Entire qantas fleet immediately grounded

[Tara2004]

If it's not resolved by Monday we will have to re-book with another airline and hope to hell we can get a refund from Qantas. We have to be in LA by Friday morning to get our connection flight

 

[OziJo]

I so feel for all those affected . I know how it would make me feel. DH thinks this action will make the situation resolve one way or the other pretty soon.

We don't fly until January but I did some sums anyway. I actually figured that if we cancelled QANTAS and flew Delta we would save $2466.30 and that's factoring paying the cancellation fee and losing the money we paid for seat selection. Of course there are reasons for the cheaper fares but if it was up to me I'd say stuff QANTAS and just do it. DH just looks at me and says wait and see.

Yesterday when I first heard about this I did a search on Virgin and came up with one price. Today I did the same search and came up with a price that was nearly $1000 more for a one way trip to MCO! Virgin are quickly taking advantage.

 

[jacs1234]

Fortunately we bought our travel insurance before the cutoff so they will cover our costs of changing flights if our flights are cancelled BUT..............will there be flights available for 7 people with late notice. I hope this gets sorted very soon, especially for you girls flying Qantas this week.

My mother is a VERY loyal Qantas lady and she says she'll never fly with them again. If we had the choice between two airlines with similar airfares, we wouldn't choose Qantas.

 

[Travel Mum]

My brother in law and his girlfriend are stuck in L.A. as they were due to fly home from thier holiday last night. To further complicate things, by brother in law is QF cabin crew so won't get back in time for his next shift whenever that now may be!

 

[Snickals]

When I heard I thought about all those with future travel planes I hope they are back up and running before you are all due to fly out for your holidays! I feel so sorry for those stuck overseas trying to get home. A voucher really isn't that helpful when you need money to buy a replacement ticket.

 

[alicia1506]

just read the media release from qantas: http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/au/publicaffairs/details?ArticleID=2011/oct11/5218

which details all of the reasons/situations/options available to those affected.

i can only hope that none of you are affected by this.. and that it is resolved super quickly.

 

[Mum from oz]

This is terribly news for all our Disers and other travellers. Fingers crossed you will still get out of here this week!

 

[areweindisneyyet]

http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/disruptions/global/en

I am sure those traveling this week have read and reread this but just thought I would post the latest traveler advice.

To everyone traveling in the next week I hope that either Qantas rejoins the sky or you find a suitable alternative. By the looks of it though, from Qantas's end it is a day to day arrangement which does not leave a lot of time for finding alternate flights.

Hopefully we get some resolution soon. Do not mess with my date with Mickey.

 

[alicia1506]

Just tried to cancel our flights and rebook through virgin but they'll only offer us a voucher in return, not our money back. I guess we don't know if we're going anymore

jacs i have my fingers crossed for you. i read on the qantas website media updates that they have applied to have the union actions suspended/terminated so that they can get back to operating flights asap.

i'll be thinking lots of good thoughts for you and your family -- when do you fly out again?

 

[Tara2004]

So our flight is Thursday morning. Now to get an alternate flight to be in LA the same time as so to get a connection flight, well the planes are filling up fast with Mon, tues,wed all booked out and the thursday plane had 120 seats left as of 2.15 today (Sun). I can not wait another day to get my flight arrangements, cause if Qantas say " We are Sorry but your flight is cancelled" Well when am I going to hear that? What on Tuesaday arvo, then all the other flights to LA are booked out. Then how do I keep the holiday flowing without screwing up all the plans we have put in place. All the ADR's connecting flights other Hotels inc Disney etc etc etc.

So I pulled the trigger and bought another set of Tickets on V/Australia. We are out of pocket $5000 but at least we are still going. If Qantas tell me "We are still flying and sorry no refund" well at least I can cancel my Virgin Tickets and only forfeit $1500 in cancelation fees. So at worst we have a guaranteed ticket no matter what, but it may cost me $1500 for the "Stop Stressing about this feeling". What I want now is for Qantas to cancel my flight then I can get a full refund,and the best part is the V/Australia tickets were a whopping $1800 cheaper than the Qantas tickets we bought back in May.

So Worst case is we lose $1500
So Best case is we gain $1800 and we get extra day in LA.

I had to make the call

Good Call? or Bad Call?

 

[PrincessInOz]

So our flight is Thursday morning. Now to get an alternate flight to be in LA the same time as so to get a connection flight, well the planes are filling up fast with Mon, tues,wed all booked out and the thursday plane had 120 seats left as of 2.15 today (Sun). I can not wait another day to get my flight arrangements, cause if Qantas say " We are Sorry but your flight is cancelled" Well when am I going to hear that? What on Tuesaday arvo, then all the other flights to LA are booked out. Then how do I keep the holiday flowing without screwing up all the plans we have put in place. All the ADR's connecting flights other Hotels inc Disney etc etc etc.

So I pulled the trigger and bought another set of Tickets on V/Australia. We are out of pocket $5000 but at least we are still going. If Qantas tell me "We are still flying and sorry no refund" well at least I can cancel my Virgin Tickets and only forfeit $1500 in cancelation fees. So at worst we have a guaranteed ticket no matter what, but it may cost me $1500 for the "Stop Stressing about this feeling". What I want now is for Qantas to cancel my flight then I can get a full refund,and the best part is the V/Australia tickets were a whopping $1800 cheaper than the Qantas tickets we bought back in May.

So Worst case is we lose $1500
So Best case is we gain $1800 and we get extra day in LA.

I had to make the call

Good Call? or Bad Call?

