Why Qantas boss Alan Joyce should have given his seat to a passenger who needed it more
Qantas found itself subject to more than two days of negative headlines after passengers on its flagship Kangaroo route A380 service were stranded for New Year's Eve in Dubai. Boss Alan Joyce, who beat the delays by boarding another flight, blew a chance to lead communications from the front, argues PR practitioner Margaret Lawson, while Qantas responds to her views at the bottom of this article.
As the dust settles on the Qantas Dubai debacle, the reported stories of 480 stranded passengers arriving late into Sydney have left the airline with important questions to answer.
Such as, how did the airline manage to take an inconvenient, yet manageable situation, and turn it into a frustrating mess that dominated headlines throughout the new year’s news cycle?
In case you have missed the angry passenger tweets, Facebook posts and associated news reports, flight QF2 on Thursday suffered a mechanical problem in Dubai and was, quite rightly, grounded.
Passengers from another flight were “bumped” and, ultimately, stranded in Dubai, so some of the original passengers could make it home.
But, while hundreds of others were messed around, one of the passengers who made it onto the next available flight was the airline’s own CEO, Alan Joyce, one of the country’s most recognisable executives and the face of the airline.
Mr Joyce’s presence, but reported lack of visibility during this situation, is a horrendous PR misstep for Qantas.
While Mr Joyce was on the flight home, stranded passengers were busy on social media.
As they became increasingly upset at the lack of any Qantas personnel on the ground, the inability of partner airline Emirates to help, and the conflicting information received, they angrily condemned the airline’s communications, preparedness and general organisation.
Meanwhile, Mr Joyce’s speedy departure from the escalating situation was widely reported by nearly every news outlet.
While trying to give Mr Joyce the benefit of the doubt about the importance of him getting home (A sick relative? A family emergency?), I find it hard to believe that there was a more important place for him to be.
Think about how the situation could have played out if Mr Joyce gave up his seat on the first flight out to someone who desperately needed to get home, and stayed at the hotel with the 480 delayed passengers.
He could have been an information conduit, stoically informing his fellow delayed passengers in person that, on principle, he wouldn’t be going home until the very last person affected by the delay was buckled into a seat on an aircraft heading for Sydney.
Mr Joyce could have spoken directly to the accountable people at his airline and saved passengers hours of frustration and time on hold by delivering correct and trustworthy information, even if that information was simply a list of the scenarios that could play out. Many passengers would have been grateful for his efforts.
Mr Joyce could have authorised some entertainment, refreshments or a Qantas-sponsored new year’s celebration for those left displaced by the upset.
Instead, the stranded passengers reported that they didn’t even get a glass of champagne on board when they finally boarded the flight back home on New Year’s Eve.
Mr Joyce and Qantas had a dozen opportunities during this incident to deliver some moments of humanity and corporate conscience. Imagine the stories we’d be reading if he had.
Instead, he arrived home to tweets complaining about issues that he would have been in an ideal position to fix or, at least, frustrations with which he could have personally empathised.
I deal routinely with companies and executives in situations that could lead to major brand damage.
What many may initially not realise is that it’s not the initial incident that turns an issue into a debacle – it’s the organisation’s ability to demonstrate conscience through its actions.
The conscience required from leaders to turn such events into opportunities elevates successful companies above others. It demonstrates the brand’s true character through its leadership.
Early during such incidents, I can spot the ones who will reclaim the situation and turn it around. They are not the ones who get on the first flight out of a situation. They are the ones who:
- Do the right thing rather than the easy thing
- Know that it’s not about carefully worded statements, it’s about actions
- Take personal accountability for the problem and see it through until it is solved
- Put others first, treating them as more important than themselves
- Tell the truth
- Cop any costs to ensure that they have really done everything possible, not everything the basic incident budget allows.
In many cases, the honesty and humility of such leaders results in their companies being lauded, and turns potential critics into long-term advocates.
But the opposite happens far too often and we hear about executives who become invisible in a crisis, fudge the truth, and appear to take what they can get in the midst of the drama (think Deborah Thomas from Ardent Leisure).
It is an all-too- frequent example of heads of business appearing to act in self-interest.
So, as well as the media training, interview preparation, and disaster preparedness that big companies invariably do, I’ll suggest a different type of training that CEOs and boards should engage in – “corporate conscience” development.
We need to instil leaders with the ability to do the right thing because it’s right. This will deliver more PR value than 1,000 carefully worded interviews.
