theassassin

My wife and kids were due to fly SYD-NAD last friday on qantas codeshare flight with air pacific. flights were booked through qantas with qantas flight number.

She received an SMS at about 10.30 telling her the flight was delayed from 1.10pm to 3pm. So she delayed heading to the airport.

She turned up at the airport at 1.10 (ie 1hr 50min before the new departure time) and was told the flight was closed and she couldn't check in!

Qantas basically blamed air pacific and were ok about it. They rebooked her, the kids (and me - I was booked on the later flight the next day) on the 6.30 am flight the next day and far her taxi vouchers home and back to the airport.

However, it seems to me that she was treated really unfairly having wasted half a day at the airport and lost a day of holiday and just wondering what we should do?

She has been given a card with an email address to send a complaint to, but wondering whether it will do any good?

serfty

In reality, one should never assume such an SMS is accurate. In the first place things may change and there's no guarantee a second SMS will be sent.

Always double check - preferably using more than one source. Even call the airline.

I know it seems ridiculous but that's the way it is.

At least Qantas helped with rebooking and taxis.

theassassin

The flight actually left at 3pm - the sms was accurate!

number_6

This is a common problem for smaller airlines with thin staffing at airports; the check-in counter may be contracted for certain hours only and the start/end times are not flexible. Sometimes another airline uses the same counter for later flights, sometimes it is just a staff availability issue (contracted staff may be working a different airline later in the day). No idea if FJ uses QF, contractors or their own staff at SYD, but that is probably the reason that check-in closed "on time". Presumably a call to FJ would have confirmed that the check-in cutoff time was not changed due to this flight delay; I've run into this dozens of times over the years, from many airlines, and it is just the way the industry works. Obviously the automated SMS flight notification systems have not been constructed to feed off the check-in time, which is perhaps more important for pax.

serfty

I was looking at a thread today in the US airlines forum. While they have SMS notification of delays, there is the disclaimer that PAX should endeavour to check in in accordance with the original schedule.

nth_utsera_sth_utsera

Does beg the inevitable question, why bother with an SMS update service at all, then?

drron

Certainly here at MCY flights are regularly late.Even if 3 hours late check in time is never altered-goes for JQ,DJ,TT.Of course QF gave us up many years ago.

docbert

Because most of the time it's right - if it says a flight is delayed, then it means that the current status at that time is that the flight is delayed.

The problem is that things occasionally happen to "undelay" a flight. Whether that's that they find a new aircraft, or that ATC lifts restrictions at either the departure or destination airport (eg, due to the weather clearing), or something else that allows them to pull the departure time back in.

So why have it at all? Because if you know your flight is delayed, you can start making plans to handle that delay. Whether that's changing to an earlier (or even later) flight, re-routing, or just letting people at the destination know you're going to be late.

In the relatively infrequent occurrence that the delay changes, you'll get another SMS telling you that too...

serfty

I guess the SMS or other notification is at the very least useful in alerting to a situation.

I'm not sure what the OP could have really done differently in response to the SMS other than checking in then leaving the airport to come back later. It was a 110 minute delay, so that would not have been worthwhile.

Here's that thread on US air:

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

with all due respect serfty this is not the USA... in the US they can often find other aircraft to operate flights (and change gates), or weather can suddenlyy clear meaning a flight will depart earlier than expected.

Qantas sent me an email the other day advising of a delay on the 29 and I acted accordingly. It seems fair the OP did the same and it is hugely inconvenient for the family.

provided the OPs family met the minimum check-in time for the revised flight, then QF should refund the first night's hotel accommodation - that is the least they can do and is a reasonable request for compensation.

It was QF's direct action in this case which caused the loss to the passenger.

flying mermaid

We received an SMS in Jan telling us our CBR SYD flight was delayed for 3/4 hour. We were all packed so decided to go out anyway and just spend the extra time in the lounge. Just as well we did as the plane had in fact hit some birds on the way in so was not going to fly at all and they were putting "critical" passengers on the earlier plane, which was being held back. We were flying on to Auckland so were put on the earlier flight. If we had paid any attention to the SMS and come out later we would not have made our connection. Given it was all booked on the same PNR I thought it was quite bad to have been notified of the delay! It was all so rushed we didn't get to the lounge at all but went straight from checkin to the gate. I felt very sorry for the "original" passengers, as apparently the plane had been sitting on the ground for some time waiting for the extras to be loaded.

Interestingly for those WP people who don't feel their status gets them anything, once people with onward connections had been put on the earlier flight, then all platinums were loaded to minimise disruptions for them.

number_6

Proving the point that WP doesn't get as much as it should ... all WPs should have been accomodated first, if WP status was what mattered. Lots of reasons to travel with varying criticality, and no particular reason to think that making a connecting flight is more important than arriving at the destination If WP status mattered, then WP time would be worth more than non-WP time

Globaliser

It's useful to manage expectations when there's a short delay like for the OP's.

I think I've been trained by many airlines over the years that even if I have been told about a delay, I must still check in at the original time unless the airline has expressly said that I can delay my check-in. That, as far as I can remember, has only happened once, when the delay was expected to be about 6-8 hours, known well in advance.

serfty

AA doesn't even do that with their Top Elites.

On AA, disrupted passengers with connections get priority over those without in such situations.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

theassassin

Just a little more colour. When my wife got the SMS I also checked the qantas website which showed the flight as delayed as well and that the aircraft had left NAD about 2 1/2 hours late, so there was no way it was going to leave SYD on time.

We had some friends on the flight who said it didn't complete boarding until around 4pm. My wife and kids were at the airport at 1.10pm so there was no operational reason to have closed the flight before then.

My guess is that air pacific had oversold the flight and just closed it once it was full.

We will write qantas and see what they have to say.