Article: Disruptions Are the True Test of an Airline

[AFF Editor]

Disruptions Are the True Test of an Airline is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Disruptions Are the True Test of an Airline

The true test of an airline is how often things go wrong, and much more importantly, how well the airline handles inevitable disruptions.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[drron]

Some time between 2007 and 2012 before I had completely given up on QF they really did excel.

My best example was I was booked to fly home DPO-MEL-MCY after working in Tassie. DPO-MEL was on QF and MEL-MCY was on JQ as it was the only afternoon flight from MEL-MCY.

However that day in April the heavens opened up over Devonport and points west. So all DPO flights were cancelled. Again because we still flew QFi in those days I had reached the heights of SG as well as having LTQC. So I got a ring from QF saying if I could get to LST they would put me on an late afternoon flight. I just got the hospital to arrange a taxi and all was good. So full marks to QF.

Of course the problem then was that I had missed the JQ MCY flight. Went to the JQ desk and they were as useless as...
There was a woman in tears just in front of me as she had come off the LST plane and missed her JQ connection to BNE. There were no more seats that day and her grandmother's funeral was the next morning.

So I took myself and her to the QF service desk and we were both given a ticket on the last QF BNE flight for the night. The JQ tickets were accepted as full payment. So QF went above and beyond.

I would like to be able to read such QF stories again.

 

[harvyk]

Longest delay I've had was 27 hours (back in 2017 from memory). I was meant to fly from BNE-LAX, however the plane broke down and they had trouble getting hold of replacement parts.

In the end Qantas brought another plane up from SYD to do the flight, and our original aircraft remained in BNE.

Look I can't really fault QF (although I say that whilst I spent the day knocking back free booze in the QF Int lounge at BNE). They arranged for a taxi and then hotel for the night, although I'm glad I was flying J as J pax got a room to themselves, where as the solo Y pax where forced to share, plus I had a meal voucher to get dinner.

It would have been nice if they had simply flown plan B up from SYD when it became obvious that the BNE-LAX flight wasn't happening on the day rather than hoping that the original aircraft would still be able to do the flight the next day, however I don't know when the plan B aircraft became available.

 

[Zanzara]

Couldn't agree more. Disruptions are a true test.

VA at ZQN has to be my worse experience to date. And I have travelled a lot. A chaotically handled fire alarm evacuation at check-in was a precursor of what was to come… 2-hour delay that steadily got worse and worse.

The VA flight was eventually cancelled because the radio was cactus and no one was available to fix it.

NZ & JQ were checking in side by side to VA, with seats back to MEL to spare. Not a single attempt was made by VA to reaccommodate anyone on those flights.

There was an inept handling agent check in Supervisor (dressed in a VA uniform but not employed directly by them) and other surly staff that were unfortunately well out of their depth. They were clearly poorly trained and had no support.

Passengers from overseas, some of them were no spring chickens and had medical conditions. Others had young children. There was also an escorted small holiday group. Everyone was simply and abruptly told, ‘there are no buses available to take you anywhere else’ and ‘we can’t magic any hotel rooms for you –come back tomorrow. As a favour, we are keeping the Terminal open tonight.’

When asked if the flight would leave and at what time, I was told, ‘nothing has been arranged by the company. We have no information’. The handling agent were unable or unwilling to find a single room or transfer any passengers to other flights still departing that evening for any passengers.

I witnessed one passenger travelling from Italy (with international connections that were going to be missed) being shouted at by check-in staff; probably because he said he was going to lie down in front of the check in desk right then and there. Some Americans were also shouting at staff in clear disbelief. I remember quite clearly them asking, ‘is this is this how you treat your best and also your business class passengers?'

People paid for flights themselves on other airlines or madly scrambled to check out Airbnb, called in favours for friends or relatives, checked if the hotel stay that they had just vacated still had rooms available.

After waiting 5 hours, everyone was offered a $6 refreshment voucher from check in staff. These were all handwritten by staff and later increased to $35.