However, in case the above doesn’t resonate with Mr Joyce, he could simply try to keep in mind a pearl of wisdom my mother gave me before letting me embark on daily bus journeys to school. She said, “If there is ever anyone who needs your seat more than you, you must give it to them.”
Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.
This is even more true when you’re the most powerful person on the bus.
- Margaret Lawson is managing director of Cole Lawson Communications in Brisbane
January 9 update: Andrew McGinnes, executive manager of corporate affairs and communications at Qantas, responds:
“An analysis like this, when based on social media and traditional reporting, is always fraught. It’s almost never the full story. It’s certainly not the full story in this case.
“First let me say that passengers were rightly frustrated and disappointed by the delay they experienced. We apologised unreservedly for that, and did the best we could to recover the situation. But nothing is as good as being where you’re supposed to be, and it’s our job to get you there. Safely.
“It’s simply wrong to say Alan took the “first flight out”. He declined the option to fly on other airlines and instead stayed with the group of passengers he was with, copping the same 24 hour delay they experienced. On board, in the airport and in the lounge, he spoke to many of them about what was happening. That’s the reason so many people knew he was on the flight.
“There are a lot of other details about our handling of this delay that have been overlooked. The work around-the-clock to fix the aircraft; flying an engineer from London to Dubai to assist; discussions with Airbus; making sure all passengers had a hotel room to spend the night despite Dubai being almost fully booked over New Year’s (which meant the accommodation bill would have been higher than many of the air fares themselves). And the fact the last 80 passengers – those who had been delayed the longest – were all upgraded on the flight home. This isn’t something we feel we need to turn into a PR exercise; we do it because it’s the right thing to do. So if you’re wondering what kind of leadership we have at Qantas, there’s your answer.”
For all you know he could have had a family emergency or other pressing issue that required he take the flight. Did you enquire as to the reason he got the next flight home, or have you not researched your opinion and engaged in pure speculation?
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A laudable piece Margaret.
Joyce missed so many tricks. I trust that Branson will capitalise on this with his usual wit and repartee.
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I totally agree, what a missed opportunity for Qantas!
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Once again this shows Qantas does not know how to treat its customers. It seems to believe that its PR and spin will resolve most situations. Alan Joyce had a chance to lead. Instead, he reminds me of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Duke of Plaza Toro who always lead his troops from the rear (he found it less exciting). In the absence of a personal emergency situation, the Chair of Qantas should ask him for his resignation as he is clearly unfit to lead.
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In situations like this why don’t Qantas, and others, have standby aircraft available? Qantas does have a number of 747 aircraft sitting in the USA. Why not bring them back to flying status and store them in the Middle East etc… Just a thought….
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There is a lot of “What if” statement being flown around. I’ve been a QF shareholder for a mid term now, and love him or hate him, Alan Joyce did transform an aviation company back into a successfully venture when so many have fallen from the sky. Every CEO would handle this situation differently, if I can say anything in his defense it’s that it’s safe to assume he believed the plane would be back in the air quickly, and that he didn’t turn the situation into a way to earn media brownie points. Everyone will have a different opinion, but at the end of the day, we get to continue to fly Qantas due to the diligence of everyone at QF and the leadership teams that he heads. I would have given my seat up for him to show my appreciation to all Qantas staff if I had the opportunity.
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Allan Joyce
Is the sort of manager that inhabits most burocracies
(Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy)
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Great article. I particularly enjoyed the line: “it’s not the initial incident that turns an issue into a debacle – it’s the organisation’s ability to demonstrate conscience through its actions.”
It’s also a missed opportunity to turn disgruntled consumers into advocates via the ‘recovery paradox’. This is where unhappy consumers become so impressed by the service recovery they experience they become more loyal and satisfied than they were originally.
This is something Peter Aceto, CEO, Tangerine Bank (formerly ING Direct) firmly believes in. He once wrote: “Fixing a perceived misstep actually has its upside, where making no missteps does not.”
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Craig, A flight crew for an A380 cannot operate a 747, they are very different aircraft so having a 744 in a 388 hub would make no sense as there is little to no benefit to doing so.
as to Joyce heading home, rumor has it he took a Jump seat so no passenger would have been delayed due to his being on board as no pax can be in the cockpit during flight.
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Year right..lol
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Joyce was in a jump seat! This was not a disaster. People losing lives is a disaster! Always better late than NEVER.
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You’ve summed up everything I’ve been thinking and talking about on Frequent flyer forums.
We can’t control planes breaking down or weather but what can be alleviated is the users experience.
