Lots of Unhappy Vegemites on delayed QF 11 SYD-LAX

O

ozflier

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Jan 6, 2009
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Well, its deja vu so I have to accept it but for the third time I've flown QF SYD-LAX in 12 months, today's A 380 flight is delayed such that i will be missing my connection LAX thru to Florida.
I have a revenue "i"class fare.
This time, firstly the departure was delayed from 1110 to 1205 then to 1225 and now to 1330 hrs .
LAX arrival now 0900 hrs .
Sounds like the "boiling frogs: theory - ie slow release of bad news .
I spoke to the agents here and boy were there some unhappy pax in the queue.
No chance to make any changes as all flights now under airport control but it should not be too big an issue because i have no hold luggage.
Famous last words.
I did ring the QF premium line and,give them credit, they offered to put me on the SYD- DFW flight which would connect fine but QF 07 is now 2 hours delayed so no go!
Here's hoping the flight does not get cancelled!
 
Much better to be on the ground coughing, than in the air wishing they'd taken time to fix something.

BTW, they don't intentionally drip feed the bad news. Asking an engineer how long something is going to take is almost always a pointless question though. It has to do with the length of string.
 
jb747 said:
Much better to be on the ground coughing, than in the air wishing they'd taken time to fix something.

BTW, they don't intentionally drip feed the bad news. Asking an engineer how long something is going to take is almost always a pointless question though. It has to do with the length of string.
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Good point
I’m just a bit cheesed off having to spend the rest of the day at Los Angeles and then having to fly an evening transcon domestic to the US East Coast in “coach” - that appears to be the best option if I want to avoid an overnight stay in the city of angels. Still it does make me reconsider several transpacific flights in the next 6 months if they are on an A 380! They do seem to be getting old I’m the teeth!
 
jb747 said:
BTW, they don't intentionally drip feed the bad news. Asking an engineer how long something is going to take is almost always a pointless question though. It has to do with the length of string.
Click to expand...
That reminds me of time doing IT support. Oftentimes, 90% of the time went in identifying and isolating the issue. Once that was done, sometimes it was a 2-minute fix and everything worked again. It's the maze of possibilities and sometimes compounding errors which take time to shift through.

Remembering this, I do understand fully if the engineers are unable to estimate the resolution time early on (and thus, customer services or crews communicate to customers). Once they know exactly what to fix, then it comes down to the availability of skills & tools & parts which will be easier to estimate to some degree.
 
ozflier said:
Good point
I’m just a bit cheesed off having to spend the rest of the day at Los Angeles and then having to fly an evening transcon domestic to the US East Coast in “coach” - that appears to be the best option if I want to avoid an overnight stay in the city of angels. Still it does make me reconsider several transpacific flights in the next 6 months if they are on an A 380! They do seem to be getting old I’m the teeth!
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What if it's not the aircraft per se but the operator? Many A380's seem to depart on schedule, at least from SYD. But, unfortunately, QF has a habit of delays on many of their int'l routes. I've been putting it down more to the operational rigour & control and staffing than equipment.
 
ozflier said:
.... Still it does make me reconsider several transpacific flights in the next 6 months if they are on an A 380! They do seem to be getting old I’m the teeth!
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Well, you could take a 777 (and in just the last couple of days we've seen a wheel fall off one, and another return to Sydney with a centre hydraulics failure), or, you could be a real thrill seeker and go on a 787. Fiji has A350s, so there you go.
 
A/C at the gate and boarded , doors closed but nothing happening movement wise. Maybe there are no SYD departure “slots available “ or there are only so many flight paths across the Pacific and they are already occupied!
Who knows , maybe customer service will offer some points in compensation!!
 
tdimdad said:
What if it's not the aircraft per se but the operator? Many A380's seem to depart on schedule, at least from SYD. But, unfortunately, QF has a habit of delays on many of their int'l routes. I've been putting it down more to the operational rigour & control and staffing than equipment.
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As has been explained many times before, MELs may allow a foreign operator to depart Sydney, whilst a QF aircraft with exactly the same fault, is not permitted to go. MELs are often location/basing specific.
 
Well
First time ever for me
A Fringe show had a half hour delay while fixing technical issues. We thought it would never take off !

IMG_5365.jpeg

It’s a big call to “cancel” a flight for engineering reasons as it’s an extravagant cost to shuffle PAX off to hotels and the like
On a fully laden A380 likely hundreds and thousands to transport and provide beds for the night
And then there’s the logistics of getting them to their destination the next day when the next flight/s is full.

