Qantas Horror Story (and AA heroes)

[Franky]

TBH the thing that surprises me the most in this sorry tale is that the AA check in staff tried to be so helpful!

I'm not surprised, we had some delayed flights in the US in early June, and the AA staff in their premier lounges gave us every assistance to rectify the problems.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm not surprised, we had some delayed flights in the US in early June, and the AA staff in their premier lounges gave us every assistance to rectify the problems.

agree! I can only speak for AA and UA agents, but they really know their stuff and can work miracles during IRROPS. UA was willing to change me off an award on their metal to any TATAL carrier during a severe delay a few years back.

 

[drron]

The OP states with the final itinerary they had a 30 hour wait in Tokyo. This might have raised issues around where to stay, and entry restrictions.

The OP was likely in a difficult situation regardless… if entry restrictions had been identified there were probably no alternatives to get back to Australia given the scarcity of seats via any route.

And that was due to the QF changes. They were aware of the problem and my reading of the thread suggests that was changed to a shorter transfer when QF assured them that the bags would be checked through to MEL.

 

[Quickstatus]

The AA rep told us we would simply need to clear customs at Narita airport and collect our bag, then check it for the final leg of the journey back to Melbourne. We explained that we couldn’t do that because Japan wouldn’t allow us through to get our bag without a VISA.

Hang on, is this correct?

I always thought that NRT international to international transit does not require immigration check. I thought you always stayed airside.

@Alecw what was the layover time in NRT?

 

[Princess Fiona]

It would be good if the OP could clarify a few things.

It’s clear that yet again the QF call Centre made it nearly impossible to fix a QFF Award when there was a schedule change.

What’s less clear is what transpired at MIA.
According to the OP they were checked in through to MEL. Given boarding passes by AA for all of these flights. There was no issue with carriage otherwise AA couldn’t have checked them in.
They noticed that the bags were only tagged to NRT and not through to MEL on the connecting JL flight.

It’s easy with the benefit of hindsight but if it were me I would just have gotten on the AA flight and sorted it out later.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

And that was due to the QF changes. They were aware of the problem and my reading of the thread suggests that was changed to a shorter transfer when QF assured them that the bags would be checked through to MEL.

ah, i see now.

So the connection was finally changed via ORD, same terminal in TYO for connections. If a short connection, why couldn’t the bags be through checked? This sounds like it might be a JAL issue, not QF’s.

 

[Quickstatus]

It will depend on the layover time in NRT between the ORD-NRT and NRT-MEL

My reading is that it was shorter than the 30 hrs which included HND.

What is the max connection time in NRT that would trigger a stopover causing baggage pickup rather than check through?

 

[RichardMEL]

(just on AA and UA agents)

add me to the list of people with good experiences with AA and UA agents at various times and places and situations. Yes - Status (OWE and UA 1K) helped no doubt, but I've found many to have a genuine desire to help and make right. Yes, sure, there have been the surly and unhelpful ones (and you get that at any airline tbh.. well maybe not a SQ I suppose) but I absolutely agree I've had some outstanding experiences in the US over the last 3 or so decades of travel there.

Massive Kudos to the AAngels that helped way AAbove and beyond to get a solution to this mess up. Also good pick up by OP to notice the bag tag mismatch.

The thing that I find puzzling, and I think PF above picked up on this is why bags could not have been through checked. If that was an issue surely the system would not check through to MEL. It seems odd.. but given the length of flights and so on I wonder if that was a 24h thing? as in depart from NRT for MEL would have been >24h past the check in in MIA? something in the back of my mind says that can be an issue? I could be wrong there (and if this has already been mentioned sorry I skimmed a few posts )

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It will depend on the layover time in NRT between the ORD-NRT and NRT-MEL

My reading is that it was shorter than the 30 hrs which included HND.

What is the max connection time in NRT that would trigger a stopover causing baggage pickup rather than check through?

Looking at the NRT official airport site it says they close at midnight and pax are not permitted to remain airside after that time. So regardless of whether or not the bags could have been through checked, the airport might not have allowed it.

Looking at a thread on flyertalk from 2019 the rules are unclear. Some airlines like ANA say NRT can’t hold bags longer than 12 hours. The JAL forum apparently says JAL will hold bags 24 hours. But that was all pre covid.

 

[Jean Prouvaire]

Thanks to the help of American Airlines staff

The American Airlines website offers the ability to send compliments and other positive feedback (along with the usual complaints) here: Contact American - Questions, comments and suggestions - American Airlines

But given that the AA staff really did go above and beyond, I'd consider writing an old fashioned snail mail letter, naming and praising the staff members who helped you. Send it to the AA Chief Executive Officer Robert Isom, care of the AA corporate HQ address:

P.O. Box 619616
DFW Airport
TX 75261-9616
USA

I'd mention how wonderful AA ambassadors these staff were and how impressed you've been, to the point of telling everyone about how great an airline AA is.

