Qantas in the firing line over Dallas Fort Worth fiasco

The airline’s customer service has come under fire after a plane-load of passengers was left stranded at Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

Engineering issues with a Qantas Boeing 787-9 has been blamed for more than 300 passengers stranded at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. Picture: David Gray/Getty

Qantas has copped a barrage of abuse on social media after leaving a plane-load of passengers stranded at Dallas Fort Worth airport in the US after their aircraft had an engineering issue.

More than 300 people were on the Boeing 787-9 to fly to Sydney on Wednesday night when the flight crew realised there was an issue after the aircraft was pushed back from the gate.

The problem took longer than expected to resolve, and the flight was delayed for a second time due to Sydney Airport curfew restrictions.

Although attempts were made to secure passengers’ accommodation, a lack of available hotel rooms saw them told they could make their own arrangements and they would be reimbursed.

With the closest hotel a $100 Uber drive away, most passengers opted to sleep on the floor of the airport until the next flight “check-in” at 9am.

By this point it is Lord of the Flies. A planeload of people is at checkin with nowhere to go and no guidance, the Qantas desk isn't just unmanned it has become a Lufthsana desk, and 300 people have checked bags to nowhere.

— Eleanor Gordon-Smith (@TheRealEGS) June 15, 2022

Unfortunately, Qantas employees were nowhere to be found at that time, creating further confusion among passengers.

“A plane-load of people is at check in with nowhere to go and no guidance,” tweeted Eleanor Gordon-Smith in a thread liked by almost 1500 people and retweeted more than 500 times.

“The Qantas desk isn’t just unmanned it has become a Lufthansa desk, and 300 people have checked bags to nowhere.”

A Qantas spokesman apologised for the inconvenience.

“We know this is a difficult situation for our customers whose plans have been disrupted,” he said.

“Our team at Dallas Fort Worth Airport provided customers with assistance after the initial delay and are helping customers ahead of the delayed departure.”

i am absolutely not on twitter for consumer complaints *but* wtf is going on with @qantas. my flight of 200+ people (incl bunch of small kids) has been stuck at dallas, delayed overnight, no update for 15+ hours. almost as if sacking loads of engineers and ground staff is... bad?

— Brynn O'Brien (@brynnobrien) June 15, 2022

Flight QF8 eventually took off one day and 2.5-hours late, with an expected arrival into Sydney just before 7am on Friday.

Qantas customers seized upon Ms Gordon-Smith’s posts, to highlight their own experiences of long call wait times, poor customer service, and unusable flight credits.

Misplaced bags have also been a frequent issue for the airline since the ramp up in air travellers — both domestic and international.

Brisbane’s Josie Thomson told The Australian she had been waiting for 16 days to be reunited with her bag that failed to arrive on a flight from Melbourne.

Although the airline confirmed the bag was registered going on to the flight, there was no evidence it came off.

Ms Thomson said when she called Qantas she was directed to a website with a tracking number, which simply showed that “tracing was continuing”.

“I’ve always been happy to pay a premium for Qantas because I could rely on a certain standard of customer service but now that seems to have gone and I think my loyalty has gone as well.”