Australia’s ‘favourite airline’ does it again
Qantas describes itself as “Australia’s favourite airline”. To complain about, perhaps.
The latest case of Qantas v passengers involves Jonathan Rubinsztein, group CEO of the listed software company Nuix.
“It’s 1.51am in Dubai on Sunday evening, let me describe the worst travel experience of my life! London to Sydney – 5 days and counting,” Rubinsztein wrote on LinkedIn.
He then detailed a series of unfortunate events involving cancelled flights, unplanned overnight stays in London and Dubai, and chasing Qantas for a way home.
“Qantas owes me 48 hours of my life – [Qantas CEO] Vanessa Hudson what is the refund policy of 2 days of my life?” he wrote.
“Apparently what happened was Qantas double-booked me on this flight so had 2 tickets. So they cancelled the duplicate and I am back on the flight arriving Tuesday evening.”
Rubinsztein was entitled to expect better than cattle-class passengers stranded in a foreign city. He has Platinum One status – Qantas’ highest tier Frequent Flyer category, which promises “unparalleled benefits designed to make every journey the best it can be”.
Cue sympathy (mostly) and tales of Qantas woe from LinkedIn contacts. “If you are a Platinum One member what does that mean for the rest of us?” asked one.
A Qantas rep chimed in to say they were “so sorry to hear” about the experience.
The politics of chewing gum
Should politicians chew gum at public meetings? That pressing question of etiquette has reared its head amid a tussle over a proposed plastics plant in the NSW Southern Highlands.
When property developer and local property owner Theo Onisforou addressed a Wingecarribee Shire council meeting over the long-running dispute last month, he was distracted by the chewing habits of Mayor Jesse Fitzpatrick.
Onisforou told CBD: “In the middle of my speech to the council I stopped and said, ‘Mayor, are you eating?’ He said, ‘No, I’m chewing gum’, so I said, ‘I taught my children not to chew gum in public because it is impolite’.”
Property developer Theo Onisforou. Credit: James Brickwood
Onisforou followed up with an email alleging the mayor’s gum-munching at meetings was “an embarrassment” to the Wingecarribee Shire.
“I almost lost my train of thought … when I observed you chewing aggressively, just like one of my Kangaloon cows,” the email said.
Onisforou, once Kerry Packer’s financial adviser and later dubbed the “king of Oxford Street” because of his investments in Paddington, owns a 1000-acre cattle stud at Kangaloon, near Bowral. Of late, he’s been a vocal opponent of the plastics plant mooted for Moss Vale.
The NSW Independent Planning Commission rejected the plastics plant proposal this year but the firm behind the project, Repoly, is appealing the decision in court.
Despite opposing the plant, Wingecarribee Council is not participating in the appeal proceedings as a respondent.
Locals worry this is giving up the fight. Onisforou is part of a well-to-do group of ratepayers that have offered to give council $500,000 to fund the legal costs of participating in the appeal.
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But council won’t take the money; it says it does not accept donations or loans from developers “or anyone” in relation to development applications.
Onisforou says he has legal advice the donation is lawful and has lodged a complaint with the ICAC over the caper.
Fitzpatrick declined to tell CBD what he made of Onisforou’s claims about his gum chewing. But in a written statement said: “It’s quite shocking that I am having to respond to media enquiries about accepting money from property developers and/or accepting money to influence development outcomes.”
