Chaos after Qantas passengers were left stranded in a Thai airport
Qantas passengers were forced to choose between handing over their passports or sleeping at a Thai airport after their flight was cancelled at the eleventh hour. The service from Bangkok International Airport to Sydney was initially delayed for six hours before it was eventually cancelled late on Monday night.
Travellers were also asked to hand over their passports before they left the airport and travelled to hotel accommodation. A Qantas spokeswoman said local boarder authorities are required to hold passengers' passports during significant delays in line with immigration regulations.
Dozens of viewers expressed their shock at the passport policy. 'Is this normal to take away your passports? Never heard of anything like that! What was their reasoning??!' one wrote.
A Qantas spokeswoman apologised to customers for the delay. 'We sincerely apologise to customers for the disruption and understand the inconvenience this would have caused to their travel plans,' she said.
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