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Good point
The reason why I am interested with QF Club is because I can avoid the queues (I was held up 1.5hrs with QF and Customs, making me unable to claim GST). QF Club is actually salary sacrifice-able so the real cost is $2,600. Not bad for an extra 10kg, lounge, priority booking and priority queuing as well as baggage taggings with some priority given.
You can say I was fed up since I never had delays or losses before (then again, I only flew QF this time after 2 years with SIA).
There was no delay from Melb to Singapore apart from those long queues so there is no story. The real problem was when I came back.
QF42 scheduled to depart at 2050 on 2nd January 2005. Was told at the airport there was unscheduled delays. Spoke to an Australian crew saying plane was stuffed in Darwin and they're trying to arrange one from a diverted route.
Was never told how long the delays could take but wasn't allowed to gate until 2230. No news given. Gate was changed from QF42 to QF52 effectively meaning my flight was cancelled.
At the gate, Boarding pass was taken. Was told to wait until my name being called. Wasn't called until 0130 3rd January 2005. At no stage was I told what was going on officially and what they had to do.
Around 2330 I think, a flight arrived but we had to wait anyway till 0100. So pity those people who were crammed in there for one hour...
Then on board was told that this is a QF52 flight from Singapore rerouted to Jakarta (Boeing 737-400) going to Brisbane. Administration prevented the flight to takeoff till around 0200. Total 5hrs 10mins delay. Apology was given.
Arrived in Brisbane around 9 or 10am local time I think. Long queues in Customs because of the combined QF52 and QF42. Then another long queues to the domestic kiosk (the one in International arrival hall). Missed my scheduled flight and ended up an a CityFlyer plane and arrived in Melbourne I think around 2:30pm local time.
I think that added up to 7 hrs delays in total. In the process, I talked to a few gentlemen who claimed to be on business trips and said that they would never fly with QF again.
Now about the train, yes they had train but by the time I got the boarding pass, I was given only 20 mins to get there. Went to the train station and because it was Monday (3rd Jan is NY day in Lieu), it didn't arrive in time so I decided to race it with a taxi and by the way, the QF lady did advise me to take the cabs.
The cabbie wasn't happy with having to work for $10 because he told me I should've asked for a taxi voucher. I said I did but QF said don't waste anymore time and run.
It's not only the delays, the overall employees were not helpful. Compare with Cathay and SIA which would do everything to make you feel comfy or less inconvenience, these people just didn't say anything. I suppose it's better to shut up rather than say anything and risk being yelled back.
That's the entire QF42 man!!!
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