Business class rage over Qantas delay

[Ryan N]

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,23804420-5014090,00.html

Business class rage over Qantas delay
By Larissa Cummings
June 03, 2008 05:02pm

A QANTAS international flight has been delayed for almost 24 hours due to mechanical problems. Angry business class passengers on the Singapore-bound flight QF31 had to be subdued by airport police officers this afternoon after they became abusive towards airline staff.

The flight, which is code-shared with Air Malta's KM2031 and British Airways flight BA7371, was scheduled to leave Sydney at 4.55pm yesterday.

The Qantas website lists the departure time as 4.30pm today - almost 24 hours later.

It is understood passengers were given hotel accommodation overnight by Qantas.

Australian Federal Police officers at the airport were called to the Qantas Club lounge during the afternoon after passengers began swearing at staff

"It was in relation to some harsh words that were being said,'' an AFP spokeswoman said.

"When our officers arrived the situation had been defused.''

Steve Re of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association confirmed the flight had experienced technical problems last night before taking off.

He said passengers were asked to disembark so engineers could fix the problem.

After returning to the airport this morning for a 10.30am departure, passengers were advised of a further delay.

A Sydney Airport spokesman said passengers were still waiting at the departure gate to board the plane at 4pm.

[Andrew M]

People like that should be denied boarding for a minimum of a week.

Just because they are in business class and in the Qantas lounge and more than likely drunk does NOT give them the right to abuse staff.

[Rhys Xanthis]

I would be more than ****ed off if told my flight were delayed for 24 hrs and i payed business fare...especially considering those who do are more than likely to have important business to attend to.

[D Chan]

regardless of their class of travel they should not be abusive to ground staff.
if you're a passenger of this flight you might be justified to be angry but by all means the ground staff and indeed everybody would not prefer this to happen. In any case ground staff are the people who have the least control over these sort of delays - they are just as hapless as the passengers when it comes to delays.

Just to give you an idea - one has to be mentally prepared to deal with potential abusive passengers and if you don't deal with them carefully they'll explode right in your face ::rolleyes:

[Nigel C]

Just because they are in business class and in the Qantas lounge and more than likely drunk does NOT give them the right to abuse staff.

Quite a generalisation you've made there...

[D Chan]

Quite a generalisation you've made there...

would be true if we were talking about senator bill heffernan (if you remember what happened late last year :P)

I think the words 'platinum', 'gold' or 'silver' are more likely to be used by business pax to justify their abuse

[Andrew C]

There seems to be a spate of delays of QF international flight this week. On Sunday Qf11 & QF 1 were delayed by over 24hrs, this delay.

Could there be some mischief by the unions???

[Torin Wilson]

QF81 on Sat was delayed over 6 hours. The second delay was dodgy. The Engineers told the ground staff 10 mins before boarding there was scheduled maintenance to do, and it took over 3 hours (already had a 3 hour delay, and an aircraft change). Even the ground staff and Captain were slagging off engineers.

[Andrew M]

Quite a generalisation you've made there...

Yep - Can almost guarantee they would have had a drink or three.

Struggle to find anyone who isn't knocking back a few in the lounge.

I don't have a problem with that, but abuse staff for such a silly reason deserve to be kicked off all Qantas flights for a week I say

[Montague S]

Yep - Can almost guarantee they would have had a drink or three.

Struggle to find anyone who isn't knocking back a few in the lounge.

I don't have a problem with that, but abuse staff for such a silly reason deserve to be kicked off all Qantas flights for a week I say

struggle to find a reason why you wouldn't get smashed if you were faced with this kind of delay to your $9000 flight. ;)

even better if you can do it for free in QF club.

[Andrew M]

Montague S: That was one of your better posts :) :D:D

[Michael Morrison]

http://www.scopical.com.au/articles/News/Australia/6409/Qantas-investigating-spate-of-747-flight-cancellations

Qantas are to investigate reasons for the delays - including some blocked toilets.

Dirty tricks again???

