Originally Posted by
nonce
What I would suggest is that this occurance needs to be placed into the SOP for Air Services, Qantas, CBR Airport and Customs/ Immigration if CBR is going to be offered as an acceptable alternative.
I know from ending up in BNE rather than SYD from SFO that Customs denied our request to open the aircraft in BNE to take on additional catering. While we parked at a gate, the door was never opened otherwise everyone had to be cleared in BNE.
Perhaps the CBR hotels could find a way to hold PAX in bond for the night but I can't think of a practicle way to make this work. Alternatively they could have unloaded everyone from 9pm into the QF terminal and kicked them back out into the aircraft at again at 4:30 am but this would have been equally unpleasant.
None of this addresses the lack of toilet paper and food, which QF blamed on their inability to service the 747 in CBR, not the government. What I fail to understand is how they cannot get food to the aircraft if they can get people on and off.
Even if the rules did not allow feeding pax and providing supplies for lavatories, did anyone from QF make any effort to provide these things? For example, did QF try to call the customs officials and asking if they could deliver TP and food? If that suggestion is absurd, did they try anything extraordinary at all?
It's one thing to follow the rules, its another thing to rely on the rules as an excuse to not even make an effort. Will QF use this to ask Customs officials for an official policy on how to provide supplies to people in situations like this, or will they do nothing?
Please note that I have nothing against Qantas (except that if it's an acronym it should be QANTAS; if it's a word it should be Quantas
), I have not even flown them. My beef is more with the way so many airlines handle this kind of situation (e.g. blame the rules, but seemingly make no effort to change the rules).