Qantas is back in the air
This news actually came at around 2am last night... meant to post it then but couldn't get through to this site for some reason.
Lots of people rely on Qantas to get to and from Thailand. You've probably all heard Qantas ordered immediate grounding of all flights on Saturday due to neverending hassles, strikes, threats and bullying from the dickhead unions.
It's caused widespread chaos all over the world. There were actually planes sitting on the tarmac getting ready to take off in LA, for example, that were ordered to disembark. Lots of people stranded in Bangkok, which Qantas uses as a stopover for Sydney-London route.
Around 2am last night (i.e. Monday morning) the Fair Work Australia Tribunal ruled unions must halt industrial action (i.e. strikes) so Qantas can fly and all parties have 21 days to negotiate an agreement. This means you can rely on Qantas to be reliable for at least the next three weeks. After that, if they haven't reached an agreement, they have to submit to compulsory arbitration to resolve the disputes. So basically, Qantas should be a safe bet for the near future.
Since 2am last night (this morning), it's actually taken a number of hours to get flights going again but apparently domestic and international flights are flying again now.
This is good news, even if you don't have any flights booked with Qantas (I don't) because with Qantas grounded, all their passengers would've been crowding other airlines and making it difficult to get seats if you needed to change your flights etc. I had flights booked with Qantas last week but changed to Virgin a couple of days before they were grounded, thank goodness!
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I've found the best and most up to date info is here (LIVE COVERAGE updated every 90 secs): http://www.smh.com.au/travel/live-cover ... 1mqtm.html
If you're interested, yesterday's live coverage roll is here: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-new ... 1mq0o.html
Has anyone had flights to Thailand booked with Qantas? What's your experience been?
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Bit of trivia: The CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce is gay and has been in a relationship with a New Zealand guy for 12 years now. Good on him!
