Air Pacific gets it so wrong

In the wake of the recent issues Jetstar suffered with technical breakdowns massively delaying passengers flying from Hawaii to Australia, it appears that Air Pacific has now suffered the same fate.

Melburnians Jo Shoppie and Max Coles told The Mole on location in Fiji that they and their two children of four and half months and three and half years did not reckon getting to Fiji would take as long as it did recently.

They left Melbourne for a week in Noossa as a precursor to their idyllic Fijian island holiday at Castaway, turning up at Brisbane Airport to be checked in for their Air Pacific flight at 11:55pm on the Monday night 7 May, only to find out at about 1:00am after boarding that their flight would be delayed due to technical issue and that they would have to get off the aircraft.

With their flight finally departing on Tuesday night 7 May at 6:30pm, read on to find out how this his departure miraculously appeared after at one point Air Pacific attempting to fly them back to Melbourne to fly on that night’s flight to Nadi at 1:00am from Melbourne and Channel 9’s Current Affair appearing on the scene!

Jo said, “The quality and frequency of information provided was pretty appalling.”  “During the following day after our cancelled departure, day we had three updates, one saying that they were on a 3:30pm flight, then one saying that we would leave on a 5:30pm flight that they were still waiting for a part and then that they that were going to fly us at 6:30pm to Melbourne for the 1:00am flight.”  “That was when I lost it as we have two very young kids and they wanted to fly us back to where we came from!”

“We were not time constrained really, we just wanted to get on with our holiday at Castaway, which we had visited briefly last year and had immediately booked to go back for longer.”  “There were I think three couples travelling over to Fiji for weddings, funerals etc, and the level of care by Air Pacific was very low indeed.”

“They did put us into a hotel, the Sebel Citibank, which was pretty basic and less than adequate and while we had our own room with two double beds, we were told three other adults were made to share a room with one bed in it”.  Our room was tiny though and we had to climb over the beds to get to the cot.”

“Bear in mind that we arrived at the hotel at 3:30am in the morning with two very young and grumpy kids and they had intended putting us all in bus which would have taken another hour, but when I blew my fuse they put us in a taxi to the hotel.”

“We did receive patchy updates throughout the day and it was not until Current Affair arrived and started filming that things started happening and suddenly in the middle of that interview, there was a flight leaving direct from Brisbane for Nadi in two hours, so everyone scattered to make sure they were on the flight.”

Interestingly, it turned out that it was actually the same aircraft as we had the same seats and we had mistakenly left a small baby bottle on the flight after we had been boarded initially the night before and it was still in the seat, the aircraft not having been cleaned.”

“What is also interesting is that when the Captain told us that we had to get off the aircraft due to a technical issue, he said that aircraft had the same technical issue when it left Nadi, but the he had decided to leave with it as it was.”  “I don’t know how true that is, but that is what we were told.”

“When we got to Nadi I basically camped in the Air Pacific Office in the airport until they agreed to pick up the tab for an extra night here.  In Brisbane the Qantas people were great but the Air Pacific people were not – I will be getting in touch with Qantas when we get back as we booked through Qantas and the whole scenario stressed us out at the middle of what supposed to be a very relaxing holiday.”

“Thankfully, Castaway soon helps you forget the worried of the world and we are loving it here…….. it is idyllic and amazing”.  “The staff are all great, the kid’s club is great, just what we needed as a couple too.”

“The Air Pacific experience did not put us off Fiji at all and neither were we worried about any post coup security issues, but both factors could put some travellers off and Air Pacific should try harder to do what it can not to put passengers off Fiji”

“We will be back again, but rest assured we will be travelling with Pacific Blue as we have heard great things about them.”

This occurance comes at a time when it appears from notices in hotel lobbies in Fiji that Air Pacific has reduced services to Fiji, which is understandable, but the apparent lack of communciation and customer care comes at a time when Fiji needs all the help it can get.

Sydney based Air Pacific GM Victor Sharan could not be contacted for comment this morning, but The Mole is happy to take any comment or response from Air Pacific.

It is hoped that Air Pacific will strive to improve its service in this area.

The Mole reporting live and on location from Fiji.