Disappointing JQ Service

[james1]

I had the pleasure this week of escorting a group of 15 tremendous kids - less fortunate than most - on a 5 day trip to the Gold Coast. We tavelled outbound on VA and home again to Syd on JQ. Carry on baggage for both flights. Both flights excellent.

Outward, I queried at check in the size of one students bag. VA said close to limit but no problem. We boarded without issue.

Made the same query tonight at JQ check in and was told same thing. However at the gate, the agent said bag was beyond the acceptable dimensions and would subseqently need to be placed in the hold.
As such, the bag failed to make the flight back to Syd. This was neither a surprise nor a major issue. However it was the response from the JQ baggage agents in syd that I found disappointing.

I attempted to negotiate the return of the students bag by courier tomorrow (due to the distance they live from Sydney airport. ) However the JQ agents kept insisting that it was the students fault that the bag was oversize (in spite of he fact we had asked at check in and were given the ok to carry on.) Therefore they insisted it must be collected.

What followed were all sorts of insinuations about the student trying to carry 3 or 4 bags on the plane which I disputed and said would be verified with the arrival of the said luggage tomorrow. They said it was not the responsibility of the check in agent to police carry on rules. (??)

At this point, with a 14 yr old girl standing next to me in tears, I turned to the two VA agents listening at the counter next door and held up my bag. I pointed to the gold velocity tag alongside the gold QFF and said 'hey virgin, thanks for my status match. This is another reason why me and many others have been giving you a shot'!

Without a word of a lie, the JQ agent told me to 'do whatever I want, like we care'.

Wow!

Was I being childish? Unreasonable?

 

[TheInsider]

If it's too big, it is too big.
Also i've said before Jetstar don't care about the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, they are really only a partner and the agents probably wouldn't even know the difference between a WP and SG, and to say what you did, what would you expect Jetstar to say?
Baggage can get lost, just unforunate it happened to one of your students.

Also atleast you wern't charged the $160 fee to put your bag in the hold after having a no baggage ticket?

 

[yohy?!]

How pathetic of the baggage staff - this is the type of story that continues to crop up demonstrating that customer service and profits do not go hand in hand at Jetstar. Sure rules are rules but at the end of the day the customer is the reason those staff are there - even if they cannot do anything to help it would be expected to at least conduct themselves in a courteous manner.

I hope yours and the kids trip was otherwise enjoyable.

 

[james1]

If it's too big, it is too big.
Also i've said before Jetstar don't care about the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, they are really only a partner and the agents probably wouldn't even know the difference between a WP and SG, and to say what you did, what would you expect Jetstar to say?
Baggage can get lost, just unforunate it happened to one of your students.

Also atleast you wern't charged the $160 fee to put your bag in the hold after having a no baggage ticket?

Sure.

I guess my real point here is that we did ask whether it was too big at check in and were told no. At this point would have made necessary arrangements to pay. The issue is consistency of information.

As for the rest, water of the proverbial duck... Just left a bad taste..

 

[amaroo]

It's just not J*, I've been pinged at the gate with QF - them the breaks. No amount of constructive reason will make any difference.

 

[james1]

How pathetic of the baggage staff - this is the type of story that continues to crop up demonstrating that customer service and profits do not go hand in hand at Jetstar. Sure rules are rules but at the end of the day the customer is the reason those staff are there - even if they cannot do anything to help it would be expected to at least conduct themselves in a courteous manner.

I hope yours and the kids trip was otherwise enjoyable.

Thanks. They had an awesome time. Without going into specifics, they are pretty special bunch who have lost a parent in service to the community. At the end of the day it puts first world (and baggage) problems into perspective ..

 

[medhead]

Did they test it in one of those baggage testers at the gate? I'm struggling to see how anyone can claim it was too big if it wasn't tested. Especially here on AFF from the info provided. It was too big at 3 other points in the trip, when specifically asked. Given the comments at the other end about the school kids trying to get on 3 or 4 bags, I'd guess some jumped up JQ staff member got their nose out of joint and went on a power trip.

As for the JQ baggage people, just a mob of A-holes IMO. I hope you did the full lost baggage claim process thing, with the form and tracking number and such.

 

[james1]

Did they test it in one of those baggage testers at the gate? I'm struggling to see how anyone can claim it was too big if it wasn't tested. Especially here on AFF from the info provided. It was too big at 3 other points in the trip, when specifically asked. Given the comments at the other end about the school kids trying to get on 3 or 4 bags, I'd guess some jumped up JQ staff member got their nose out of joint and went on a power trip.

As for the JQ baggage people, just a mob of A-holes IMO. I hope you did the full lost baggage claim process thing, with the form and tracking number and such.

No test at the gate but at least the JQ agent at this point was polite and helpful. It was at the other end where it was implied that a 14 year old girl had acted deliberately untoward that was inappropriate IMO.

As per your advice, I did forget to do the baggage loss process. Thanks for the suggestion and will chase up tomorrow.

 

[markis10]

If it's too big, it is too big.

Sure but you would expect to the check in staff to know that and say no surely, especially since DJ said OK yet JQ allow an extra 10cm linear allowance, I would be curious to find out what the dimensions were on that basis, it sounds like someone (possibly plural) had a bad day, a common occurrence with JQ.

 

[Major]

JQ and Service in the one sentence is an oxymoron.

