Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

Re the previous post, an esteemed contributor was kind enough many months ago to post an explanation of what the various abbreviations above mean. If the explanation is difficult to find, perhaps the said individual may repost it in this thread.

The Monday 1 August 2016 QF12 departed LAX at 2335, 65 minutes late. Wednesday 3 August arrival is predicted as only 20 minutes late at 0650 in SYD. QF94 departed LAX 106 minutes behind at 0001 on Tuesday 2 for a Wednesday 3 August suggested at gate time of 0830, 90 minutes late, which is a far smaller gain on the schedule than QF12's.

QF16 from LAX pushed back at 0136 on Tuesday, which just happens to be 136 minutes late with BNE arrival likely on Wednesday at 0755, 105 minutes tardy.

These delays were all because QF12 (B744 sector, not A388) had left JFK 98 minutes behind at 1938 with LAX arrival at 2203, 58 minutes late.

Apart from having a 'spare' B744 in BNE to operate QF15 irrespective as to whether QF16 that morning is on time or delayed, which would be an extremely expensive, poor aircraft utilisation solution and therefore impractical, there is probably not much QF can do to break the cycle of late QF15 = late transcontinental USA QF11 = late transcontinental USA QF12 B744 = late departures to the Oz east coast ex LAX. It is becoming a bit of an issue though and while small in QF's overall revenue and costs, multiple unpunctual long distance flights like this push up costs and irritate some passengers (and perhaps some staff) who at the end of say 'eight days on the road' may just want to get home and collapse into their favourite bed.

 

[jb747]

These will help:

DECODING AVIATION ROUTING WEATHER REPORT (METAR)

MMmetar.html

METAR Decoding Page

https://www.wunderground.com/metarFAQ.asp

 

[Melburnian1]

On Wednesday 3 August, the redeye from PVG, QF130 should arrive SYD at around 0922, 52 minutes late. Aircraft is A333 VH-QPB that on 2 August did not take off until 2139 despite a timetabled departure of 1955, so on a gate-to-gate basis the plane will have made up quite a lot of time.

 

[coriander]

#1 son heading to LOTFAP for an SR to hit WP reports that many flights ex-Sydney are delayed Wed 3 Aug: his QF73 scheduled for 1.00PM is supposed to push back at 1.45PM.

 

[Melburnian1]

Wednesday 3 August 2016 has seen QF23 (0950 hours SYD - BKK) departing at 1130 with arrival expected 70 minutes down at 1750 late this afternoon BKK time.

QF93, the 0915 MEL - LAX long haul flight departed at 1048 with arrival suggested same day at 0755 hours, 80 minutes behind schedule.

The 1020 SYD - SIN (QF81) departed 29 late and is forecast to arrive half an hour late at 1715.

QF2175 from PQQ to SYD (Q300 VH-SBG) should arrive about 36 minutes late at 1906.

UPDATE: QF1 (the 1550 hours SYD - DXB - LHR, A388 VH-OQI) took off at 1611 according to FR24 but has most unusually returned to SYD, touching down at about 1901: it had a far from usual flight path: perhaps it had to dump fuel. Twitter suggests it was a 'cabin heating issue' as a 'warning light' came on. (Overheating?) The QF website is yet to give an amended departure time, so there is a chance that the flight may not finally depart from SYD tonight for DXB and LHR.

The 'Daily Telegraph' quotes a QF spokesman as stating that the captain decided to return to SYD because that is where much of the A388 maintenance is carried out (logical) and that after inspection by 'teams of engineers', we (QF) 'hope to have passengers on their way as soon as possible.'

This will delay QF10 ex LHR tomorrow afternoon by the looks of things. Stay tuned for further updates.

QF28 from SCL is arriving quite late in SYD at about 1933 hours: B744 VH-OJM.

 

[bad]

Oh well QF 1 just did a large circle and zig Zags before landing again in Sydney approximately 3 hours later. There is dog yapping below deck .....all the time. I think it's distressed. Anyway it is hot onboard due to the air conditioner not working and the pilot was unable to pressurise the aircraft hence we flew most of the way back at about 10k. Feet. Who knows how long we will be in Sydney. At the moment we are not disembarking.


Transferred to the QF thread where it belongs. Unfortunately the heading cannot be changed.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF has just publicly advised that the returnee to SYD on 3 August, QF1, will depart for DXB at 0930 hours on Thursday 4 August. It appears to have been cancelled between DXB and LHR which in the opposite direction will mean the same for the Thursday 4 August afternoon departure ex LHR of QF10, at least to DXB.

