bluegartons

At the end of an epic 3month trip, looking forward to direct flight home only to get a text to say it is cancelled tonight. Online chat tried to persuade us to go via Singapore. Asked them not to book it yet, and they then withdrew the chat and booked us on Emirates via Dubai without consulting . Leaves three hours later, 4 hour layover, will get home 9 hours later than planned.
What can I expect from Qantas, and should I be making a fuss at airport? What would you do?

TIA

percysmith

[deleted. PER-LHR not the other way round]

Dave Noble

Just take the flight or telephone and discus what flight you do want to take

Dave Noble

No EUR600 since this is not a flight covered under EC261

percysmith

Ooops. Wrong way, my bad!

Dave Noble

or could have been MEL-LHR

percysmith

Rebook to another day, if OP's schedule allows?

Dave Noble

I believe that that may be possible subject to space. It seems that QF offered a decent option

Could also try asking for a shorter connection time in Dubai

bluegartons

So it appears I just have to take it on the chin? What about the additional meal I need at Perth Airport? The missed, none refundable transport from Heathrow?
Is it just a letter of complaint at the way the have handled it and a request for some sort of compensation? It’s been a struggle to even sit with my wife, and a really unsettling last day.

fotographer

Just keep track of an additional expense you might have.. and send it to Qantas when you get home.. be prepared to fight. ...
I , am sure you are aware.. things always dont go the way we would like them too.
just be happy you are getting home safe, abet a few hours late.

dont bother with pushing this at the airport... better to deal with the airline direct

Dave Noble

What exactly did you want?

There is no other non stop service to London, so all other options require a connection.

The airline offered a journey with a very easy connection via Singapore - a longer travel time by 3 hours but would have arrived 1 hr 10 later than scheduled. After that wasn't accepted it booked on another available service. No need for an extra meal and hopefully any organised travel would still have been an option

I cannot see it offering Singapore Airlines whilst it can provide travel on its own flights ( either operated or marketed )

If you had asked to go a day later, that might have been ok, but then you would have had to not only pay for meals, but accommodation too

It seems that the airline did what it could to minimise the impact of the cancellation and not sure what exactly the complaint would be - unless a reasonable alternative request had been made but been rejected

deeruck

I've found QF to be generally quite good at re-accommodating, and have used the SMS customer service method successfully.

If you find a more suitable QF option , you should propose it to them. Otherwise, 9 hr delay is an inconvenience, but ultimately you'll be home after what has hopefully been an enjoyable 3 months away.

nancypants

Apparently the newest Dreamliner (the qantas 100 one) is out of action with some kind of hydraulic issue that has required them to borrow equipment from Air NZ to fix (and will still take a fair bit of time), so I suspect this could be a bit of a recurring issue for the next few weeks

percysmith

Is there a price difference between QF9 and the indirect services?

Dave Noble

No - QF doesn't have separate prcing/surcharge/discount for QF9