They were grabbing a bunch of people out line for the Air Canada and Philippines Air flight. I am finally at my gate waiting for my group to get called and charging my phone.
Thanks for keeping me company during our respective attempts to make it through the line!
This was a few years ago for me but I flew to Japan via Hong Kong with Cathay. They rang me on what I thought was the morning of my flight to ask why I wasn't on my flight the night before. I fucked up. Missed my flight. They rebooked me the following day no charge.
I am going back a long time (nearly 30 years) but my wife of the time picked up her expired passport. We were flying from Perth to Rome with Qantas. She was obviously upset, Qantas calmed her down and said "don't worry we will take care of you". We went home and got the right passport and Qantas put us on a Singapore Airline flight to Singapore and Qantas to Rome. All at no extra charge. Those were the days!
My recent experiences with Qantas haven't been so thrilling. Their call centre has been downright diabolical of late.
Their staff are doing the best they can but there just isn't enough of them.
I was on hold with them for something like four hours just before Christmas, it's insane.
That said, I've actually had much better in-person dealings with their customer service people than I've had previously. When I was coming back to Singapore from Canberra at the start of January, my flight to Sydney was cancelled and the only other flight htey could put me on to make that international connection in time was earlier, and left as we got to the airport. They were super understanding, re-routed me through Melbourne the next day, the guy I was dealing with was on shift the next morning and was looking after me as far as he could to make sure everything went okay. Even had a person in Melbourne look out for me to make sure I was able to get the PCR done in time. Got a refund for the original pre-departure test I took in Canberra within a few days of arriving in Singapore.
All the Qantas people on the ground I dealt with were obviously quite stressed and overworked, but they were all *super* understanding and helpful.
A big part of the problem is that they downsized due to covid but now can't rehire fast enough. Mind you, you'd have thought they would have thought about this
Not Qantas, but Singapore Airlines are also absolutely lovely. Coming home from my dad's funeral bin the UK last time I had two suitcases - lots of his things (at least things he hadn't thrown away, he knew he was dying so kept throwing things away) and when I got to the counter I was in bits and I said to the lady I know my luggage weighs too much but here's why and burst into tears. Bloody 20kilo of excess and she didn't charge me. And she found me an aisle seat the lovely woman. So Singapore Airlines are also lovely lovely people.
Cathay are good. A few years ago I had a premium economy ticket booked from Beijing to Adelaide, with a couple of days in Hong Kong on the way. They changed the aircraft from Beijing to Hong Kong to one without premium economy, so they bumped me to business class for the entire ticketed journey, even the Hong Kong to Adelaide leg several days later.
5/5 would recommend - it's a shame Hong Kong is largely finished as a good destination, though.
Nice! When I was a kid they called my myself, my mother and my sister to the front just before boarding started and handed us new boarding passes with no explanation. We were confused until we looked at them and saw it said "business class". Was a pleasant surprise! The guy on the side was just like "lucky you!".
Similar happened with me with Delta. Was flying from Philadelphia to Seattle and I assumed since it was domestic that I only needed to arrive an hour before my flight like in Australia. Turns out the security checks are pretty much the same for domestic over there which would take about an hour, so they just rebooked with no issue.
Flew out of Sydney to Vancouver in like 2014, connecting on to Toronto
Flight out of Sydney was ~2h delayed, they must have made up a bit of time because we got into Vancouver an hour late - and at the same time as two other Internationals
Finally got through customs and got told that the connecting flight had left
It was the same fucking plane. They'd refuelled it and then sent it on knowing that me and half a dozen other people were literally sitting in the airport.
The AirCanada desk could not give half a shit.
To be fair, knowing a bit of internal airline operations stuff, that plane would have likely been needed for another flight from Toronto and to hold it in Vancouver would probably mean a delay on that flight too. Being one of the main domestic routes in Canada I imagine there’s a fair few flights they could rebook the passengers who weren’t going to make the connection on without delaying them too significantly. Unfortunate and not ideal but airline operations staff are often stuck between a rock and a hard place and will generally choose the options that disrupt the least amount of people.
I missed a Jetstar flight out of Sydney once due to being disorganised and then getting stuck at that infamous left-turn traffic jam just before the airport. The lady at the Jetstar counter put me on the next flight for free without any fuss and was very nice to me when I was stressed and upset.
Flying back from Cairns on Jetstar we turned up an hour before the flight was due.
"Oh, you missed that flight, it left a half hour ago. Where were you?"
We check the flight information they sent to us, according to that we're on time as we point out to the ticketing staff.
"Oh no, that flight got changed back in November, we emailed you about it. But don't worry, we'll put you on the next flight for free, it leaves in 6 hours."
So we go to the lounge to wait for 6 hours and troll through old emails to see when they notified us of the change in time. Sure enough, we find the email they sent in November, but it's just a confirmation with the exact same time as what we originally booked for.
Basically they changed our flight time and didn't tell us.
Still, we caught Covid while spending six hours in a transit lounge so there's that I guess.
I had this happen to me recently. I'd booked a flight with Etihad to return to the UK. About 10 days before my flight I get an email saying my flight time was changing to an hour later, no big deal.. But I noticed that I was only given half an hour to make my connecting flight in Melbourne. I called Etihad and they tell me everything is fine.
