Holidays and Airport 'Chaos' since COVID

[CaptainCurtis]

I lodged a complaint with 'Qantas Customer Care' back in April after issues with flights SYD-MEL-SYD. Security delays, no catering loaded in J and baggage delays. This was their response to my request for compensation on account of the lack of catering.

 

[Mattg]

I lodged a complaint with 'Qantas Customer Care' back in April after issues with flights SYD-MEL-SYD. Security delays, no catering loaded in J and baggage delays. This was their response to my request for compensation on account of the lack of catering.View attachment 283447

That is really pathetic.

 

[MikeG]

I lodged a complaint with 'Qantas Customer Care' back in April after issues with flights SYD-MEL-SYD. Security delays, no catering loaded in J and baggage delays. This was their response to my request for compensation on account of the lack of catering.View attachment 283447

Lame

 

[CaptainCurtis]

That is really pathetic.

Running out of people to blame - passengers, airport security, caterers. Who's next?

 

[AIRwin]

This was their response to my request for compensation on account of the lack of catering.

American spelling?

 

[CaptainCurtis]

I lodged a complaint with 'Qantas Customer Care' back in April after issues with flights SYD-MEL-SYD. Security delays, no catering loaded in J and baggage delays. This was their response to my request for compensation on account of the lack of catering.View attachment 283447

Well it appears that was not the end of the story.

I fired off a response to Qantas Cutomer Care, with Stephanie Tully copied in (I copy her in to all of my correspondence/complaints with Qantas). I simply reinforced that they advertise catering as part of their domestic offering, and that catering was not provided - therefore compensation is warranted. I reinforced that three months is an unacceptable amount of time to wait for a response. My response included a link to this thread, highlighting that I had shared their prior response - whether this helped, I do not know.

Well, to my surprise, I have woken up to 15,000 QFF points in my account, with a description 'COMPLIMENTS OF CUSTOMER CONTACT'. I also just received the following email:

Keep pushing folks for the compensation you deserve, and don't be afraid to copy in [email protected].

 

[docjames]

SIN-FRA arrived at Terminal 1. Security was good, and fairly fast, but even with UK passports, you need to go through the non-EU line even if your UK passport has "EUROPEAN UNION" emblazoned on the front cover. We ended up using our Aussie passports...

It took us over an hour to get through security at SYD on the way out, so anything was better than this.

FRA-BHX departed from Terminal 1. The same thing, Security was fairly efficient

LHR-FRA arrived at Terminal 1, but we were just transiting to a FRA-SIN flight so this was super-easy... Especially as when we checked in at the Lufthansa desk at LHR, we were checked in to our connecting Lufthansa ticketed (Separate booking) flights all the way to SYD. There are a lot of good things to say about Lufthansa and Star Alliance.

I hope this helps. The Lufthansa Senator Lounges are pretty good IMHO

One thing that surprised me was that fast-track doesn't apply to guests with Lufthansa - apparently, it's the only airline that does this (according to the fast track lady at LHR).

Thanks @MikeG - we arrive/depart on EK so will see how it goes!

 

[jakeseven7]

Any live reports of Melbourne terminal busyness today?

Have teams flying out of both QFd T1 and VA2d T3/4 this afternoon/tonight.

Cheers

 

[AIRwin]

Any live reports of Melbourne terminal busyness today?

Have teams flying out of both QFd T1 and VA2d T3/4 this afternoon/tonight.

Cheers

Not too busy when I walked from QP in T1 past T3 to JQ in T4 but that was this morning...

 

[Mattg]

My travel experiences over recent months in Europe and North America have been mostly good to date, but I got to experience first hand the "chaos" in Canada yesterday flying YUL-YYC. It probably doesn't help that it was the Canada Day public holiday, but YUL was very very busy. Most flights were 1-2 hours late.

My flight was due to depart at 9.15pm yesterday, but didn't take off until after 4am this morning. A combination of issues - very late inbound aircraft, then there were no 777 pilots available in Montreal so they had to fly some in from Toronto. And to top it off, we were delayed another hour after the tow truck pushing back the aircraft malfunctioned.

I was booked in J but of course the lounge closed at 9pm so I spent a delightful 5 hours waiting in the terminal with all shops closed (since it was the middle of the night).

I'm glad I didn't check in a bag as I had a connecting flight as well!

Air Canada's CEO just sent out a long apology email to Aeroplan members and announced that it's cancelling a heap of flights from its schedule over the next few months. Probably for the better as it doesn't have the capacity to operate the schedule it was selling. (The flight I was booked on from YUL-YYC has been either cancelled or at least several hours late every day for the past week.)

 

[AIRwin]

I was booked in J but of course the lounge closed at 9pm so I spent a delightful 5 hours waiting in the terminal with all shops closed (since it was the middle of the night).

Oh it didn't stay open for delayed flights like what QF or VA would do?

 

[Mattg]

Oh it didn't stay open for delayed flights like what QF or VA would do?

Nope, and the lounge dragon was quite rude about kicking me out too.

 

[Quickstatus]

Lol. There is an alternative.
Similar issues in USA/UK

Twitter

Guardian

 

[Quickstatus]

it's cancelling a heap of flights from its schedule

Sell tickets based on capacity to manage, not based on the number of available aircraft seats.

 

[VPS]

Sell tickets based on capacity to manage, not based on the number of available aircraft seats.

Nice idea but I don't think it's going to happen

 

[VPS]

I know this is talking about trains but could well apply to some of the airlines at the moment.

 

[mitti]

Any reports on SYD International check in and security queues at the moment, given school holidays and high flight loads?

Interested to know how the express track for J and F pax is fairing.

 

[SYD]

Any reports on SYD International check in and security queues at the moment, given school holidays and high flight loads?

Interested to know how the express track for J and F pax is fairing.

Also if the QF F checkin has reopened? (It was still closed a week or so ago)

 

[mitti]

Also if the QF F checkin has reopened? (It was still closed a week or so ago)

Didn't even realise it was closed! Flying QF F as a SG, so was looking forward to at least being able to use F checkin, and being met by the host (although not sure if they still meet pax these days?)

 

[Peanutbladder]

Just my feedback from last Saturday at LHR and MEL - We were on the QF2 and arrived at T3 around 17.45 to check for the 21.05 departure. Spent 2.5 hours to check in and get through security, managed to grab a quick bite to eat. The airport displays were showing boarding at 20.40 and gate closing at 8.55, knowing they are usually pushing you I wandered down to the furthest gate in T3 and found another long queue to board (many people running like Usain Bolt and then realising they still had another few minutes to board). Transfer to QF36 at Changi was fine although I have heard horror stories for there as well.

On arrival at MEL immigration was fine (don't tell people about the passport machines near the e-gates, let them all queue at the first bank of machines but baggage claim took 1.5 hours for the bags to arrive with numerous calls over the tannoy for EK and QF arrivals apologising for the delays due to ramp operational issues.

Looking at the Qantas delays thread I should be glad that QF 2 was airborne with only a 1 hour delay !!