Qantas Delays/Cancellations

[moa999]

Planes are generally very full over this period, and)or they had engineering advice that delays would be much smaller

 

[Melburnian1]

The Saturday 31 December 2016 delayed QF9 (due to the very late inbound QF10 that arrived at 0249, 324 minutes behind schedule) departed MEL at 0513 hours on New Year's Day with A388 VH-OQD, 348 minutes late. It should reach DXB at 1200 'high noon' instead of 0630. QF the unrealistically suggests it will depart at 1300 for a 1700 hours arrival in LHR, four hours and 20 minutes (260 minutes) tardy. If we added on another hour it might be closer to what could occur.'

The Friday 30 December QF9 that had been diverted arrived LHR on New Year's Eve at 1947, seven minutes more than five hours late. QF2 (31 December) is showing as departing LHR at 2200 hours, 75 late.

Sunday 1 January's QF11 from SYD to LAX is predicted to commence pushback 50 minutes late at 1220 but if this holds true, the suggestion is for a punctual same day arrival at 0615 hours.

QF93 (1115 MEL - LAX) has become a 1200 'high noon' for an expected 15 minute tardy arrival, because the 0900 timetabled arrival of QF94 in MEL has become about 1015.

QF16 from LAX to BNE (B744 VH-OEJ) is arriving at 0826, 81 minutes tardy.

In a few hours, it will be three days since A388 VH-OQF that failed in DXB has flown anywhere after it arrived from LHR. It is displaying as departing DXB at 1400 hours on 1 January (presumably as QF2D) for a SYD arrival of 1035 on Monday morning 2 January. Who knows?

I asked a few posts back but no one answered: is a defective fuel sensor a particularly fiddly (and hence time consuming) item on a large aircraft like an A380 to repair or replace? Would Airbus be likely to have spare parts like this (if it was a replacement not repair) available at short notice, or would QF have one sitting around in a secure warehouse? Looking back, in 2009 QF has one or two A388s with fuel sensor problems.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Surely some passengers might now be resorting to trying to book their own way home on another airline via an intermediate airport. Travel insurers may cover this given it is such an unusual, lengthy delay.

Is a fuel sensor a particularly difficult, slow or fiddly piece of equipment to replace or to repair? Would a replacement have to be typically be flown in if a repair was not possible, and is it the sort of spare part that Airbus would have a stock of?

I don't know if travel insurance would cover this. It would need to be a very generous policy to do so.

Are the EK and QF A80s different, otherwise you'd think EK would have lots of spare parts.

QF2 (31 December) is showing as departing LHR at 2200 hours, 75 late.

Question: if you were a passenger would you risk boarding the QF2? You could get to Dubai and then be told 'sorry, we're taking your plane'.

You'd want some pretty iron-clad guarantees before you got on that plane :shock:

 

[Melburnian1]

...if you were a passenger would you risk boarding the QF2? You could get to Dubai and then be told 'sorry, we're taking your plane'...:shock:

The QF2 in question departed LHR at 2216 on New Year's Eve, 91 minutes late with a 63 minute late arrival at DXB (0848 hours) predicted for New Year's Day.

 

[Quickstatus]

Thank you Melburnian1 for the comprehensive response. On our way over on QF9 we didn't depart Melbourne until around 2am. The pilot announced that a few days earlier there had been a medical emergency causing the plane, if I recall correctly, to make a diversion. The pilot explained that our delay was in part related to the cascade effect of that event days earlier. We will have to wait and see what the wider effect of this QF2 event will be.

I think the Alan Joyce story is probably a bit overblown- he just happened to be one of hundreds of passengers moved onto the second plane.

What medical emergency causing a diversion and cascading to your flight?

But for AJ some are postulating that those passengers would hve been spending an extra night

Didn't think it was usually the done thing to allow delayed flights to knock-on and impact multiple others? Why not just keep the first flight's pax an extra night without having to p!ss off others.

Because AJ was on that first flght.....