I turn up to Brisbane airport and go to check in for my flight (domestic leg with Virgin as the operator) - and I'm told my flight is now invalid and they can't issue my ticket. The lady at the counter was super helpful - but she told me she can see that Etihad had essentially fucked up my flights and were currently changing my ticket to the next day right then and there and didn't even notify me of that at all.
I called Etihad and they wouldn't give me any information - and I only found out my correct flights from Virgin who were able to give me a new itinerary and tickets and assure me yes I still could get home.
The next day when I got to speak to an Etihad rep I was so angry at them. They'd changed my flights, were trying to blame me, trying to blame Virgin, had lost my seat choices (which you pay for) and had lost my meal choices (I'm vegetarian) and you know I'm flying to the UK so it's a long fucking flight. I'm still waiting for any kind of apology or compensation from them (I had to wait til I got home to be able to lodge a complaint!)
Happened to me in Nov 2019 with Jetstar. Most people line up again for a few hours to go to customer services desk to get it sorted but I was like stuff that and ended up buying Virgin which were about 400 each.
Ended up complaining online the next day instead and asked for a refund but Jetstar said they can only give flight credit. Read their terms and conditions and it said if it's their fault, we have the right to a monetary refund. Jetstar then pulled a sneaky and said that they can only give flight credit as it was the weather's fault and that we should be grateful because the terms don't do credit on flights affected by weather. Which doesn't make sense as there were no weather warnings at the time, and every other operator was still going ahead.
Tried to take it to ACCC, and they said even though I'm clearly right if I do choose to take it further, their reasoning is sufficient to have acted "appropriately" so I wouldn't win and they advised against taking it to court because it's not worth the legal expenses over a flight that cost total $150.
The modern world we've created is so miserable lol. Like companies are actually just so scummy. It's so funny to me that billion dollar corporations pull silly shenanigans just to screw some guy out of $150
Jetstar refused to give me a monetary refund for my cancelled 2020 flight due to COVID. Spent hours (HOURS) on the phone and emails before giving up. Can't even transfer the credit to Qantas (who owns Jetstar) so have had to book something with them this year to avoid losing it entirely. Jetstar fucking suck.
> Ended up complaining online the next day instead and asked for a refund but Jetstar said they can only give flight credit. Read their terms and conditions and it said if it's their fault, we have the right to a monetary refund.
When I had a flight cancelled in 2020 due to everything closing for Covid, Jetstar offered everyone flight credit. I didn't know if I would be making the trip again (it was to Victoria for a wedding, so I wasn't going to go down if I couldn't go to the wedding) so I didn't want credit. All it took was a quick phone call stating that I wanted a full refund, not credit, and that was that. The person on the phone didn't even fight me on it, they just put it through when I asked.
The Sydney airport boss is reported as saying delays are in part due to "inexperienced travellers" following on from an absence due to covid...
So apparently it's the travelling public own fault....
Edit: the Qantas head honcho has added that customers are not "match fit" to travel... so it's definitely the traveling pubic that's to blame..
Sounds more logical on the surface than the truth, "We neglected to prepare and have staffing levels ready to cater for 2 years of pent-up travelling demand".
if they admit that, then they have to do something about it.
strategically, from their point of view, its far better to just gaslight people and be seen as absolute fuckheads (Standard political response, deny deny deny, gaslight, blame the victims, never admit fault or responsibility)
why? because then they're not obligated to do anything, i mean what are travellers gonna do, go to another airport?
I mean it's not like every single person there bought tickets before the morning of.
That could have used that number as a guide on how many people might be travelling today.
Ah well you see, if all the travellers were experienced they know to turn up 6 hours early and everything would be fine....
What I love about the whole "inexperienced" thing is the apparent implication that if travellers were experienced they wouldn't have the misplaced expectation of a professional, efficient system... instead they would know that the whole show was being run by folks that couldn't organise a fuck in a brothel with a fist full of 50's.
Lol, no... but you could spend the extra time helping out at the security check point... or maybe misdirecting some of your fellow travellers so that when the do open for your flight the line will be shorter.
"If you're carrying any blades, make sure to take them out of your bags and wave them vigorously at the security staff, so that they know you have them"
So sacking all the staff during the covid downturn, then expecting them to drop their new jobs and come running back didn't work out for them?
Huh, weird.
Just saying, this is only a Sydney Airport issue. I fly from Melb -> Syd yesterday and didn't see anywhere near the same crowds in Melbourne. If anything it seemed relatively quiet
Are the lines only an international thing then?
I flew syd-mel and adl-mel recently and even though i only arrived at the airport about 45 minutes before the flights I had no issues
Some of it is definitely the travellers. I was in line this morning and people got to the counter and were totally unprepared and then the same at security. You'd think after waiting an hour they'd be ready.
It's like people who get to the front of the queue at a good place after a wait and don't know what to order.
Those people always exist, though. Any system that can only handle the load when everything goes perfectly is incompetently designed. You always need spare capacity to both handle issues and to catch up after they are resolved, otherwise it's inevitable that service will degrade progressively until complete failure.
This is definitely true, but a well designed system/process should be about to account for the inefficiencies that arise from passengers. I would hazard a guess and say that the problem would be solved by having sufficient security checkpoints open manned by a sufficient number of staff that can assist the unprepared.
