Qantas hit by cyber attack

Qantas has hit data turbulence after “a cyber incident”.

Around six million customers of the Australian airline have potentially been affected after the attack occurred in one of its contact centres in Manila, impacting customer data. The dangers of outsourcing to save money. 

“We understand this will be concerning for customers,” the airline said in a media statement. “We are currently contacting customers to make them aware of the incident, apologise and provide details on the support available.”

The incident occurred when a cyber criminal targeted a call centre and gained access to a third party customer servicing platform.

There is no impact to Qantas’ operations or the safety of the airline.

Importantly, credit card details, personal financial information and passport details are not held in this system, Qantas said. No frequent flyer accounts were compromised nor have passwords, PIN numbers or log in details been accessed.

Qantas has notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Given the criminal nature of this incident, the Australian Federal Police has also been notified.

Qantas Group Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Hudson said: “We sincerely apologise to our customers and we recognise the uncertainty this will cause. Our customers trust us with their personal information and we take that responsibility seriously.

“We are contacting our customers today and our focus is on providing them with the necessary support.

“We are working closely with the Federal Government’s National Cyber Security Coordinator, the Australian Cyber Security Centre and independent specialised cyber security experts.”

Bizarrely, Hudson later declined to talk the media. Not a good look. 

Hope you don't mind sitting next to a corpse: Qatar Airways fail

There are loud airline passengers; drunks, seat recliners and seat-back kickers.

But being forced to sit next to corpse for several hours is probably even more unpleasant than dealing with those low life types.

An Australian couple said they were ‘traumatised’ after being forced to sit next to the body of a woman who died mid-flight during a trip to Europe.

A woman collapsed in the aisle near to where Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were sitting in their seats on a Qatar Airways flight - and the woman's body was allegedly placed in an aisle seat next to the couple.

The woman allegedly could not be moved due to her size, the couple said.

Blankets were placed over the dead woman.

When the flight landed in Doha, the couple were asked to remain in their seats while police and a medical crew removed the woman from the plane.

Qatar Airlines said it is ‘in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures".

Which makes it a bit bloody slow.

“First and foremost, our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight," the airline said.

"We apologise for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused.”

Which is just not good enough, is it?

The couple should have had their fares refunded or been upgraded at the very least.

Qatar Airways is owned by the Qatari government and recently entered a partnership agreement with Virgin Australia.

It will need to do a lot better if it doesn't want to alienate Australian passengers. Who are highly likely to speak up about events like this. 

Qantas issues apology after app security failure

Qantas has issued an e-mail apology to frequent flyers after this week's security issue with its Qantas app.

Thousands of flyers reported accessing info and tickets of other travellers when signing on to the app. Some could even print boarding passes for travellers other than themselves.

"On Wednesday we experienced an issue with the homepage of the Qantas App," the Australian airline said in the message.

"We want to apologise to all our impacted customers and assure you that the App is stable and operating normally.

"We have now identified the root cause and can confirm that this was a technology issue, and there is no evidence of a cyber incident.

"Qantas takes the security and privacy of our customers' data seriously and we want you to know that we have done everything we can to fully understand what went wrong so we can prevent it happening again.

"If you have upcoming travel, there is nothing you need to do. You can check your flight details at anytime on the Qantas App or website as usual.

"We will contact you directly if we determine that your sensitive travel information has been incorrectly displayed to another person.

"Please accept our sincere apologies."

Major airline offers big apology

As it clears a backlog of around 30,000 delayed bags, Emirates Airline has issued a rare fulsome apology for its failings.

Airline president Sir Tim Clark admitted that the airline had let down its customers through a lack of contingency planning after the United Arab Emirates was last week hit by storms and unprecedented flooding.

"I would like to offer our most sincere apologies to every customer who has had their travel plans disrupted during this time," Clark said.

"On Tuesday, April 16, the UAE experienced its highest rainfall in 75 years.

"Lashing storm winds and rain disrupted activity across the cities. Our 24/7 hub in Dubai remained open, with flight movements reduced for safety, but flooded roads impeded the ability of our customers, pilots, cabin crew, and airport employees to reach the airport, and also the movement of essential supplies like meals and other flight amenities.

"We diverted dozens of flights to avoid the worst of the weather on Tuesday, and over the next three days we had to cancel nearly 400 flights and delay many more, as our hub operations remained challenged by staffing and supply shortages."

The chaos extended to suspending check-in for passengers departing Dubai, implementing an embargo on ticket sales, and temporarily halting connecting passenger traffic from points across the network coming into Dubai.

"We sent over 100 employee volunteers to look after disrupted customers at Dubai Airport departures and in the transit area, prioritising medical cases, the elderly and other vulnerable travellers," Clark said.

"To date, over 12,000 hotel rooms were secured to accommodate disrupted customers in Dubai, 250,000 meal vouchers have been issued, and more quantities of drinking water, blankets, and other amenities."

But a lot of customers were extremely unhappy that Emirates had no plans to deal with the chaos and were left to fend for themselves in the airport. .

"We have put together a taskforce to sort, reconcile, and deliver some 30,000 pieces of left-behind baggage to their owners," Clark said.

"We know our response has been far from perfect. We acknowledge and understand the frustration of our customers due to the congestion, lack of information, and confusion in the terminals. We acknowledge that the long queues and wait times have been unacceptable."

Among the stranded baggage was that of Australians en route to Gallipoli for Anzac Day events. 

