Dear <Insert Customer Name>, Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

[dgwally]

A few weeks ago I was unlucky enough to experience the poor quality Qantas Business Class product on a flight from Melbourne to Perth, it was an old Jetstar plane.

A very quick summary of my concerns that I expressed to Customer Care...

• iPad didn't work foe the first 60 minutes (plus another 60 minutes prior to take off)
• Seats was extremely uncomfortable
• The seats & Configuration was Economy
• No Leg room
• I paid full fare business class, but received the Jetstar product (Excluding food

I passed on the above comments in a little more detail to Customer Care... waited the expected 15 days and received this reply...


This is the best example I have seen of a Cut & Paste reply. Insert Name & Case number and your done ! Im shocked that it took Qantas 15 days to create this.

I know poor Business Class is a first world problem, but you pay the money you expect service & product!

The photo's below don't really look that bad.. but its an indication of what the seating was like.

 

[N860CR]

Customer care is a Qantas weak point unfortunately.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I'm surprised you got a response.

 

[cmon0005]

I got a similar response earlier this year, I then replied back saying how poor the response was and got a call back from a senior person. They resolved my issue and said 'the new' person who sent me the generic reply would receive more training.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

What reply did you want to receive?

When complaining about product or service - the golden rule is to always ask for something reasonable they can action there and then.

If we all recall years ago when the 737-400s existed - business class was always sold at lower cost than other aircraft. Time to knock down the rates on these premium economy seats too perhaps?

 

[eastwest101]

I have got the exact same response from a totally unrelated issue with QF. They may as well email back and say:

Dear Customer,

Please stop complaining about the poor service/product/treatment that you received from us. Unfortunately we consider that you are not important enough to do the work to produce a solution/explanation for your issue so please accept this vague promise of some un-named management team follow up and do bugger off and fly one of our competitors.

Yours sincerely, the QF Care executive team

 

[moa999]

That is one of the current Qantas business class products and will be for another 12 months.. Until the reconfig is complete.

By lack of seat back monitors I'm guessing it's VH-EBC or VH-EBD which I believe were actually delivered to Qantas in that Config in 2003 before going to Jetstar in 2006. Qantas added Q-Streaming and iPads on return before the reconfig process started.

Only 7 of the 18 A330-200s have been completed (as at today), albeit the aforementioned two are the only ones with iPads in J

So your only real complaint is the iPads and response.

 

[basso]

This is the best example I have seen of a Cut & Paste reply.

Not cut & paste. More a template, with aoproved wording and such. Probbaly spat out by a program. At least there is some record of what you said, even if it is just in a statistical table somewhere.

 

[JohnK]

Qantas is selling that as business class? Oh the greed.

 

[mannej]

Qantas is selling that as business class? Oh the greed.

Funny you mention that JohnK, that was the exact same product that was on the 767 domestic fleet.

I guess that was considered the norm until VA decided to up the ante a couple of years ago.

 

[JohnK]

Funny you mention that JohnK, that was the exact same product that was on the 767 domestic fleet.

I guess that was considered the norm until VA decided to up the ante a couple of years ago.

Looks a little different in the photo. The 767 business class product wasn't too bad.

 

[eastwest101]

Looks a little different in the photo. The 767 business class product wasn't too bad.

The photos depicts a 2-3-2 ex-JQ "J" class cabin vs the worst that you got on the old QF 7676 was 2-2-2 in J - so yes I'd take the B767 anyday thanks. But good point from mannej that without competition these would still be more common for transcon flights.

 

[mannej]

Looks a little different in the photo. The 767 business class product wasn't too bad.

Same seat, the 767 had it in 2-2-2, the 332 went with 2-3-2.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Same seat, the 767 had it in 2-2-2, the 332 went with 2-3-2.

767 burned more fuel so in paid business I always feel like was getting my money worth compared to a330

 

[Mattg]

To be honest, I'd be quite annoyed too if I paid full price for a business class ticket and found that this aircraft was operating my flight. J on the 737 actually looks more comfortable.

 

[The Flying Brick]

I sure hope that you didn't pay $1800 for that!
Those seats look appalling at first glance and would no doubt be even worse after 4 hours.

I can only suggest that next time you fly MEL - PER in J that you book with VA.

Once you have tried their new J seats and service on the transcon 332's there will be no turning back
(Even the old config 332's are pretty good too

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

I sure hope that you didn't pay $1800 for that!
Those seats look appalling at first glance and would no doubt be even worse after 4 hours.

I can only suggest that next time you fly MEL - PER in J that you book with VA.

Once you have tried their new J seats and service on the transcon 332's there will be no turning back
(Even the old config 332's are pretty good too

I second the VA option for MEL - PER in

 

[dgwally]

Quick update... sent a Tweet to qantas to express my concerns... they replied using the wrong name... Looks like they forgot to Paste my name into the Twitter Template

I found it rather funny

 

[muppet]

What reply did you want to receive?

When complaining about product or service - the golden rule is to always ask for something reasonable they can action there and then.

If we all recall years ago when the 737-400s existed - business class was always sold at lower cost than other aircraft. Time to knock down the rates on these premium economy seats too perhaps?

Being based in Canberra my experience with a substandard J project was very different to yours Trippin_the_rift.

CBR-MEL was full of those 734s and Business Class fares were more expensive than the longer MEL - SYD and offered no difference in price between a 767, 738 or 734.

I think what you may be recalling as "cheaper fares" was in fact more I or D class availability due to the 734 having 20 J seats and a 738 having 12.

 

[yohy?!]

A month after the OP I copped the same config on a MEL-SYD and complained. I got the same offensive template response which did not even address my request (ie refund my points paid for J). Got the social team on Twitter to escalate it and was told by a "manager" they consider this is a business class product so tough luck.

Talk about buyer beware.

This config is not the same as QF domestic J, the pitch, seat width and seat material are not the same and obviously the cabin config is 2-3-2. The seats were filthy and scuffed also.