Problems with QF1 early March

[Ash W]

For the first 2 1/2 weeks of March QF1 ex Sydney left about 3-4 hours late every day except for Friday the 7th and 14th. Does anyone know why?

I flew QF1 BKK-LHR on 2nd March and it was 4.5 hours late leaving Sydney and clearly BKK. I have just received a letter from Qantas advising that it was due to a u/s aircraft and they had to find another to replace it, which is fair enough, but I don't understand why the delays continued for another 2 weeks or so.

At first I thought maybe there was a problem with some late inbound flights, I understand that the a/c that mid afternoon arrival from JNB is often used as the outbound QF1, but on the days that flight flies it arrived in Sydney more or less on time. Indeed I couldn't see any 744 arrival that was late. So does anyone have any idea as to what the issue was?

[Tom PER]

G'day Ash W,

It's been a bad month for the QF B744 fleet.

Might be somethng to do with the fact -OJG was stranded in Delhi with a u/s engine which then -OJQ had to be ferried out with tech crew and a 5th pod.

-OJH went u/s for a couple of days in HKG with undercarriage dramas, it blew a couple of tyres.

And -OJK was delayed ex AVV after Y+ fitout after corrosion was found in the fuselage.

-OEB is overseas being painted at SIAEC in Singapore also.

So I guess it might have been a 'knock-on' effect with these aircraft dramas.

I'm sure others on here might be able to provide more detailed techincal info on the problems that occured.

[Ash W]

G'day Ash W,

It's been a bad month for the QF B744 fleet.

Might be somethng to do with the fact -OJG was stranded in Delhi with a u/s engine which then -OJQ had to be ferried out with tech crew and a 5th pod.

-OJH went u/s for a couple of days in HKG with undercarriage dramas, it blew a couple of tyres.

And -OJK was delayed ex AVV after Y+ fitout after corrosion was found in the fuselage.

-OEB is overseas being painted at SIAEC in Singapore also.

So I guess it might have been a 'knock-on' effect with these aircraft dramas.

I'm sure others on here might be able to provide more detailed techincal info on the problems that occured.

It does seem they are having some 744 problems, I found it odd that only QF1 seemed to be effected. I flew SYD-BKK on 29/2 which was ok, I then flew BKK-LHR on 2/3 (which was the 1/3 departure from Syd) and it was the first of the late flights. The aircraft was meant to be -OJK (which is a bugger because I was allocated a seat in what should have been the Y+ seats) but it ended up being -OJH. This flight was well oversold in both J and Y, at check in they were asking people to delay 24 hours, and the guy next to me on the flight got bumped from J to Y and was not a happy camper. What I will say about Qantas is they knew very early the flight was going to be delayed (like 12 hours before it left Sydney) and someone from Qantas called me in Bangkok to say not come check in until about 1:30.

The problem with the engine in Dehli was a few days later. So I guess the root cause would have been the the lateness of -OJK out of the shop, followed by some of the other issues having a follow effect on. Since my flight I out of curisoity have been keeping tabs on QF1, which is why I know that every day (except Friday's) it was late by 3-4 hours. The past week or so it seems to have settled down, just hope the departure ex Sydney tomorrow (21/3) is ontime as my wife is flying BKK-LHR on that flight.

Speaking of -OJK is she now out and flying and are there any other Y+ 744's out there yet. I understand that QF1 is meant to be 100% 4 class by the start of April which is when the seats start to get sold as Y+

[Tom PER]

Have a look at this site mate. The info seems pretty up-to-date and accurate.

http://www.icns.com.au/qflyer/qflyer.html

[Michael Rychter]

My wife and I flew QF2 BKK-SYD (J) on 3 March. We received a SMS onto my phone a day before to tell us that the flight would be delayed by 10 hours and the following day Qantas followed up with a phone call.

All in all we could not fault the preflight warnings although we were surprised we weren't offered accommodation on perhaps the BA flight. It seems there were few seats there anyway.

I had hoped to log a message onto the YSSY board to find out why there was a delay but as we now know - the board was down!

Our issues were that we needed to extend our hotel arrangements by an additional day and had to go to (new) BKK airport about midnight for a 3:45am departure.

On another subject, the new BKK airport is HUGE!

[Ash W]

My wife and I flew QF2 BKK-SYD (J) on 3 March. We received a SMS onto my phone a day before to tell us that the flight would be delayed by 10 hours and the following day Qantas followed up with a phone call.

All in all we could not fault the preflight warnings although we were surprised we weren't offered accommodation on perhaps the BA flight. It seems there were few seats there anyway.

I had hoped to log a message onto the YSSY board to find out why there was a delay but as we now know - the board was down!

Our issues were that we needed to extend our hotel arrangements by an additional day and had to go to (new) BKK airport about midnight for a 3:45am departure.

On another subject, the new BKK airport is HUGE!

That more or less mirrored my experiance. The SMS came really early in the day, about 5am Bangkok time and the phone call from them to say not check in until later was very much appreciated. I didn't have any hotel issues as I was staying at the wife's place. I was flying in Y, but am platinum FF, I doubt they would/could have called every passenger on the a/c. Maybe just the premium cabins and the platinum/gold FF'ers.

The only bad thing with the delay was the ground handling in London. We had to wait a good 20-30 minutes for a stand, which is understandable as we arrived 4.5 hours late (having done the usual 30 minute circuit of NE London). The stand ended up being a remote stand, but would you beleive they only sent 2 buses to unload the whole aircraft. Surley to god they would have realised the massive delay and beg, stole and borrowed some extra buses. I was at the rear of the first Y cabin and it took me an hour after the first passenger to get off the aircraft. I reckon the way it was going it would have taken another hour for the pax right down the back to get off.

[Eli B]

"Y+" is called W Class btw people.

and regarding the sms/phone call notifications, im pretty sure everyone joining the QF1 that night, or any other flight that has a known significant delay such as these examples Qantas contacts every passenger.

[David Sims]

Soulds like quite a few problems with the 744 fleet. Lets hope they get them all on-line again soon.