It was a perfect opportunity to create some great publicity, publicity distributed far and wide for free and
completely congruent with the message ‘It feels like home to me’. A NYE party in Dubai had so much win attached to it, but instead it’s the ire that they hope will blow over.
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The reasons for our extended and tortuous delay in the Dubai Debacle may have been well founded. (Arguable). The lousy customer service and poor communications from the company overall left us all angry and frustrated. The fact that Allan Jump-the-Queue Joyce jumped the queue makes the whole incident more insulting.
And now we have been offered 5000 points in compensation.
Further insult.
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yeah, but what’s the bet he didn’t. Stuck in bloody hot Dubai with all those whinging passengers? No thanks.
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If it were James Strong, he would have been assisting staff with customers and ensuring they were alright. Never would he have done what AJ did. His actions speak sooooooo loud.
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You point out who has done it wrong in this article & the Ardent article. What about some positve focus, whose done it right?
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I’m a QAN shareholder but for almost 10 yrs now, have preferred to fly overseas with VA, EY or NZ for a number of reasons. Shame on you QF!
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Aircraft on the ground don’t make money. Paying to maintain an aircraft you might need is silly when in most cases passengers can be absorbed into other flights. This didn’t happen as it’s a very busy time of year and most flights would be at or very close to 100% capacity. Any aircraft that might normally be spare would also be in use to cope with the new year rush.
Plus QANTAS don’t have crew trained to operate a 747 in Dubai and it would take several days for a crew who could to arrive. It would also take several days if not weeks for the standby aircraft you refer to sitting in the US desert to be returned to passenger service.
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1) I’m sure he could fit a whole flight of people in his one seat
2) This article has obviously been written by a professional whinger.
He runs the airline.
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FFS, did you read the article? Your scenarios were explicitly mentioned. For presumably a communications or professional services individual, one would think that literacy would be a pre-requisite. However, your comment seems to disprove this theory.
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Too often leaders are failing to both act like a leader or even identify when it is necessary to behave as a leader. Surely levels of common sense must kick in at some juncture.
The belief that leadership is the successful management of a balance sheet or something that the PR folks do is highly misplaced and extremely disappointing.
The rest of the organisation is now left to paper over these flaws.
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The author does raise this as a possibility if you had bothered to read the article. The fact is, we don’t know, and Joyce hasn’t bothered to let anyone know.
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Probably not as easy to do as you suggest, but this does raise the question of QF’s very high fleet utilisation (great for efficiencies which the shareholders love) which means it has very little slack with which to cover for incidents like this.
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What is the difference between budget no frills airline Jetstar & Qantas? One advertises it is.! ! For a CEO your not.
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As far as I am aware QANTAS keeps people up to date via SMS, emails and phone calls. One can also check on the flight status oneself. What difference would it have made whether Alan Joyce gave up his seat for one, yes just one passenger. How do you decide who is needier to get home to celebrate New Year? The whole thing is so laughable, it would make a great comedy sketch.
Come on, a plane was delayed for safety reasons. What is so pressing that you need to disregard safety just to get drunk? Because this is what it all amounts to.
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I fully agree with Margaret’s comments. My family and I face a possible similar situation as the Dubai passengers today in New York. We have been advised our flight from New York to Los Angeles has been delayed by 2.5 hours, but Qantas cannot tell us if our connecting flight from LA to Sydney with the same flight number will wait for us. All we want is some clear and open information.
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I’m still not sure creating a PR stunt where he stoicly proved to everyone that was the last one to get home would have actually helped, or hindered things. I literally sat next to him on another delayed QF2 out of Dubai with no air conditioning on a 48 degree day for 5 hours, and he handled the situation very well. You don’t mention that though? Perhaps don’t be so critical without knowing the full story. The once-unprofitable QF2 would no longer even exist if it weren’t for the man’s vision to transform, so maybe give him the benefit of the doubt.
I think Qantas are the best at managing unfortunate situations… pity anyone stuck with a US carrier in the same situation. Unfortunately, planes make the most money in the sky, and Dubai is far away, so it’s not simple to despatch a spare 747 you might have lying around.
How about being grateful for Qantas’ impeccable safety standards, potentially avoiding an in-air emergency?
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You silly man they have been in the desert you think you can just go snap one up and it will be serviceable!!!! Lol
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FFS you are missing the point. Other passengers may also have had family emergencies or pressing issues but they were all delayed. As the CEO of Qantas Mr Joyce had the perfect opportunity to speak to his customers, including those who travel cattle class, and drum up some positive publicity. The owner of a pub, restaurant, service station, cafe or lawn mowing service should always step up when things go wrong. Always. Even if there is a pressing issue. This generated such a bad media buzz right in the middle of the holiday season. Until I hear otherwise I am guessing the “pressing issue” was in inverted commas and was probably a New Years Eve party.