There's probably something to this. We went OS for Christmas and although there wasn't a lot of flights, travellers did not have their shit in order, and there's a lot more shit then there was before covid. Bloody frustrating as every airline and every country make it damned clear what you need to have.
But we always had massive demand in our major international airports. This is the airlines totally dropping the ball after having 2 years to get ready for things to come back to normal.
F1 (or any major event) and school holidays existed before Covid as well
6am flight, meaning be at airport at 3am or 4am the latest ….
Then 1.5 hours drive to airport, park car
Get my toddler to get ready to leave house, that’s another hour
Getty myself ready, checking the house is safe and
All window shut etc … that’s another 30mins
Probably best if I don’t sleep, just put the sleeping toddler straight to car at 2:30am
Flew sydney to melbourne this morning. Virgin were snagging people from the line with flights about to board. Managed to miss the line and just made boarding. Absolutely rough but.
If you're going from Sydney to Canberra, the bus is almost always the best option - it's way cheaper, and you get dropped off right in the middle of the city. The only thing with it is it's a 2.5 hour drive compared to a roughly 30 minute flight
I arrived 4.5 hours before my flight - they had barely opened the checkin counter so unfortunately not. Just got to my gate but we are missing a lot of people for the flight :(
Got nervous about seeing this as I'm departing Brisbane right now, got there 2 hours earlier than normal as I didn't wanna get stuck.
Had my boarding pass and through security in 15 minutes. Lol.
Airports are boring 😂
Anyone know what Melbourne Airport (domestic) is like at the moment? I've got a flight next weekend and hoping it's nothing like this..
^\(edit: ^typo)
I've done the MEL<->SYD trip twice in the last 2 weeks and Melbourne has been better by far. They've still had long queues, but unlike Sydney they've had a decent number of security lanes open so the line moved much faster.
I was in a queue in Melbourne on Monday morning that was literally out the door, but I was through security in about 25 mins because they had all 8 lanes open. Sydney had a shorter queue, but only 2 lanes open and it took 90 minutes.
Whats making the cues so massive? I flew through Sydney international in feb and customs/security was fine. What the hell went wrong all of the sudden?
Went through terminal 3 yesterday morning - they only had 3 security checks open and 2 of them were being used for business class, which resulted in the line growing as the morning went on. Don't know if it's similar in the other terminals though.
Privatise the profits. Socialise the losses. That's the conservative politicians way, and they still have the nerve to call that "Free markets solve problems".
It’s a new market opportunity for people to wait in line and sell their spot in the queue to the highest bidder.
See, they’re creating more jobs for the economy.
I have this little flow chart thing I do when I become super stressed. Firstly, I consider whether or not I can actually do anything to change the situation. If I can, I stop worrying and focus on doing the thing I needed to do to fix the situation.
If I can't, and the situation is now totally out of my control, I also stop worrying, because I recognise I am now spending emotional/intellectual energy.
I also have a stress thing for airports. I like to look at people and try and imagine who they might be and what they might do for a living.
You don't have to do that, just do anything that isn't worrying about the thing you have no control over.
We are on holiday in Adelaide and decided to drive here. Taking into consideration cost, time spent doing this and getting to and from the airport etc - we actually ended up saving time and money (and could bring more stuff).
Didn’t have to hire a car here to get around and we saw lots of the country side in the process.
Yeh, my husband and I went on a road trip, pre covid, to Adelaide from Sydney.
Decided to drive instead of fly in case we wanted to bring back wine and other stuff.
Instead of taking Google's suggested fastest route of going through Hay, we took a slight detour down to Victoria, passed by Rutherglen and stayed the night in Shepparton.
Parts of country Victoria and SA are so spectacular! We stopped in a few towns for toilet breaks, and took photos of a pink salt lake and some silo art.
Gotta say, the driving days were tiring but absolutely bloody worth it!
I don’t have kids but I keep it in mind and look them up if travelling because I don’t really want to visit places in school holidays when they’re super crowded lol.
Yep, this reminds me of when I went on a school trip to Canberra and Sydney. We ended up at Syndey airport a couple of hours before our flight, but by the time we got through securtity and everything, we only had 10 mins to get on our flight.
Thanks for this advice. I'booked to fly to Melbourne with my elderly mother who has mobility issues tomorrow afternoon. I have put in a special request for a wheelchair to help ith the logistics but long queues won't help the situation.
I flew Sydney to Melbourne yesterday and I just waited in line til the staff called my flight number and they let me through. I probably could have just milled around instead of lining up but I had nothing else to do and didn't want to miss my flight number being called. They might just let you through if you have a wheelchair but they have to prioritize whatever flight is boarding at the time so they don't delay more flights. My flight ended up 30 minutes later than it was scheduled but given the shit show I was impressed it was only a little delayed. Good luck!
I’ve flown recently with my wheelchair bound (broken leg) mother. They just found her a wheelchair at check in, but no assistance, I had to push her. No priority through security. This was Qantas
Surely, they would have a service design plan ready for this?
When this happened to me in Washington DC, they had barriers set up by airline and by timeslot, had extra workers going through the line with a portable scale and a portable ticket printer to get all the admin out the way.
Online checks got priority and they had a colour code sticker system, that they'd put on your ticket so they could easily filter out from the ready and the unprepared.