 

[docjames]

Perhaps domestic flights are different but I disagree with the statement that other flights aren't delayed to minimise a delay on an earlier flight. Twice in the past three months I have been on domestic QF flights when my gate and aircraft have changed 45 to 60 minutes prior to departure time and that gate has been allocated to a flight that had earlier gone tech or been severely delayed by weather. Crew onboard acknowledged they/we were bumped so an earlier flight could experience a minimised delay, even though that then delayed us by 1 to 2 hours unnecessarily given our original aircraft was on time.

Fortunately both times were personal travel to a final destination so I didn't mind, but if I had connections or missed a business engagement I would have been very unhappy.

It cetaintly was (?is) an issue for BNE pax travelling late in the day to MEL - if the aircraft that would routinely operate the last / second last flight BNE-SYD is delayed on the inbound leg, the aircraft scheduled for BNE-MEL is pulled to operate to SYD (due to curfew). Causing delay onto the BNE-MEL flight (as of course no curfew so they still get all pax to destination rather than strand SYD pax in BNE due to the SYD curfew). Makes sense by annoying when (as i was) a regular on the late flight on a friday BNE-MEL...

Has happened to me a number of times (admittedly some time ago now).

 

[Melburnian1]

The forecast delay to the Sunday 1 January 2017 QF11 in its departure from SYD has increased to 80 minutes - 1250 hours.

Similarly the forecast departure time for QF93 from MEL, also to LAX, has become 1245 - 90 late.

QF15 from BNE to LAX was claimed on the QF website to be on time two or three hours ago, but departure is now suggested as 80 minutes late at 1230 with LAX arrival estimated as half an hour behind at 0630.

 

[Flyerqf]

Passengers from QF2 are returning via Adelaide (EK), Melbourne (EK) or Doha (QR)

Supposedly there have been 50+ Seats on the Adelaide Flight (not an A380) and around 100 on the Doha and Melbourne flights (A380s). They should have looked at these options earlier - maybe they only looked at direct to Sydney, which appear to be full across all airlines.

 

[Melburnian1]

Passengers from QF2 are returning via Adelaide (EK), Melbourne (EK) or Doha (QR)...They should have looked at these options earlier - maybe they only looked at direct to Sydney, which appear to be full across all airlines.

Have these passengers departed DXB for AUH, ADL or MEL (initially) as the case may be, or will they do so in the next few hours?

Does this indicate that VH-OQF may not be flying from DXB later today local time, or is that a completely separate matter and the booking of passengers onto other airlines a belated attempt to get them home a bit qyuicker than waiting for the supposed departure today of A388 Vh-OQF from DXB to SYD?

 

[yohy?!]

Passengers from QF2 are returning via Adelaide (EK), Melbourne (EK) or Doha (QR)

Supposedly there have been 50+ Seats on the Adelaide Flight (not an A380) and around 100 on the Doha and Melbourne flights (A380s). They should have looked at these options earlier - maybe they only looked at direct to Sydney, which appear to be full across all airlines.

I'd be seriously questioning their competence if they'd only looked at direct flights!

 

[Flyerqf]

Have these passengers departed DXB for AUH, ADL or MEL (initially) as the case may be, or will they do so in the next few hours?

Does this indicate that VH-OQF may not be flying from DXB later today local time, or is that a completely separate matter and the booking of passengers onto other airlines a belated attempt to get them home a bit qyuicker than waiting for the supposed departure today of A388 Vh-OQF from DXB to SYD?

Some have already left.

 

[Flyerqf]

A Qantas spokeswoman told Guardian Australia that this was a part of routine procedure when delays occurred, and that there had been no special accommodations made for Joyce.

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“When there are delays the first group of people who have been through delays get on the first available flight,” she said.

Interesting and completely untrue, if this was the routine procedure the passengers on Fridays flight would have been prioritised on Saturday. But saturdays flight left with Saturdays passengers and Fridays passengers were left for a second night.

