Hi all, after a late arriving aircraft and narrowly missing the SYD curfew a few nights ago, I've realised I haven't really been that savvy in avoiding delays, nor taking precautionary steps to make sure I'm not too put out when a delay does occur (I've just started frequently taking short-haul sectors only recently).
So what are your strategies and tips for making sure you get home sooner rather than later? Do you deliberately avoid services that has a weaker on-time performance, or making sure there's a later service to fallback on if possible? And if you are delayed, do you have any particular strategies to make it a bit less stressful (besides pestering the lounge desk dragons to be onloaded to another flight)?
I think you have some good points there re: ensuring later services are available (if connecting I try to book so as to allow for one 'back-up' flight). Sydney curfew is hard to work around, could connecting through Melb be an option for you as they have a later curfew?
As for delays, mitigation strategies in part depend on the airline you fly. What is your primary/secondary choices?
In general, for Virgin Australia, I've found that the flights they operate with their Embraer 190 aircraft (most especially between Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane) to be the first to get the axe (e.g. not even delayed). I suspect this is as a result of load (for these flights seem to operate at the mid-peak times (e.g. between the major services operated by the 737 fleet)). As a result I avoid the E90's like the plague (esp. as they don't have seats particularly tailored for those of above-average height).
For Qanatas-operated flights, I've not encounterd too much strife, but when I have expereienced delays its usually on their 737 aircraft on account of boarding delays: the 767's & 330's board much faster on account of the twin-asile dispersion of boarding pax in my experience.
Lastly, re: avoiding services that have poor on-time performance: to an extent I do take this into consideration, especially whilst considering flights into Brisbane in the morning (for anything that arrives at BNE peak can, it seems, be more likely to suffer delays inbound to BNE, sometimes backing up all the way to the gate in SYD depending on your time of departure. The earlier ones seem to do better (e.g. in Summer, the flights departing 7:30am and before).
Hope this helps!
N
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on
Your strategies for mitigating delays?
mr_pb
mr_pb
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 01 Oct 2013
Total posts 31
Your strategies for mitigating delays?
Hi all, after a late arriving aircraft and narrowly missing the SYD curfew a few nights ago, I've realised I haven't really been that savvy in avoiding delays, nor taking precautionary steps to make sure I'm not too put out when a delay does occur (I've just started frequently taking short-haul sectors only recently).
So what are your strategies and tips for making sure you get home sooner rather than later? Do you deliberately avoid services that has a weaker on-time performance, or making sure there's a later service to fallback on if possible? And if you are delayed, do you have any particular strategies to make it a bit less stressful (besides pestering the lounge desk dragons to be onloaded to another flight)?
Thanks!
slim
slim
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 29 May 2013
Total posts 46
Hi P.B.,
I think you have some good points there re: ensuring later services are available (if connecting I try to book so as to allow for one 'back-up' flight). Sydney curfew is hard to work around, could connecting through Melb be an option for you as they have a later curfew?
As for delays, mitigation strategies in part depend on the airline you fly. What is your primary/secondary choices?
In general, for Virgin Australia, I've found that the flights they operate with their Embraer 190 aircraft (most especially between Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane) to be the first to get the axe (e.g. not even delayed). I suspect this is as a result of load (for these flights seem to operate at the mid-peak times (e.g. between the major services operated by the 737 fleet)). As a result I avoid the E90's like the plague (esp. as they don't have seats particularly tailored for those of above-average height).
For Qanatas-operated flights, I've not encounterd too much strife, but when I have expereienced delays its usually on their 737 aircraft on account of boarding delays: the 767's & 330's board much faster on account of the twin-asile dispersion of boarding pax in my experience.
Lastly, re: avoiding services that have poor on-time performance: to an extent I do take this into consideration, especially whilst considering flights into Brisbane in the morning (for anything that arrives at BNE peak can, it seems, be more likely to suffer delays inbound to BNE, sometimes backing up all the way to the gate in SYD depending on your time of departure. The earlier ones seem to do better (e.g. in Summer, the flights departing 7:30am and before).
Hope this helps!
N