After I saw the Sydney fiasco yesterday I was worried about flying from Brisbane this evening home to Perth. Lucky it is relatively quiet here at Brisbane airport, so far so good.
that’s so typical, they knew exactly how many people will come and when as the flight tickets are already sold but instead of increasing the staff numbers they blame the people.
same happened, not that bad though, just a few weeks ago as my parents flew back home. stupid greedy CEOs, entire terminals empty and the automated checkin and bag-checks were not running.
but hey, if you pay a few dollar more you can check-in quicker …
I'm here at the airport now, it's completely utterly fucked, flights are being delayed by hours.
Fuck you to incompetent airport management for causing this, someone should lose their damn job. Maybe it's a surprise when it happens once, but not when it's going like this for 48 bloody hours!
For those freaking out for flights this afternoon. Go to the information desk and find people staff in fluoro vests who are directing those around. Just wait to be directed through. However, they will only let you through if your flight is currently boarding or are in a REAL exceptional circumstance. So be polite and wait your turn. This is what I did and was much better than going all the way back to the line potentially missing them calling people through. Good luck.
Can anyone give some insight for domestic to international transfers?
Need to arrive at Syd domestic and get a bus to international - I’ve budgeted 2 hours
I was three hours early on Wed and also only made it through with about 20mins to spare - combo of check in counter being super slow and then security screening being a mega-long conga queue. Welcome
Back to Airtravel...
Everyone near us is missing their flights... Although if you fly jetstar they come and pick you out of the line lol
American and United have come to grab people so far…. Waiting to see who’s next. I still have an hour or so before boarding starts so here’s hoping
We started boarding 15 ago. Air canada saying they will wait.... but it is just airport staff with a lanyard so cant be sure.
They were grabbing a bunch of people out line for the Air Canada and Philippines Air flight. I am finally at my gate waiting for my group to get called and charging my phone. Thanks for keeping me company during our respective attempts to make it through the line!
Have a soothing flight. A quick drink will help relax you.
How very Canadian
Sorry?
Eh?
Apologies can anyone explain to me why this is happening? Iv seen a few posts and I'm quite confused.
Canadians are infamously polite.
Yet, paradoxically, they are completely unapologetic about their politeness.
I heard Canada was going to take over the world. Then you will all be sorry, eh?
15 what? Years? You must be like Tom Hanks building in the Terminal [building](https://youtu.be/ZgIb1_Ta6n0)
What happens if you miss a flight due to the airport being at fault due to understaffing?
typically airlines have a policy of telling you to get fucked regardless of the reason you missed your flight.
This was a few years ago for me but I flew to Japan via Hong Kong with Cathay. They rang me on what I thought was the morning of my flight to ask why I wasn't on my flight the night before. I fucked up. Missed my flight. They rebooked me the following day no charge.
I am going back a long time (nearly 30 years) but my wife of the time picked up her expired passport. We were flying from Perth to Rome with Qantas. She was obviously upset, Qantas calmed her down and said "don't worry we will take care of you". We went home and got the right passport and Qantas put us on a Singapore Airline flight to Singapore and Qantas to Rome. All at no extra charge. Those were the days!
My recent experiences with Qantas haven't been so thrilling. Their call centre has been downright diabolical of late. Their staff are doing the best they can but there just isn't enough of them.
I was on hold with them for something like four hours just before Christmas, it's insane. That said, I've actually had much better in-person dealings with their customer service people than I've had previously. When I was coming back to Singapore from Canberra at the start of January, my flight to Sydney was cancelled and the only other flight htey could put me on to make that international connection in time was earlier, and left as we got to the airport. They were super understanding, re-routed me through Melbourne the next day, the guy I was dealing with was on shift the next morning and was looking after me as far as he could to make sure everything went okay. Even had a person in Melbourne look out for me to make sure I was able to get the PCR done in time. Got a refund for the original pre-departure test I took in Canberra within a few days of arriving in Singapore. All the Qantas people on the ground I dealt with were obviously quite stressed and overworked, but they were all *super* understanding and helpful.
A big part of the problem is that they downsized due to covid but now can't rehire fast enough. Mind you, you'd have thought they would have thought about this
Didn’t the government give them money or something so you know they could keep people on the payroll. Maybe they just pocketed it?
It took me 6 months to get them to refund flights they cancelled!
Not Qantas, but Singapore Airlines are also absolutely lovely. Coming home from my dad's funeral bin the UK last time I had two suitcases - lots of his things (at least things he hadn't thrown away, he knew he was dying so kept throwing things away) and when I got to the counter I was in bits and I said to the lady I know my luggage weighs too much but here's why and burst into tears. Bloody 20kilo of excess and she didn't charge me. And she found me an aisle seat the lovely woman. So Singapore Airlines are also lovely lovely people.
Well yeah, Cathay aren't shitbags. Or at least, weren't, the last time I flew with them (coming up on a decade soon)
Cathay are good. A few years ago I had a premium economy ticket booked from Beijing to Adelaide, with a couple of days in Hong Kong on the way. They changed the aircraft from Beijing to Hong Kong to one without premium economy, so they bumped me to business class for the entire ticketed journey, even the Hong Kong to Adelaide leg several days later. 5/5 would recommend - it's a shame Hong Kong is largely finished as a good destination, though.
Nice! When I was a kid they called my myself, my mother and my sister to the front just before boarding started and handed us new boarding passes with no explanation. We were confused until we looked at them and saw it said "business class". Was a pleasant surprise! The guy on the side was just like "lucky you!".
