Flight delayed, missed connection and abandoned by Qantas

[papeto]

So this happend to me and about 30 other passengers on Friday travelling to Europe. We had a Qantas ticketed flight from Sydney to various european destinations on Qatar Airways via Brisbane. First leg was Syd to Bne on Qantas. Flight was meant to leave Sydney at 16:50 with connection on Qatar leaving at 22:40 out of Brisbane.

Day before Qantas cancels 16:50 flight and rebook us on 19:35 flight. Three calls to call centre to get it moved earlier, to no avail they can’t move it.

Check in early at Sydney and ask again to be moved early - nope can’t help.

So 19:35 flight gets delayed by over an hour due to “operational issues” and we miss our connection to Doha, but are now stranded in Brisbane.

At the airport we are told they will accommodate us in a hotel and provide new iteniaries in the morning. Qantas call centre will contact us. Next morning by 10 am no call, so we call the call centre. They inform us they can’t help us and will refund us. I point out there is availability on Qatar on Monday, but they say they can only book in the same fare class, so can’t help. Ask to escalate to manager, get a supervisor who tells me the same thing. They also state they won’t fly us back to Sydney, you have to book a new flight on your own and pay for it.

So I have now booked the Qatar flight ( 3 times originawl cost) and am typing it on the aircraft atm.

I have been delayed three days from my original iteniary, hotels and internsl flights in europe had to be cancelled or changed at great cost. As mentioned the new flight is 3 times the coat as it is a last minute booking.

So my question to the brain trust is how do I get compensated for this by Qantas?

To be clear I am livid about the poor service provided by Qantas and will lodge a complian. However I have racked up about $10 k in additional costs and bookings that couldn’t be refunded, so really eger to get Qantas to pay and some more.

Travel insurance won’t cover all - if they pay and require you to approach Qantas first. So any help from members that were in this predicament before would be appretiated.

 

[NM]

Ouch. That is a very poor situation. I would be equally livid under the circumstances. Unfortunately, I fear its going to be a long and difficult journey to obtain right and proper remedy for this disruption and costs incurred.

 

[Xrayspice]

So this happend to me and about 30 other passengers on Friday travelling to Europe. We had a Qantas ticketed flight from Sydney to various european destinations on Qatar Airways via Brisbane. First leg was Syd to Bne on Qantas. Flight was meant to leave Sydney at 16:50 with connection on Qatar leaving at 22:40 out of Brisbane.

Day before Qantas cancels 16:50 flight and rebook us on 19:35 flight. Three calls to call centre to get it moved earlier, to no avail they can’t move it.

Check in early at Sydney and ask again to be moved early - nope can’t help.

So 19:35 flight gets delayed by over an hour due to “operational issues” and we miss our connection to Doha, but are now stranded in Brisbane.

At the airport we are told they will accommodate us in a hotel and provide new iteniaries in the morning. Qantas call centre will contact us. Next morning by 10 am no call, so we call the call centre. They inform us they can’t help us and will refund us. I point out there is availability on Qatar on Monday, but they say they can only book in the same fare class, so can’t help. Ask to escalate to manager, get a supervisor who tells me the same thing. They also state they won’t fly us back to Sydney, you have to book a new flight on your own and pay for it.

So I have now booked the Qatar flight ( 3 times originawl cost) and am typing it on the aircraft atm.

I have been delayed three days from my original iteniary, hotels and internsl flights in europe had to be cancelled or changed at great cost. As mentioned the new flight is 3 times the coat as it is a last minute booking.

So my question to the brain trust is how do I get compensated for this by Qantas?

To be clear I am livid about the poor service provided by Qantas and will lodge a complian. However I have racked up about $10 k in additional costs and bookings that couldn’t be refunded, so really eger to get Qantas to pay and some more.

Travel insurance won’t cover all - if they pay and require you to approach Qantas first. So any help from members that were in this predicament before would be appretiated.

I have never been in that situation, but I would cry. I would hope travel insurance would cover your costs. I would contact Qantas, keep your correspondence and then you have approached the airline as required by your travel insurance. Good luck, and enjoy your holiday.

