The Fozard family’s Australian holiday was meant to be the “trip of a lifetime” and they booked with Qantas thinking it was a brand they could trust.
However, exhausted couple Ian and Diane, sons Adam, 12, and Jamie, six and the British couple’s parents yesterday found themselves among tens of thousands of people stranded by the shock grounding of the “Flying Kangaroo.”
Across Australia and in major aviation hubs worldwide, passengers complained of being in the dark and vented their frustration at Qantas’s management, which is in a bitter standoff with unions.
The Fozards were due to fly back to their native Widnes after two “fantastic” weeks of whale watching and sightseeing, but are now holed up in a tiny studio apartment on what now looks to be an endless vacation.
“It was the holiday of a lifetime and I didn’t want to end up stranded somewhere so we thought the best option was to book through a travel agent and book a reputable company,” said Diane Fozard, 38.
The couple were among hundreds of confused and frantic passengers lining up for information at Sydney international airport’s Qantas desk, with many expressing shock and anger that the airline had been grounded without warning.
Many pored over newspaper coverage of the grounding hoping for answers, while staff and passengers alike crowded around TVs and radios in the terminal following the twists in Qantas’s industrial troubles.
Apologetic Qantas staff handed out letters explaining that flights had been axed “indefinitely,” and urged passengers who needed to travel urgently to book tickets through other airlines and to seek reimbursement from Qantas.
However, the airline will not instantly reimburse cash-strapped travelers to allow them to make other arrangements, said J.P. Singh, who needed urgently to get to Melbourne to make a Singapore Airlines flight to New Delhi yesterday.
“Because of the sheer volume it’s impossible for us to do all those refunds, we can’t do that all in one day,” Singh was told by a harried staff member.
Michael Fung, a 57-year-old driving instructor from Brisbane, was in Hong Kong with his wife to attend his niece’s wedding. Now stuck with no onward flight, he was one of many who said their loyalty to Qantas was gone for good.
“The arrangements here are very poor. This is completely unacceptable. I won’t fly this airline anymore,” he said at Hong Kong airport, complaining that Qantas only announced his flight was canceled 15 minutes before departure.
Werely Zhou, a 33-year-old insurance agent from Shenzhen, China, said he had been waiting for hours for news of whether Qantas could rebook him to attend an urgent business meeting in London.
“I must go, our office is there. This is causing so much inconvenience. The airline should be helping us arrange other flights. But instead it’s very chaotic,” he said. “Qantas should make better arrangements, and not just leave us here and not care.”
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