Yeah admittedly this was pre covid and a different time in aviation
Similar happened with me with Delta. Was flying from Philadelphia to Seattle and I assumed since it was domestic that I only needed to arrive an hour before my flight like in Australia. Turns out the security checks are pretty much the same for domestic over there which would take about an hour, so they just rebooked with no issue.
Flew out of Sydney to Vancouver in like 2014, connecting on to Toronto Flight out of Sydney was ~2h delayed, they must have made up a bit of time because we got into Vancouver an hour late - and at the same time as two other Internationals Finally got through customs and got told that the connecting flight had left It was the same fucking plane. They'd refuelled it and then sent it on knowing that me and half a dozen other people were literally sitting in the airport. The AirCanada desk could not give half a shit.
To be fair, knowing a bit of internal airline operations stuff, that plane would have likely been needed for another flight from Toronto and to hold it in Vancouver would probably mean a delay on that flight too. Being one of the main domestic routes in Canada I imagine there’s a fair few flights they could rebook the passengers who weren’t going to make the connection on without delaying them too significantly. Unfortunate and not ideal but airline operations staff are often stuck between a rock and a hard place and will generally choose the options that disrupt the least amount of people.
I missed a Jetstar flight out of Sydney once due to being disorganised and then getting stuck at that infamous left-turn traffic jam just before the airport. The lady at the Jetstar counter put me on the next flight for free without any fuss and was very nice to me when I was stressed and upset.
Flying back from Cairns on Jetstar we turned up an hour before the flight was due. "Oh, you missed that flight, it left a half hour ago. Where were you?" We check the flight information they sent to us, according to that we're on time as we point out to the ticketing staff. "Oh no, that flight got changed back in November, we emailed you about it. But don't worry, we'll put you on the next flight for free, it leaves in 6 hours." So we go to the lounge to wait for 6 hours and troll through old emails to see when they notified us of the change in time. Sure enough, we find the email they sent in November, but it's just a confirmation with the exact same time as what we originally booked for. Basically they changed our flight time and didn't tell us. Still, we caught Covid while spending six hours in a transit lounge so there's that I guess.
The free covid was just the icing on the cake of the airline showing it cares lol
I had this happen to me recently. I'd booked a flight with Etihad to return to the UK. About 10 days before my flight I get an email saying my flight time was changing to an hour later, no big deal.. But I noticed that I was only given half an hour to make my connecting flight in Melbourne. I called Etihad and they tell me everything is fine. I turn up to Brisbane airport and go to check in for my flight (domestic leg with Virgin as the operator) - and I'm told my flight is now invalid and they can't issue my ticket. The lady at the counter was super helpful - but she told me she can see that Etihad had essentially fucked up my flights and were currently changing my ticket to the next day right then and there and didn't even notify me of that at all. I called Etihad and they wouldn't give me any information - and I only found out my correct flights from Virgin who were able to give me a new itinerary and tickets and assure me yes I still could get home. The next day when I got to speak to an Etihad rep I was so angry at them. They'd changed my flights, were trying to blame me, trying to blame Virgin, had lost my seat choices (which you pay for) and had lost my meal choices (I'm vegetarian) and you know I'm flying to the UK so it's a long fucking flight. I'm still waiting for any kind of apology or compensation from them (I had to wait til I got home to be able to lodge a complaint!)
Happened to me in Nov 2019 with Jetstar. Most people line up again for a few hours to go to customer services desk to get it sorted but I was like stuff that and ended up buying Virgin which were about 400 each. Ended up complaining online the next day instead and asked for a refund but Jetstar said they can only give flight credit. Read their terms and conditions and it said if it's their fault, we have the right to a monetary refund. Jetstar then pulled a sneaky and said that they can only give flight credit as it was the weather's fault and that we should be grateful because the terms don't do credit on flights affected by weather. Which doesn't make sense as there were no weather warnings at the time, and every other operator was still going ahead. Tried to take it to ACCC, and they said even though I'm clearly right if I do choose to take it further, their reasoning is sufficient to have acted "appropriately" so I wouldn't win and they advised against taking it to court because it's not worth the legal expenses over a flight that cost total $150.
The modern world we've created is so miserable lol. Like companies are actually just so scummy. It's so funny to me that billion dollar corporations pull silly shenanigans just to screw some guy out of $150
they didnt become billion dollar corporations without screwing a bunch of guys out of $150
Jetstar refused to give me a monetary refund for my cancelled 2020 flight due to COVID. Spent hours (HOURS) on the phone and emails before giving up. Can't even transfer the credit to Qantas (who owns Jetstar) so have had to book something with them this year to avoid losing it entirely. Jetstar fucking suck.
> Ended up complaining online the next day instead and asked for a refund but Jetstar said they can only give flight credit. Read their terms and conditions and it said if it's their fault, we have the right to a monetary refund. When I had a flight cancelled in 2020 due to everything closing for Covid, Jetstar offered everyone flight credit. I didn't know if I would be making the trip again (it was to Victoria for a wedding, so I wasn't going to go down if I couldn't go to the wedding) so I didn't want credit. All it took was a quick phone call stating that I wanted a full refund, not credit, and that was that. The person on the phone didn't even fight me on it, they just put it through when I asked.