QF has amended its LHR flights previously in this way when an unexpected delay to a flight ex Oz such as QF1 or QF9 occurs as it assists in getting timetables back to normal, albeit sometimes at the cost of significant delays for passengers stuck in somewhere like LHR, although the EK partnership should help given the latter's multiple DXB - LHR - DXB daily flights.

If there are 400 or 450 booked on these sectors each way that is quite a lot of seats to suddenly find, say, on EK from LHR to DXB even with a choice of half a dozen EK flights plus the evening QF2.

No doubt hotel rooms for those who do not reside in SYD are being arranged for tonight.

Anyone who is booked on QF1 tonight or QF10 ex LHR tomorrow might be kind enough to inform us as to how they were treated: hotels, meals, taxi vouchers, alternative flights and the total delay incurred.

Would a completely new crew (cabin and technical) have to operate QF1 tomorrow morning with an 0800 or 0830 sign-on or could today's crew, rested overnight in their homes or a SYD hotel, do this tour of duty still?

 

[Quickstatus]

Oh well QF 1 just did a large circle and zig Zags before landing again in Sydney approximately 3 hours later. There is dog yapping below deck .....all the time. I think it's distressed. Anyway it is hot onboard due to the air conditioner not working and the pilot was unable to pressurise the aircraft hence we flew most of the way back at about 10k. Feet. Who knows how long we will be in Sydney. At the moment we are not disembarking.

Hi Bad,

If you can can you appraise the followers of this thread of your experience in the next day or so.

QF1 attained 30000 feet before a fast descent to 10000 feet

 

[Melburnian1]

The redeye from SYD to HND, QF25, has an excellent punctuality record but on Wednesday 3 August, it departed 50 minutes tardy at 2140 according to the QF website (but on FR24 looks to be stopped at 2150, perhaps after pushback) with expected Thursday 4 arrival at about 0545 which would only be a quarter of an hour late. The B744 is VH-OJM.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

So we are flying 93 to LAX on Sep 20 - then need to book a flt onto LAS and am wondering how reliable arr time for this flt is? What would the collective wisdom of AFF land consider a reasonable and safe connection time?

 

[Melburnian1]

Cruiser Elite, one cannot be definitive as sadly crystal balls are in short supply, but going by recent flights, it is not all that unusual to depart MEL an hour to an hour and a half late but perhaps arrive in LAX between half an hour and say an hour and 10 late. FlightStats gives this flight a punctuality rating of nil out of five - a bit harsh - with 22 of the last 61 flights suffering what FlightStats calls an 'excessive delay' - which I suspect means 'more than an hour', although the site does not explain these measures as far as I can ascertain. The 'average delay' is said to be '56 minutes.'

Perhaps if you booked your intra-USA flight from LAX at around the 1030 mark that would be give you a bit of a buffer without taking all day to get there. Surely AA or another airline would reschedule you if you genuinely missed a flight because QF93 was late, particularly if the flights were booked on a single PNR (passenger name record)?

You may be fortunate with QF93 being early or on time, or it may have an 'outlier' result of a greater than 12 hour delay if an A388 is defective on the day as is occurring today with passengers from the 3 August 2016 QF1 ex SYD to DXB and LHR, but history suggests you should be arriving in LAX on most days less than two hours late.

The other factor to watch is how the transcontinental USA LAX - JFK and return B744 (QF11 then QF12) that is formed by QF15 ex BNE (the B744) performs a couple of days before. While on some occasions the LAX - MEL QF94 had not been held in LAX due to a late running QF12 coming in from JFK with connecting passengers, lately at times the three departures from LAX (QF12, QF16 and QF94) have all been delayed when the B744 ex JFK (also QF12) has been quite late.

Unfortunately Amtrak is not a surface travel alternative (by rail) as while its trains operate to many western USA locations, LAS no longer plays host to a passenger train. LAX - LAS does have Amtrak-sponsored road coaches, though, called 'Thruway bus(es').

 

[Quickstatus]

Hi CE,

Are you flying on one or 2 PNR? and what airline to LAS?

I have patronised QF93 several times now and connected on AA to DEN
My ground time has always been 4 hours or more from scheduled arrival until boarding time not until departure time flying on 2 PNR. This has been predicated on Oneworld through check on 2PNR. Now that this has been cancelled you will need extra time to checkin again for LAX-LAS if flying AA or any other airline.

For my next sojourn there in December, I will allow 5 hours ground time - again until boarding time.

Everytime while waiting for luggage at LAX, I overhear people stressing how they will be late for their next flight. Most off these involve ground times of 2 hours or less. One time a family had a very tight connection to DEN of 1 hr 10 minutes. No TA would have sold a married flight with 1 hr 10 min connection time at LAX or can they?. Or maybe they were on 2 PNR?. iNeedless to say their holiday started badly.