 

[justinbrett]

Was this revenue or award? You talk about fare classes so I assume it was revenue. Did you book through Qantas or a travel agent?

I was not aware QF sold revenue QR seats.

 

[MrJetset]

Sounds like an award and they need to be rebooked in the award class.

QF can’t make awards available on QR and sadly this is an issue with partner awards. On a commercial fare QF would have to reaccommodated you, even on their own metal. Given school holidays and cabins running full, this would also be a challenge.

Now that you’ve been refunded, I’m not sure you can ask for more of a remedy.

 

[NM]

Sounds like an award and they need to be rebooked in the award class.

QF can’t make awards available on QR and sadly this is an issue with partner awards. On a commercial fare QF would have to reaccommodated you, even on their own metal. Given school holidays and cabins running full, this would also be a challenge.

Now that you’ve been refunded, I’m not sure you can ask for more of a remedy.

I think we need to wait to hear back from @papeto regarding if this was an award flight. The original post stated:

So I have now booked the Qatar flight ( 3 times original cost) and am typing it on the aircraft atm.

The specific mention of "3 times original cost" implies this was a paid fare, but the OP will need to confirm before we can assume either way.

However, I agree that if this was an award flight, then its likely QF was unable to rebook the passenger in an award fare class. But, the missed connection would appear to be QF's fault, so they should be doing everything possible to get the passenger to the ticketed destination regardless of the availability of award seats on whatever flights are available.

Disruption recovery seems to be a major problem for QF right now. I am especially concerned with the comment that QF offered a refund but would not return the passenger to their origin port, leaving them stranded part-way through an itinerary.

 

[JohnK]

Really sorry to hear @papeto.

I think there is a new trend here with how Qantas treats customers. There is no way I would accept at 7:35pm flight SYD-BNE that is due to arrive at 9:05pm for a 10:40pm international departure.

It's a catch 22. I'd book my own flight but then Qantas would stupidly cancel the itinerary due no show on their itinerary. We are told that Qantas provides protection on flights on same itinerary but here they have clearly abandoned their customer. Very poor.

 

[justinbrett]

It doesn't really add up, so we'll need to wait for more detail

QF award - the issues are well documented on this forum
Separate QF/QR tickets - danger zone
QF revenue sold by QF - I don't think it's possible
QR revenue - QR is responsible
QF/QR revenue sold by third party - depends

QF cancelled flight should open up any flight that day regardless of fare - unless they were all sold out
QF offering to refund mid journey is extremely unusual - that doesn't sound right at all

 

[ChrisMars]

It doesn't really add up, so we'll need to wait for more detail

QF award - the issues are well documented on this forum
...

I have seen lots of issue pre-departure, is that a common things those days to be abandoned (itinary canceled with points refoudn) by Qantas once the award on a single ticket itinerary has started? Especially where Qantas could use it's own metal to negotiate an outcome?

 

[NM]

I have seen lots of issue pre-departure, is that a common things those days to be abandoned (itinary canceled with points refoudn) by Qantas once the award on a single ticket itinerary has started? Especially where Qantas could use it's own metal to negotiate an outcome?

This is the first time I have seen a report of someone being abandoned part way through a journey, so I could not suggest there is anything common about this specific scenario. And we still do not know if this was a paid or award ticket. But regardless of being common and regardless of being paid or award ticket, what has been reported by the OP is far from acceptable customer service.

 

[Ade]

QF revenue sold by QF - I don't think it's possible

Did you mean QR revenue sold by QF? If yes, I'd think (& happy to be corrected) that the airline I purchased the ticket from, regardless of the other partner airlines in the itinerary, is responsible for the whole ticket? So if I booked say a flight on QF website that involves a MH or JQ or QR segment (operated by the partner airline), then because I purchased the ticket from QF, isn't QF responsible?

 

[Princess Fiona]

Sounds like an awfully stressful experience.
@papeto which type of ticket did you book?
Award ticket or paid fare. Was it the same type of ticket for all of your flights ? And which airline(s) did you book the tickets with ?