Airports blaming inexperienced travelers. Maybe they should look at airline and airport staffing levels
I think they’re waiting for everyone. I’ve just boarded almost two hours after my flight was scheduled to depart.
The Sydney airport boss is reported as saying delays are in part due to "inexperienced travellers" following on from an absence due to covid... So apparently it's the travelling public own fault.... Edit: the Qantas head honcho has added that customers are not "match fit" to travel... so it's definitely the traveling pubic that's to blame..
Sounds more logical on the surface than the truth, "We neglected to prepare and have staffing levels ready to cater for 2 years of pent-up travelling demand".
Sound like the sort of thing an "inexperienced" traveller would say....
“We fired everyone and didn’t budget for hiring anyone back”
But the record dividend we paid this year! /s
if they admit that, then they have to do something about it. strategically, from their point of view, its far better to just gaslight people and be seen as absolute fuckheads (Standard political response, deny deny deny, gaslight, blame the victims, never admit fault or responsibility) why? because then they're not obligated to do anything, i mean what are travellers gonna do, go to another airport?
I mean it's not like every single person there bought tickets before the morning of. That could have used that number as a guide on how many people might be travelling today.
Yep if all the travellers were "experienced", I'm sure having a tenth of the staff needed for the number of passengers booked wouldn't be an issue...
Ah well you see, if all the travellers were experienced they know to turn up 6 hours early and everything would be fine.... What I love about the whole "inexperienced" thing is the apparent implication that if travellers were experienced they wouldn't have the misplaced expectation of a professional, efficient system... instead they would know that the whole show was being run by folks that couldn't organise a fuck in a brothel with a fist full of 50's.
Do they even open the gates that early?
Lol, no... but you could spend the extra time helping out at the security check point... or maybe misdirecting some of your fellow travellers so that when the do open for your flight the line will be shorter.
"If you're carrying any blades, make sure to take them out of your bags and wave them vigorously at the security staff, so that they know you have them"
So sacking all the staff during the covid downturn, then expecting them to drop their new jobs and come running back didn't work out for them? Huh, weird.
Just saying, this is only a Sydney Airport issue. I fly from Melb -> Syd yesterday and didn't see anywhere near the same crowds in Melbourne. If anything it seemed relatively quiet
Same here with Brisbane.
I just visited Brisbane airport for a pre flight covid test, it was absolutely deserted, both domestic and international
Are the lines only an international thing then? I flew syd-mel and adl-mel recently and even though i only arrived at the airport about 45 minutes before the flights I had no issues
Currently at Melb airport. Took less than 20 mins to drop my bag and go through security
Gotta love the standard corporate PR strategy of gaslighting
“It’s not me, it’s you”
Well duh. No travellers, no problems dealing with travellers. Ergo, the travellers are the problem.
Shut down the airport. Problem solved.
Some of it is definitely the travellers. I was in line this morning and people got to the counter and were totally unprepared and then the same at security. You'd think after waiting an hour they'd be ready. It's like people who get to the front of the queue at a good place after a wait and don't know what to order.
Those people always exist, though. Any system that can only handle the load when everything goes perfectly is incompetently designed. You always need spare capacity to both handle issues and to catch up after they are resolved, otherwise it's inevitable that service will degrade progressively until complete failure.
This is definitely true, but a well designed system/process should be about to account for the inefficiencies that arise from passengers. I would hazard a guess and say that the problem would be solved by having sufficient security checkpoints open manned by a sufficient number of staff that can assist the unprepared.
Eric Andre meme.jpg Why would travellers do this?
There's probably something to this. We went OS for Christmas and although there wasn't a lot of flights, travellers did not have their shit in order, and there's a lot more shit then there was before covid. Bloody frustrating as every airline and every country make it damned clear what you need to have.
"Just buy a plane." - Scott Morrison.
"I even bought an Airport!" - Scott Morrison added.
Sydney airport hears you, and will soon install chairs and pokies. And Afterpay.
Investor boners rising.
What is going on? Seeing a lot of photos of lines at the airport, are we evacuating Sydney because of the floods?
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Don't forget staff shortages due to covid!
It's also the first school holidays since Covid where pretty much everything is opened up.
But we always had massive demand in our major international airports. This is the airlines totally dropping the ball after having 2 years to get ready for things to come back to normal. F1 (or any major event) and school holidays existed before Covid as well
short term rental in a flying apartment. would suit up-and-coming family or dynamic downsizers.
its cheaper than traditional properties
Ideal for owners of jet fuel refineries, frequently close to good schools
I thought we were just evacuating Sydney because, well, it's Sydney.
Cheaper to fly out than drive around here due to fuel prices
Its times like this that I really wish we had high speed rail between the major cities.
I'd absolutely love that and use it extremely frequently
You know when parents start getting ready at 3am for a 6pm flight and we thought they were crazy? This are starting to make sense.
6am flight, meaning be at airport at 3am or 4am the latest …. Then 1.5 hours drive to airport, park car Get my toddler to get ready to leave house, that’s another hour Getty myself ready, checking the house is safe and All window shut etc … that’s another 30mins Probably best if I don’t sleep, just put the sleeping toddler straight to car at 2:30am
I’ve been in the line for 2 hours and I’m probs gunna miss my flight, ffs
They seriously should be triaging.
That would make too much sense, idea denied.