I have resolved to be bored rather than stressed.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Only have 93 booked ATPIT so 1 PNR - we usually just pick up a Southwest flt LAX-LAS - 09:40 and 11:00 for USD39 then flts every hour after that - might go that way again might not - but getting way OT here.

 

[coriander]

Only have 93 booked ATPIT so 1 PNR - we usually just pick up a Southwest flt LAX-LAS - 09:40 and 11:00 for USD39 then flts every hour after that - might go that way again might not - but getting way OT here.

On one PNR and bags checked through to LAS, we usually ride the 0940 AA QF codeshared flight to LAS, though last trip this flight was booked out so we flew at 1030 - gave us time to shower in the Admiral's club, then relax in the Flagship. On two PNRs I'd book the 1100am flight.

 

[Melburnian1]

The overnight delayed QF1 (truncated to DXB) that was predicted to push back in SYD at 0930 on Thursday 4 August has now been further put back to a 1015 hours departure.

UPDATE: It pushed back at 1012, so passengers are on their way after an 18 hour-plus delay.

 

[holrs514]

I have travelled to the USA on QF 93 to LAX from Melbourne a few times. Last year July 2015 we were 2 hours late leaving Melbourne after we had to return to the terminal for an ill passenger. I was forward booked by Qantas with United to Denver and when we arrived late Qantas had arranged a new booking for me with United. There were a lot of passwengers for New York who had missed their connections and the qantas staff were working overtime. This was the second time I had booked with qantas and found that some of my onward flights in the SA were with United.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Thursday 4 August, QF23 (0950 hours SYD - BKK) took off at 1103 (A333 VH-QPE). QF is suggesting it will arrive only 20 minutes late at 1700 hours.

Longhaul A388 QF& from SYD has been delayed from 1300 this afternoon to an estimated 1630 in its departure for DFW, but provided nothing else untoward occurs this should not delay the returning Thursday QF8 ex DFW.

The Wednesday 3 August QF10 ex LHR departed 118 minutes late at 1503 rather than 1305, arriving in DXB at 0126 this morning rather than 2326 on Wednesday. On Thursday 4, DXB departure was 99 minutes late at 0314, with MEL arrival this evening suggested as 100 minutes late at 2235, again delaying the returning QF9 to DXB and LHR. A guess is that departure of the latter may be at around 0030 on Friday 5 August - the schedule is for a 2255 hours pushback.

 

[Melburnian1]

Amending post 3477 above, the delay to QF7 (1300 hours SYD - DFW) has become far longer, having been extended from a proposed 1630 hours departure to 2030 this evening with a new arrival time of 2105 rather than 1335 hours. This will cause many passengers to miss connecting flights.
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As QF8 is supposed to depart DFW at 2215 hours, it will be late away, but how late is impossible to state until one observes the wheels up time of QF7 tonight from SYD.

So more problems for the QF A388 fleet.

 

[suze2000]

Cruiser Elite, with the QF93 connection, just keep in mind that you have to pass immigration and collect your bags and then walk around to the domestic terminals to check in for your next flight. The chaos at LAX when I flew to Canada recently was only mitigated by the knowledge that I had almost four hours to make my onward flight (40 mins of which was eaten up by QF93 taking off late from MEL). And reading my stressed messages to hubby while waiting in the immigration queue at LAX is upsetting. It took almost an hour to pass immigration, I'm afraid. There's no real signage or instructions that I could discern for an easy transfer between terminals either - and the shortcut I've used before (walk through the carpark) is no longer available since there are building works in the carpark area. Currently, you must walk around the perimeter of the terminals. There was quite a queue to check in for my onward flight too.

ETA: NEXT time, I will do everything I can to avoid LAX into N.America. Coming into SFO six weeks later was a doddle by comparison, though immigration was still a long queue.

 

[Melburnian1]

The Wednesday 3 August B744 on QF11 departed LAX 97 minutes tardy at 0957, arriving JFK at 1744, 64 minutes late. Departure as QF12 back across the good ol' USA was 80 minutes late at 1930 but arrival at LAX was only 35 minutes late at 2140.

The longhaul QF12 (A388) sector then departed LAX 45 minutes late at 2315 but is not expected to pick up much time on the flight to SYD with Friday 5 arrival forecast for 0705, 35 minutes behind.

The B744 from LAX to BNE, QF16, departed on Thursday 4 at 0015 hours, 55 minutes late with Friday 5 arrival in the 'Sunshine State' likely at 0650 hours, 40 minutes late.

The non-daily QF96 (B744) pushed back in LAX 67 minutes delayed at 0042 hours on Thursday 4 August with Friday 5 MEL arrival predicted 45 minutes late at 0845.