Why do fisherpeople think they are above everyone else with their smelly bait, waders and tall stories.
From a regional perspective the number of times prospective pax wanted to take their 20 foot or 6m surf rods with them in the back of an SF3, only to get upset when asked if they broke down into something no bigger than 2m in length was numerous.
And then they would have the hide to ask about how they could fly all their fish back. The steam from the phone when told the max allowance ie 14/15kgs and any excess might be sent FOC on the remaining days flights, but if it spoiled was at the pax responsibility was legendary.
They could not understand that they were wanting 4WD freight allowance, but wanting bus fares with aircraft speed!
And lets not get started about the surfies wanting to take their boards to seek nirvana, and I don't mean the band.
Conditions of Carriage are clearly stated for all to read including luggage allowances.
Travel Insurance companies will not repeat not cover for missed flight connections as the cost is prohibitive.
So when the weather closes aerodromes what option is their for the airline.
If the fare was a flat $500 for every seat, on every flight year round, such a fare allowing for such incidents where pax are overnighted, would all pax be happy paying that? I don't think so.
So where is the line drawn?
Agree that J* couldv'e handled the
PR side perhaps a bit better. But it was an operational requirement and I bet there is not a single contributor nor reader of PPRUNE that has not had to endure weather induced delays or cancellations but still continues to fly on whatever fare they think is a fair amount for the price and convenience offered.
If you were Mr Joyce, what would you have done?
I agree with Ferris that sometimes its all a bit of a one way street.
Imagine the
PR kudos an airline could achieve if via the pax profile, the amount of time the pax was delayed was logged, which could be credited towards those times when one arrived late at check-in or needed to change the flight on say day of travel only.
The back office would be a nightmare (means trusting crew, to start with, to truthfully log actual beacons on/wheels up - wheels down/beacons off times which might affect any OTP bonuses) but the public might just go for it.
But I'm not holding my breath that's for sure.
Rock on!