Last weekend I took my 5th trip to SYD from LAX, and my first such being on business class. I was able to use frequent flyer mileage to acquire this ticket, and being only 30,000 more miles than the 60,000 required for an economy class ticket, I felt it was more than worthwhile. Turns out, it was more than just the upgrade in service that wound up being beneficial. I accrue milege with United, with whom 3 of my 4 previous trips had been on. The lone other trip being with Air New Zealand, who’s service I prefer to United’s, but I don’t get the mileage bonus with them, just the straight mileage. United’s business cabin was booked, so I was more than happy to redeem award travel with ANZ(one great perk from alliances!). The service was tremendous on the trip down with ANZ. Upon getting to Sydney airport for my return flight, I was told that NZ14, their only daily SYD-LAX flight had been canceled due to maintenance problems. This was on Monday September 3rd, and I had to be back at work on Tuesday, so being stranded there for a day was seemingly not an option for me. Both United’s flights to LAX and SFO were all booked so I figured there was no chance of being rebooked on one of those, so then I thought which other Star partners I could be booked on. Immediately I thought going through Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok wouldn’t be a problem, as I had pretty much all day monday to travel, even if it was 20+ hours. Besides, I was hoping to get booked on SIA or ANA. I told the agent this and she told me, “it doesn’t work that way.” They promptly booked me business class on QANTAS, a competitor airline, through AKL to LAX. I wound up leaving about an hour later that I would and got to LAX 4 hours later than I would due to the layover in Aukland, but that wasn’t a problem, as I had all day Monday to recover, plus I had never been to AKL. All the 1st/business passengers got rebooked that day. I’m guessing most, if not all the 300+ economy class pax were given hotel rooms and had to wait till the following day to catch the next flight. Now, who knows if ANZ did all they could to get as many of the pax out of there that day that they could, especially by utilizing their partner airlines plus QANTAS. I’m sure I would have found out had I been in the economy cabin, and not business. The one time this happened to me, thank god I was in business unlike the other 4 times, because I had to be back at work Tuesday morning, no matter what. Immediately, while I was going through this, I was reminded of a previous post where someone mentioned being stranded by SAS when a flight to Bangkok was canceled. Regardless of the number of connections, airlines need to do a better job of re-booking their passengers with partner carriers when an unforseen maintenance problem such as this occurs. I would have been really pissed off, especially as a premier executive member on United, had I had to wait another day to leave, even though it would have meant spending an extra day in Sydney.
P.S. ANZ’s business class service and food was clearly superior to that of QANTAS.
By: Speedbird1 - 4th November 2001 at 07:11
RE: Flight Cancelation
I live in Australia,
I have travelled a few times in the last year or so to Europe from Sydney and mate I dont know about business class on Qantas but compared to the other airlines I have gone with, The best being Cathay Pacific, I found Qantas to be of rather poor standard and this also goes for there partner Bristish Airways.
We used to travel with KLM when they came here but there fairs were not really high like those of Qantas and BA so we could live with there service(There Food is good :)) So guys Qantas and BA in my opinion are very overrated.
P.S in terms of cancellation of flights I spare a thought for all the poor customers of ANSETT when the airline collapsed a few months ago but there are flyin again and I wish them well.
TALK TO YA LATER MATE
SPEEDBIRD1
By: scandy - 9th October 2001 at 21:46
RE: Flight Cancelation
In a situation where the flight is canx or heavily delayed the priority is to get the passengers to their final destination as quickley as possible and with the minimum of delay and inconveince. although we are instructed to rebook on Star Alliance when ever we can, it isnt always the best option for the passengers, as it could mean an increase in journey time and possibly two or more transit points. Hence the reason we use a number of different carriers with teh best options ( and seats available!!!)
As an airline employee we try our hardest to get the passnegers where they need to be and a quickley as possible, often arranging ground transport, taxis hire cars and meeting most expenses when the flight is delayed and its our fault.
As you can appreciate when a flight is canx it takes time to process all the passengers and re-route them. This is especially true when the flight goes “tech” as this often happens at the last minute!!
Certainly at my base staion we work under great pressure, with tight time constraints, and with the passengers best interests at heart….always trying to be polite and smile, after all thats our job!!!!!!!!
By: Comet - 26th September 2001 at 11:08
RE: Flight Cancelation
You want to thank your lucky stars you were in ANZ business class. Take it from me, their economy food and service is indescribably awful.
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September 8, 2001 at 11:56 pm