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Speaker 1: It.

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Speaker 2: As we've been saying on air throughout the last couple

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Speaker 2: of days, there's been a lot of people who are

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Speaker 2: in a situation where their flights have been canceled and

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Speaker 2: changed for various reasons, and joining me on the line

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Speaker 2: right now, I believe that I've got Georgia. Good morning

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Speaker 2: to you, Georgia.

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Speaker 3: Morning, Georgia.

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Speaker 2: You are in a situation where you've been well stuffed

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Speaker 2: around with your flights, haven't you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, what exactly has gone on? So we were

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Speaker 1: meant to fly out last night and then get a

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Speaker 1: connecting flight to Mackay with Virgin, and yeah, yesterday I

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Speaker 1: just saw the ABC story and then some other stories

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Speaker 1: floating around, and you know, check managed by booking online

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Speaker 1: still showing that it was there and it was all fine,

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Speaker 1: But then checks the departure page on the airport website

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Speaker 1: and that's where it was showing up canceled. Just waited

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Speaker 1: to see if Virgin of contacting me nothing all day,

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Speaker 1: and then I thought, oh, you know, they're just busy

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Speaker 1: rescheduling things. But yeah, nothing, and then so I ended

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Speaker 1: up calling them, waiting on hold for two hours to

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Speaker 1: find out my options were to either pay eight hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars per adult to change the flight for tomorrow, oh sorry,

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Speaker 1: and eight hundred dollars for myself, my husband, and our child,

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Speaker 1: or to fly on the twenty ninth and still pay

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Speaker 1: three hundred dollars to change it to them. So that

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Speaker 1: was option one. Or option two was to get a credit.

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Speaker 2: That is unbelievable. It makes your blood boil. You know, like,

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Speaker 2: you booked those flights. I'm assuming to be able to

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Speaker 2: go and see your family at Christmas time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So they haven't seen our two year olds,

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Speaker 1: but they haven't met her. So yeah, it's just it's outrageous.

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Speaker 1: It's so disappointing. And you know, like I was sort

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Speaker 1: of putting up with the back and forth of our

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Speaker 1: flights being changed. I kept getting emails about it being

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Speaker 1: changed and we were having to flight four flights to

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Speaker 1: get home anyway, and then yeah, and then to just

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Speaker 1: not hear anything, see it's canceled, and then yeah, the

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Speaker 1: only option is to pay another two thousand dollars to

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Speaker 1: get there on time, or to get a credit, not

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Speaker 1: like not even a refund, just a credit. And then

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Speaker 1: what the guy I spoke to was like, oh, and

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Speaker 1: at no extra cost, I'll set you up a travel

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Speaker 1: bank account where you can use your money. I'm like,

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Speaker 1: why would it cost me to do that?

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Speaker 2: That's ridiculously Yeah, but also you don't bloody want it,

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Speaker 2: you know the fundamentally, all you want is to be

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Speaker 2: able to travel home to see your family and for

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Speaker 2: your family to see you a.

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Speaker 3: Little two year old Georgia.

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Speaker 2: It's like, we actually got a call yesterday from one

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Speaker 2: of our listeners, Bruce, and he had said exactly what

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Speaker 2: you've said, that he received no notification from Virgin in

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Speaker 2: any way to let him know that his flight had

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Speaker 2: been canceled or changed. But he did the same thing,

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Speaker 2: went and checked the arrival's page, sorry, the departure's page,

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Speaker 2: and could see that it had been canceled. It is infuriating,

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Speaker 2: really to think that they're not even contacting people to

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Speaker 2: let them know. So had you not actually looked at

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Speaker 2: that yourself, what would have happened? You'd have turned up

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Speaker 2: with a two year old to get on a flight

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Speaker 2: and not been able to Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And like we avoided another airline, like purely

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Speaker 1: for that reason. That's why we chose to go as Virgin,

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Speaker 1: because they're meant to be you know, have some kind

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Speaker 1: of a standard and yeah, the same thing happens. And

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Speaker 1: I mean, and then you know the fine print being like,

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Speaker 1: oh it's COVID related, then there's no fees incurring, but

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Speaker 1: they're not telling anyone sort of what the issue is. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the operational issue. And I mean from what I've heard,

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Speaker 1: it's to do with staffing because they've got staffing isolation

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Speaker 1: because of COVID, So it is a COVID issue.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Georgia, So what what are you and your family doing? Now?

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Speaker 3: What have you decided to do?

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Speaker 1: So we got the credit, like it's too late to

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Speaker 1: book anything with them, so what with what we're doing

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Speaker 1: now is fine with and no to Townsville and then

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Speaker 1: driving for three hours down to Early Beach. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: So I mean it's it's we're really lucky that we

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Speaker 1: had you know, well we've had to take money from

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Speaker 1: our house, you know, our savings, you know, to try

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Speaker 1: and so to make it work. But you know, we

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Speaker 1: really you know, our family, I really want to see them.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Oh my goodness, I reckon, there's going to be

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Speaker 2: tears when your family meets you two years old.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, we can't wait.

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Speaker 2: Bit I mean and isn't it disappointing that, you know,

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Speaker 2: you go from feelings sort of so excited about being

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Speaker 2: able to do that and getting home to see your

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Speaker 2: family and them getting to meet you little one for

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Speaker 2: the first time, to then the stress of these flights

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Speaker 2: changing and having to deal with that. And I think

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Speaker 2: that that's the really sad part for so many territories

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Speaker 2: at this point, trying to travel to see their families

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Speaker 2: at Christmas time. Is it leaves that real sour taste

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Speaker 2: in your mouth.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and just just a complete lack of communication. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: your care.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so disappointing. Georgia.

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Speaker 2: I really appreciate you having a chat with us this

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Speaker 2: morning and letting us know what's happened from your perspective,

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Speaker 2: because I actually know that there's a lot of people

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Speaker 2: out there listening who are in a similar situation to you.

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Speaker 2: I hope you have a lovely Christmas and I hope

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Speaker 2: that it once you finally get to.

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Speaker 3: Mackay that that it is really nice and relaxing for you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Great, Thanks Katie.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, thanks for your time this morning. Georgia,