Rebooking because of Cyclone Alfred BNE-MEL

[Kefci2000]

Just got off the phone with the not so helpful VA helpdesk - was hoping to change from Thursday evening flight to Wednesday evening flight.

Per there computers all Thursday flights are "on schedule" so no changes may be made without incurring $99 change fee and $200 fare difference.

BOM is quite certain Alfred will cross early Thursday bringing very strong winds and rain. Last time this happened BNE airport was chaos with heaps of flights cancelled.

Thoughts?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Unfortunately gotta wait until VA head office officially declares a day of travel disruption.

Before that ur going to hit a brick wall.

Appreciate you want to get in early and secure flights while you can, bad unfortunately these types of situations don't reward those who plan early

 

[Kefci2000]

Have booked a QF reward booking for Wednesday night as a backup.
If neither flies, I guess I am here for the weekend

 

[claytw]

Have a QF classic reward (2pp) for Fri 7/3 ADL-BNE arriving at midday. Will it be better to hold off and wait to see if QF cancel the flights (no penalty to me) (return on Mon 10/3) or pre-empt and cancel myself and rebook later in the year? Obviously while Fri flight may be cancelled, return leg then becomes contingent on first leg. Hotel must be cancelled by midnight tonight.

 

[Kefci2000]

Maybe call the hotel and ask your options?

 

[fletty]

I'm currently scheduled for BNE to MEL Friday morning with VA (lite). I must be in Melbourne Friday for an unprotected international flight that evening.

My plan is to fly down Wednesday morning instead, and not touch my Friday booking. I suspect VA will either cancel the flight or have a disruption policy and fingers crossed can cancel / credit without a fee. Worst case I end up forfeiting the ticket.

 

[drron]

Just got off the phone with the not so helpful VA helpdesk - was hoping to change from Thursday evening flight to Wednesday evening flight.

Per there computers all Thursday flights are "on schedule" so no changes may be made without incurring $99 change fee and $200 fare difference.

BOM is quite certain Alfred will cross early Thursday bringing very strong winds and rain. Last time this happened BNE airport was chaos with heaps of flights cancelled.

Thoughts?

Though BOM isn't that certain. The track for Alfred yesterday had it heading straight for BNE. Today the track is more north west and heading straight for MCY with the probability being Tin Can Bay to BNE..
I posted a detailed reply in the AKL meeting thread as we fly BNE - AKL hopefully early Friday morning.

From the BOM app this was the cyclone yesterday at ~ 5pm.



And just now

Seems definitely less organised.

 

[DC3]

Just got off the phone with the not so helpful VA helpdesk - was hoping to change from Thursday evening flight to Wednesday evening flight.

Per there computers all Thursday flights are "on schedule" so no changes may be made without incurring $99 change fee and $200 fare difference.

It would make sense for the airline to be pro-active in facilitating moving your flight forward without penalty, rather than taking a re-active position and seeing what pans out regarding Cyclone Alf.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It would make sense for the airline to be pro-active in facilitating moving your flight forward without penalty, rather than taking a re-active position and seeing what pans out regarding Cyclone Alf.

It would, but they probably don’t want to,

Delaying any announcement gives them time to see what’s likely to happen, but also to reaccommodate passengers. For example they might want to proactively accommodate full fare business class passengers on other flights rather than those with uogrades taking the initiative and snapping up any remaining seats.

 

[I love to travel]

BOM needs another 18 hours to make a better prediction for Friday.

 

[kevrosmith]

The US Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Centre, I find, has better long terms forecasts for Cyclones... they are currently showing it dropping down to 45 knots Wednesday and 35 knots before it crosses the coast, so I think that is barely a Category 1. It will still mean some disruption to airport operations I'd expect.

Google JTWC to find the site. I figure the US Navy has far more compute power than BOM for these things.

 

[IrishPete]

Just got off the phone with the not so helpful VA helpdesk - was hoping to change from Thursday evening flight to Wednesday evening flight.

Per there computers all Thursday flights are "on schedule" so no changes may be made without incurring $99 change fee and $200 fare difference.

BOM is quite certain Alfred will cross early Thursday bringing very strong winds and rain. Last time this happened BNE airport was chaos with heaps of flights cancelled.

Thoughts?

When was "the last time this happened"?

 

[DC3]

It will still mean some disruption to airport operations I'd expect.

Airlines, are you taking any notice?

We’re hearing crickets.

 

[IrishPete]

The US Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Centre, I find, has better long terms forecasts for Cyclones... they are currently showing it dropping down to 45 knots Wednesday and 35 knots before it crosses the coast, so I think that is barely a Category 1. It will still mean some disruption to airport operations I'd expect.

Google JTWC to find the site. I figure the US Navy has far more compute power than BOM for these things.

Depends whether Musk's minions have gained access the the computers.

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:57 PM

I have a status run from Sydney to Gold Coast on Saturday. Fingers crossed...

 

[I love to travel]

Depends whether Musk's minions have gained access the the computers.

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:57 PM

I have a status run from Sydney to Gold Coast on Saturday. Fingers crossed...

It makes for interesting reading. the reasoning tab is the best one.

 

[Kefci2000]

When was "the last time this happened"?

"Over the past seven days, there's been 2,953 scheduled flights [in and out of Brisbane] and of that, 229 were cancelled, so that's about 7-and-a-bit per cent," Mr Beckett said. Jul 2022

 

[andy2015]

Likely going to be affected by this. Can't wait for them to cancel once its too late to make alternative plans.

 

[kevrosmith]

Here's a link to the Cairns Airport Cyclone Management plan. Cyclone Plan » Cairns Airport

I would assume Gold Coast and Brisbane airports would have similar.

It will give you an idea of when things start shutting down and when they allow the airlines to fly back in. In Cairns, they start moving all the aircraft out or stop the positioning flights to ensure there are mostly no aircraft on the ground during the peak. But even with regular events up here, the airlines are never pro-active to pre-emptively cancel flights. The weather really is variable anyway, so things could become a fizzer this far out.

 

[IrishPete]

"Over the past seven days, there's been 2,953 scheduled flights [in and out of Brisbane] and of that, 229 were cancelled, so that's about 7-and-a-bit per cent," Mr Beckett said. Jul 2022

The media are reporting a cyclone hasn't directly hit South East Queensland for 50 years. What happened in July 2022?

 

[Kefci2000]

The media are reporting a cyclone hasn't directly hit South East Queensland for 50 years. What happened in July 2022?

Severe weather event