[Mick F]

Article courtesy of "The Australian"


Passengers stage Qantas Club sit-in over delays

Blair Speedy | June 04, 2008

QANTAS is under increasing pressure to resolve its pay dispute with engineering staff after passengers furious at flight delays staged a sit-in at the airline's members-only lounge in Sydney airport.

The customer backlash, the most dramatic the national carrier has faced since the dispute began, came yesterday after flight QF31 for London, scheduled to take off at 4.55pm on Monday, was grounded for 24 hours amid work-to-rule bans by maintenance workers.

Passengers were told to disembark after problems with an engine. As members of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association were refusing to work overtime while Qantas rejected their claim for a 5per cent pay rise, the plane was unable to be repaired before the airport's 11pm flight curfew.

Qantas put passengers in hotels and rescheduled departure for 9.30am Tuesday, only to discover further engine problems in the Boeing 747-400. When passengers boarded the plane for a 1pm departure, cabin crew found four toilets were blocked.

Passenger Alice Henry said: "They said they'd put us in the transit lounge with some food and some drinks, but when we got there it was one person with some styrofoam cups and teabags.

"At this stage, my husband and some other people said, 'that's enough', and we've got some other people together and come up to the Qantas Club and said, 'We don't really give a stuff whether we belong to the Qantas Club or not, we're all coming in and demanding some answers'."

Another passenger, retiree Bruce Stark, said many travellers were livid at missing connecting flights from London. "We almost had a riot here a little while ago ... there were people screaming and yelling and so forth," he said from the lounge.

Qantas staff, who called in security to deal with about 70 gatecrashers, told passengers the delays were caused by the engineers' industrial action, adding that up to five flights were delayed every day.

Mr Stark blamed Qantas's treatment of engineering staff.

"Like a lot of people, I'm rather cheesed off when I hear (Qantas chief executive) Geoff Dixon say it's the shareholders that matter, and most of the maintenance on these Qantas aircraft is being done offshore, and what we're seeing here is the outcome of that," he said.

The flight finally took off for London at 5pm yesterday. A Qantas spokeswoman said the airline had done its best to make passengers comfortable.

"If we had been able to accommodate all of the affected passengers in a Qantas Club lounge, we would have done so," she said.

"The lounge was completely full, and all other passengers were provided with meal and refreshment vouchers."

She denied the incident was related to industrial action but admitted the overtime ban was affecting operations. "We have experienced some delays and cancellation on our domestic network over the last few days," she said.

"These were a result of technical issues with our aircraft. However, the ALAEA has also implemented overtime bans and deplorable go-slow actions, which have also made an impact."

Qantas declined to comment on whether the toilets were sabotaged.

Seems that their actions were quite justifiable in my opinion. Passengers want answers, and they'll take it up with anyone representing Qantas. Unless Qantas want to send down Mr Dixon or someone else to provide answers, then who else are passengers going to demand answers from??

Mick

[Rhys Xanthis]

while i dont profess do understand the situation fully, i think we should throw the leaders of the union to deal with the passengers:) they want to cause it, they can bloody well deal with the backlash.

[Paul McFarlane]

edit -mod

i think we should throw the leaders of the union to deal with the passengers:) they want to cause it, they can bloody well deal with the backlash.

I think the last thing the airline would want to do is give the unions unrestricted access to the public to put across their point and gain further support.

[Chris Tully]

Please keep in mind that the reporting in this article does not necessarily represent factual information on the events.

It is interesting Alice Henry reports that passengers were taken to a transit lounge and provided with 'styrofoam cups and teabags' amid Qantas stating customers would be provided with food and drinks.

Ironic that it was Alice's 'husband' who initiated the gate-crashing of the Qantas Club.

And why did Alice fail to mention that all customers were provided with vouchers to use for meals in the terminal? I am sure Alice received one...

I also find it interesting that 4 x toilets are suddenly blocked overnight, yet there was no indication of this on the previous day.

If engineers are responsible for this then shame on them.