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Like your response, you should read your own words as you have done the same….
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If you read carefully I think you will find that the author said ‘debacle’, not ‘disaster’
It doesn’t matter if he was in a jump seat or not. The point is that the CEO should have been on the ground, not leaving the scene of the chaos
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While he could (and arguably, should) have acted differently, surely the buck stops with the PR team for not suggesting these measures and handling the situation proactively, rather than hiding away. After all, that’s what they’re paid for doing.
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It’s about showing he cared AT, not about all the people who could fit in his seat. Leaving the scene of a problem does not demonstrate good leadership!
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Pull your head out of your arse.
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Thanks Mr Joyce
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I was on QF 1 flying to Dubai on staff benefits when Mr Joyce went up to London, and I can assure you he had payed full fare for his (First class) ticket(s). When I checked the staff travel website, there was only one listed seat left, and he and his partner were already confirmed- something that staff never get.
Thus, as someone who paid up to ten thousand dollars for his ticket, I don’t see why it’s fair to say he should’ve given his seat to anybody else. I agree that the situation was not handled well, but I’m sure every full-fare paying first class passenger got accommodated quickly, as they had the right to.
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@Craig King Surely you jest?
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Not surprised at all. These execs have no idea about customer service or looking after people (and their brand in real terms). They are quite removed and caught up in their own importance.
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The whole thing was a complete ballsup from a communication perspective, including Alan Joyce getting off his faulty plane, then getting on the perfectly functioning plane I was bumped off on so he could get to Sydney on time for his New Year’s eve engagement. What a joke the whole thing was, a what a bunch of amateurs Qantas were. I am a Platinum member of Qantas and did not get a single communication from any Qantas staff member at Qantas re what was going on. The following morning I read about a Qantas flight leaving at 11am on the Sydney Morning Herald App and raced to the airport on the 31st December local time to catch it. It left Dubai with at least 50 seats empty on my count on the plane, a shortage of crew members as Qantas “couldn’t find the others” so the ones on board were working overtime to cover for them, and hundreds of people still stranded in Dubai from my orginal flight. Why had they not been told? They could have been on the flight I managed to scramble on with a dash from my hotel. How did I find out? I read about a flight leaving Dubai at 11am that morning on the Sydney Morning Herald on my phone App!! My fellow passengers spent the next two days being rerouted on other airlines and other routes, while Qantas planes had empty seats. The poor young mum next to me had a very overtired child as it had added hours to the flight, and there were many on that plane coming home from Christmases spent with grandparents in Europe and the UK. NO excuses Qantas – you have no staff and no service in place in Dubai. Disrupting 500 people was one thing – everyone accepts planes get grounded. Disrupting a further 500 from a normally proceeding flight after the announcement on the plane that we would be reboarding in an hour, and then leaving us in the dark with no communication at all was a disaster as you then disrupted over a 1000 people and treated the 500 you had bumped off like dirt. We were not told at any stage that we had been bumped off and our luggage removed from our plane in favour of Alan Joyce and other passengers, but were given two hourly new boarding times all day until 4pm. We were then told we would have to collect our luggage. However, Dubai Airport had apparently “lost” the bags. It took 3.5 hours to collect our luggage before we were taken to our hotels. In 45 years of business flying I have NEVER heard of people being bumped off a normally functioning flight in favour of another group of people PLUS of course the CEO of Qantas and the 500 pumped passengers made to wait. You really dropped the ball on this one Q- NO excuses. The concept of code sharing is just a joke, and has reduced Qantas to third world airline status at this hub.
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Are you delusional……. these execs travel staff travel, confirmed, with PO FF status. Don’t believe the staff travel website. Exec staff are not under the same conditions are you.
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Alan Joyce is not a leader, which accurately explains why Alan Joyce never demonstrates “leadership!”
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” I’m alright Jack’ or Alan as it may be: he definitely should have given up his seat to another passenger , definitely not a leadership move……
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You were smart, Helen. By finding your own flight that morning, you missed out on having to line up for another 5 hours, again with no communication during the queue, a further wait for the flight to depart for 7 hours, another overnight layover, before reaching Sydney. An atrocious experience – from a fellow Platinum frequent flyer.
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Reading the letter which was handed out to passengers about the delay, it seemed to be standard airline communication for what happens in situations like this, with comprehensive details of when the replacement flight would be, and how passengers would be cared for and assisted in the interim. Were you not given one of these?
