Why not to check your flight status before arriving at the airport!

[iqis60]

I was booked to fly out of Auckland at 6.50am this morning on LAN801, flying business to max out status credits of course. Checked flights last night to find the flight was delayed by three hours, so gave myself an extra two hours sleep at the hotel before heading in.

All is good so far, planes don't make up three hours in the air without having some kind of supersonic capability...
Well it turns out I would have been better off not checking my flight and arriving at the airport at 5am. LAN had rebooked me on an Air New Zealand flight for 7am, since I was a business passenger, with all the people in cattle class booked for a 7.30pm QF flight in the evening.

This would have been useful if LAN had given me a call to let me know what was going down, but it was a bit late to check onto the AirNZ flight when I arrived at the airport at 7.10am .

In the end I would have flown the 7.30pm flight anyway, as I was travelling with a mate on a mountain biking trip and he wasn't chasing status, so was only booked in economy. But it makes me wonder if I should bother checking my flight departure times next time .

Anyway, I'm sitting in the Stamford Plaza Auckland, with a belly full of free buffet breakfast, the sun has come out over Auckland city and I still have a free lunch to get through. Work emails are sent, so I guess all there is left to do is enjoy the day...

 

[bossreggie]

I think you have had a bit of a win here!!

(Unless you had to pay for a Taxi to and from AKL)

Enjoy your extra time In Auckland.

 

[iqis60]

I think you have had a bit of a win here!!

(Unless you had to pay for a Taxi to and from AKL)

Enjoy your extra time In Auckland.

$60NZD taxi fare from the airport to the city was on LAN and so will the trip back. I think they have already spent more money than I paid for my fare today :O.

 

[samh004]

If you’d asked here, the advice might have been that you’d be rebooked, as I have seen it reported that J pax have been rebooked on at least QF before. I guess the best thing to do is always to contact the airline.

Were they happy to rebook you at 19:30? I can imagine they might’ve tried to book you on the next flight and be surprised that you wanted to stay a bit longer?

And the flight would have been 04:50 not 06:50 I think

 

[Mal]

I was booked to fly out of Auckland at 6.50am this morning on LAN801, flying business to max out status credits of course. Checked flights last night to find the flight was delayed by three hours, so gave myself an extra two hours sleep at the hotel before heading in.

This can actually be quite dangerous. Even if the plane is showing up as late on the incoming board, you should either turn up to check in at the right time, or at least phone and ask what is happening.

Some of the more nastier airlines can try to claim that you failed to check in on time etc etc.

 

[iqis60]

This can actually be quite dangerous. Even if the plane is showing up as late on the incoming board, you should either turn up to check in at the right time, or at least phone and ask what is happening.

Some of the more nastier airlines can try to claim that you failed to check in on time etc etc.

Yep, lesson learnt on that one. Next time I'll be calling before changing the time on the alarm! It helped that I was booked into Business, they seemed to do everything they could to look after me when they knew that.

 

[straitman]

If you’d asked here, the advice might have been that you’d be rebooked, as I have seen it reported that J pax have been rebooked on at least QF before. I guess the best thing to do is always to contact the airline.

Were they happy to rebook you at 19:30? I can imagine they might’ve tried to book you on the next flight and be surprised that you wanted to stay a bit longer?

And the flight would have been 04:50 not 06:50 I think

The few times this has affected me they have always either let me know about a delay or rebooked me on QF50.

The flight time is currently 0650 Sam.

 

[samh004]

The flight time is currently 0650 Sam.

For some reason I always thought it was earlier, maybe I was thinking of the time to check-in/be at the airport. No worry, have yet to enjoy the flight

 

[straitman]

For some reason I always thought it was earlier, maybe I was thinking of the time to check-in/be at the airport. No worry, have yet to enjoy the flight

Other times of year it is 0550. I guess it varies with who has what Daylight Savings status.

 

[iqis60]

Other times of year it is 0550. I guess it varies with who has what Daylight Savings status.

Yes, NZ start there daylight savings in the last weekend in September rather than the first weekend in October, so that's why it's 6.50am at the moment.