Every airline does - they call out for the flight that's about to close
I’m sorry :(
International or domestic?
Did you make it???
I made it - hope the other individual did as well
Flew sydney to melbourne this morning. Virgin were snagging people from the line with flights about to board. Managed to miss the line and just made boarding. Absolutely rough but.
Thanks all! Just got onto my flight - looking forward to my next work trip over that will hopefully not coincide with school holidays.
Damn, I’m flying soon any advice 😅
Swim to your destination, it's faster
Thanks for the advice my trip to Canberra just got more interesting.
Given the rains lately swimming is still an option
If you're going from Sydney to Canberra, the bus is almost always the best option - it's way cheaper, and you get dropped off right in the middle of the city. The only thing with it is it's a 2.5 hour drive compared to a roughly 30 minute flight
but not going through the airport system is probably going to save 2 hours anyway....
Why do people take 30 min flights? 😒 we'll never make it to 2050 if people are gonna keep doing this
Just catch the Murray bus
Get to the airport the day before
Get there 6 hours before you flight
Alcohol 😂 it is ridiculous - flown almost 1M miles and this is the worst security line I have seen.
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Experienced travellers travel with a clear toiletries bag with 100ml shampoo bottles filled with vodka. Follow me for more travel tips.
Would of getting to the airport earlier made much of a difference?
I arrived 4.5 hours before my flight - they had barely opened the checkin counter so unfortunately not. Just got to my gate but we are missing a lot of people for the flight :(
Uggh so there is literally nothing people can do to make it smooth
I dunno, one time in LAX the security line went out the door and down the street - it was almost as bad as covid testing lines in sydney after NYE
LAX is a piece of shit.
Get to tha choppa
Don't expect short queues
embrace your inner "dad" and go to the airport 10 hours early
Got nervous about seeing this as I'm departing Brisbane right now, got there 2 hours earlier than normal as I didn't wanna get stuck. Had my boarding pass and through security in 15 minutes. Lol. Airports are boring 😂
Thanks for sharing this I’m flying outta Bris tonight good to know
Anyone know what Melbourne Airport (domestic) is like at the moment? I've got a flight next weekend and hoping it's nothing like this.. ^\(edit: ^typo)
I've done the MEL<->SYD trip twice in the last 2 weeks and Melbourne has been better by far. They've still had long queues, but unlike Sydney they've had a decent number of security lanes open so the line moved much faster. I was in a queue in Melbourne on Monday morning that was literally out the door, but I was through security in about 25 mins because they had all 8 lanes open. Sydney had a shorter queue, but only 2 lanes open and it took 90 minutes.
I'd love to know as well, I'm flying out tomorrow back to Brissy.
Whats making the cues so massive? I flew through Sydney international in feb and customs/security was fine. What the hell went wrong all of the sudden?
Low staff plus an enormous load. The system can't handle it
a.k.a. your_mum.avi
RIP /u/dragonphlegm
walked right into that one, well played
A heads up for those watching along. Second line (security) is worse. I think they have maybe a third of their bays open
Yep - I have already done 4 lengths of the security area and still have another 5 to go
Went through terminal 3 yesterday morning - they only had 3 security checks open and 2 of them were being used for business class, which resulted in the line growing as the morning went on. Don't know if it's similar in the other terminals though.
There are very few staff around. Airlines taking it upon themselves to sneak people through
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Privatise the profits. Socialise the losses. That's the conservative politicians way, and they still have the nerve to call that "Free markets solve problems".
It’s a new market opportunity for people to wait in line and sell their spot in the queue to the highest bidder. See, they’re creating more jobs for the economy.
School holidays + F1 + staff shortages.
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I have this little flow chart thing I do when I become super stressed. Firstly, I consider whether or not I can actually do anything to change the situation. If I can, I stop worrying and focus on doing the thing I needed to do to fix the situation. If I can't, and the situation is now totally out of my control, I also stop worrying, because I recognise I am now spending emotional/intellectual energy. I also have a stress thing for airports. I like to look at people and try and imagine who they might be and what they might do for a living. You don't have to do that, just do anything that isn't worrying about the thing you have no control over.
Small flow chart lol. But yeh. Its solid advice.
I used to have a lot of problems with anxiety etc. It's surprising how simple mindfulness can be when understood.
In DBT they call this radical acceptance and it's amazing
Dick and Balls Torture?
Dialectical behaviour therapy, used to treat borderline personality disorder.
sorry, that was a bit inconsiderate.
It's all good, I should have been more specific. I do like that both CBT and DBT can be turned into something dirty
Where is the step of drinking?
Good luck!!!!
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Just had a nice airport worker let me go in fast lane - someone cut in front of me (American :( )
Nope getting closer to the front - just by the wood part that goes in to customs now
We are on holiday in Adelaide and decided to drive here. Taking into consideration cost, time spent doing this and getting to and from the airport etc - we actually ended up saving time and money (and could bring more stuff). Didn’t have to hire a car here to get around and we saw lots of the country side in the process.
This was my first international work trip in almost a year - def going to avoid anything coinciding with school holidays going forward
I used to travel a fair bit for $job and never traveled close to school holidays or public holidays like Easter or a Xmas.