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I’m sorry to quell your delusions about being a ‘first class passenger’. I flew business on that mismanaged QF2 flight. I stood in line with several of first class passengers. Trust me, every full fare paying first class passenger did not get accommodated quickly. Every one of us from economy to first were mistreated by poor communication and management. I believe you wouldn’t have as much empathy for Mr Joyce if you endured our experience.
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I’d be surprised if many complaining about missing events for New Years had read their travel insurance policy. In the event of delays out of your control, most policies will pay for alternative transport to make a pre-booked event. AJ strikes me as one who would read his policy quite diligently.
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Hi FFS. Thanks for your comment. If you DM me via LinkedIn I will send you an article I wrote for Aviator magazine on that topic called “From Tragedy to Triumph for US Airways”. A summary of my case study about the airline’s handling of Flight 1549 also appears in Andrew Griffin’s book “Crisis, Issues and Reputation Management: A Handbook for PR” which is available on Google Books. That’s a good example. Regards, Margaret
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You obviously weren’t there Mike – there was no communication of any sort – that is the whole point of the complaint! Yes Qantas has contact details for most of their passengers, but they weren’t using them. Even making expensive calls to the airline in Australia got nowhere. It is the mishandling of the situation and disregard for their clients that has got everybody so worked up. The ground staff in Dubai acted as though they had never had a flight cancelled before and not a single Qantas representative showed their face let alone took charge of the situation. They had all night to organise people onto other flights but we were hearded back to the airport and missed flights leaving with empty seats because we were standing in yet another non-moving queue – it’s not as though they even had to check in much luggage as they’d lost most of it. Qantas has cost cut itself into mayhem (and yet the fares are still premium)
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All of this missed the point. Fly Emirates. Problem solved. QF. Bless. A hollow the full of entitled Australians and old battle axe hosties listening to their own echo chamber. Or Emirates. Yes thanks. I d love some champagne….
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The aircraft that operates the US LAX-JFK transcon is the aircraft that flies to/from BNE as QF15/QF16. So QF16 won’t leave until QF12 from JFK arrives in LAX.
QF94 to MEL generally leaves on time without waiting for any connections from JFK as it needs to be back in order to turn around for an on time QF93.
QF12 to SYD sometimes waits, and sometimes doesn’t. It depends on if there are enough seats on QF16 (or QF18 and QF96 if they operate on the day in question) to accommodate the SYD transfers from JFK.
Qantas staff won’t know what will happen with any delay to QF12 until the flight is in the air from New York.
In most cases, if QF12 out of New York is late, either QF12 to Sydney will wait for the transfer or people will be transferred to QF16 and connect onto Sydney via Brisbane.
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I don’t think flying Emirates would have helped much. Part of the reason for delays via Dubai in the last week have been heavy fog at Dubai airport with many aircraft diverting to other nearby airports waiting for the fog to clear. A number of QF flights via DXB over the last week have diverted to Muscat and Dubai Work Central. EK would have had even more flights out of position.
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I was once on a delayed Virgin flight from
Melbourne to Sydney. It wasn’t the only delayed flight – pretty much all flights were affected due to weather. It also happened that Richard Branson was on our flight. He stood up at the front of the plane, got on the intercom and personally thanked us for choosing Virgin, apologized for the delay (even though it was clearly weather-related) and announced we would all have free meals and entertainment on the flight.
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Very good article, well written and on point. More work should be coming your way.
