Has anyone had any luck using the Airline Customer Advocate (ACA)?
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According to it's charter "The Airline Customer Advocate is an independent body established in July 2012 as an industry based scheme to facilitate the efficient resolution of complaints from customers about the airline service provided by the five participating airlines. These airlines are Jetstar Airways, Qantas, Regional Express and
Virgin Australia."
So given it's apparently funded and run by the airlines to monitor themselves, I'm not expecting much.
According to their website customers can complain about:
- flight delays or cancellations
- telephone or internet reservations
- customer service at the airport or inflight
- baggage services
- fees and charges
- safety and security
- airport lounge facilities
- frequent flyer program terms and conditions
- discrimination and services for customers with specific needs
- requests for refunds
The biggest hurdle to even lodge a valid compaint in that you need to file a complaint with the airline, wait for their response and then request the airline review the response if you are not happy with the outcome. Only then are you eligible to lodge a complaint with the ACA.
Even then, according to the ACA "In general, phone calls and chat discussions are not considered to be part of the ACA’s complaints process.". To me this seems to suggest that unless you get anything in writing from the airline any conversations are worthless. Given the lack of response from Qantas there doesn't seem to be much chance of email correspondence being received.
Wondering if anyone has any success or experience with the ACA?
Seems like it may be a bit of a waste of time with the likely outcome of booking a new ticket (not with Qantas).