SFO routes dropped?

[TheInsider]

This is just pathetic at this point.

Yep. Time to actually purchase some more aircraft and get the ones sitting on the ground up and running.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Yep. Time to actually purchase some more aircraft and get the ones sitting on the ground up and running.

Or at the very least, stop taking money from people until the company is confident it can stick to a timetable.

 

[VHOEJ]

.......Or stop launching routes like India, Korea etc and focus on your core markets. How many SYDLAX flights have been downgraded from A380s in recent months?

 

[TheInsider]

.......Or stop launching routes like India, Korea etc and focus on your core markets. How many SYDLAX flights have been downgraded from A380s in recent months?

To be fair, the AUD isn't helping the US market for Australian travellers at the moment.

Post automatically merged: Oct 20, 2022

.......Or stop launching routes like India, Korea etc and focus on your core markets. How many SYDLAX flights have been downgraded from A380s in recent months?

India is performing very well though.

 

[TheInsider]

Yep. Time to actually purchase some more aircraft and get the ones sitting on the ground up and running.

Also the 787s they have ordered have been sitting on the ground for years now.
The cabin crew training for new starters has been put on hold for nearly a year now too, so it's not a matter of not having staff.
There are hundreds still waiting for their start date!

 

[HS-TQE]

.......Or stop launching routes like India, Korea etc and focus on your core markets. How many SYDLAX flights have been downgraded from A380s in recent months?

As long as State Governments are willing to partially subsidise (ala partially taxpayer funded) in partnership with funding from their respective capital city airports to India, Korea and so forth, those airlines will send those aircraft to those destinations with the combined private/taxpayer funds.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

At the end of the day, it's very simple: do not sell tickets for and collect money on routes until you're confident you will operate them.

Fool me once, fine; fool me twice, well... and what is this now? Three? Four? Come on.

Yes, Qantas is down aircraft for some reasons outside of its control. No, it's not poor planning with staff if they're truly just waiting in the proverbial wings.

Planes, planes, planes. But enough is enough --- genuine question: is any other global airline behaving this way with a key route to markets no longer subject to travel restrictions?

It smacks of short-sightedness and greed; eat your cake but keep it too. The only conclusion one can draw is either that those approving this strategy are incompetent or simply apathetic about the impact on passengers on the basis they don't think it really matters long-term.

Perhaps it doesn't. Future downturns might tell.

But even setting aside my scepticism of the premium QF is charging over its competitors, I wouldn't be racing to book any of QF's long-haul flights to a number of markets. There's simply no confidence they'll operate, and unfortunately, poor behaviour like this makes it impossible not to raise an eyebrow at situations like PER-JNB or PER-CGK. Those issues may truly have blind-sighted Qantas, but when this becomes an acceptable operating model at Qantas, it's hard not to look at the situation and wonder if Qantas didn't have its ducks in a row --- if not aircraft, something else --- and once again like SFO charged ahead in hopes it'd just work out, all the while collecting money for the flights.

 

[Maca44]

Also, for those that have flown to the USA numerous times you would be aware that, unlike LAX, when you arrive into SFO the TSA don't treat you like a criminal. LAX and SFO are relatively close, and yet in SFO you are treated courteously and with respect. I try to avoid LAX like the plague, even routing via Tokyo to ORD/SEA etc.

 

[BD1959]

Also, for those that have flown to the USA numerous times you would be aware that, unlike LAX, when you arrive into SFO the TSA don't treat you like a criminal. LAX and SFO are relatively close, and yet in SFO you are treated courteously and with respect. I try to avoid LAX like the plague, even routing via Tokyo to ORD/SEA etc.

I get the bashing of LAX - especially from a historic perspective. However, arrived on AY1 last Friday to transit into QF12. Remarkably I was disembarked, through immigration, bags collected & dropped into the departures hall and through TSA back into TBIT within 50mins, not a bad word from anyone along the way ... I had to double check my watch!!

Regards,

BD

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I get the bashing of LAX - especially from a historic perspective. However, arrived on AY1 last Friday to transit into QF12. Remarkably I was disembarked, through immigration, bags collected & dropped into the departures hall and through TSA back into TBIT within 50mins, not a bad word from anyone along the way ... I had to double check my watch!!

Regards,

BD

Same - LAX has been weirdly efficient and pleasant this year, even during busier periods. Traffic from Asia remains way down, but has picked up a lot elsewhere, and while some of the other terminals are as dreadful as ever, TBIT isn't too bad. (Though it's a long hike to/from the midfield terminal.)

Still, efficient or not, it's not SFO --- which is a bit of an important asterisk when that's where the ticket was originally for.

 

[DC3]

Same - LAX has been weirdly efficient and pleasant this year, even during busier periods. Traffic from Asia remains way down, but has picked up a lot elsewhere, and while some of the other terminals are as dreadful as ever, TBIT isn't too bad. (Though it's a long hike to/from the midfield terminal.)

Still, efficient or not, it's not SFO --- which is a bit of an important asterisk when that's where the ticket was originally for.

I get the bashing of LAX - especially from a historic perspective. However, arrived on AY1 last Friday to transit into QF12. Remarkably I was disembarked, through immigration, bags collected & dropped into the departures hall and through TSA back into TBIT within 50mins …

Similar experience in July this year. LAX was easy on arrival.

