket and have complied with V Australia's Conditions of Carriage in relation to reservations, ticketing, and check-in.

 

[pauly7]

..You are correct - the 'Drunken Pilot' isn't relevant, as I didn't see the pilot drinking myself I should not make comment, this was relayed to me on the fight by fellow passengers..

Assuming there was a drunken pilot, I don't think it really matters unless he was in uniform right?

Most workplaces have strict rules on how you conduct yourself in work issued uniforms, but in plain clothes and off duty I'm guessing there isn't much they can do about it...? He'd be just treated like a pax?

 

[anat0l]

The V Australia Conditions of Carriage are pretty vague:
V Australia > Conditions of Contract

The problem is that I don't think (or at least VA looks like it can argue) that this is an overbooking example.

You can be denied boarding for many reasons; overbooking doesn't seem like the reason here. Denying the OP then slotting someone else in is not due to overbooking.

All semantics, mind you.

 

[anat0l]

Assuming there was a drunken pilot, I don't think it really matters unless he was in uniform right?

Most workplaces have strict rules on how you conduct yourself in work issued uniforms, but in plain clothes and off duty I'm guessing there isn't much they can do about it...? He'd be just treated like a pax?

Now we're getting back to that thread about crew behaviour as pax on flights (raised some time ago in response to QF crew in J & preferential treatment etc.)

 

[oz_mark]

Clearly, the whereabouts of the passengers connecting from Brisbane was known. Surely, V Aust must have had some plan as to what was going to happen to those passengers.

 

[Bundy Bear]

I recently purchased a BNE - NYC econ ticket through V Aust. The first leg of the journey, BNE-SYD was delayed (not only by 'mechanical problems' but we sat on the tarmac while crew sought to find passengers to give up their seats for 2 pilots, one of which had been drinking and clearly wasn't needed for flying that night) I was traveling with only carry on to make the connections as smoothly as possible,as I was flying in the NYC for a total of 3 days to surprise a friend, a gift he husband and I been saving up for for sometime. The SYD - LAX flight was due to leave at 8:30pm, my delayed flight arrived in SYD at 7:20pm, which I believe was more then enough time to make the connecting flight, especially one through the same airline. Approx 15 other passengers and myself were advised at SYD, after being taken to a 'holding room' and made to wait for a good 15mins while watching our LAX flight go from GATE OPEN to NOW BOARDING that we would not be making that flight. I was advised later that the assumption was made that we weren't going to make the 8:30pm flight and the decision was made to sell our tickets on to Passenger from another airline that had been delayed.
Has anyone experienced this on a Long haul flight before? Do I have a case for Compensation? The frustration of being at the airport with my gate open and being powerless to make what was a extremely important flight was infuriating!
I'd appreciate all feedback/suggestions for action. Cheers!

So you were on the delayed 5:00pm DJ970 flight to Sydney.

The 4:00pm flight was canceled the 6:00pm flight was canceled; the one I was supposed to be on. My brief report can be found, here seems like Virgin Blue weren't having a good night.

Air travel can be great but if you get delays then it can really cascade through the system, so you always need to build in some time into your travel plans.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

The MCT for DJ-VA at SYD Domestic to Intl is 1 hour 30 mins.

 

[markis10]

That particular day was a mess for most airlines, QF12 diverted to NAN then BNE as did UA etc on the inbound, I would imagine the airline ops departments were a tad busy.

 

[trooper]

OK.. so MCT is 90 minutes.

Presumably once the airline saw this wasn't going to be met they went to "Plan B"..

Standbys and whatever....

X number of seats were now going to be available for pax who would definitely make it... My understanding is that most airlines have agreements to take pax for other airlines when necessary....

(I was with a group put onto a QF flight when UA was cancelled fr'instance - like you we had a "better than average" reason for needing to get out ASAP.. and after some discussion that was all arranged.. everyone else on that UA flight was packed off to a hotel for the night)

It isn't really "selling your ticket" as such (they still offered to transport you on the next flight, accomodation until then etc.. as of course they must) but rather using newly freed up capacity in an efficient manner.. which I'm sure we would all normally applaud...

..and once that decision was made.. and those passengers bags were loaded etc.. it would be rather difficult I imagine to change it all around again...

They looked after you as they MUST... but of course you can still ask for compensation which is something entirely different!

 

[straitman]

OK.. so MCT is 90 minutes.

Presumably once the airline saw this wasn't going to be met they went to "Plan B"..

Standbys and whatever....

Is the MCT relevant to this scenario :?:

The planned MCT was sufficient and the airline would have been aware when the DJ flight was arriving so they should know that there is sufficient time and allow for and look after their own pax before looking after other pax.

This is easy to say in retrospect when the airlines generally were having a bad day. In these circumstances some things sometimes slip through the cracks and I would put mmac in that category. Personally I would allow longer between my domestic and international flights if/when it is so important to catch the onward flight.

 

[oz_mark]

Is the MCT relevant to this scenario :?:

The planned MCT was sufficient and the airline would have been aware when the DJ flight was arriving so they should know that there is sufficient time and allow for and look after their own pax before looking after other pax.

This is easy to say in retrospect when the airlines generally were having a bad day. In these circumstances some things sometimes slip through the cracks and I would put mmac in that category. Personally I would allow longer between my domestic and international flights if/when it is so important to catch the onward flight.

Notwithstanding it was a bad day - someone within V Aust made a bad call in freeing those seats to be made available to passengers from another airline - and at the very least mmac is due a proper explanation of what transpired.

 

[Saab34]

I think VA could have done more. Example. I recently flew MEL-SYD-LAX on VA and there were electrical storms in Melbourne that day that messed up the entire days flying. I went to the airport early and they put me on a earlier service because I worked out that my connecting flight would be delayed. We were told at the boarding gate in SYD that we were not leaving until 10.30pm now because the Melbourne connecting pax were 2hrs late. The aircraft apparently sits in LAX for a while so it does not affect the next flight unless it was a 5+hr delay.

The connection times on VA's USA bound services from Melbourne are awful. In most cases a 1hr delay will not get you there. Pity you cant choose from a wide variety of flights.

I wonder if they would let you on if you got your bag and caught a cab over to T1 very quickly...

 

[straitman]

Notwithstanding it was a bad day - someone within V Aust made a bad call in freeing those seats to be made available to passengers from another airline - and at the very least mmac is due a proper explanation of what transpired.

I agree absolutely :!:

 

[chrisb]

OK.. so MCT is 90 minutes.

Maybe for them - QF will happily sell a 70min DOM-INT connection in Sydney, but I guess they do have the Bus.

My personal opinion is that VAust did the wrong thing by this customer and he should make as much noise as possible until they compensate. Its the only way to make sure they change the process that caused it in the first place.

If they knew far enough in advance to offload them and they landed with 70mins to connect they should have done something more proactive like organise a transfer taxi/van to get them between terminals.