Not there yet!

Last bit of New York, out for breakfast at Friedmans 

Note the "A" in the window.

And the only city more expensive than Phillidelphia for parking

Never having experienced serious delays, of failed to arrive after taking off, in the airline parts of our travels we feel  this contemporaneous account of the QF 18 from JFK.  The driver of the bus collected us at the hotel at 1.30 p.m. local time so the time line will begin there,as zero hour.  That bus ride was quite interesting, but it is obvious that the driver had done this trip many times, and may have done this one with his eyes closed.  It was the first Australian accent we had heard in six weeks though.....

+ 1 hour arrived at JFK and the check in chick could not have cared less, and it wasn't til we nearly got to the sterile area that we discovered that we hadn't even been seated together.

+ 5 hours advised the incoming flight was late so we would be leaving half and hour late.

+ 5.5 hrs left the gate. 

There are now 25 planes in the row waiting for take off.  But then due to storm over Central US we were given a re routed route from the original route to  the north along the Canadian border, then south to Vegas then to LA.

+7 hours  we have waited too long so there is not enough fuel so have to load up another 18 tonnes of fuel   On runway for an hour..before returning to gate for re fuelling before we have even left the ground, but  then Sydney had to negotiate with Icelandic airways to use fuelling bay nine two hours after we left gate three At this time we have already missed the connecting flight so nave no idea what's going on...

+ 8 .5 hours 9.20p.m start refuelling  another 18 tons of fuel.  (Finished watching the film Lincoln)

+ 9.5 hours already 10 pm ( NY time)missed connecting flight...crew don't know what's going on yet...but working on it. Leaving bay 9, and to the taxi way.......

9.20p.m start refuelling  another 8 tons of fuel

10.15 taxi to runway ...

10.26 a favour Atc given us Quebec runway overtaking 15 waiting aircraft....

10.32 take off  4 hours late 3.5 hours in the plane before take off. 4 hours lat

+ 13.5 hrs 3.35 ny land lax we are now told that our re scheduled flight will be landing in Sydney, so we've apparently blown our duty free.

+ 15.5 hrs board 5.45 am ny time.

+16 hrs. The captain tells us the containers  have been loaded incorrectly, so we will be here another 30 to 40 minutes so it is reasonable to suggest we are starting to get a bit grumpy...

+18.5. 0800 ny time the captain is not happy with paperwork so the air bridge in coming back.

+19.00 0830 ny time taxi out. 3 hours late lax

+19.5 hrs  0900 ny time take off, ot is now light so what that means is that we will be flying in the day all the way to Sydney 

+33.5 hrs tending to landing at Sydney 

+35.5hours left Sydney in separate seats, expressed our concerns to Qantas particularly about the hundreds of  extra transit passengers and only two cattle class check in counters open.

+37 hrs back in Melbourne 2 15 am ny time (a day and a half after we started )

+38.5 rs 415 ny timeHome by good graces of Patrick, Saasha, Elroy and Noah 

We are really disappointed with Qantas, particularly the delays which happened in respect of the reasons for the flight leaving JFK late in the first place. It is hurricane season in the US. It was on theTV.  It was on the weather charts at the Airport about the big storms in the central parts.  But at the busiest airport in the world the flight deck crew chose to leave the gate never in their wildest imaginations any anticipation that they might be rerouted, and after lining up behind thirty other aircraft, advised of the rerouting, then decided that we didn't have enough fuel so had to get back to the gate and negotiate to get a spot to fill up..AT JFK!!!!!  How can a reasonable aircrew not anticipate or plan for  this severe weather/ re routing contingency?

The delay at LAX, should not have happened either.  It was due to the apparent incompetence of Qantas (contracted ) ground staff who in incorrectly loaded the aircraft at Thankful that the captain picked this up but his crew should have not let it happen.

The Qantas cabin crew from LAX to Sydney were at best beige, but a bit slack.

 

We were quite impressed with the management of the logistics of the reallocation of "missed flights" by your company..that was well done.( no matter how annoyed we were for the unnecessary delay)

This delay also cost us a number of duty free"bargains" (not equalled in Sydney) which we were ineligible to collect due to Qantas taking us to Sydney rather than Melbourne where we should have arrived as international arrivals. The incoming duty free at Sydney was crap.

Most o these 'unavoidable delays' were avoidable.