Qantas Frequent Flyer - MEL-LST QF Flight Cancelled

Hi Folks,

Just returned from a day trip to MEL from LST. Have just switched from flying DJ to QFLink due to the schedule working out better for me.

However the last three flights I have suffered delays on the trip home... maybe just a bad run?

Today takes the cake though. After 45 minutes in the Crash8 on the tarmac in MEL told plane has gone mechanical and we need to get off. Flight is cancelled.

Told it may be possible to get all passengers on the JQ flight leaving about 2 hours later.

We all need to take the hike back to baggage claim, claim bags, go to JQ check in and hope there are enough seats to take us to LST tonight... then hike bake thru security and all the way to the JQ gate!

Get onto the JQ flight and home two hours later than normal after a long tiring 20 hour day.

Now my gripe... I pay a premium to fly QFLink and end up on JQ instead. Admittedly I get home safely and relatively quickly. However there is a service difference between JQ and QF... hence the hefty premium. Any chance I could receive some kind of compensation?

Also why when these things happen can't the whole process be more streamlined? Why the need to reclaim bags? Why can't the ground staff of a premium airline check to ensure that all pax can be accommodated onto the JQ flight, have luggage automatically transferred, and boarding passes issued at the gate? Why the need for all the stress and having your pax do all the running around?

To be honest I'm wondering if it is all worth it... may as well save my bucks and fly JQ (their planes are cleaner by the way) instead of QFLink... or even return back to DJ!

What do you think my chances of some kind of compensation are like given I am still a non status pax?

You need to do all the crap because, they are separate airlines, with different procedures........

When it suits them, as in this case.

Of course, they are all part of the same group........

When it suits them (not in this case, more to do with aircraft purchases and other financing issues).

Dave

TBH it's probably not worth pursuing, even then compensation may be limited.

May you could be reimbursed if you purchased something on the JQ flight you would not have had to on the QF flight originally booked.

Because they are separate airlines and their systems are really not designed to allow the transfer of data, pax and baggage.
I do not think JQ domestic allows information to be pulled into their system, hence the need to claim and recheck bags and pax as the cannot do connections. JQ can and do push information out as evidenced by the interlining they do for international carriers only.
QF does have the ability to transfer bags onto other QF flights without pax needing to recollect, it always seems to happen on my QF Crash 8 flights.
The premium you pay for is the better service you may get, QFF and ow points, limited free baggage and if things do go wrong reaccomodation without the need to find your own accomodation, food/beverage or pay for last minute often expensive flights on competitors.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3)

Realistically I'd just be happy to get there not too much later. You could write in and may get a voucher. You can ask for the SC and points you would've normally got.

Just an update...
I had written in a complaint to QF. First reply (three weeks later) was a standard form letter.
As a matter of principle (since the form letter did not address the issues I had raised - namely the lack of QF points posting and the downgrade QF to JQ) I requested that QF review the decision.
Much to my surprise I received a $200 voucher in the mail yesterday.
So sometimes persistence does pay off!