What should happen is that the CEO will read the letter and then pass it down the management line (often with a little hand-written note), eventually reaching the staff members themselves. That way every supervisor and manager between those team members and the board will know the names of the people who provided you such exemplary service. Depending on what staff reward & recognition mechanisms AA have, there may even be a little something in it for them.

 

[Quickstatus]

the airport might not have allowed it.

Usually the JL NRT-MEL (IIRC) departs in the evening.
Did @Alecw flights require an overnight in NRT? - the hint would be that the ORD-NRT arrives after the departure of the NRT-MEL

@NZJuniorDoc thought about this earlier.

 

[tdimdad]

What is the max connection time in NRT that would trigger a stopover causing baggage pickup rather than check through?

I had a 24:30 h stop in NRT a few years ago. Just enough to trigger a bag claim, overnight storage and new bag drop. The agent in SYD told that 24 h strict is the through-check limit. I'd assume NRT still has the same time limit in use.

 

[LondonAussie]

I'm not surprised, we had some delayed flights in the US in early June, and the AA staff in their premier lounges gave us every assistance to rectify the problems.

+1, a few years ago due to a QF delay into LAX, I missed my AA flights that were on a separate booking. I expected AA to treat me as a 'no show' and tell me there was nothing they could do, but the AA staff were absolutely amazing, not only was the service really personal and understanding - they started with where I needed to be and by when, then looked at several options, different routes, etc, asked me which I would prefer, and then handed me new boarding passes at no cost. Similarly would not accept a tip.

 

[Anna]

Wow re all the good experiences with AA staff. I've had no memorably good experiences and I've also had 'no, we don't honour the OWE luggage allowance, you must pay excess baggage' which required 30 minutes and a supervisor at checkin before it got resolved, and a few years ago 'no, OWS is not allowed to enter the lounge' which didn't get resolved on the day but later got me a letter of apology and a handful of lounge passes (that I didn't even need under OW rules).

 

[jpp42]

As long as we're talking US airlines providing good service, I had a great experience at Delta's lounge in SFO a few years ago. I was booked on DL to LAX and onward to SYD on VA. My SFO-LAX flight was cancelled and there were no others that would make the connection at LAX. The VA/DL partnership at the time wasn't well known outside of LAX, yet the DL lounge agent knew the basics and knew exactly how to confirm more details when needed. Importantly he believed that the VA ticket stock could be endorsed to Qantas (which had space on a nonstop SFO-SYD that evening), even though this wasn't available to DL-issued tickets. He quickly phoned the VA station at LAX to confirm this, got my tickets sorted, and arranged for my checked baggage to be returned so I could re-check it at the Qantas desk and have it tagged properly. Bonus, I was able to double-dip and get both ORC credit on VA plus Qantas points for the flown SFO-SYD. But more importantly this agent's knowledge of ticketing rules for an airline that didn't even fly to his port, meant I got home on time. So kudos to US airlines for empowering and training their lounge staff and senior ticket agents to this level.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As long as we're talking US airlines providing good service, I had a great experience at Delta's lounge in SFO a few years ago. I was booked on DL to LAX and onward to SYD on VA. My SFO-LAX flight was cancelled and there were no others that would make the connection at LAX. The VA/DL partnership at the time wasn't well known outside of LAX, yet the DL lounge agent knew the basics and knew exactly how to confirm more details when needed. Importantly he believed that the VA ticket stock could be endorsed to Qantas (which had space on a nonstop SFO-SYD that evening), even though this wasn't available to DL-issued tickets. He quickly phoned the VA station at LAX to confirm this, got my tickets sorted, and arranged for my checked baggage to be returned so I could re-check it at the Qantas desk and have it tagged properly. Bonus, I was able to double-dip and get both ORC credit on VA plus Qantas points for the flown SFO-SYD. But more importantly this agent's knowledge of ticketing rules for an airline that didn't even fly to his port, meant I got home on time. So kudos to US airlines for empowering and training their lounge staff and senior ticket agents to this level.

I believe there are IATA protocols in place for IRROPS, including endorsing tickets to other carriers. Don’t need to be in the same alliance.

 

[N860CR]

I’ve had issues in the past with OneWorld airlines interlining across multiple airlines/flights with a lot of sectors.

Had a single ticket CMB-BKK-SIN-AMM-CAI (CX/RJ) and try as the agent could, he couldn’t get the bag to tag beyond AMM. He spent a lot of time working on it and from memory tried some manual workaround where he could print CAI on the tag but it wouldn’t manifest or something (testing my memory here). Wasn’t a drama in the end as I just grabbed it in BKK and rechecked it without an issue.

I tend to agree with those saying that it probably would have been sorted in Chicago by JL staff. Or even in NRT if you rocked up and said “my bags are down there somewhere”.

 

[MrJetset]

They're called AAngels for a reason, as opposed to Lounge Dragons.

I have always found AAngels to go above and beyond.