 

[Quickstatus]

Smells like AJ was prioritised under the cover of the other passengers.

 

[Melburnian1]

Sunday 1 January's QF11 (A388 VH-OQB) departed at 1332, 122 minutes late for LAX where arrival is suggested as 0700, 45 late. On occasion the QF website revises the arrival time once the flight has taken off or levelled out.

QF93 (VH-OQC) took off later than predicted from MEL at 1316 with LAX arrival suggested also as 0700, 45 late.

 

[Flyerqf]

Smells like AJ was prioritised under the cover of the other passengers.

I agree. Highly doubt this was his decision though, somebody has probably made a decision to look after the boss.

As I mentioned earlier, the decision to switch planes was made very late. Flight plans had already been loaded for both planes then were switched about 45 mins prior to departure. All the luggage had to be removed from one plane and reloaded to the other.

 

[CaptJCool]

Smells like AJ was prioritised under the cover of the other passengers.

his status tier was above all others - that's how it flows at Qantas

 

[Melburnian1]

On 1 January, more media coverage is emerging, this time about passengers who arrived in Sydney ex Dubai on the 'prioritised' QF2:

Disgruntled Qantas passengers spend New Year's Eve in the sky, dozens more still stranded in Dubai

I asked twice above about the complexity of repairing or replacing a fuel sensor on a QF A388. The article briefly confirms that it is not an easy job.

For an in-service failure (rather than scheduled maintenance) that was not due to weather or a bird strike, this unexpected stay in DXB for VH-OQF must be one of the longer QF has recently incurred.

If QF received a claimed '$65 million' in positive publicity from its less than enthralling announcement about the B789s (that some other airlines already have and fly to Australia), what would be the negative value of these stories that feature passengers (some better informed than others) criticising QF for 'stranding' patrons in Dubai?

 

[phily]

Before we crucify AJ any further, we need some facts. I'm not usually a big defender of him, but we need to be fair.

What cabin class was he travelling in?
What happened to others travelling in the same cabin class?
What seat did he occupy in the DXB-SYD sector? He would surely have an ASIC badge, so he'd be quite entitled to sit in the coughpit, or sleep in the crew rest area.

 

[milehighclub]

He would surely have an ASIC badge, so he'd be quite entitled to sit in the coughpit, or sleep in the crew rest area.

He could sit in the flight deck for take off/landing if he was travelling with his ASIC, but he would be unable to use any horizontal crew rest areas as you have to be trained in emergency procedures to use them. He could use the four economy crew seats in the premium economy galley during the flight to sit, eat and sleep (these are not certified for take off/landing though).

 

[Melburnian1]

Before we crucify AJ any further, we need some facts. I'm not usually a big defender of him, but we need to be fair.

I can see where you are coming from, but for any CEO, it is also a matter of perception.

Airlines like to steal nautical terms such as 'purser', so let's say that Mr Alan Joyce is captain of the Qantas ship.

Do - or should - captains normally 'abandon ship' before their passengers? The Costa Concordia comes to mind.

As Quickstatus stated, it 'smells' like special arrangements that Flyerqf has elaborated on were made either by order of AJ or by staff wanting to please their ultimate boss.

The same arrangements were not made for many others, allegedly even some paying thousands of dollars (and often more than competitor airlines charge) for premium classes of travel.

Mr AJ probably had good reason to want to get back to Sydney, but that would apply to many of the company's paying passengers.

If he'd stayed there and looked like he was doing everything possible to sort out the delays, he would have gained innumerable plaudits. It's true that his presence at times may have been more for show, but at other times he could have spoken to others to (where possible) get passengers onto other flights more quickly than this occurred, notwithstanding that engineers probably kept saying 'we'll have it fixed by xx_X hours' with that deadline passing and the problem still not fixed.

Instead, while the media is careful what it says - the 'SMH' yesterday merely recorded that he travelled on the delayed but 'earlier' QF2 - effectively this CEO is copping brickbats.