 

[justinbrett]

Did you mean QR revenue sold by QF? If yes, I'd think (& happy to be corrected) that the airline I purchased the ticket from, regardless of the other partner airlines in the itinerary, is responsible for the whole ticket? So if I booked say a flight on QF website that involves a MH or JQ or QR segment (operated by the partner airline), then because I purchased the ticket from QF, isn't QF responsible?

No. I am fairly certain QF does not sell QR revenue flights (By QF revenue I mean a QF issued 81 ticket for QR metal)

Ie - you are flying via DOH, QR does fly pax on QF flights on QR tickets.

QF would not sell a revenue ticket SYD-BNE and then QR BNE-DOH-onwards.

If it was a QR revenue ticket, even though the QF flight was cancelled, it's up to QR to rebook you. If QR are telling QF no, then there's not much QF can do. Doesn't sound like this was the case though - but it does sound like QF think they're not responsible - which they may well not be depending on the exact situation which remains very unclear.

 

[dk4]

I fear its going to be a long and difficult journey to obtain right and proper remedy for this disruption and costs incurred.

Agreed, I fear it will probably take a "non-traditional" approach to get a remedy out of Qantas, they have already said "computer says no" - the go to phrase for customer service at Qantas these days.

For me, I see the presented scenario fairly clearly - "Qantas causes mis-connect, then leaves passengers stranded midway, after it fails to find a way to re-route them to their final destination". Seriously, it doesn't matter if it was an award or cash fare (so long as it wasn't standby/staff ticket).

 

[encryptededdy]

Going to need more info here, but the only case where I would expect the airlines involved to not rebook you is if you had seperate tickets. Otherwise, Award or Revenue, QR or QF ticket, if you missed a connection mid-journey you should be able to be booked onto whatever flight was avaliable. It's possible that everybody you talked to was clueless and couldn't help you, but it seems unlikely.

Although, on further thought maybe it's not that unlikely. If you were put up in a Hotel, then clearly somebody somewhere was intending to resolve this for you. You say you called the call centre when you recieved no contact from Qantas the next day - did you try to talk to anyone at the airport (international)? I unfortunately would not be surprised if somebody at the call centre told you bad information in this case, which is all too common Wouldn't the flights be under airport control anyway?

 

[Melburnian1]

In which Brisbane hotel were you accommodated?

 

[RichardMEL]

so if QF (assume QF) put pax up for the night that suggests they assume liability for the missed connection - which they should. That means they shoul be able to book pax onward. Seems to me reward seats at this point are irrelevant (if this was award booking, and I doubt all 50 odd pax or however many were on rewards tix anyway). It implies revenue to me, and either way, QF/QR would have to deal with it - most likely QF grab the QR inventory - even if full Y or J (depending on class original booked) and wear the cost as their delay. The stuff about same fare class makes no sense when it comes to irrops imo because those kinds of rules usually get thrown out the door - specially as these are involuntary chages caused by carrier failure. Now, there may not be physical seats available in a timely manner(forget booking classes) - then it seems to me it would be on QF to source a different routing out of BNE

And the missed connection - being put up in hotel etc - again does not imply separate PNRs but through booked tickets. If Separate PNRs then QF would be entitled to tell the OP tough it's not their problem.

so still needs to be more info here because it doesn't quite make sense to me as for others from a number of viewpoints.

 

[encryptededdy]

The stuff about same fare class makes no sense when it comes to irrops

I agree. The only thing I can think of is since OP called the call centre, they got somebody at the call centre who had no idea what they were talking about (which is unfortunately quite common these days).

 

[ChrisMars]

While the discussion award / paid fare shouldnt matter once the itinery has started, it might confuse poorly trained overseas call center staff. God knows what they been told and what they remember.

The issue is poor service at the airport (the staff that suposadly arranged hotel should have had the capacity to already find a new flight) and I guess poor call center service for flyers with gold or lower status.

Looking forward to get more facts from @papeto . Probably busy traveling in europe. Hopefuly we can help better once we have a clearer understanding.

 

[Vic]

Trying to book revenue brisbane to doha on qantas.com gets the following error message:

The cities you've selected can only be booked using Qantas Points. Switch on 'Use points' or change your departure or arrival city and try again.