Personally, I'm not surprised. A while back I need information and help from Emirates' PR team. The response was underwhelming and I vowed to avoid them, where possible, in the future.

When a cruise turns into a nightmare

It was supposed to be a leisurely late autumn European cruise.

It didn't work out that way.

Around 100 people were injured on board a Saga cruise ship this week after storms off the coasts of France and Spain.

Fortunately, none of the injuries were thought to be serious and Saga said only five people needed medical treatment, Travel Mole reported.

The Spirit of Discovery, carrying over 1000 people, had cancelled its last port of call in Las Palmas with predictions for an imminent storm. It then headed for La Coruna, where the port was closed.

In rough seas, Spirit of Discovery's propulsion safety system was activated, causing it to veer suddenly to the left, bringing the vessel to a sudden halt. Passengers were thrown around.  

Spirit of Discovery was on a round-trip voyage to the Canary Islands from Portsmouth when severe weather hit in the Bay of Biscay.

The ship had departed the UK on October 24 on a 14-night ‘Canary Island Quintet’ cruise.

“While the weather is clearly beyond our control, we want to offer our sincere apologies to all those affected,” Saga said in a statement.

“Spirit of Discovery has arrived safely back in port and all passengers have disembarked and are on their way home.

"We have apologised to all our guests who experienced such difficult weather conditions; we know that this was a very distressing experience for them.

"We operate to the highest health and safety protocols and every decision was made based on advice from the ship’s Master and forecasts from our dedicated marine meteorologists.

"We did everything we could at all times to keep our guests as safe as possible and to support them through the storm, including expert medical attention for those injured. I want to thank our guests for their patience and understanding and all our crew, who went over and above to care for everyone onboard."

Qantas apologises for recent failings

A few weeks ago Qantas boss Alan Joyce accused flyers of not being “match fit” and partially responsible for Australian airport chaos.

Now the leprechaun has changed his tune, reaching out to frequent flyers and issuing a fulsome apology for the airline’s failures.

Qantas will on Monday contact millions of its customers to formally apologise for recent operational challenges and thank them for their patience as the national carrier works to lift its game after Covid.

The airline is rolling out a range of initiatives to improve mishandled bags and on-time performance as it also deals with high levels of sick leave and a labour shortage after it sacked a swag of union members.

Qantas says it has hired 1,500 new people since April with more to come, adjusted flight schedules and invested $15 million in new technology at key airports to help smooth the travel experience.

Speaking via an email and video message being sent on Monday, Qantas Group CEO Joyce acknowledged while it was great to see people back on-board after so long on the ground, the return to flying hasn’t all gone well.

“Over the past few months, too many of you have had flights delayed, flights cancelled and bags misplaced,” he said. “There are good reasons why, but when it comes to what you expect from Qantas, it’s not good enough.

“On behalf of the national carrier, I want to apologise and assure you that we’re working hard to get back to our best.

“We’re already seeing a sustained improvement in baggage handling and on-time performance, and while factors out of our control like weather can have an impact on our schedule, we expect things to keep improving each week.

“As well as saying sorry, we also want to say thank you. We’re investing in a range of initiatives including status extensions for Frequent Flyers Silver and above, thousands of Qantas Points and lounge passes.

“All our Frequent Flyers in Australia and New Zealand will be offered $50 towards a return Qantas flight, which equates to many millions in discounts.”

Qantas will also boost Classic Reward seat availability for bookings made with points.

Meet the airline brave enough to apologise for its failures

While Air Canada simply ignores customers after leaving them stranded without their baggage and Qantas chief Alan Joyce blames his customers for airport chaos saying they are not "match fit", at least one airline has had the decency to apologise for its post-Covid incompetence. 

KLM, the Dutch national carrier, has admitted to failures and sent an apologetic email to customers. Refreshing.

"If you have flown recently or are planning to do so in the coming weeks, you will have noticed that airlines and airports all over Europe were not sufficiently prepared to cope with rapidly increasing numbers of passengers," KLM president and CEO Marjan Rintel wrote.

"This has also impacted many KLM passengers, and I sincerely apologise to those of you who experienced a disruption or lost a suitcase when flying with KLM this summer. We simply must do better, and in addition to earlier actions, we have taken several steps to improve our performance:"

Rintel says KLM reduced its number of flights swiftly "to go back to the reliable service and quality you may expect from KLM".

He said the airline does not sell all available seats and therefore keeps some seats available for passengers who have missed a flight or had their original flight cancelled. Which is eminently sensible and decent.

KLM has also extended transfer times between flights, giving passengers more time to make connecting flights at Schiphol Airport. 

"Solving our operational challenges is KLM’s top priority," says Rintel. "Every day 28.000 KLM colleagues work around the clock in challenging circumstances to get you and your luggage to your destination in a comfortable and timely way - as you may and, of course, should expect from us.

"In most cases, we definitely do. However, in recent weeks the main issue related to late delivered and/or misplaced luggage. We have put additional measures and resources in place to get the luggage back to its owners and solve the necessary aftercare and claims.

"We have hired extra people in our Customer Care Centres to support this effort, but because of some backlog, they are not yet as available for our customers as we want them to be. We understand that this is very frustrating and can leave customers feeling abandoned. But rest assured that we are working on your case.

"In the spirit of honesty and transparency, I felt it essential to reach out and apologize to those of you who were directly affected. We will do our utmost to restore your confidence. Millions of passengers choose to fly KLM each summer, and it is in these difficult times that we must show what we’re made of to continue to earn and deserve your trust in our brand."

Bravo!