[Sarah C]

Considering the aircraft was on the ground and the toilets were fine, it seems clear that there was some intereference from staff. Sadly there have been previous acts of sabotage and this looks the same. Maybe the passengers should direct thier anger at the person/people who did that - that played a big part in the delay.

The engineers have to be careful making thier point - an act of sabotage just adds more ammunition for thier jobs to go offshore .

[Rhys Xanthis]

The engineers have to be careful making thier point - an act of sabotage just adds more ammunition for thier jobs to go offshore .
bingo.

they aren't undisposable.

but i would much rather engineering stay in aus thankyou very much.

but i think the ALAEA should just take their 3%.

Rhys - Please do not swear on the forums, next time we'll just delete the post instead of taking the time to edit it -mod

[Marty H]

Considering the aircraft was on the ground and the toilets were fine, it seems clear that there was some intereference from staff. Sadly there have been previous acts of sabotage and this looks the same. Maybe the passengers should direct thier anger at the person/people who did that - that played a big part in the delay.

The engineers have to be careful making thier point - an act of sabotage just adds more ammunition for thier jobs to go offshore .

Where did you come up with that there was sabotage involved, your worse than the media, the only mention of sabotage being mentioned was at the end of the article:confused: How do you know the toilets were fine?? From your office window???

[Sarah C]

Where did you come up with that there was sabotage involved, your worse than the media, the only mention of sabotage being mentioned was at the end of the article:confused: How do you know the toilets were fine?? From your office window???

No Marty, I actually have sources within QF Engineering who have the facts of the story........and I am not going to share the facts compared to the news article. I might as well not comment on any story because everytime it happens, there is slanging match between members.

[Chris Tully]

undisposable.

:eek:

[Rhys Xanthis]

:eek:

oh give me a break ive got exams left right and centre:p

[Chris Tully]

Good luck with your English exam...

[Adam P.]

More studying required then Rhys!:p

[Marty H]

No Marty, I actually have sources within QF Engineering who have the facts of the story........and I am not going to share the facts compared to the news article. I might as well not comment on any story because everytime it happens, there is slanging match between members.


So why comment at all if you arent going to share the facts:confused:

[Philip Argy]

Lots of anecdotes doing the rounds today about odd things occuring which have seriously disrupted schedules. Examples include a door that wouldn't close in BNE, a nail in a tyre at OOL, faulty ground equipment in MEL.

There does seem to be an abnormal spike of delay-causing incidents beyond what statistical probability would support, even given the bad weather along the east coast.

:confused:

[Chris Tully]

I also heard that QF hit the side of a JQ aircraft with stairs in Tasmania today and caused damage, causing significant delays with the aircraft out for most of the day.

[Adam P.]

There does seem to be an abnormal spike of delay-causing incidents beyond what statistical probability would support, even given the bad weather along the east coast.


Philip,
Not so much an abnormal spike in delay-causing incidents as perhaps an abnormal spike in reporting of delay-causing incidents in the wider media.

It's not that they never happen - it's just that usually you won't hear about it.

[Philip Argy]

Not sure that's right, Adam.

My reports come from business colleagues who were on the affected flights.

[Montague S]

No Marty, I actually have sources within QF Engineering who have the facts of the story........and I am not going to share the facts compared to the news article. I might as well not comment on any story because everytime it happens, there is slanging match between members.

unless sources go on the record your word is as good as useless...no offence intended in what I'm saying and I don't necessarily disbelieve, its just how it is until someone puts their name to it.

[Rhys Xanthis]

Good luck with your English exam...

already done it:p

geography tomorrow and then done:p

@ Adam P.....i can study if i can drag myself away from this site for a couple of hrs:p

i cant concentrate at the best of times:p

[Andrew M]

I have lots of inside sources as well :D They talk to me in my sleep :eek:

[Adam P.]

i can study if i can drag myself away from this site for a couple of hrs

Well that just might be a good idea! :rolleyes:

[Chris Tully]

i cant concentrate at the best of times


I see that often.

[Rhys Xanthis]

Well that just might be a good idea! :rolleyes:

:p



I see that often.
hur hur hur....