Tara2004 - Well done on making a decision for your peace of mind. The bottom line is that you have now GUARANTEED yourselves on a flight to go to the US. At the end of the day, it's only money....and as you've pointed out, it was $1500 spent to stop yourself from stressing and worrying about what you cannot control. What happens next is completely out of your hands and in the laps of Qantas. But you're GOING! It's just a matter of which airline and how much.

 

[Tara2004]

Tara2004 - Well done on making a decision for your peace of mind. The bottom line is that you have now GUARANTEED yourselves on a flight to go to the US. At the end of the day, it's only money....and as you've pointed out, it was $1500 spent to stop yourself from stressing and worrying about what you cannot control. What happens next is completely out of your hands and in the laps of Qantas. But you're GOING! It's just a matter of which airline and how much.

Thanks PIO, Its good to hear that we have made the right decision.

 

[aussietravellers]

So our flight is Thursday morning. Now to get an alternate flight to be in LA the same time as so to get a connection flight, well the planes are filling up fast with Mon, tues,wed all booked out and the thursday plane had 120 seats left as of 2.15 today (Sun). I can not wait another day to get my flight arrangements, cause if Qantas say " We are Sorry but your flight is cancelled" Well when am I going to hear that? What on Tuesaday arvo, then all the other flights to LA are booked out. Then how do I keep the holiday flowing without screwing up all the plans we have put in place. All the ADR's connecting flights other Hotels inc Disney etc etc etc.

So I pulled the trigger and bought another set of Tickets on V/Australia. We are out of pocket $5000 but at least we are still going. If Qantas tell me "We are still flying and sorry no refund" well at least I can cancel my Virgin Tickets and only forfeit $1500 in cancelation fees. So at worst we have a guaranteed ticket no matter what, but it may cost me $1500 for the "Stop Stressing about this feeling". What I want now is for Qantas to cancel my flight then I can get a full refund,and the best part is the V/Australia tickets were a whopping $1800 cheaper than the Qantas tickets we bought back in May.

So Worst case is we lose $1500
So Best case is we gain $1800 and we get extra day in LA.

I had to make the call

Good Call? or Bad Call?

Good Call I say!

A similar thing happened to us a couple of years ago. We were travelling to Europe and our flight was going through Bangkok. Three days before we were due to go, Bangkok airport was still closed due to the unrest there at the time (it has been closed for days). I had to make a call, buy tickets on another airline (which happened to be Qantas) and hope that the airport was still closed and Austrian Airlines would refund or risk messing up our travel plans trying to scramble last minute to find an alternate flight which were all filling up fast so last minute we wouldn't have got a seat anyway.

If AA cancelled and refunded, we would save about $500, if not, we would have lost a lot on the QF tickets. As it happened, Bangkok was still closed, so had I not purchased other tickets on the Qantas flight through Singapore, we would have not gone for a week or so, due to the backlog of stranded people! We got our refund from AA, ended up arriving in London on our scheduled day. It also saved days of worry and stress of what we were going to do, thanks to having the back up tickets which we ended up needing anyway.

So.... Yes, I say good call

 

[Mum from oz]

Good call!! No matter what happens with Qanta you are still going.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

So our flight is Thursday morning. Now to get an alternate flight to be in LA the same time as so to get a connection flight, well the planes are filling up fast with Mon, tues,wed all booked out and the thursday plane had 120 seats left as of 2.15 today (Sun). I can not wait another day to get my flight arrangements, cause if Qantas say " We are Sorry but your flight is cancelled" Well when am I going to hear that? What on Tuesaday arvo, then all the other flights to LA are booked out. Then how do I keep the holiday flowing without screwing up all the plans we have put in place. All the ADR's connecting flights other Hotels inc Disney etc etc etc.

So I pulled the trigger and bought another set of Tickets on V/Australia. We are out of pocket $5000 but at least we are still going. If Qantas tell me "We are still flying and sorry no refund" well at least I can cancel my Virgin Tickets and only forfeit $1500 in cancelation fees. So at worst we have a guaranteed ticket no matter what, but it may cost me $1500 for the "Stop Stressing about this feeling". What I want now is for Qantas to cancel my flight then I can get a full refund,and the best part is the V/Australia tickets were a whopping $1800 cheaper than the Qantas tickets we bought back in May.

So Worst case is we lose $1500
So Best case is we gain $1800 and we get extra day in LA.

I had to make the call

Good Call? or Bad Call?

Good call i say and if by some miracle Qantas is flying by then you could always get a voucher from them and keep the cheaper VAustralia flight but they do have to be used in 12 months.
You know you would think them loosing $20 million a day would more than cover the extra wages wouldn't you
I think Qantas is going to have to do a lot of groundwork to get back the faith of the Australian public and I personally am talking about what Alan Joyce has done.

 

[alicia1506]

i say good call also... regardless of whether qantas cancels your flight or not, you will still be able to go on holiday, and now you don't have to stress about all of the 'what if' and 'but what about' scenarios that would have otherwise been playing through your mind constantly over the next few days.

i say peace of mind is worth it

 

[WAMUMOF4]

We are supposed to leave WA on Tuesday & fly to the US from Sydney on Wednesday. So we have 3 different Qantas flights that are all affected at the moment. Just sitting here waiting for the latest news to come out of the late night Fair Work meeting.
Please cross your fingers for us (& everyone else of course)

I hope for your sake as well the flights are flying again! It's just so much more expensive to change things from this side of the country

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I think you have made a great call. Congratulations. You are going on a wonderful holiday and what will be will be. I am so proud of you for biting the bullet. I'm sure you will have no regrets.

 

[Jade+3]

Good call, I would have done the same.

 

[Aust]

I think I would have done the same thing, even if you lose out on money at least you now have the peace of mind that you're getting there one way or another!