What to do about noshows?

[MEL_Traveller]

Is this not the case already (other than for flex fares)? It should be.


Agree, but I feel this is a small proportion of cases.

I think it depends on the airline, the gate agent, and the reason for the ‘no show’.

If the gate agent has the f,exibioity, and the reason is genuine, airlines can rebook pax free of charge on to a later flight.

 

[VPS]

Ryanair is trying to get it's money back for unruly passengers - I suspect no shows would be treated poorly

Man trapped inside driverless car as it spins in circles

Mike Johns was on his way to the airport when the Waymo robotaxi began circling a parking lot non-stop

www.bbc.com

 

[Quickstatus]

Not sure on the bag thing. Many flights are by weight limit, not bag limit, and many people would pack 2x10ish in than 1 even 23kg

QF2 so it's not North America which means luggage allowance is weight based with no limit on pieces.

The real question is, is it really essential to offload their luggage?

Good question, but thems the current rules. By extension, we can also question the entire "security arrangements" at airports.

I think that’s right… multiple safeguards. A passenger not showing up after they have checked bags should be a flag for risk.

I have twice arrived in Sydney (my destination) on a QF9 A380 LAX-MEL because of fog in MEL. Both times I was allowed to disembark without my bags which continued on QF9 , then was put on a MEL-SYD then couriered to me at home.

The difference my scenario and this one is that there was no way I could have predicted being separated from my bags whereas passengers could plan to be separated from their bags at transit point - hence the offload there.

.....

Private companies do not have the legal ability to impose a fine then no. They can sue in court though.

If passengers have to reimburse the airline for costs, then the airline should have to reimburse the passenger for their costs for delays and cancellations. What's good for the gander...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Though I understand these are/were transit passengers?. Did they travel on the initial sector on the same aircraft?.

I have twice arrived in Sydney (my destination) on a QF9 A380 LAX-MEL because of fog in MEL. Both times I was allowed to disembark without my bags which continued on QF9 , then was put on a MEL-SYD then couriered to me at home.

‘Involuntary’ that the plane landed in SYD.

Transit pax failing to re board are still ‘voluntary’.

Was just doing some digging in this. The US has federal regulations that require positive bag matching for international flights. Apparently the ‘rule/regulation?’ is an ICAO one, and states that bags cannot be allowed to fly unless they are identified as unaccompanied and have been properly security searched or cleared. I guess Australia and other countries that subscribe to ICAO also has a matching requirement.

In the case of a no show, why would an airline bother searching the bag? Might as well just off load it.

Domestically the TSA seems confident of its explosives detection, so will allow bags to fly without the passenger.

 

[Quickstatus]

‘Involuntary’ ...'voluntary’.

Yes , sorry my post was edited in the time you posted this.

 

[33kft]

I get the security implications of this and why it's not going to happen, but I'd rather the airlines just send the luggage with the flight. That's going to give some pax pause for thought around whether that last duty free novelty toblerone is important or not.

 

[offshore171]

but I'd rather the airlines just send the luggage with the flight.

My preference is that the airline divert their luggage to Ulaanbaatar. Or Mogadishu.

 

[Hvr]

My preference is that the airline divert their luggage to Ulaanbaatar.

That's cold

 

[ajd]

My parents once missed a connection flying from Canada to the US because they'd forgotten that Denver was an hour ahead of Vancouver and didn't hear the boarding call. Being a US domestic flight the baggage wasn't offloaded so presumably it had less of an impact delay-wise.

These things happen - if there were easy solutions that were also palatable from a reputational and regulatory point of view, airlines would already be incentivised to implement them.

 

[blaz]

i wonder if the pax got confused and thought they had to disembark in SIN and clear customs or something… like the USA? Or perhaps they thought they had a stopover in SIN, and didn’t realise they didn’t? (they could have been at the carousel waiting for their bags!)

It seems unlikely pax flying Qantas Y would need to go to the bar… they have generous and free alcohol on board. Maybe they got lost or hadn’t re-set their time to local time?,

4 bags for two pax might suggest however they had some sort of status, so might be experienced? Strange.

