wjh5879

Hi All,

I was flying KCH-KUL-JHB yesterday afternoon and after a missed approach and go around at KUL on the first leg, the flight diverted to JHB due to poor weather conditions.

Once on the ground at JHB, I asked the flight crew if I could disembark as it was my final destination and had no hold luggage. They said no as it was only a refuelling stop. It was particularly frustrating as they had opened door 1L and had airstairs brought over during the refuelling.

By the time we'd got back to KUL, I'd missed the final flight of the evening to JHB and MH put me up in the Hotel Sama Sama and was rebooked onto MH1037 this morning.

Not that it matters much now, but had I been a bit more assertive and demanded to be let off, could they have done so, or is it a legal requirement to continue to KUL?

(NB I'm not particularly upset; I was only a few minutes later for work this morning than usual, and I was collecting QF status credits anyway - just curious )

IceTrojan

I would imagine that it's not as simple as just walking off the plane. They'd have to re-reconcile their manifests, recalculate weight/balance, and other paperwork for their now-JHB-KUL flight.

You'd have to be more than just "assertive" to get them to let you deplane.

Zorak

It seems experiences and circumstances vary. For example:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...d-deplane.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...et-me-off.html

various other threads:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site...al+destination

wjh5879

Thanks, good to know. Not too bothered about it - gave me something to moan about in the office this morning

dvs7310

I've experienced something similar on CA years ago (around 2005 or so), we were flying CKG to CAN but had to divert to SZX due to weather over Guangzhou, this was after being delayed about 3 hours in Chongqing due to fog. We were on the ground for maybe two hours or so but many passengers demanded to be let off in Shenzhen (presumably many of them were traveling there anyway either by connecting flight, train, or road). At the time the CA crew had no estimate on how long the delay was going to be so I really thought about tossing in the hat and deplaning as well and just taking the train but ended up waiting it out and flying to Guangzhou quite late.

I know China is a bit of a special place when it comes to passengers ganging up and making demands on airlines, but I suppose if a few more people on your flight started insisting on deplaning then they might have made accommodations.

Ausriver

It happens a lot in China or we could call it a common practise. When flight diverted to nearby airport where ground transportation is available, and actual depart time is uncertain, or maybe airline knew it will be late. Pax could opt to finish the trip, normally no comp will be paid as it is optional. You could however to stick with the flight and get hotel and food.

But I guess China is different as bullet trains run between all major cities (with an airport) all the time, private car/taxi isn't that expansive (1000RMB will surely get you anywhere within 2 hours drive), and angry pax is not that easy to deal with so why not just let them go.

djjaguar64

The crew did the right thing not letting you off, this is not like a bus where you can tell the driver oh let me get off here.

Globalist

The tread is a year old, nothing new to see here.

Globalist

djjaguar64

wow, why was this revived? Sorry did not see the original date.

1kBill

Could it have been an immigration and customs issue which prevented OP from deplaning?

YVR Cockroach

No. Purely domestic flight though there are or were some restrictions travelling between east (Sabah and Sarawak) and west (peninsular) Malaysia, though the restrictions are/were going west to east while the OP was travelling east to west.

1kBill

Ah, Kuching. I skimmed the post and misread the originating airport as Karachi. My bad.

YVR Cockroach

Though KHI-JHB (or even "just" KHI-KUL) on a 737 would have been interesting enough.

carrotjuice

Notwithstanding that this thread is over a year old, it still raises the legitimate question of whether a passenger should be allowed off the plane, especially if the passenger is travelling with hand baggage only. And whether it is really at the end of the day the airline's prerogative to deny this right to the passenger (knowing MH their crew are often clueless or deign to do only the minimum by avoiding anything exceptional or causes more work). After all the the passenger had bought a direct ticket to destination A but airline failed to deliver "directness" by diverting to a different destination B. So there is arguably a breach of contract, and the passenger has every right to walk off the plane.

Ausriver

My thought would be: if everyone is getting off the plane after diversion, hand luggage only pax should have the right to choose.

If cabin door remain shut, it will be airlines decision if one should be allowed off.