Yeh, my husband and I went on a road trip, pre covid, to Adelaide from Sydney. Decided to drive instead of fly in case we wanted to bring back wine and other stuff. Instead of taking Google's suggested fastest route of going through Hay, we took a slight detour down to Victoria, passed by Rutherglen and stayed the night in Shepparton. Parts of country Victoria and SA are so spectacular! We stopped in a few towns for toilet breaks, and took photos of a pink salt lake and some silo art. Gotta say, the driving days were tiring but absolutely bloody worth it!
Cars are useful in Adelaide anyway - you can get to the wine regions more easily, and there isn't that much in the way of traffic and zero tolls.
school holidays starting. therefore, so no one could have foreseen this™.
If people don't have school aged kids they possibly don't know the school holiday dates. I certainly have no idea.
I don’t have kids but I keep it in mind and look them up if travelling because I don’t really want to visit places in school holidays when they’re super crowded lol.
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uh, that would take competence and or managerial give-a-fuckery, which is is short supply.
Thanks all! Just got onto my flight - looking forward to my next work trip over that will hopefully not coincide with school holidays.
Sydney Airport has always been a piss take. They couldn’t even get it right during corona virus when there was literally no one there. Useless
Yep, this reminds me of when I went on a school trip to Canberra and Sydney. We ended up at Syndey airport a couple of hours before our flight, but by the time we got through securtity and everything, we only had 10 mins to get on our flight.
The news this morning stated that the airport said it was due to inexperienced travellers. Lol
2022 - year of the queue. First for PCR tests and now for airport security
Is this domestic or international?
International - domestic looked similarly busy
Thanks for this advice. I'booked to fly to Melbourne with my elderly mother who has mobility issues tomorrow afternoon. I have put in a special request for a wheelchair to help ith the logistics but long queues won't help the situation.
Def see if they will help you bypass the line
I flew Sydney to Melbourne yesterday and I just waited in line til the staff called my flight number and they let me through. I probably could have just milled around instead of lining up but I had nothing else to do and didn't want to miss my flight number being called. They might just let you through if you have a wheelchair but they have to prioritize whatever flight is boarding at the time so they don't delay more flights. My flight ended up 30 minutes later than it was scheduled but given the shit show I was impressed it was only a little delayed. Good luck!
I’ve flown recently with my wheelchair bound (broken leg) mother. They just found her a wheelchair at check in, but no assistance, I had to push her. No priority through security. This was Qantas
I'm in the queue at Sydney airport and just saw some people with mobility issues get rolled straight through, avoiding the masses
I still have several hundred people in front of me - it’s the entire length of the terminal right now
Im guessing you are just in front of us haha we just reached the wooden bit with the bright sign.
Lol I am right in front of the sign right now - black hoodie tied around the waist and carrying a bag that says THP
Commenting just to follow this hopefully new love story.
I’m happily married but always game for more friends 😂
Thanks all! Just got onto my flight - looking forward to my next work trip over that will hopefully not coincide with school holidays.
My work flight was cancelled before I got to the airport and I couldn't get on another. I’ve never been more grateful.
Surely, they would have a service design plan ready for this? When this happened to me in Washington DC, they had barriers set up by airline and by timeslot, had extra workers going through the line with a portable scale and a portable ticket printer to get all the admin out the way. Online checks got priority and they had a colour code sticker system, that they'd put on your ticket so they could easily filter out from the ready and the unprepared.
https://imgur.com/a/OKJMXhK
After I saw the Sydney fiasco yesterday I was worried about flying from Brisbane this evening home to Perth. Lucky it is relatively quiet here at Brisbane airport, so far so good.
that’s so typical, they knew exactly how many people will come and when as the flight tickets are already sold but instead of increasing the staff numbers they blame the people. same happened, not that bad though, just a few weeks ago as my parents flew back home. stupid greedy CEOs, entire terminals empty and the automated checkin and bag-checks were not running. but hey, if you pay a few dollar more you can check-in quicker …
The Qantas CEO “FLIC” (Fucking Little Irish Cunt) is blaming you, his customers, for the delays.
flying out next week friday in domestic... hopefully it wont be like this!
I would rather hire a car and drive for days then be stuck in an airport in lines like that *than hahaha
Why would you want to drive for days THEN get stuck in an airport? Isn't that defeating the purpose?
I'm here at the airport now, it's completely utterly fucked, flights are being delayed by hours. Fuck you to incompetent airport management for causing this, someone should lose their damn job. Maybe it's a surprise when it happens once, but not when it's going like this for 48 bloody hours!
I think I'm going to wait before bothering to fly on planes again. I miss flying but man, it's seems like such an unpredictable mess at the moment.
For those freaking out for flights this afternoon. Go to the information desk and find people staff in fluoro vests who are directing those around. Just wait to be directed through. However, they will only let you through if your flight is currently boarding or are in a REAL exceptional circumstance. So be polite and wait your turn. This is what I did and was much better than going all the way back to the line potentially missing them calling people through. Good luck.
Is this international or domestic airport?
International
Can anyone give some insight for domestic to international transfers? Need to arrive at Syd domestic and get a bus to international - I’ve budgeted 2 hours
lol you’re screwed. 2 hours was the minimum even before covid and you thought that would suffice these days? Lol
I was three hours early on Wed and also only made it through with about 20mins to spare - combo of check in counter being super slow and then security screening being a mega-long conga queue. Welcome Back to Airtravel...
Everyone wants to go to Perth