A furious mother claims she endured two days of ‘hell’ while flying with her baby because Qantas made an error on her boarding pass.
Jacque Leal was travelling from Sydney to São Paulo, Brazil, with her husband Chad and daughter Lola when she had the ‘worst ever flying experience’ – claiming the ordeal began when the airline misspelled her daughter’s name on her ticket.
Ms Leal described how her travel time was doubled and claimed staff refused to help her, leaving her stranded in Chile with a crying baby and nowhere to go.
‘Qantas made me and my family go through what is the worst flying experience someone could have,’ she claimed.
Jacque Leal was travelling from Sydney to São Paulo, Brazil , with her husband Chad and daughter Lola when she had the ‘worst ever flying experience’ – claiming the ordeal began when the airline misspelled her daughter’s name on her ticket
She claimed her debacle began when Qantas issued Lola’s boarding pass with just her initials and not her full name.
She was assured the issue would be fixed but months after purchasing her ticket, she noticed her daughter’s name was still titled with her initials.
After hours on the phone to Qantas’ customer service team, Ms Leal was told they would have to make two bookings, one for her and her husband and another for her baby.
When she arrived at the airport, struggling to describe the issue to a Qantas staff member, Ms Leal and her family managed to board the flight ahead of their scheduled stopover in Santiago, Chile.
After arriving at Santiago, Ms Leal faced another issue with Qantas’ airline partner, LATAM.
LATAM airlines didn’t understand why she had two booking reservations, Ms Leal said.
After not being able to find her daughter’s correct boarding pass, Ms Leal claimed she was told to sort the problem out herself.
‘They say they cant fix it there and they send me to different gates of the airport to try to solve my problem by myself,’ Ms Leal claimed.
‘I’m running around with a baby in a pram and bags after a 14-hour flight, I couldn’t sit down, I couldn’t use the toilet, I couldn’t drink a water and relax, I couldn’t give my baby much attention I was just trying to make sure we would board to our final destination.’
LATAM said they would issue her new boarding passes but her flight to Brazil was delayed from 2.00pm until 12.45am the next day.
The mother claimed her debacle began when Qantas issued Lola’s boarding pass with just her initials and not her full name
The airline said that passengers would be put on a flight for the following day and set up in a hotel for the night.
Just when Ms Leal thought it couldn’t get any worse, the flight attendant was unable to find either booking with her daughter’s name on it.
She was forced to wait another three hours at the airport.
‘No water or food was offered. I didn’t have more food to give to my baby either,’ Ms Leal claimed.
‘I was standing holding my baby on my arms for hours. She looked so smashed it was sad and breaking my heart with her painful cry.
‘It had been passed almost 11 hours since our first flight Sydney to Santiago landed. We were given no water, no food, our credit cards from Australia were not working in Chile, there was no place to sit.’
After nearly 12 hours, Ms Leal said her baby was exhausted.
‘I never seen a baby looking so miserable as my baby was looking at that point. She was pale, her eyes deep and sad, she couldn’t stand anymore she cried in pain in my arms,’ she said.
‘I never seen a baby looking so miserable as my baby was looking at that point. She was pale, her eyes deep and sad, she couldn’t stand anymore she cried in pain in my arms,’ she said
A manager eventually resolved the issue and told them to collect their luggage and come back for their connecting flight the next day.
Things went from bad to worse as they discovered their luggage had gone missing.
The airport said the bags would likely turn up at São Paulo as the family was forced to spend the night in a hotel with no clean clothes or toiletries.
After spending a month on holidays and having their luggage eventually turn up, Ms Leal claimed she and her family were once again refused to board their flight when trying to return home.
They missed their return flight as the LATAM staff couldn’t find the reservation and were told by Qantas there was no available flight for four days.
Their option was to take a flight home that would take three days because there was no available seats on any other planes, despite there being room in business and premium economy class.
Four days after they were due to return to Sydney, Ms Leal and her family came home, after finding their own flight with another airline.
A spokesperson from Qantas told Daily Mail Australia they would look into the matter and get in contact with the customer.