Qantas resumes services

As a valued Qantas industry partner, I am pleased to advise you that Qantas has resumed services from 15h40 on Monday 31 October 2011 Sydney time. Operations will resume progressively and we expect to be flying our full schedule in 24-48 hours. Safety will remain our first priority at all times.

Fair Work Australia granted the Government’s application to terminate all industrial action in relation to the Qantas dispute. All industrial action is now over. You can again book Qantas flights for your customers with confidence and certainty.

The past few months have been very challenging for the industry and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and stress this situation has caused. We will do everything we can to make things right and are will offer your customers refunds, fully flexible re-booking options and reimbursement of expenses for any travel that was affected.

We now look forward to a period of stability which will allow us to return our focus to building a stronger Qantas.

Sydney – Australian carrier Qantas on Monday said it would cancel 28 flights and delay a further 27 due to a ground staff strike this week which would impact more than 6 000 passengers.

The strike will hit most of the major Australian airports during Tuesday’s morning peak period, with 3 800 baggage handlers and other ground staff to walk off the job for four hours over stalled contract negotiations.

Qantas said it would cancel 28 flights and delay another 27 by up to 35 minutes due to the industrial action, which it hoped to tackle by deploying larger aircraft and using management staff in ground roles.

Source

QANTAS has announced that advance seating requests in Economy Class are now chargeable.

Ok sure if you are like me than it can take a few times of reading the above to actually believe it. You are correct if you understand that if you want to pre book a seat on Qantas you need to pay for it.

The airline has begun charging economy passengers $20 per person per leg of the journey to select a seat via its website.

Makes you think – as travellers we were spoilt in the past > paper tickets > Free alcohol > Free exit seats > Free date changes > Open dated tickets > free bike carriage > 9% commision > know anymore we can add here ? Drop us a comment.

Is it fair of Travellers to expect better and more service from Travel Agents who are getting less and still delievring top class service and barring the brunt – 0 comm and take the risk of an ADM everytime they assist a traveller?

Rugby World Cup games due to be held in Christchurch during September 2011 and October 2011 have been re-scheduled to other destinations in New Zealand. The following commercial policy options are available to Qantas customers holding a valid Qantas (081) ticket issued on/before 17 March 2011 for travel to/from Christchurch who wish to make changes to their booking for travel between 1 September 2011 and 30 October 2011.
Passengers may, without fee:
• Re-route travel to Wellington, Auckland or Queenstown via the most direct routing using Qantas.
• Retain the value of the ticket in credit for future travel within 12 months from the original ticketed date of departure. If the new fare is more expensive than the existing ticketed fare, the fare difference is payable by the passenger. Applicable ticket taxes may apply.
• Change to destinations (other than Wellington, Auckland or Queenstown).The value of the existing ticket can be used towards the purchase of a new ticket. If the new fare is more expensive than the existing ticket fare, the fare difference is payable by the passenger. Applicable taxes may apply.
• Defer travel as per the conditions outlined (email us for more info)

Qantas has suspended all A380 flights for security reasons after one of its planes was forced to make an emergency landing.

Debris from a super-jumbo Australian passenger jet has been shown on Indonesian television after it suffered engine trouble shortly after take off.

Qantas flight QF32 was travelling from Singapore to Sydney when it was forced to return to Changi airport to make an emergency landing.

More info – source

Due to the high volume of enquiries and demand for overseas holidays during the World Cup 2010, QANTAS has opened availability from V class upwards for departures during June & July.  Fares are being sold at published levels as follows:

PER -  from ZAR 6720 low season (on/before 13 June) and ZAR 8200 shoulder season (on/after 14 June)
SYD/MEL/ADL/BNE – from ZAR 7910 low season (on/before 13 June) and ZAR 9420 shoulder season (on/after 14 June)
AKL/WLG/CHC – from ZAR 9560 low season (on/before 13 June) and ZAR 11070 shoulder season (on/after 14 June)

This I believe is the start of the onslaught of specials and *folding of hands* by the airlines to happen over the next few weeks. Airlines have kept their availability close to their chest in anticipation of ludicrous fares during the World Cup 2010. Timing is of the essence for the airlines and their yield management teams, if they hold on to long and not sell they will have empty seats. So question now is, is this just the start of the availability opening up? I certainly hope so for the sake of travellers looking to travel in bound and out bound during 2010.