[NM]

I guess in some ways this is similar to an incident I experienced in the USA recently with AA. But they handled the situation in a very different manner. Perhaps some lessons for QF/AO staff in Darwin.

I was scheduled to fly MIA-LAX with AA, with a 3 hour connection to a CX flight LAX-HKG. The MIA-LAX flight tookoff on schedule, but about 10 mins into the flight the captain announced there was a technical problem and we would be returning to MIA immediately.

Just before landing the captain announced the problem was due to indications of heat where there should not be heat in one of the 767's engines, and as a precaution we would be met by the fire engines for inspection as soon as we cleared the runway.

After sitting on the aircraft for about an hour, we were finally told the aircraft would take a long time to repair and we would be moving to another aircraft parked at another gate (a good 10-15 minute walk from where we docked).

At that time is was clear many people, including me, would be missing connections at LAX. So I high-tailed it to the new departure gate where we were told an agent would address our connection problems. I was first to arrive at the new gate and started a queue at the service desk. Well, the desk agent did not arrive until just before it was time to board, and she just made an announcement about changes to some AA domestic connections at LAX, nothing about international connection. We were all told to get on board the aircraft and they would sort us at at LAX.

We arrive at LAX just as my CX flight was departing (saw it taxi out from TBI as we taxied into T4). This was 1:30pm. The next flight to HKG was at 11:55pm and it was already oversold. The next flight was 1:55am and also oversold but AA was able to confirm me a J seat. The AAgent at the LAX Admirals Club was an angel. She tried all she could to get me onto the earlier flight. She also called CX to have my bags tracked down and re-tagged to KUL as my flight to HKG would now just make my next flight connection instead of being collected at HKG for my planned overnight hotel stay. She could not have been more helpful.

So I now had a 12 hour wait at LAX airport and finally arrived into HKG at 7am instead of 7pm the night before.

So what did AA do in the end? Without me making any contact, I received an email indicating the MIA station manager was concerned about my experience and AAdvantage have deposited 6000 AA miles into my account by way of an apology for the inconvenience.

And the cream was when CX gave me an operational upgrade to F on the LAX-HKG flight.

I know we like to bag the airlines from the LOTFAP, but in this case they did the right thing by me. Perhaps QF/AO should use this as a lesson on how to treat passengers caught up in flight delays. Some honesty, courtesy and apology for the poor experience go a long way towards customer satisfaction.

Have you received any response from QF regarding your experience?