A surprise trip back to London for Christmas became a 50-hour nightmare for one Sydney couple and their 15-month-old son.
Ben Craig and Amy Barnett, originally from the UK, boarded Qantas flight QF1 on December 23 to fly home for the holidays, their third overseas trip with their toddler, Cooper.
While the first 16 hours were ‘very enjoyable’, the trip soon took a terrible turn, ending with passengers, including Cooper, staving without food for 12 hours.
A Sydney-based couple who were planning to surprise their family in the UK for Christmas have detailed their horrible flight with Qantas (stock image)
In a lengthy post to Australia’s national carrier, Mr Craig outlined the fateful trip that saw his family spend Christmas Day in the air and left passengers fuming.
Flight QF1 was diverted to Al Ain airport from Dubai airport due to an ‘unprecedented weather event’ of thick fog rolling in around 1am.
The pilot told passengers while there was enough fuel to wait in the air for a space to become available, he had chosen to land at Al Ain to refuel.
‘This was the first of many lies that we were told over the next 32 hours,’ Mr Craig wrote.
After 16 hours in the air, the plane was then diverted at Al Ain airport in Dubai due to a thick fog before being grounded for over 12 hours
‘Very quickly after we landed in Al Ain, the thick fog rolled in, and it became clear that we would be stuck there until dawn.
‘Why not be honest then, and tell us we had a 7 hour wait (on the plane) ahead?’
Passengers were then told the crew needed to be relieved, and had to wait another five hours for a new crew to arrive.
Once the sun came up at 8am, with a new crew and refueled plane, Mr Craig believed the flight would be on its way.
Unfortunately, they were told that despite the fog clearing, an engineer was now required to tend to ‘engineering requirements’ on the plane.
‘We had to wait another 6 hours until this “engineer” arrived. Can you please tell me what the “engineering requirements” were?’ Mr Craig asked the airline.
After waiting on the plane for over 12 hours, with no food supply left, passengers were finally allowed to disembark into the small airport to find all food outlets closed.
‘We found an empty terminal with a closed canteen, and duty free with only chocolate & nuts – neither of which are suitable food for a toddler,’ Mr Craig said.
After waiting on the plane for over 12 hours, with no food supply left, passengers were finally allowed to disembark into Al Ain airport (pictured) to find all food outlets closed
‘I believe Qantas had a duty of care to provide my son with food, and you failed miserably.’
The flight eventually took off from Al Ain and arrived in Dubai International airport a short time later.
However, despite having been on the plane for over 30 hours, mechinal errors left passengers stuck on board for at least another hour.
What followed once passengers departed was a host of miscommunication, lost baggage, more delays and a lack of remorse by the airline.
‘Finally after 32hrs of delays we exited Heathrow at 5pm on Christmas Day,’ Mr Craig said.
The flight eventually took off from Al Ain and arrived in Dubai International (pictured) airport a short time later – before flying out the next day to Heathrow
‘The surprise that we had planned with our families was ruined, we missed all of Christmas Day, we had no warm clothes for our son, and we were exhausted.
‘In the queue for our missing bags, some of our fellow passengers were weeping. It was awful.’
A Qantas spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they were ‘happy to reach out to Ben’ and explained the lack of food on board after arriving at Al Ain airport.
‘During this time, customers were given all the food and drink available on board and when the delay continued, they were given the option to disembark where more refreshments were made available,’ the statement read.
Qantas said they ‘understand how frustrating the delay was especially occurring at Christmas’.
Mr Craig is asking for his frequent flyer points to be returned and further explanation from the airline.