These VA passengers would waste money on a lottery ticket

[Melburnian1]

From 'The Australian' this afternoon (online):

Flight delay lands passengers in Brisbane hotel quarantine

'Passengers travelling on a flight from Perth to Brisbane were forced into two weeks’ hotel quarantine after their flight was delayed by about five hours.

Flight VA 469 was due to arrive in Queensland at 8.10pm on Friday, hours ahead of the midnight cut-off for interstate travel.

But the flight was delayed and didn’t arrive until 1.20am on Saturday, with Queensland health authorities updating travel restrictions while passengers were flying across the country....'

 

[henrus]

This is just one of the risks of traveling right now. It's not the first flight to have this happen and I guess it won't be the last either.

In this case, the flight was actually delayed before the announcement was made. I wonder if VA had some inside knowledge hence the delay to change the crew?

Those who were forced into hotel quarantine have not/will not be charged for their stay and a recent article suggests they'll be released early perhaps tomorrow.

As a side note in QLD, the NT, and possibly other states if you've arrived from a domestic hotspot there is no requirement to stay in hotel quarantine if you wish to leave the state. If one wanted to they can very easily have asked to leave the state and flown to Sydney (or even driven across the border) and booked a hotel for their own 3-day stay and then reevaluated once the lockdown was over. In each of these snap lockdown cases, NSW has allowed people to follow the rules of that 3-day states lockdown whilst in NSW - which means you can use your own hotel/stay with someone you know, source your own food (supermarkets/takeaway), and go outside for exercise.

 

[Melburnian1]

As a side note in QLD, the NT, and possibly other states if you've arrived from a domestic hotspot there is no requirement to stay in hotel quarantine if you wish to leave the state. If one wanted to they can very easily have asked to leave the state and flown to Sydney (or even driven across the border) and booked a hotel for their own 3-day stay and then reevaluated once the lockdown was over. In each of these snap lockdown cases, NSW has allowed people to follow the rules of that 3-day states lockdown whilst in NSW - which means you can use your own hotel/stay with someone you know, source your own food (supermarkets/takeaway), and go outside for exercise.

The latter information is something that I (and perhaps many others) were unaware of. While I've just been interstate (but not to WA/Qld) and hence was not 'caught', it's very handy to know. Thanks!

 

[NoName]

A friend of mine was on this flight. Needless to say he’s not impressed at all. Putting up a few humorous Instagram posts about the situation though so taking it in his stride.

 

[henrus]

The latter information is something that I (and perhaps many others) were unaware of. While I've just been interstate (but not to WA/Qld) and hence was not 'caught', it's very handy to know. Thanks!

It pays to read the rules

Provided you've had a negative test since you've arrived then you're "good to go" provided you're exiting the state.


It's a leftover thing from the Victoria outbreak days and it's about time they did what the other states have done and changed to home quarantine for domestic arrivals although there were lots of people who couldn't understand the concept of staying home hence they went to this method.

 

[stryker]

there were lots of people who couldn't understand the concept of staying home hence they went to this method.

I think they could understand the concept, they just didn't agree with it...

 

[jb747]

In this case, the flight was actually delayed before the announcement was made. I wonder if VA had some inside knowledge hence the delay to change the crew?

Really? Always go with a conspiracy, when there’s an alternative reasonable answer….

If the crew were scheduled to operated to Perth and back, a 5 hour delay would not be allowed within flight and duty time limits. And even if they were not planned both ways, they are just as likely to have been up and down the east coast already.

 

[henrus]

Really? Always go with a conspiracy, when there’s an alternative reasonable answer….

Not really a conspiracy. The same thing happened during the first snap lockdown.

The first time, there was a VA flight from PER-BNE scheduled to depart around the same time as the annoucment. VA decided to delay the flight to wait for the announcement and then once the announcement was made a further decision to delay was made to switch crew. That time around about half the passengers decided to get off.

This time around they delayed it earlier on in the day but it's worth noting that the WA premier said different stakeholders were notified earlier in the day so it's not too far-fetched for airlines to be included in this early warning.