 

[here2go]

JQ and service don't even align. They aren't serving their parent, Qantas, when it comes to loading codeshares on to GDS, which is annoying Qantas no end. It amazes me that JQ is turning a profit in spite of the bad service.

 

[munitalP]

LOL at this whole JQ bash (another). Let's face some facts...

1. The bag was obviously too large, the OP admits to being a QF gold and would expect knows the rules
2. The OP knowing the bag was too large sought clarification from 2 airlines regarding the size, why? Because it was too large, simple.
3. The bag got checked because the rules are in place regarding the size. If the luggage is undersized, snap a pic with a tape measure against it and complain
4. This is a 1 sided story from someone who is obviously upset something didn't go their way.

The JQ rants about poor service are tiresome. People, it's JETSTAR and no matter which way you rearrange the letters, it does not spell QANTAS

Holding the bag up at the VA staff and showing the luggage tag, I bet they just thought to themselves "another matched pax flying a different airline" and could not have cared less.

I have personally flown JQ 100's of times and just have not seen the levels of incompetence that people rant about from check in staff to flight attendants. Maybe I'm just lucky, or is it I don't have a need to go on a rant because the FA did this or the check in agent done that... Tolerance.

 

[medhead]

I don't see a lot of tolerance from the JQ baggage services staff at the other end.

What followed were all sorts of insinuations about the student trying to carry 3 or 4 bags on the plane which I disputed and said would be verified with the arrival of the said luggage tomorrow. They said it was not the responsibility of the check in agent to police carry on rules. (??)

At this point, with a 14 yr old girl standing next to me in tears,

The fact that we've also found out they didn't do the lost bag process suggests a level of incompetence. I'm not sure about others but I'm not inclined to tolerate incompetence from those who I have paid to provide a service. I'm not sure why JQ should be in anyway special in this regard.

 

[QF029]

I pointed to the gold velocity tag alongside the gold QFF and said 'hey virgin, thanks for my status match. This is another reason why me and many others have been giving you a shot'!

1. Jetstar have status that you can match from?
2. Great example set for the 14 year old girl.

 

[james1]

2. Great example set for the 14 year old girl.

Fair enough but my manner was neither hostile nor impolite in tone. My point was that the information given was inconsistent between the check in desk and the gate, something we had not encountered on the way up with VA. I think the example set by acting as a volunteer escort for 5 days far outweighs a casual and flippant remark at the end.

 

[QF029]

Fair enough but my manner was neither hostile nor impolite in tone. My point was that the information given was inconsistent between the check in desk and the gate, something we had not encountered on the way up with VA. I think the example set by acting as a volunteer escort for 5 days far outweighs a casual and flippant remark at the end.

Fair enough however an inconsistency could occur on any airline in the world. JQ is unashamedly a budget airline and I think (in general) they get unnecessarily criticised. My experiences have been fine.

 

[dfcatch]

Fair enough however an inconsistency could occur on any airline in the world. JQ is unashamedly a budget airline and I think (in general) they get unnecessarily criticised. My experiences have been fine.

JQ are a budget airline whose entire MO when setup was to undermine VA and ensure that customers were deliberately left with a bad taste in their mouth from flying a budget airline.

JQ prided themselves on bad customer service because it muddied VA (as a fellow budget airline) as much as it did JQ.

The result - people who cared about service would now be prepared to stump up and pay a premium for QF.

Unfortunately, JQ (with unlimited financial resources) was successful. So it now exists as a QF replacement rather than just a VA destroyer.

The criticism JQ receives is completely warranted.

(FWIW I am on the record praising JQ when they do get it right).

 

[BAM1748]

It's no good, certainly not like the TV ads where they portray their people as fun and friendly. Always get the staff members name if you can, I've never lost a complaint when I have the name of the person involved.

However, when I want a sit down meal and a glass of wine I don't go to Subway.

Matt

 

[travelislife]

"JQ are a budget airline whose entire MO when setup was to undermine VA and ensure that customers were deliberately left with a bad taste in their mouth from flying a budget airline.

JQ prided themselves on bad customer service because it muddied VA (as a fellow budget airline) as much as it did JQ.

The result - people who cared about service would now be prepared to stump up and pay a premium for QF.

Unfortunately, JQ (with unlimited financial resources) was successful. So it now exists as a QF replacement rather than just a VA destroyer.

The criticism JQ receives is completely warranted.

(FWIW I am on the record praising JQ when they do get it right)."

This is one of the best posts I have read about Jetstar. It is now being used to replace Qantas services as it means they can 'cancel' a route and then remove staff whilst giving that route to Jetstar, we are only going to see more of it.

VA has become the destroyer towards QF in a small way.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Fair enough but my manner was neither hostile nor impolite in tone. My point was that the information given was inconsistent between the check in desk and the gate, something we had not encountered on the way up with VA. I think the example set by acting as a volunteer escort for 5 days far outweighs a casual and flippant remark at the end.

It is very disappointing to have different treatment of the luggage by agents at check-in and boarding.
Irrespective of the emotional "baggage" attached to the incident by travelling with a group of young teens IMHO you have every right to be annoyed at the inconsistency of the service.
I do not buy into the LCC argument excusing JQ from blame when things go awry.
Unfortunately for some of us the continued downsizing/ Jetstarisation of mainline QF leaves many passengers with little or no alternative but to travel JQ.
They could and should have handled this a lot better.