Flight Delays is a popular topic for discussion at the Australian Frequent Flyer. No one welcomes delays of any kind, but sometimes they are unavoidable.
Rex has extended the grounding of its Boeing 737 fleet and cancelled many of its domestic flights for at least several more weeks, as a result of the extended lockdown in Sydney and COVID-19 restrictions in other Australian cities. Rex has not operated any Boeing 737-800 flights since 18 July 2021. ZL689 from Gold Coast … Continued
As the past week has shown, domestic travel restrictions within Australia can change very quickly. This makes it difficult to book flights with confidence. But to maintain cash flow, airlines need the public to keep booking! So, most airlines have introduced additional flexibility for domestic flight bookings. But can passengers expect a refund if they’re unable … Continued
Rex Airlines has cancelled all of its scheduled Boeing 737-800 flights until at least the end of this month, as Adelaide joins Sydney and Melbourne in lockdown. As of this afternoon, there are no Rex jet services available for sale until 1 August 2021. It’s not yet clear if the cancellations will be extended even … Continued
Virgin Australia flights all over the country suffered significant delays on Friday evening as an extended global outage of the airline’s IT provider brought its systems offline. Some Australian Frequent Flyer members who were caught up in the outage described chaotic scenes at airports on Friday night as airline staff scrambled to manually check in … Continued
With the long-awaited trans-Tasman bubble launching next week, Qantas, Air New Zealand and Jetstar are preparing to ramp up their flights between Australia and New Zealand. In fact, trans-Tasman forward bookings are looking so strong that some airlines have already put more flights on sale than originally planned. But what happens if the bubble bursts? When … Continued
Australia’s international arrival caps continue to pose a huge challenge for Australians trying to return home from overseas without getting bumped from their booked flights. This was recently made worse by the Victorian government’s decision to suspend all international arrivals – effectively removing 1,310 hotel quarantine spots per week. In episode 54 of the AFF … Continued
Unprecedented cargo demand, fewer planes flying, limited staff availability and ever-changing border restrictions throughout the pandemic have wreaked havoc on freight shipments and postal delivery services worldwide. Some countries have even had to temporarily shut down international mail. So it’s no surprise that some international parcels are taking longer to arrive, or taking an unusual … Continued
Qantas will operate special flights from Brisbane and Sydney to Norfolk Island to assist Australians stranded by the sudden, temporary withdrawal of Air New Zealand services to the island. Four Qantas flights will operate between Brisbane and Norfolk Island over the coming days, with an additional one flight from Sydney to the Australian overseas territory. The … Continued
Qantas will close its airport service desks and sales counters, and reduce staffing levels at baggage services desks, resulting in the loss of around 100 jobs. The move will help Qantas to further cut costs, but frequent flyers are concerned this will lead to service reductions and chaos when there are flight disruptions. As part … Continued
Thousands of stranded Australians are unable to return home due to restrictive caps on arriving international passenger numbers. Since July, the number of daily and weekly inbound passenger arrivals have been limited at all five of Australia’s major international airports. A maximum of 525 international travellers are permitted to arrive in Perth each week, with … Continued
Etihad will now offer full refunds to all passengers that purchased tickets in Australia, for flights that were cancelled by the airline due to COVID-19. It comes after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) engaged with Etihad Airways over concerns passengers were being illegally denied refunds for flights booked in Australia that did not … Continued
A few weeks ago, Qantas cancelled almost all of its international flights until 24 October 2020. These cancellations were quietly extended yesterday by another five months, until the end of March 2021. The only exception is flights between Australia and New Zealand, which are currently scheduled to resume on 17 August 2020. However, the cancellation … Continued