Business class rage over Qantas delay

[Andrew M]

Montague S: That was one of your better posts

[Michael Morrison]

http://www.scopical.com.au/articles/...-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

Originally Posted by Rhys Xanthis

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]

Originally Posted by Sarah C

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]

Originally Posted by 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 .

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 How do you know the toilets were fine?? From your office window???

[Sarah C]

Originally Posted by Marty H

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 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.