I was a platinum frequent flyer at the time and was travelling with another. I found a hotel. My travelling partner and many others bought tickets on JQ. Many passengers had to sleep on the Airport floor. An NZ check-in agent watching the dramas commented to me and said that whenever there was a technical problem or delay with VA it was always the same & badly handled.

Early the next day or very, very later that night, I received an SMS with flight information for the next day. A new flight had been arranged.

I turned up to travel back to MEL via SYD. As a goodwill gesture to everyone that had not bought a ticket out of there were given a letter apologising and offering a $200 VA voucher or 20,000 Velocity points.

After the way I was treated it became crystal clear to me that airline loyalty is just basically marketing mixed with a huge dollop of lip service. I subsequently no longer bothered always blindly booking VA as I had before this incident. I stupidly thought VA would look after me a bit better as a platinum ff. How naive.

I claimed my hotel stay from VA when it occurred. That was in 2018. It was only partially refunded. Quite out of the blue and rather unbelievably, 3 years later I was contacted by VA and they reimbursed the remaining amount. I still never blindly book VA or any other airline I have status with.

The worse episode of delayed customer service though was told to me by colleagues who approached UA after 2 days of cancelled flights to MEL from LAX. They were told by staff to ‘back off or we call the police!’

 

[BCons]

The Chilean volcano eruption in June 2011 was a big disruption for flights in Tas due to the ash cloud that was circling the southern oceans. QF and JQ (it was nearly all JQ by then, but thats a gripe for another time) announced they had stopped flying to Tas altogether, they were risk-averse after the Nov 2010 near-loss of an A380 near Singapore... So that left visiting family suddenly looking for a way out of Tas, and me trying to shuffle things for a business trip to SIN and elsewhere. That trip was to be Hba to Syd and then off to Sin, all with QF.

That eve my T/A found one seat on a VA flt from LST to Mel that wud just give me time to catch a QF flt to Sin. An extra fare, but otherwise leaving Mel with QF would be the same day/similar timing as original sched. So early next morning, in frost and a bit of fog, we set off for Launceston by car. Managed to get to the airport OK, my cousins went on to Devonport and the ferry, and I waited for fog to clear so the VA flt could land. While waiting I got a call from the T/A to say QF wanted to charge an additional $800-odd for the changes to my Itin.

The changes were: A) not flying me to Syd at all and offering no refund, and B) taking me to Sin from Mel rather than Syd, a flight thats about an hour shorter.

That was it for me and QF I'm afraid..

 

[OZDUCK]

The only major disruption I have faced was when we were flying to Helsinki on AY after getting a cheap ScootBiz (as was) flight Per - Sin and overnighting in a Holiday Inn Express in Katong. The flight was due to depart at around 23:30. At about 07:30 we got an e-mail to say that the flight was cancelled and to contact Finnair for advice.

The Singapore Finnair number was not answering and I think it was probably a number that was only manned when check-in was open. I tried twitter without success and so phoned Finland. Initially we were offered seats on a CX flight to Hong Kong and then onwards to Helsinki on CX. I asked for confirmation that they were J seats and there was a sudden - oh! The operator put us on hold and then we we were offered flights on QR via Doha and then onto Helsinki in J. The first flight left about 2 hours earlier than our scheduled AY flight but we were due to arrive in Hel within about half of an hour of the originally scheduled arrival time on AY.

It took a couple of hours of stress but in the end AY came through. At one stage they said that they would pay for an extra night in a Singapore hotel if flights could nor be arranged. We actually profited by the change as we got seats 1A and 1E on a near new A350 from Sin to Doh and then flew on one of their A320's with lie flat seats on the Doh - Hel leg. Without being unfair it is safe to say that the Finnair 'express' night time meals served all on one tray came nowhere near to matching the catering on either of the QR flights. After that experience we happily booked a number of QR flights originating in Singapore.

 

[RooFlyer]

Disruptions are the true test of an Airline's management.