 

[oz_mark]

.......Or stop launching routes like India, Korea etc and focus on your core markets. How many SYDLAX flights have been downgraded from A380s in recent months?

There's an AD on the A380s that seems to be holding things up.

https://services.casa.gov.au/airworth/airwd/ADfiles/OVER/A380/2022-0174R1.pdf

 

[roby]

Horrible horrible experiences with QF call centres. My April SYD-SFO classic reward booking in Business was cancelled yesterday and I was put on SYD-LAX automatically (still U class). I received an email later that night advising me that they were in the process of booking a partner airline flight from SYD to SFO to get me to my original destination. Knowing QF, I decided to be more proactive and called them this morning.

First call made it to their Fiji call centre and after an extensive hold, I was told that there there was nothing they could do as nothing was available. I was asked to check back in a month to see if anything opens up on SYD-SFO direct flight. This pissed me off. I told her that QF has pushed back restarting date to SFO to May 2023 and there will not be anything opening up. I asked her to check with a supervior as all I was asking for was a US domestic connection from LAX-SFO. She then came back and said they had found a flight but they would need to deduct more points and more taxes would need to be paid. I argued for about 3 mins to no avail and decieded to hang up.

My second call made it to South Africa. After another extensive hold, I was told no Business seats were available as far as connection is concerned. I explained in America, they are called First Class. She would not listen and repeated her answer. Did not argue further and hung up.

My third call made it to Manila with a bady screaming in the background. Maybe the agent was working at home. I had zero confidence and decided to hang up.

My 4th and final call finally made it to Hobart. A very competent agent added a domestic flight on AS to the same booking and advised me that the booking would be re-tickected within 24 hours. The domestic flight is not showing under Manage My Booking yet. Fingers crossed that the new ticket will come through soon.

What's the point with all those overseas call centres when the only one that can get you anywhere is Hobart. What a ridiculous third world airline experience.

 

[encryptededdy]

I received an email later that night advising me that they were in the process of booking a partner airline flight from SYD to SFO to get me to my original destination. Knowing QF, I decided to be more proactive and called them this morning.

I'm gonna be honest, if the flight is in April and they've written specifically saying they'll find you a flight to SFO, I would just leave it for at least a bit and let them do it. I don't think they're going to run out of flights between LAX and SFO in April 2023.

Also if it's a email specifically addressing getting you to SFO and not a generic "we changed your flight oops woopsie" email, then evidently there's some people at Qantas manually handling this.

Post automatically merged: Oct 21, 2022

What's the point with all those overseas call centres when the only one that can get you anywhere is Hobart. What a ridiculous third world airline experience.

I suspect many "third world airlines" would have call center staff trained enough to help rebook customers in the case of a cancellation, unlike Qantas. The issue is often not where the call center is, it's more how well the operators are trained.

 

[kreuky]

yeah surprisingly they automatically added a LAX-SFO flight for me in Business class, with a reasonable connection without me doing anything. Too bad i'm cancelling the award anyway

 

[kamchatsky]

Also, for those that have flown to the USA numerous times you would be aware that, unlike LAX, when you arrive into SFO the TSA don't treat you like a criminal. LAX and SFO are relatively close, and yet in SFO you are treated courteously and with respect. I try to avoid LAX like the plague, even routing via Tokyo to ORD/SEA etc.

How bad can LAX get? I haven't gone through LAX in almost 20 years, and we are going as part of a family of 4 just before Christmas.

 

[SeatBackForward]

How bad can LAX get? I haven't gone through LAX in almost 20 years, and we are going as part of a family of 4 just before Christmas.

Was there a couple of weeks ago, and had the BEST experience entering the US to date, so I guess its a bit hit and miss. Will report back next month again when I transit through there.

 

[roby]

I'm gonna be honest, if the flight is in April and they've written specifically saying they'll find you a flight to SFO, I would just leave it for at least a bit and let them do it. I don't think they're going to run out of flights between LAX and SFO in April 2023.

Also if it's a email specifically addressing getting you to SFO and not a generic "we changed your flight oops woopsie" email, then evidently there's some people at Qantas manually handling this.

As you can see, no agents were even aware that they had sent me an email about the partner flight. I have heard so many instances where bookings were left un-ticketed so on and so forth so no I am not going to wait and just let them handle it, because they won't.

 

[Franky]

Similar experience in July this year. LAX was easy on arrival.

Agree - we arrived LAX 31MAY and had no issues at all. I was dreading what might come our way, had even packed a packet of TimTams just in case, but they weren't needed...

 

[encryptededdy]

As you can see, no agents were even aware that they had sent me an email about the partner flight. I have heard so many instances where bookings were left un-ticketed so on and so forth so no I am not going to wait and just let them handle it, because they won't.

No agents were aware probably because another team would be handling it and working through everyone's bookings. Of course, ideally Qantas would leave a note to this effect on the booking, but this is probably asking too much of them.

I won't blame you for not trusting Qantas to rebook this, but I would be pretty confident that they would get everyone a new flight in due course.

Also if your itinerary was QF flights only then it would be at risk of being lost if not reticketed.