By Miki Perkins
Qantas staff were happy to be back at work after the lockout, which passengers said led to confusion and inconvenience.Credit: Angela Wylie
FIRST came the check-in staff, who had just moments to draw breath and restart their computers before the first tetchy passengers converged, many clutching defunct tickets and boarding cards with a new sense of purpose.
Then, with a rumble of suitcases on wheels, Qantas pilots and flight staff swept past, their distinctive uniforms a sign things were returning to normal at Melbourne Airport.
They were watched by Czech tourist Jan Safka, who was halfway through his two-week honeymoon when he discovered a leg of his flight to Uluru had been cancelled.
Mr Safka and his wife had their hearts set on visiting Uluru, so they spent hours - at an expensive international roaming rate - on hold on the Qantas information line in the hope they could cobble a new itinerary together.
Eventually they found a convoluted solution via Brisbane and Cairns and were anxious to leave Melbourne yesterday. But the lockout had cost them two days of their honeymoon. Both said they would never fly Qantas again.
''The chief executive officer [Alan Joyce] just uses customers as prisoners to solve his problems,'' Mr Safka said.
''I don't like the way he looks down on his customers,'' he said.
''The information was poor, we couldn't get through on the Qantas number and no one could tell us what we were supposed to do.''
His complaint was echoed by all the passengers The Age spoke to yesterday: communication was poor; most people were unsure whether they should wait for the weekend's industrial stand-off to end or book new flights with other carriers; and no effort was made to contact them.
Some, like frustrated Canberra resident Janae Mitchell, said Qantas should offer them compensation for the upheaval, which meant her group of five friends missed a day of work and had to make emergency childcare arrangements.
But others supported the Qantas board's decision and said it was the government that should provide compensation.
''The government should offer the passengers compensation because a Labor government never gets involved with union disputes and I don't think that's right,'' said Brisbane passenger Jeremy Bews.
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