 

[kgreenuq]

Disruptions Are the True Test of an Airline is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Disruptions Are the True Test of an Airline

The true test of an airline is how often things go wrong, and much more importantly, how well the airline handles inevitable disruptions.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Two-sector flights with Jetstar are almost certain to cause palpitations. If the first flight's late (that never happens, right?) you're a good chance of missing the second flight, as you have to collect luggage and then check in again. After several disasters, I book only direct flights with Jetstar.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Disruptions are the true test of an Airline's management.

And this was the big issue with the Layoffs during Covid. Out walked decades of experience that knew how to deal with disruptions, who knew what where the tricks that training did not teach, or that only experience can provide in how to deal with this. You can't train for this, and it will take years and years of staff who stick around to return to that level of capability.

Running a line down staff costs might suit finance and accounting wizards but the books don't put a $ value on the skills that they are letting go.

 

[JohnK]

I've had a few disruptions over the years.

In my experience QF used to be the best by far at handling disruptions but that's probably biased as I've been Platinum 16 years.

VA and to a lesser extent JQ the worst. VA never had a clue and I think it's worse now.

 

[Forg]

In my experience QF used to be the best by far at handling disruptions but that's probably biased as I've been Platinum 16 years.

I don’t know if they’re treating their Platinums like they used to, but I had two experiences of flying QF with a Platinum … one was giving me a lift to the airport to catch the same flight as him when QF called him as a reminder ‘cos he hadn’t checked-in yet (yes he was late), the other the flight was an hour late so they called him to let him know. You never got that level of attention or information when you were a mere “paying pleb”, with QF … in fact I have a couple of American friends who stick with their Seppo airline schemes because their American sensibilities prefer the way the American airlines bow & scrape even though the American airline product has generally been inferior … ”service” means “servitude” to Americans, I think Strayans often feel a tad uncomfortable with that (I know I do - these people aren’t my inferiors!).

 

[JohnK]

I don’t know if they’re treating their Platinums like they used to, but I had two experiences of flying QF with a Platinum …

Not anymore.

Fancy cancelling my flight and putting me on stand-by for next flight but I have to go to gate for any no shows. Seriously? What about my 2 checked bags? Oh.

Absolutely useless which is what you'd expect if you let your best front line staff go and keep the full useless executive team during pandemic.

 

[Quickstatus]

1.
An organisation is exceptional only if it is able to successfully manage the exceptions to the routine
An organisation is not exceptional if it is only exceptional at the routine

 

[Alwaine]

The sign of a good airline is how they handle disruptions. Unfortunately, on the 30th November Qantas had a disruption with their QF10 flight from London, and their shabby lack of communications, illustrated to me that in their pursuit of profitability they have forgotten their duty of care towards their passengers.

On the evening of the 29th November, I accessed my booking to asertain the LHR departure terminal in order that I could book a taxi to the airport. To my surprise, there was a notice advising a 11 hr delay on this flight. Next morning, my booking again showed an 11 hr delay leaving LHR but surprisingly, it was showing the flight arriving on time into MEL with a 12h 05 total flight time! Although, during the day I received several emails from Qantas marketing asking me to purchase their merchandise, there was never any email nor SMS advice received from Qantas regarding this extended delay.

This situation continued until 1800 on the day of our departure, when I received a push notice from Qanats to say they had move my wife and I to the Emirates flight out of London. They also gave us our seat assignmen, but when we checked in at LHR, Emirates told us these seats numbers didn't exist on their aircraft. As a result, we were unable to sit together all the way back to MEL.

Being a QF lifetime Gold member, I would have thought that Qantas would have advised us and the other passengers of the flight delay, rather than leaving us to discover this for ourselves. Apart from the message advising us of the change to Emirates, there was no communications re this flight, received from Qantas.

All in all, after this experience I would rate Qantas as a third world airline with customer service standards similar to Ryanair in the UK.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome of your first post @Alwaine . Don’t surprise in the least. “Flying internationally with us? Yeah, whatever.”