Daver6
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2011
- Posts
- 11,406
- Qantas
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- Virgin
- Gold
Compared to some of the other issues people have had on here, this is minor, but I feel that I need to put pen to paper.
On a Monday morning in Auckland I received the following SMS from QF. "We've had to change your flight QF142 on 18JUL at 0835 from Auckland. View these changes at qantas.com/yourbooking". I had a revenue J fare back to PER via SYD with a little over two hours layover in SYD. This SMS was received roughly 22 hours prior to scheduled departure.
I was out and about doing touristy things and when I get back to the hotel later afternoon, followed the instructions from the SMS. Website showed my original booking with original departure time. Also not alert of a flight delay from TripIt Pro. Figured I better get to the bottom of this and called QF. As always, the were having higher than expected call volumes so I optioed for the callback service. Was informed about 18 minutes. About 75 minutes later I got the call back.
Indeed my flight was being delayed. I can't recall the exact departure delay but it did mean my connection in SYD was down to 65 minutes. The lady on the phone was trying to get me off the phone, but I proactively had to ask if that was sufficient time to transfer between terminals. We were HLO and both had e-passports. My main concern was those transfer buses only run once every 20 minutes at the time we would arrive. The lady puts me on hold for a few minutes.
She comes back and says she can't actually book my on my flight because SYD MCT is 90 minutes. She could put me on the next flight out of SYD which wasn't going to be that convenient as I had commitments in PER. I enquired about other options. She said that's it. I asked about via MEL and SYD which prompted her to look. A 0715 departure out of AKL via MEL was available. However, we really didn't want a stupidly early start to end our break tired, so I told her we'd take the SYD option. In those two minutes the J seats were no longer available. She could give me a four hour layover option in SYD. She indicated all flights were filling up quickly and I might lose the MEL option. I asked her to book that for now and we'll investigate other options. She informed me that this change was without charge, but further changes would incur a change fee. I asked what happens if I decide that option is not acceptable. At which point she informed me we could have a full refund (not really any use, need to get home). She also patronisingly told me that QF don't deliberately put in delays to annoy customers. At this point I just accepted the early flight via MEL.
I also ask what would have happened had I just blindly followed the instructions with all indication being my flight was on time, only to arrive at the airport. She couldn't actually answer or see why I had any issues with the misleading information QF provided.
Ironically the next morning in the QF lounge, I look at the departure board and notice our original flight to SYD still showed the original 0835 departure! I ask the lounge attendant who informed me it was incorrect and actually delayed.
Being frustrated I vented on Twitter with
Qantas reached out to me for my flight number. I responded and said that I'd love to speak in person to someone about this. They directed me to private message them which I did providing them with my email address and phone number. They responded that they will follow up and update me.
Three days passed and nothing. I politely enquired when I might hear back and was told in the next couple of days. A week post that still nothing so again I requested an update. At this point they just tell me to go fill on the online customer care link.
My issues with what originally happened are:
I should probably just let this go, but boy do they go out of their way to infuriate a customer making a bad situation worse.
</rant>
On a Monday morning in Auckland I received the following SMS from QF. "We've had to change your flight QF142 on 18JUL at 0835 from Auckland. View these changes at qantas.com/yourbooking". I had a revenue J fare back to PER via SYD with a little over two hours layover in SYD. This SMS was received roughly 22 hours prior to scheduled departure.
I was out and about doing touristy things and when I get back to the hotel later afternoon, followed the instructions from the SMS. Website showed my original booking with original departure time. Also not alert of a flight delay from TripIt Pro. Figured I better get to the bottom of this and called QF. As always, the were having higher than expected call volumes so I optioed for the callback service. Was informed about 18 minutes. About 75 minutes later I got the call back.
Indeed my flight was being delayed. I can't recall the exact departure delay but it did mean my connection in SYD was down to 65 minutes. The lady on the phone was trying to get me off the phone, but I proactively had to ask if that was sufficient time to transfer between terminals. We were HLO and both had e-passports. My main concern was those transfer buses only run once every 20 minutes at the time we would arrive. The lady puts me on hold for a few minutes.
She comes back and says she can't actually book my on my flight because SYD MCT is 90 minutes. She could put me on the next flight out of SYD which wasn't going to be that convenient as I had commitments in PER. I enquired about other options. She said that's it. I asked about via MEL and SYD which prompted her to look. A 0715 departure out of AKL via MEL was available. However, we really didn't want a stupidly early start to end our break tired, so I told her we'd take the SYD option. In those two minutes the J seats were no longer available. She could give me a four hour layover option in SYD. She indicated all flights were filling up quickly and I might lose the MEL option. I asked her to book that for now and we'll investigate other options. She informed me that this change was without charge, but further changes would incur a change fee. I asked what happens if I decide that option is not acceptable. At which point she informed me we could have a full refund (not really any use, need to get home). She also patronisingly told me that QF don't deliberately put in delays to annoy customers. At this point I just accepted the early flight via MEL.
I also ask what would have happened had I just blindly followed the instructions with all indication being my flight was on time, only to arrive at the airport. She couldn't actually answer or see why I had any issues with the misleading information QF provided.
Ironically the next morning in the QF lounge, I look at the departure board and notice our original flight to SYD still showed the original 0835 departure! I ask the lounge attendant who informed me it was incorrect and actually delayed.
Being frustrated I vented on Twitter with
Qantas reached out to me for my flight number. I responded and said that I'd love to speak in person to someone about this. They directed me to private message them which I did providing them with my email address and phone number. They responded that they will follow up and update me.
Three days passed and nothing. I politely enquired when I might hear back and was told in the next couple of days. A week post that still nothing so again I requested an update. At this point they just tell me to go fill on the online customer care link.
My issues with what originally happened are:
- Incorrect information given via the SMS.
- I needed to be proactive about the SYD connection.
- Inability to be flexible. Ie letting me book the MEL option and then change if I find something more convenient.
- I didn't care for the operator's attitude at all.
- And now, their really poor response from the social media team.
I should probably just let this go, but boy do they go out of their way to infuriate a customer making a bad situation worse.
</rant>
