Blogsey I believe Qantas cancelled their flights because of a lack of data about these clouds compared to the ones it operates near around other parts of the world. And before you all knock the airline it operates into the same areas as Cathay, Singapore etc so it does have experience operating in these areas. This I believe is why they are using research aircraft to try and get some data, at least they are doing something to try and find a remedy to the problem.
They decided not to fly under the cloud for their own reasons, and different airlines flew under the cloud at different levels. I sometimes need to ask myself why some airlines are prepared to fly under the cloud at FL200 and not at FL180? Whats the difference? Why are ANZ and VA prepared to fly at different levels? Would be nice to know but hey thats what the airlines decide, all airlines have a set of guidelines they use ( i hope!)
Personally i agree with flight operations on the decision after hearing the reasons why, but i think the letter put out by AJ to FF was just another indication of how out of depth the upper management is at the moment. The guy is a fool and we all know that, and what do you really expect?
If he was smart he would have contacted the other CEO's and they could have worked together to try to get more accurate modelling/ data so the impact of this situation is reduced. Instead he started a my "safety" is bigger than yours fight. Its embarrassing to the operational staff that have to make and deal with these events.