Qantas head apologises for upset holiday

Press, 31 March 1980, Page 6

Qantas head apologises for upset holiday

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor

The chairman of Qantas (Sir Lennox Hewitt) has apologised on behalf of the airline to a Christchurch man for upsetting his holiday p1an5...,..,. ; '« Mr G. Allen, one of 12,000 people affected by the. airline’s winter rescheduling of flights between Christchurch and Australia from April 1. was so annoyed about having his travel arrangements for the May -school holidays thrown into disarray that he fired a terse cable to Sir Lennox last week. ' . ;

The cable said he. believed the dates shown on his original ticket formed the basis of a contract and should be honoured.; .

The travel industry’s reaction to the airline’s changes was highlighted in a frontpage report in “The Press” on Saturday. Apologising and expressing “much regret for the necessity for rescheduling,” Sir Lennox told Mr Allen in a telegram that die timetable changes were,, made ‘‘after discussion with Air New Zealand to provide improved distribution of flights be-

tween New Zealand and Australia.” ' • : - •

Sir Lennox said he regretted that Qantas could now no longer carry Mr and Mrs Allen to Melbourne on May 9 and home again from Sydney on May 21, offering instead flights on May-7 and May 20 (Mrs Allen is a teacher and the school’term does not finish until May 9). “The company’s general conditions of carriage which form part of the contract to which you have referred provide that schedules are subject to change without notice,” said Sir Lennox in his reply.

Mr Allen said that if the rescheduling had been discussed with . Air New Zealand,, then some arrangements should ;have beenimade for that airline to accommodate. any Qantas passengers unsuited I>y -the: new timetable.

A “My wife will still be at work on May 7, the day Qantas want us to travel, and we now cannot get on the Air New Zealand flight to Melbourne bn the Sunday (May 11),” he said. “It seems to be a ‘take it or leave-’it’ attitude.” '■