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I found the letter crammed under the hotel door as I was rushing out of it to catch the 11am plane. It would have been nice if it had been “handed out to me”. I might have then had an opportunity to have had a two way conversation with the person handing to me, and been filled in on what was happening. The letter told me to assemble at 1pm for a bus to take me to the airport again to catch a 4.30pm flight which never eventuated as the plane which Alan Joyce had been on originally was still not fixed while he was comfortably back in Sydney. Read above what happened to the platinum passenger who was unfortunate enough to find their note earlier than I did and followed the instructions in it. I can only offer my sympathies. Standard practice is to reroute people on other flights where possible, not dump the whole planeload plus their luggage unceremoniously without telling them all day, and then delay them for more than two days while parts, crews and pilots are being flown from far flung places, and empty seats on other Qantas planes are heading to Sydney. We are talking a fuel gauge fault here – serious stuff. Before flights Qantas rings me to ask whether I want to be met at the kerb, whether I want to book a spa in the first class lounge before my flight and sends me emails/text messages if my flight time has been changed even by 10 minutes which is all small unimportant stuff, but they seem to have forgotten about all these channels of normal communication when something like being dumped halfway through a flight without telling me would have at least been worthy of a SMS I would have thought. I am still waiting to hear from someone apologising for the farcical performance. I have many more details about the lack of service in this whole sorry saga, but for the sake of brevity left these out. However, as a further example, when we checked out of the hotel and said we were rushing to catch the Qantas plane the hotel management then tried to enter a long conversation with us telling us the plane was already fully booked and we wouldn’t get on it. This was in spite of us saying we had rung Qantas and had confirmed seats. We needed a cab to the airport and they did not want to pay for it because apparently we were “not on the list”. I don’t know what list they were talking about, but no wonder at least 50 of the seats on the plane were empty if other passengers were being given the same run around by their hotels. I did receive a call on my mobile just as I was about to board the plane from someone speaking in heavily accented english, purporting to be from Qantas and asking me where I was!! I told him, whereapon he then asked me what my seat number was!! So MG, whoever you are, it was a communications ballsup from one end to the other. A letter crammed under a door and located 24 hours after I was supposed to have left Dubai trying to put me back on a still faulty plane does not pass as a communications strategy.
PS: You might be interested to know that my partner who was unfortunate enough to be on the same flight has been rung and apologised to profusely by someone from Qantas this afternoon. During the conversation they tried twice to get him to agree to pass the apology on to me which he declined and told them they needed to speak to me directly. As I was Chairman level until last year for more than a decade, and have a much higher level of flying frequency than my partner, it is clear to me that we can only assume sexual discrimination is also a problem within the airline in its communication strategy. I will continue to wait for my call and apology but am not holding my breath.
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You really need to get a life and look at how Qantas really does deal with issues like this and you also would be disgusted talk to staff members or ex staff members who will tell you the truth.
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Hello, yes, I am a Platinum Member, and also an ex Flight attendant of many years back. 1. As crew we were stranded for 24 hours in Honolulu with passenger off that flight who remained with the aircraft.whilst all other flights arrived and departed with no off-loading of passengers. 2. There are QF Staff who travel on a confirmed ticket and will not be off-loaded due Operational requirements. 3. Alan Joyce as the CEO had a brilliant opportunity to reflect “The Spirit of Australia” and he seemed to fail. 4. Qantas showed how it can operated as a Company whine does not have the PR spin to protect it.
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Joyce missed a PR coup. Emirates ground staff in Dubai (DXB) are next to useless in delays – they have their program and treat people (particularly females travelling alone) poorly. As a female travelling by myself I was consistently overlooked, ignored and misinformed. The offloaded passengers in DXB didn’t stand a chance where delays are a norm.
Poor from all round
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Some very valid points in the afore-mentioned comments. I flew as Cabin Crew for 22yrs 70 through 90,s when QF was run by Pilots for Pilots. Now it is run by so called execs, whose main aim is to ensure the (Shareholders) get the most out of their investment. Alan Joyce remains at the top as CEO because he can do no wrong in the eyes of the so called (Board of Directors). I accepted a redundancy package in 1992, which did not include Staff Travel, and have never flown QF again.
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I totally agree with you.
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Helen,
You were lucky. Itried to get onto that flight but was told it was full. I travelled to Doha to connect to Sydney but on arrival in Doha found out that they hadn’t booked my onward journey! After hours of trying to get onto the plane and being told I had a seat five minutes before it’s departure but I wouldn’t be able to go with my suitcase I was then told I couldn’t board because my visa hadn’t been processed. I had printed proof of my visa and have since had it confirmed (by Australian immigration) That it was indeed ok to travel and should have been accepted. With no representation of the airlines in Doha and no one answering phone lines, I was stuck with Doha airport staff refusing to book me any onward flights and have ended up back in the uk missing my entire holiday. Needless to say I’m pretty unhappy about this experience which was entirely avoidable!!
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I booked my flights with emirates but it was operated by Qantas. No communication from either company. No one answering the helplines either.
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This is such a bizarre, whiny thread. “Not even a glass of champagne on board” – sometimes delays happen, and it was unfortunate that it was New Years. But Qantas don’t owe you all this; you got a night at a hotel and a trip on a safe airplane.
If Alan Joyce was standing at Dubai airport trying to help ground crew, I would’ve found it very odd. He has a lot of people who should know what to do, and how to deal with it, let them do their job.