However, safety is the highest priority so PAX ought be grateful it’s taken seriously
 
tdimdad said:
That reminds me of time doing IT support. Oftentimes, 90% of the time went in identifying and isolating the issue. Once that was done, sometimes it was a 2-minute fix and everything worked again. It's the maze of possibilities and sometimes compounding errors which take time to shift through.
Click to expand...

Plus the time wasted when managers keep asking if its fixed yet and wanting to know what you're doing about it... while trying to do the things...

I do not miss that aspect of my job!

anyway the 11 has left and currently due in around 2h late.
 
CaptJCool said:
It’s a big call to “cancel” a flight for engineering reasons as it’s an extravagant cost to shuffle PAX off to hotels and the like.
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There's a specific group (called ops control) who make that sort of decision. And they then have to sort the basics of the recovery out too. Engineering, or pilot, issues really just decide themselves. A job is fixed, or not. Pilots have sufficient hours, or not. As long as you can reduce it to a yes/no, black or white, decision, it's easy. And if you can't, you haven't thought about it enough.
 
RichardMEL said:
Plus the time wasted when managers keep asking if its fixed yet and wanting to know what you're doing about it... while trying to do the things...

I do not miss that aspect of my job!

anyway the 11 has left and currently due in around 2h late.
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Yes, as some of you know I work in rail freight.

Nothing like a locomotive braking down at say Broken Hill, driver opens a few panels and says it won’t power might be a blown turbo charger or might be a fuse. Boss rings me and asks how long will it take to fix and do we have the parts. I’m in Goulburn.

I ask boss to tell me what the failure mode is so when we see it we know what to fix. Radio silence.

When a plane breaks down I never ask what the problem is, when the correct person sees it we will all know.

I witnessed passengers whinging to airline staff at QF Mildura once after the incoming Dash8 had several bird strikes, and this was after the pilot came in and spoke to passengers at the gate he didn’t want to fly the aircraft until checked and an announcement a replacement plane was on the way.

I couldn’t believe people were complaining when the pilot didn’t want to fly it.
 
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CaptJCool said:
Well
First time ever for me
A Fringe show had a half hour delay while fixing technical issues. We thought it would never take off !

View attachment 373942

It’s a big call to “cancel” a flight for engineering reasons as it’s an extravagant cost to shuffle PAX off to hotels and the like
On a fully laden A380 likely hundreds and thousands to transport and provide beds for the night
And then there’s the logistics of getting them to their destination the next day when the next flight/s is full.

However, safety is the highest priority so PAX ought be grateful it’s taken seriously
Click to expand...
The experience I had with QF flight cancellations preCOVID is that they only find accommodation for you if you are coming from another destination (ie connecting flight) or registered home address is not in the same city as the departure airport. This meant easily half or more pax were told to go home, never mind the rescheduled departure may be less than 10 hours away (by the time they tell you it’s cancelled… 3 hours after the original scheduled time)

is that still the case or were I being conned by QF customer service 5 years ago?
 
jb747 said:
Well, you could take a 777 (and in just the last couple of days we've seen a wheel fall off one, and another return to Sydney with a centre hydraulics failure), or, you could be a real thrill seeker and go on a 787. Fiji has A350s, so there you go.
Click to expand...
Woah, and this haven’t hit the headlines (the one with wheels fall off)?
Would have thought CASA would immediately require all airlines to check their equipment and service record of this plane type.
Or do what REx did to “voluntarily” ground a specific model type before CASA issue the notice to ground the planes of the same series (rather than the individual variants)
 
XWu said:
Woah, and this haven’t hit the headlines (the one with wheels fall off)?
Would have thought CASA would immediately require all airlines to check their equipment and service record of this plane type.
Or do what REx did to “voluntarily” ground a specific model type before CASA issue the notice to ground the planes of the same series (rather than the individual variants)
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You're not hooked into the right media.

UA lost the wheel leaving SFO on the way to KIX - landed in LAX. There is video out there. There was a rudder issue at EWR, another problem at IAH with taxiing and yes the 77W return to SYD which is the only one that might remotely concern anyone here.

Most of these reported issues appear to be UA maintenance related (except IAH imo) but of course it is being tied to Boeing because some media are stupid.

My two cents.
 

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