Practicum Report 5

15 DECEMBER 2010 – WEDNESDAY

EIGHTEENTH DAY - 1000-1800

Today was a non-flight day. As usual, we did nothing at the office. We just ate our lunch, watched Taken (movie) and rehearsed for our Christmas presentation. Thanks to LA, our blockmate who taught us the steps. We spent the whole hours rehearsing and planning for our presentation. I only thought it was “joketime” but then we heard that we must give our best shot because many people might watch and we must participate and cooperate well. Now we’re rushing. I hoped we were able to plan things up earlier. We planned our schedule of “last-minute” rehearsals before going home. Included in it were our props to be used as we sing, and our attire. I still have nothing to wear! Btw, we’ll have the theme White Christmas as we would be wearing all white attire and it would also be a masquerade party. I’m excited for it but at the same time pressured and nervous because we would be presenting and it would also be in a place (bar) I’m not familiar and somehow uncomfortable with because I don’t usually go to those kinds of places. However, I’m after the experience so I’m looking forward to enjoying a lot with our Christmas party at Qantas.

16 DECEMBER 2010 – THURSDAY

NINETEENTH DAY - 1400-2200

The standard time of arrival was 1915 H but unfortunately we had a delayed flight so it was moved to 2140 H for the estimated time of arrival. The standard departure time of 2035 H was moved to 2300 H. It was almost a 3-hour delay so everybody was not in a good mood, especially that it was a full flight which required our full effort and teamwork. The agents prepared all the necessary information for the passengers. Delayed message forms and a letter from Qantas were printed out to b given to the passengers. Stated in the letter was the news that they would be experiencing delay with their flight and the modified time was also given. The cause of delay was not stated but we were all informed that it was due to the bad weather in Brisbane. Sir Larry and Sir Eric prepared us for the incident. They told us that we were not required to stay up until midnight but it was also good to experience that particular incident so that we would be able to know what to do in such cases. We were informed that we would be letting the passengers view a movie (How to Train a Dragon was the title) and we would be serving them refreshments at the boarding gate.

I was still assigned at the counter. I assisted Sir Jeff. Today was not a good day as I could feel the PSA’s (passenger service agent) bad and tired moods. And since the check-in counters opened early even if there was a delayed flight, time went by slowly as passengers had so many requests and questions regarding their connecting flights. Most of the passengers who checked-in with Sir Jeff were worried if they could catch up with their next flights.

It was also a tiring day for me because aside from my condition that day that I was sick, I was ordered four times by ma’am Loren. First, I was asked to get the admin cellphone from the office. Second, I was asked to fetch a family from the Qantas lounge who requested a change of departure flight. I waited for several minutes at the lounge. Ma’am Rovynne was the agent at the lounge and I was glad that I got to talk to her even in a short while. Next, I was asked by Ma’am Loren again to deliver the delay message forms at the office. Lastly, I was ordered to MAAS (meet and assist) a UM (unaccompanied minor). It was my first time to MAAS so I grabbed the opportunity to talk to the girl who’s a Filipina who can’t speak in Tagalog (Australian citizen).

At the gate we prepared food and drinks for the passengers. Some were sleeping that time, some reading books and magazines, the others paid close attention to the movie. It was already boarding time yet we were still missing one passenger. Minutes later I found him at the duty free area. The aircraft was already ready for pushback when Ma’am Ai came back with the bad news. She quoted the words of the person in-charge of the engineering at the ramp, “hydraulic leak, cannot fix!”. It only meant that the delayed flight of QF20 was once again delayed. We ate some of the food left and hurriedly fixed everything because the passengers would be getting out of the plane. We welcomed them and this time, we tried to not put smiles on our faces as we might get misunderstood about our facial expressions. The agents at the office were already finding hotels which could accommodate the passengers if ever the flight wouldn’t push through. That’s the great news about Qantas, during delayed flights they manage to cater to the needs of the passengers as to keep their loyalty with the airline company. They let the passengers watch a movie, they serve food and drinks, and if the flight is cancelled, they bring the passengers to five star hotels.

It was 12 midnight when I and some of my co-practicumers left the airport because someone fetched us that night and they were already waiting for us. As what my co-practicumers told us, the flight still pushed through some time three in the morning.

It was really an unexpected experience that I really enjoyed because I was able to learn what to do during such incidents.

20 DECEMBER 2010 – MONDAY

TWENTIETH DAY - 1200-2000

Ten in the morning we rehearsed for our presentation for the Qantas Christmas Party. This week I was assigned at the gate again. Everything was normal today. I worked at the BCO first which was a little bit stress-free then I headed to the gate. This day we were all busy preparing for our presentation at the Christmas party.

21 DECEMBER 2010 – TUESDAY

TWENTYFIRST DAY - 1300-2100

Tuesday morning we rehearsed again for our presentation. That same day, Sir Larry called for our help in wrapping wines and caps to be given as Christmas presents. I was asked by Sir Larry to find the original copy of the list of people who would be receiving the gifts, but since the copy was lost (I and Jhae was tasked to do it and Jhae left the copy to me which was accidentally lost at the table), Sir Larry just asked us to make the greeting cards.

I was still assigned at the gate but as usual, I started my work at the BCO. I was also requested by Sir Sonny to advise the arriving passengers with lost luggage case to approach him at the baggage belt. There were many cases of LL today. After all were reported, a family approached Sir Sonny who reported not an LL case but an excess baggage payment. They paid for their excess baggage but they insisted that their baggage weight was not really in excess in CBR (Canberra). Their weight of 95 was exceeded until 100 plus which they were asked to pay for it in CBR and now when they’ve already realized the mistake done unto them, they wanted to report it badly to the management of QF. They were disappointed because this was not their first bad incident with QF. The past case was the damaged baggage where the guitar effects of her son were damaged with liquid. After hearing this, I just hoped that their case would be solved and that the image of QF would not be affected that much because as far as I’m aware of and experienced, the airline does its very best in keeping the loyalty of their customers through good customer service.