Smoking? There’s a smoking area right by the QF departure gate for the a380 IIRC. So even if trying to get a last one in, they’d only be 5 mins late, not a no-show.

It might have been an urgent medical requiring a trip to hospital, and perhaps someone said ‘well let the airline know’, but didn’t.

We did this once. We got to Europe from Singapore and thought we had to connect to a European connection by getting our bags and rechecking in. So we proceeded to collecting our bags rather than going to transit (there were no signs for transit that we could see, and we were looking, with no staff around to ask ) So we wasted a lot of time getting through customs and waiting for our bags. No bags. So we finally asked the baggage counter staff and they suggested the bags were probably in our next plane and we should rush to the gate. Well... unfortunately it was crowded, and even though we told the security staff about our mistake, they told us to just stay in the queue and wait. We had less than 15 minutes left to get to the gate, and so I ignored security and pushed to the front and just told the person in the front of the line that the plane was probably waiting and blah, blah, blah , and they very nicely told us to go ahead, but I could hear the grumbling from the other people in the queue. We got through and got to the gates in a nick of time. There wasn't a lot of sympathy from those who didn't know the story.

 

[Bjet]

I have got a very very unusual funny story on my trip! I flew with a low-coast airlines from Italy to Spain by Iberia Express A320 - fly to the Italian city one time a day.

After we finished boarding on time, there were two missing Y pax It looked like it was full in Y but Business class was empty. The gate agent or ramper refused to give two pax "no show" because they paid so much money to put about 15 checked-in lugguage (from small to big) to our plane. We all saw them at the check-in and also saw them spending time to look around the shopping. Then we had to wait until they were found in the airport. It took about 30 mins waiting.

We all stared at them while they walked down the aisle to the Y seats. They were so embarrassed.

Now some pax and I had almost missed the flights and also our lugguage didn't go to their final destination.

 

[offshore171]

Now some pax and I had almost missed the flights and also our lugguage didn't go to their final destination.

This is what bugs me.

Innocent travellers bear the consequences, while there are no consequences for the perpetrators.


Offload their bags and send them to Siberia.

 

[Cynicor]

You just start the round of applause when they show up.

 

[p--and--t]

You just start the round of applause when they show up.

Oh no. Don’t encourage them. Start a round of booing and make them feel the shame.

 

[Cynicor]

Oh no. Don’t encourage them. Start a round of booing and make them feel the shame.

I suspect the sarcastic applause would not encourage them.

 

[33kft]

I suspect the sarcastic applause would not encourage them.

I think you're overestimating most people's self-conciousness

 

[Warragul]

I had a QF domestic connection to EK in Brisbane one evening. The domestic flight was hours late so my relaxed transit was now will we make it. The staff in the lounge said it's an good, they'll page you if needed. Given the tight time frame and the of day- around 10pm departure from BNE, I thought that the might be an announcement on the flight with a 'passengers connecting to flight xx go to here'. There wasn't, maybe someone at the aircraft to rush me to the transfer bus or maybe taxi- no.

I'd never used the airport operated shuttle before, the airline one had finished, so finding the stop and waiting took precious time but it eventually came. Given the lack of information from QF, I wasn't going to fork out for a cab - they mustn't want me to rush too much given the lack of information to the contrary and being a work trip getting the next flight was not the end of the world. Get to the international terminal, luckily I'm the only one at security and Immigration and set off at pace for the gate, meet by EK reps halfway there, wondering where I was, hey my connecting flight arrived less than 30 minutes ago.

I'm the final pax on board, do the walk of shame, my neighbour asks where was I, after telling my story he says they made an announcement that they were waiting for a passenger who had failed to board, not mentioning a late connecting flight was the cause. The groundstaff at least knew I had a connecting flight, that's what the QF/EK thing is all about - seamless connections ( it was one booking).

At the end of the day the flight pushed back on time, but my bags missed the connection. I get just as frustrated with those who take the mickey, but as far as the people who saw me board, I was one of THOSE people, when I wasn't. Really truly.