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Qantas has learnt a simple lesson. No one in the public knows the CEO of Woolworths, BHP, Channel 10 or the ANZ Bank. But the public know Mr Joyce (for his enthusiasm to cut the pay and conditions of employees and for shutting the airline down in 2011). So Mr Joyce needs to step up in public. It’s called publicity and it’s important when you are a public figure. It’s important so he can be seen as giving a toss about his customers. They cover this in Marketing 101 at UNSW.
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Two little words: Missed Opportunity.
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Correctly managed with his on the ground presence this would have been a golden opportunity worth endless PR points and a great way to connect with customers and the wider community. Regardless it only goes to show you that this guy thinks he immune from any sort of back-lash, recalling this is the same guy who shut the airline down. An arrogant attitude to the end.
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His behaviour was very un Australian
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I remember while still working for QF before being shoved out the door like others. At the retirement of Bob Alcon with 57 Years service with the company, he could not find time to come from Melbourne to personally congratulate this long serving retiree. Shame on you. I’m alright jack!
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The great Ben Lexan once bought a boat from me.
As he inspected it, I mentioned it had never been in an accident or incident.
He said: “well, that’s good. But it doesn’t really matter – what’s important is not any damage but how well it’s been repaired”
What’s important is “HOW WELL IT’S BEEN FIXED”.
True of boats, true in business, true in relationships and families.
True, I would suggest, of airlines too.
What would Dick Smith have done?
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As a QANTAS shareholder I would have expected the Chief Executive of what is a VERY CUSTOMER CENTRIC organisation to remain in Dubai to ensure the safe passage of all QF passengers, and to earn his $12.96m remuneration. So close, yet so far…
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Dick would have chartered planes and flown them all himself.
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Great piece Helen. I feel for you and as a long term Qantas loyalist I share you thoughts. However we all reap what we sow and putting Joyce – the ultimate budget airline CEO – in charge of what was an Australian icon ultimately will prove that the Board made a terrible mistake not choosing Borghetti.
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‘He runs the airline’. What sort of comment is that? Leasership does not equal entitlement and when I last checked he is an employee not the damn owner of Qantas. Awful behaviour for any leader, anytime let alone NYE.
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Sometimes, your work is not your life.
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Exactly.
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Hi Unhappy – that is a disgrace that you were told it was full. Did that come from the airline or the hotel? Our hotel tried that one on us, but we ignored the management there who were trying to block us leaving until 1pm, and insisted on being transported to the airport immediately. The plane was full of empty seats – up in the bubble I counted at least 50, and my adjacent travelling companion who had an extremely tired child and was pacing all the plane aisles up and down, told me downstairs economy had a large number of empty seats as well. Another flaw in their communications strategy – not knowing how many seats on their planes were full, and expecting hotels to do the job they should have been doing. You are absolutely correct – the whole thing was entirely unavoidable. oh – and by the way, for those of you interested in following the saga, I have still not received an apology even though I bought the tickets on my card yet my partner has received a profuse one – I wonder why their communication strategy appears to be directed to male passengers only, even when the tickets were bought on my card??
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How naiave can you be? Clearly you weren’t on the plane which had nothing wrong with it and from which 500 of us were dumped in favour of Mr Joyce and his fellow passengers. No-one minds a plane grounded – what customers do mind is being dumped from a totally functional plane when we were told as we left the plane we would be reboarding in an hour (lied to by Qantas), and then being treated like dirt with zero communication, so there were now over 1000 people disrupted instead of the original ~500 (See above). Qantas is a third world airline with insufficient staff in Dubai and codesharing with Emriates is just a cost cutting exercise without any ability to communicate because of this staff absence. They should stop pretending otherwise and start advertising themselves as the budget airline they are at this hub.
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Flying LKA to Sydney a few years back we were delayed by an issue in a new aircraft.
Qantas:
– Found hotel accommodations for all passengers.
– Provided meal vouchers for the hotel.
– Provided information to us via a letter under our door – where else would you want it?
– And when we arrived home we received a credit note for $1,400 from Qantas along with an apology. We landed Tuesday morning and received the voucher by mail Thursday.
Qantas did an excellent job under difficult circumstances.
Running an airline profitably economy is an incredibly difficult job by any measure and Alan does it bloody well.
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I had a similar experience about 4 years ago (but not the duration you experienced) when QF1 was delayed due to weather and diverted to Doha for a “splash and dash” to complete the MEL to DBX leg. Crew ran out of hours, they had to cobble another tech crew and cabin crew together in order to carry on the flight to London. I was on EK metal from PER to DBX and expected a 2 hour transit before getting onto QF1.
