April is a lovely time to visit Perth and Western Australia. The peak summer heat has passed leaving days that are really pleasant and nights that are still comfortable to sleep during. Even if school holidays are on, things are generally that much quieter than back home in Melbourne and Victoria that you can easily get around without battling crowds.
My older brother has lived in Perth for well over 20 years, and so Ms A and I made a long overdue trip over to see him for a few days during which we went down south to Augusta, had dinner with various friends each night, and Ms A got to visit her uncle, aunt and cousins. It was a good trip, for many reasons.
The downside of visiting Perth are the plane flights each way...4hr or so going over, and 3.5hr coming back. Over time I’ve come to prefer either Qantas or Virgin Australia, paying a little more than the budget airline options for better service. For this trip we booked with Virgin who had some good prices on the days we were travelling. A small concern was Ms A being 32.5 weeks pregnant, but with our obstetrician assuring us it was OK up until 34 weeks and gave Ms A a certificate advising of her due date to show the airline should we queried.
The flight over was fine – none of the Virgin staff even blinked at her size (and getting bigger literally by the day!!), and the flight went fine. If only the return trip had been as hassle free...
The troubles started when we arrived, in plenty of time, and noticing the Virgin bag drop area being very quiet, meaning we straight up to the counter to drop our bag off, already having our boarding passes in hand. Things went well until the adjacent staff member, being unoccupied and friendly enquired about Ms A’s pregnancy, and how far she was. She replied 33 weeks (actually 33 weeks in 2 days time!), to which the staff member wondered aloud if it was still OK to fly. Ms A assured her it was, up until 34 weeks, and showed our Dr certificate and repeated the assurance he gave us. If only she’d been busy she might not have asked the question that set in motion all of what was to come.
Nonetheless, our check-in staff member did what was (probably) the correct thing and went off to check the Virgin policy while we continued making friendly chat with the adjacent staff member.
After an eternity she came back with a number of pieces of paper in her hand saying that we actually needed our doctor to provide assurance that – it wasn’t a multiple pregnancy, she’d had no complications, and was fit and healthy. Our certificate wasn’t going to cut it on its own.
So starting to get a little worried about the prospect of a long train journey home, we put a call into our Dr pager service and hoped he’d call soon, with the advice being that an email covering these things would suffice. It also seemed that it came down to the flight staff as to whether they would be OK with her flying, which may override the policy advice. Either way, we went up to the departure gate to see what we could sort out...me being the optimist and assuring Ms A that we’d be fine, imagining our Dr calling us, telling the staff it was all OK and we’d be on our way.
If only he’d called in time, and if only such common sense had prevailed. As it was, the staff at the gate said the same thing, that we need the email advice before we could get on the plane, and with only about 15min until departure it was looking a little slim. So we were bumped off the flight, and I must say I was a little dejected as it is clear, even without the Dr’s message, that Ms A was able to fly...in my opinion, at least!!!
So we went back down, waited a while to get our suitcase and then had a nice lunch at the airport pub...for me a good steak sandwich!!! Finally our Dr called, we explained the situation and a little while after he sent an email from his phone with the information needed – being a public holiday (ANZAC day), he was out of town.
Armed with this we went to the Virgin service counter where a guy helped us, and went off to the supervisor’s office to find out what to do. He came back with a printed copy of our Dr’s email, and a message from the supervisor that it wasn’t satisfactory because, in his words, “it needs more detail”. Now, the original check-in staff member gave us the crucial excerpt from the policy about what information was required, which we showed him saying that it included all the particular detail that had asked for. Still he said, it needs more detail...what detail?? Getting a little frustrated we asked to see the supervisor, and after some resistance he relented and led us to the door where we waited outside.
The supervisor came out and explained that the information was needed on a letterhead, signed by our Dr. She also agreed that the information was OK, and the email origin appeared to match the name on our original Dr certificate. We said that being a public holiday, getting a signed letterhead was nigh on impossible...but that didn’t make any difference. A policy is a policy. They went back behind the door and we called our Dr’s pager again.
Then we had a great scene...just as they came back out of the door our Dr called and so we put him onto the Virgin supervisor. Oh my god!!! Our Dr is a great guy, but it seems he let loose on the Virgin staff member saying how ridiculous they are, that this has never happened before in his 25 years of obstetrics, that Ms A was completely fine, and so on. I could almost hear his voice from where I stood!!! The Virgin staff member handed the phone back saying she would not put up with this tirade, so Ms A calmed him down, then handed the phone back to the Virgin supervisor...and in the end he got nowhere with Virgin as they were sticking to their guns, and that with him being out of town the earliest he could do a certificate would be the next day.
So it was a stalemate, and some tears were close to being shed (not by me!!). Our only option to get home that day would be purchasing a Qantas flight. On the one hand I could understand the Virgin policy and position, but on the other hand it seemed overly bureaucratic to require such information our Dr had provided in email, and verbally, on a letter head on a public holiday. The amazing thing about common sense is how uncommon it is.
Anyway, we headed down to Qantas, explained our situation, showed him the Dr certificate and email, and the sales guy made several calls to other folks, saying a few times that “I’m satisfied that the certificate and email provide the information we need” (their policy was actually quite similar to Virgin’s). Finally we made some headway with someone sensible, and bought a ticket for a plane leaving only 35min later...still 2hrs after our original flight.
I went back to the Virgin door to arrange a flight credit, knocked and was greeted by another guy who said the supervisor was in a meeting. I explained why I was there and he said, “So you’re here about the pregnant woman? Hmmmm, I’ve already heard about that.” So it seems our story is sure to be retold in the Virgin tea room for some time to come!!!
Even though we had a boarding pass, standing at the Qantas gate, we were careful to conceal the baby bump as we checked in, lest we get stopped again...but as I write this on the plane, Ms A is sitting happily and comfortably beside me. Only 7 weeks to go...
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