JQ25 MEL - CNS warning....

[timmy-t]

In short, I had the perfect plan.... and it failed.

I’m a WP so booked the family on JQ25 as it leaves from MEL T2. QF First lounge here we come! Or so I thought.

Arrived at airport yesterday, 4am. Flight Cancelled.

Now have to walk down to the dreaded T4 to make arrangements. Best available was a rerouting via SYD. Dep MEL 9am, dep SYD 14:35.

First issue- can’t drop bags until 7am (2 hrs before flight) it’s now 4:30am and mrs and kids going feral. Cold and bleak. What am I to do for 2.5 hours?

Second issue- can’t check bags through to CNS. We need to collect in SYD and recheck them. But same issue again...bag drop not open until 12:35 and we are due to arrive at 10:30, so another 2 hours of standing around coming up. Surely this is an easy fix for JQ?

Thirdly- all the pre-seating we had done was gone... now in the last row.

Finally dropped bags at 7am and then made the dash back to T3 for some breakfast. After about 30mins, need to hightail it back to T4 to get through security and out to some gate seemingly closer to Essendon than Tulla.

Frustratingly as we are taxiing out I notice 2 other JQ 787s parked not being used. Surely JQ could have reallocated one of these to replace JQ25? They said it was an engineering issue but you never really know. You hear other stories about JQ cancelling flights based on loads.

I know others have taken JQ25 for the first class lounge experience on a domestic flight and the expectations were there, but when it doesn’t go to plan the impact is an experience less than optimal... a 4hr trip became 17hrs. And of course, no compensation or acknowledgement from JQ. Caveat Emptor!

We will definitely reconsider our future JQ needs...

 

[TheInsider]

You'd actually be surprised - not many airlines cancel flights due to loads, it may be a relevant factor is choosing which flight to cancel though due to hundreds of other reasons.
Also yesterday, the first day of school holidays, i can guarantee you the flight would've been close to 100% full.

 

[RooFlyer]

That's all really coughpy. Commiserations.

 

[moa999]

Unfortunate.

If JQ has any issues around the network, those tags will be the first sacrificed to help planes catch up.
Very much a gamble, and always has been.

In this case looks like the inbound JQ26 is being turned around at CNS to operate the second half of the flight.

I suspect today all today possibly do with the fog in SYD which had a number of aircraft diverting

 

[zig]

Yikes, that really scuppered what was a great plan Bad enough when it happens to you, but when you have children in tow it can be the start of a really bad day.

 

[Quickstatus]

@timmy-t . Unfortunately Its a LCC - so what you experience is par.

However i doubt that it is an engineering excuse. The reason is that I believe JQ does NOT have enough 787 to operate all its 787 routes. On the day in question ALL eleven 787's were in service. The 2 you saw sitting around were due to operate 2 of these routes later that day: 2xMEL-DPS, MEL-HNL, MEL-HKT. The MEL-SGN probably already left when you eventually departed.

Likely those overseas routes on commencement school holidays were full , and a MEL-CNS would be the ugly duckling in this case because there are other JQ ways to get to CNS but more likely because it’s short by at least 1

 

[Saab34]

I avoid the 787 tag flights as they are either always cancelled or horrendously late.

They couldn’t get you on the 6am to Cairns? Usually a A321.

 

[Melburnian1]

I had posted yesterday (Saturday 29 June 2019) that B788 VH-VKA was operating empty ('ferry') - or a special - from MEL to what looks like CNS, taking off at 0909 hours.

I omitted to put its flight number in that comment but it had four numerals.

I agree with Quickstatus that at face value, JQ appears to have insufficient B788s to operate its published schedules.

Our sleepy Australian media travel writers (most of whom are always looking for the next freebie in a legacy airline's business class) ought be on to this but they aren't.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I agree with Quickstatus that at face value, JQ appears to have insufficient B788s to operate its published schedules.

Yes. Something I have suspected for a few years now. Seemingly once or twice a week at least one major internationbal service is cancelled. And it seems to be in rotation to spread the pain around. Sometimes is DPS, then BKK, SIN or HKT. It appears that if your SIN flight was cancelled this week you are ok to fly next week (and so on). The danger comes if the flights have all been operating as planned for a couple weeks, then it might be your turn for a cancellation.

 

[moa999]

Think they've got enough to operate all the routes, just that it is planned with almost no slack..

Delays, or forecast delays +eg. Fog at Sydney yesterday, stuff starts getting cancelled, and the tags will be first

 

[Quickstatus]

I avoid the 787 tag flights as they are either always cancelled or horrendously late.

The JQi tag domestic flights are to position the 787 into/out of a port that is not a 787 hub. Currently these are CNS and OOL in order to operate these flights:

CNS-KIX JQ15
KIX-CNS JQ16

CNS-NRT JQ25
NRT-CNS JQ26

OOL-NRT JQ11
NRT-OOL JQ12

So sometimes a tag occurs as
JQ25 MEL-CNS (Monday,Friday)
JQ26 CNS-MEL or JQ26 CNS-OOL
JQ12 OOL-SYD

 

[AIRwin]

The JQi tag domestic flights are to position the 787 into/out of a port that is not a 787 hub.

Occasionally there are such tag flights between MEL and SYD

 

[timmy-t]

I avoid the 787 tag flights as they are either always cancelled or horrendously late.

They couldn’t get you on the 6am to Cairns? Usually a A321.

That would have been nice. No. All full apparently and JQ don’t care that I’m WP.

 

[Quickstatus]

JQ don’t care that I’m WP.

Unfortunately, no they don't. FF status does not carry any importance over at JQ. Its a LCC. It is not a QF service even though its in the Group.

 

[Meggsy]

Do they have the aircraft back yet that was grounded in Osaka?

 

[Quickstatus]

Do they have the aircraft back yet that was grounded in Osaka?

Yes it (VH-VKJ) is back in service (around 02 May 2019). The full complement of JQ 787 are in service.

 

[jase05]

Yes. Something I have suspected for a few years now. Seemingly once or twice a week at least one major internationbal service is cancelled. And it seems to be in rotation to spread the pain around. Sometimes is DPS, then BKK, SIN or HKT. It appears that if your SIN flight was cancelled this week you are ok to fly next week (and so on). The danger comes if the flights have all been operating as planned for a couple weeks, then it might be your turn for a cancellation.

Yes, I think we have maybe had this conversation on another thread before. It does seem rather convenient

 

[Saab34]

I did note a 787 ferried empty late that night MEL-CNS

 

[Quickstatus]

Don’t forget that JQi operates with foreign based crew. I wonder how this affects crewing on these flights.

 

[Saab34]

Don’t forget that JQi operates with foreign based crew. I wonder how this affects crewing on these flights.

Sadly it probably doesn’t affect them at all. There has been news reports about these foreign JQ crews working 1+ days on shift.