10 hours later we FINALLY got on. All connections missed. No news, no comms at all.
But the worst part was that NOBODY from EK seemed to know or quite frankly, give a rats about the delay. It just kept rolling over 1 hour at a time on the FID screens.
IMHO the biggest issue is that there is NO Qantas staff on the ground in DBX. A shift manager for 7 day, around the clock coverage with direct links to Qantas Ops AND EK/DBX people would have made this a far more palatable situation because people would have been kept in the loop by QANTAS employees instead of in the dark by EK groundstaff who (as somebody else said) treat QF like a 3rd class airline.
Get some Aussies on the ground there as liason/Duty Managers 24/7 and you might find the reticence to travel to Europe on Qantas via DBX might reduce.
Better still, bring the Dreamliner in earlier and we’ll all be going direct from PER…
Whether Alan missed an opportunity or not, is another topic altogether… But he probably did.
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As a first time premium economy traveller on QF2 (the functioning plane that was bumped), QANTAS is a 3rd rate carrier. They had continuous misinformation, when ‘information’ was given and they were incompetent. I never even received a letter under my door (unlike some of the other passengers). After the first 24+ hours delayed I was booked a plane by QANTAS on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Doha which had already left the airport before any transport had been organised to get me (& other passengers) to the airport. I was left at airport at about 2:30pm with the Qantas desk not opening until 10pm. I eventually found my own way to another group of passengers and with the aid of Emirates staff got another flight from Dubai to Doha so I could make the connecting Qatar flight back to Sydney. Me being put in economy (no premium) was the least of my worries, however my father-in-law had gifted me an exorbitant amount of FF points 363,500 to make it back to my young family (after the 2 prior weeks being at the side of my dying mother).
A offer of 5,000 FF points by Qantas (after taking 363,500) for a one way trip, with delays over 30hrs+, in a lower category of travel, with no communication both overseas and with my family in Australia shows the utter contempt Qantas holds for its passengers.
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Disgusting and shameful behaviour from a CEO, whose job is to be the company’s #1 spokesperson.
Alan Joyce COULD have seized the opportunity to mingle with passengers and let them see that he was as inconvenienced by events as they were – underscoring that Qantas’ was not to blame.
Instead, he chose to demonstrate a selfish, cowardly and arrogant contempt for the punters that ultimately pay his obscenely large salary.
Maybe Qantas shareholders should unite in demanding that he give up his bonus this year and distribute it as compensation to the passengers that were inconvenienced.
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I was one of the passengers delayed in Dubai on 29th December and I have to say this was the most disgusting customer service I have ever experienced. I disagree with any comment above which in any way defends the actions of the CEO or Qantas as a whole. We were bumped into a lounge for 6 hours with absolutely no communication whatsoever. No one knew what was going on, and I was chasing round the airport trying to find a single person from Qantas to speak to. We sat on the plane for 2.5 hours with continual updates from the pilot with no new information, yet as soon as we deplaned, it was clear we were going nowhere that day, yet Qantas deserted us completely. At 6pm, having wasted a whole day, an employee came and did an announcement that we would be leaving the following day (that flight was also delayed as the bags were still on the broken plane) and we would be put up in a hotel. The hotel we were in was a 40 minute drive away, after she had told us that most passengers would be put up in airport accommodation. We know of other passengers who were put in the airport hotel, and hotels in the main tourist area, however we were shunted to a crappy Premier Inn miles away, even though we were 5th in the queue for a hotel room. Disgusting service, a whole day of our holiday wasted. Would never fly with them again.
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My sister was on the same flight as Alex, flying in Business class as she often does between Sydney and London. She replayed the same story precisely but added that the next morning the passengers from the delayed flight were told to assemble at Gate 27 and were surprised and amazed to see a further 400+ passengers from the next flight at the same gate.
What condemned Qantas in her view was the complete lack of communication to the delayed passengers. As a former corporate affairs GM, I am alarmed and appalled that Joyce was no where to be seen in Dubai. When there is a crisis it is expected that the CEO will front up, especially when he on site alread. The result of all this is likely to be hundreds of ex-Qantas passengers, including my sister who has vowed to never fly Qantas again. She wrote to Qantas shortly after arriving back in Sydney to let them know and you guessed it some 3 weeks later she has not had a response despite her record as a very frequent Businees class passenger. That reflects poorly on Qantas and ultimately will affect their share price. QED
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I have had the same bad experiences with jetstar on several occasions and have observed poor communications and less than helpful staff. I no longer fly with either airline if i can avoid them.
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