Christmas Is - Holiday he'll never forget
 

My brother-in-law booked a holiday with 7 days on Christmas, then 7 days on Cocos-Keeling. Arrived on Christmas last week, and he was lucky enough to see the crab migration. But bad weather meant his flight to Cocos was cancelled, and apparently Virgin wanted to refund his return fare(!) because there were no seats available out of Christmas - all flights booked solid. So he was stuck on Christmas until he was told he could fly back to Perth on Fri 3rd. Plane was an hour late, and when it did land it was declared U/S - something to do with the gear?? He finally made it back on Sat 4th, but had to go via Learmonth - apparently there was a shortage of fuel at Christmas?
So i was interested to know:
- if anyone can say what the problem with the Friday plane was?
- what the story is with jet fuel on Christmas? Brother-in-law had heard that the rough weather meant the supply ship couldn't unload jet fuel. Can a 737 tanker enough fuel out to Christmas to make it back to Perth?
Anyway - it's a holiday he'll never forget :)

VH-VNP. What more is there to say. Alongside B and J some of the most unreliable A320s around.

Island life! Wonderful place

The northerly swell means the ISO tainers of Jet Fuel have not been able to be unloaded on the wharf since September (common in the wet season as the wharf is on the north of the island and the swell and winds at this time of year are from the north).

More importantly, the island is on serious beer rations as the beer is on the ship too.

As for aircraft breakdowns, yes it happens. Remote ops come with a risk of delay. Then look at the TAFs and METARs... translate this for your BIL: TAF AMD YPXM 032142Z 0321/0418 16008KT 0500 FOG OVC001 FM040300 13008KT 9999 SHOWERS OF LIGHT RAIN BKN003 TEMPO 0321/0418 VRB20G35KT 0200 THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY RAIN BKN001
SCT015CB

He saw the crab migration and he's complaining?:bored:

Flying out there with extra pannier tanks on a BAe 146 with Ansett in the 90s we had to commit to the island from a PNR decision point out of Learmonth. I.e. once we passed the PNR we couldn’t land anywhere else ... so I would be surprised if a 737 could carry fuel For Perth.

Well that’s why it’s called a Point of No Return! :}

Well, normally the PNR is for returning and you still have a couple of options in front of you - like a destination and an alternate.

I should have written LPSD - Last Point of Safe Diversion. :D

Checkers… in the Brave new CASA world, it seems that’s now called a Critical Point…. CASA dictionary and 121 MOS refer.

Well that's gonna cause confusion. In other parts of the world the CP is the ETP, separate and apart from PNR, which is different from the PSD........

OK, so my brother in law is sitting on Christmas Island, his return flight has been cancelled, and he's wondering which of the many transport options (plane, ship, train, swimming, matter transport machine, fax, etc) he can use to get back home to Perth - and he gets this message from Virgin:

"We're sorry that we've had to make some adjustments to our network due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and subdued customer demand for travel.Unfortunately, your upcoming flight/s has been cancelled, and we have been unable to accommodate you on an alternative service.If you would like to rebook to another destination on our network, please see our current domestic schedule here. To make a booking, please call our Guest Contact Centre on 13 67 89 (if calling from within Australia) or +61 7 3295 2296 (if calling from outside Australia).

Alternatively, you can contact the Guest Contact Centre to request either a travel credit or a refund to your original form of payment. Your entitlement will depend on when you made your booking and how you paid for your booking."

Ya couldn't make this stuff up!

Say what?? :{

Well,
as much as your brother in law has my sympathies,
I think he was ultra brave to embark on such an alternative holiday in all of the circumstances considered.
He could always charter a flight to come out to Christmas Island to pick him up but I suppose it is Virgins problem and he will wait for the next decade for them to solve his problem, Covid and McGowan permitting.