In Reply to: Departure times posted by Lollylover on Tuesday, 21. August 2007 at 13:21 Bali Time:
Garuda did not tell us that my Dads plane was delayed from 8am until 8.30am!! This was about 4 weeks ago.
He had not idea what was going on. I DID check (you call a Qantas number) before departing for the airport. Even up until the time I left him at the airport the board was still stating 8am.
Still got no idea what time his flight left as they got him on another flight (that had been delayed by several hours) at 1.30pm. They only got 7 onto it though. He had to been downgraded from business to get on and he felt that only the executive class got on.
He said there were some really irate people, especially families that had gotten their children up early. Children cranky and tired and no idea when they were going to leave. He said it was like a scene from "Airport". The difference is that Garuda are not a cut price airline like Ryaniar or similar though, who seem to have the most problems. The weather is rarely a factor either.
Recently seeing more friends off on Qantas I saw that the 8am. AND the 5.45 were both delayed on the board and this was 11am.
Qantas left on time and my personal experience over several years is they are rarely delayed.
Garuda have always been unreliable but lately seem to be having serious problems. One person who claimed he knew what he was talking told Dad that they had no contingency plans in place for just about anything that could go wrong, so even a simple problem became a major delay.
People who are getting away for a short break are seriously disadvantaged by losing that first day.
Perhpas operating on a shoestring doesn't help???