After our duty, we headed to my boarding house where we hurriedly prepared for the QF Christmas Party with the theme White Christmas/Masquerade.

23 DECEMBER 2010 – THURSDAY

TWENTY-SECOND DAY - 1400-2200

My duty was very normal this day as we had our flight on time. While we were waiting for the briefing, we checked out photos taken from the Christmas party. The next hour, Sir Eric gathered us to show and discuss the new advertisement of QF and the new safety demonstration with a video with John Travolta but it had some problems so we failed to watch it. Nevertheless, we just discussed some other matters and continued with the briefing.

The flight was fine and I was also able to talk with the new QF agent and learn new things about our field.

03 JANUARY 2011 – MONDAY

TWENTY-THIRD DAY - 1200-2000

I was back to work after having five absences during the Christmas season due to our church’s leaders’ planning in Tagaytay and several parties/activities at home and in church where I was involved.

Almost all airlines have full loads today. We had 15 J (business class), 272 Y (economy), and 9 infants for our QF20 departure flight. After the briefing, Ma’am Loren, the birthday celebrator, brought spaghetti, baked macaroni, palabok/pancit malabon, pichi-pichi, and barbeque for her treat today. Everybody enjoyed the food especially I who skipped lunch just to not be late.

We created our own deployment which started today. Our deployment would rotate daily so everyone would surely get the chance to experience each area. I was assigned at the gate.

I experienced a lot of stress today as most passengers had excess baggage and most were on their bad moods as I could see it in their faces. I used to welcome passengers with smiles on their faces but today almost everyone were tired and I guessed it was because of the traffic jam as most people were going home after their holiday vacation.

I really had back pains at the BCO area because of the passengers who had excess baggage. Most of them informed us that it was their pasalubong and some insisted on bringing all of those without paying the excess but business as usual, it’s either they repack or pay the excess.

I also had difficulty dealing with passengers who complained about the people on the other side who passed through them on the single queue. However, everything was back to normal at the gate. Second departure flight of the year 2011 and we had it on time, well just two minutes late for pushback, but it was still alright.

04 JANUARY 2011 – TUESDAY

TWENTY-FOURTH DAY - 1300-2100

There was a downgrade/change of aircraft from Airbus 330-300 to Boeing 767 so there were lesser seats but we had a full flight. Dana and Ancla, who were supposed to be at the check-in counter were assigned by Sir Eric to distribute letters to passengers regarding the change of aircraft and explain to them that they could have their reimbursement of Php1350 if they would be buying their own reading materials because the aircraft now has different in-flight entertainment compared with the previous.

In the BCO area I had difficulty interacting with the passengers because most of them had excess baggage. However, we managed to get all the passengers at the gate. At the gate, we had a problem with a couple who didn’t want to pay the terminal fee. They were telling the QF agents that they were allowed to pass through the immigration without paying the terminal fee. They told us that someone let them pass. Their point was they could really pay but the fact that they managed to pass through the immigration was already the issue of the airport security. It was not their fault that they didn’t get to pay, but it was the security that wasn’t heightened that they got all the way to the gate without the terminal fee. The passenger just sticked to his principle. However, after long minutes of discussion, they failed to offload them and just let them board the aircraft just to avoid a delay. It was really intense because some policemen were brought to pick up the passenger already. I’m just thankful because the issue was resolved although I’m not sure of the exact details on how it was resolved.

We once again managed to have an on-time departure.

05 JANUARY 2011 – WEDNESDAY

TWENTY-FIFTH DAY - 1000-1800

Today, I and Ancla were told by Ma’am Pat to help in recording some details of passengers which could be seen at the sales report. Ancla recorded the sales invoice and name of credit cards used by the passengers while I recorded the miscellaneous chargers order which included sales report number, document number, and name of passenger. I passed on the excess baggage ticket to Keycelyn who volunteered to do the task.

Ma’am Ai was also at the office and she spent time in cleaning some areas of the office. We gladly helped her out in disposing some documents and files as well as magazines that we were really hesitant to throw away. Ma’am pat told us we could just have them so I picked two magazines at once which were about Australian arts.

06 JANUARY 2011 – THURSDAY

TWENTY-SIXTH DAY - 1400-2200

It was Sir Sonny’s second to the last day of duty as he was about to transfer to another job. He treated the QF team with pizza and we all grabbed a bite before opening the check-in counters.

Everything was normal at the BCO area. As usual most passengers returning to their homes have “pasalubong” with them which caused their baggage to be in excess. Most passengers were groups of families who gave me a hard time. However, I managed to deal with them properly and resolved every issue of excess baggage with the help of some QF agents.

At the gate I chose the task of ticking the seat and sequence numbers which I totally enjoy every time I’m at the gate.

07 JANUARY 2011 – FRIDAY

TWENTY- SEVENTH DAY - 1000-1800

It was a non-flight day so I was very lazy to go to work. Unfortunately, because I have to gain the time I lost during the Christmas season, I have to go to work. I was late for an hour, a sign that I was really lazy but it was good that it doesn’t matter with QF if we were late. The important thing for them is that we must be present during the briefing. As what they always say, they are informal/relaxed but when it comes to work which is dealing with passengers already, they are professional. And it also applies to us that it’s alright to be late as long as we are present during the briefing, and that we do our tasks well, and we could easily gain the time lost during some other time like during day offs, etc., then all is well.

We had no work the whole day (well except for some Admin agents) so we just watched movies. We watched “My Amnesia Girl” and “Going the Distance”. After watching, we all left at exactly 6 p.m.