QANTAS grounding - compensation

George_Michael

There is a big difference between "championing consumer rights" and posting someting such as "QANTAS staff did not strike" whist is a blatant falsehood.

I'm all for consumer rights, but only when they do actually have those rights.

If (and I know that it's a big if), QANTAS management decided to ground their airline because they honestly felt that they couldn't continue operations safely because of the number of people who were on strike, then the passengers who were delayed or lost their flights because of it are not entitled to compensation under the EU ruling.

If not then given your apparent contrary positions, on a website that champions the consumer's rights, might lead some people to question your motives.

Do you think that myself and richardw work for QANTAS or one of the unions concerned?
I'm doubt very much if people from the other side of the world would sign up to a small forum such as this simply to express their opinions. (especially as richardw has been an MSE member for over 6 years).

dispossessed

Just in case anyone who was affected by the QANTAS grounding is interested - there are some interesting statements attributed to Paul Yankson (Qantas Regional Manager - UK & Ireland) on the Business Traveller and Air & Business Travel News websites (published 24 / 11 / 11). Paragraph Six is particularly interesting :- " Yankson also stated that Qantas has looked to “go further” in its attempts to placate frustrated customers with a voucher for AU$250 for usage on the Qantas network and the EU compensation of €600 for those who were delayed by more than four hours. " My italics.

dispossessed

Those affected by the QANTAS grounding may also find this Youtube video interesting (Warning - does contain some strong language).

dispossessed

There must have been several thousand travellers in the U.K. alone affected by the grounding and cancellation of flights and, given the high profile of the Martin Lewis website and forums, at least of few of those affected might be perusing these boards.

On that basis - Perhaps also of interest to those affected by the QANTAS grounding there are reports in the mainstream Australian media (Herald Sun) suggesting that the QANTAS fleet grounding was pre-planned. There had been a few posts on the PPRUNE forums (Professional Pilots Rumour Network) suggesting such pre-meditated behaviour but, curiously, these threads appear to have been removed from both the PPRUNE servers and Google's Cache. (The phrase does show up in the URL which is why I have linked to it)

Hope this is of interest to someone.

madaboutbooks

I've lurked on the boards and received the newsletter for years but only just now registered to post because I feel strongly about this issue.

I was also one of the passengers affected by the Qantas grounding and am very unhappy with the compensation offered. As I am an Australian currently living in the UK, I actually paid extra to fly Qantas to get home to visit my family. Not only am I still waiting on the promised reimbursement of the huge expenses I incurred getting on another flight later that day, the offered compensation of a £165 voucher off a future Qantas flight is totally inadequate. That's only around 16% off the regular price of a flight to Australia. Not enough to repay for the anxiety and stress caused by arriving at the airport to find our flight had been cancelled without warning, rushing around to try to get another flight, sitting in the Heathrow terminal for hours, and eventually arriving in Australia the day after I planned. Luckily, the day before my mother was booked to go into hospital for a potentially life-threateneing procedure!

As the original poster states, Qantas isn't offering what I should be legally entitled to, as I also believe these were forseable circumstances.

By the way, my flight wasn't cancelled because of a strike. My flight was cancelled by a considered decision by the CEO of Qantas to lock out all unionised members of staff because there was the threat of future strike action. That was the reason there weren't enough staff for the airline to run. Not quite the same as a strike meaning there were not being enough pilots or baggage handlers or whoever available for the actual flights that day to run safely. In fact, the pilots hadn't taken any strike action prior to the lock-out, just done things like wear non-uniform ties and make announcements over the PA about their case, which didn't affect operations or customer safety at all. Now they are negotiating with the Australian courts for the right to do so.

And if there had been an actual strike affecting our flight, I'm pretty sure most airlines would email or text passengers (the reason they ask for this information when taking a booking) before the flight to let them know. I heard nothing until I arrived at Heathrow to find the flight was cancelled (I was booked on one of the first few affected flights, so it hadn't hit the news at the time I left home, over two hours journey time away from Heathrow). I feel Qantas handled the whole situation poorly.

The communication with customers after the cancellation was inadequate too- I still had no idea whether my flight back to London was still booked or not as the Qantas website told me to call them. Well, I tried, multiple attempts over a ten day period and over 30 minutes on hold each time. I still didn't get through.

I'm so sad and disappointed to see this happening with Qantas. The airline is an Australian icon, we learned it's history at school! I don't think I will ever fly Qantas again as a result of this, unless senior management show they take passengers seriously and not just as pawns in a game with the unions.

dispossessed

If anyone is searching for the Qantas "Conditions of carriage" (includes reference to Reg. 261 / 2004) they're here. Section 8 deals with delays & cancellations.

The address for the Qantas UK Offices :- Qantas House, 395 King Street, London W6 9NJ

The Regional General Manager for the UK & Ireland is Paul Yankson.

If anyone wants the direct e-mail address for either him or Alan Joyce (CEO) then please send me a private message.

SteNpton

I received an email from qantas whilst we were away, offering the compensation as per the EU regulations, asking to call or email with credit card details.

I emailed them back in mid-November but have heard nothing since - anyone else experiencing the same?

Ste

dispossessed

SteNpton wrote: »

I received an email from qantas whilst we were away, offering the compensation as per the EU regulations, asking to call or email with credit card details.

I emailed them back in mid-November but have heard nothing since - anyone else experiencing the same?

Ste

They have just paid us the compensation. Once they agreed to pay it I did have to e-mail them a couple of times.

I would be inlcined to e-mail them a polite reminder.

Are you e-mailing them at :-

ccarelondon at qantas dot com ?

If you want them to sit up and take notice you could also join and post on the PPRUNE forum which (judging by results) they appear to monitor quite closely.

Hope this helps.

SteNpton

Thanks! I've re-mailed them again - the address is right except there is a dot au at the end, which is where i had the original email from?

I'll keep you posted, good to know you've finally got yours - although i'm a bit miffed that we've now paid our holiday costs, so there will be a big credit on the card for a while?!!!

S

flutterbyuk25

I emailed them the form, had email back few days later asking for further info and to confirm my CC details, followed by a phonecall. Then refund was paid within 5 days (within 3 weeks of first email). Quite impressed with the speed considering the amount of refunds they must be processing.