Re: First status run kicking off soon. Qantas lady thought I was playing a joke on he
So im currently sitting in Alice Springs with 5 of my 7 sectors now complete. Unfortunately the small lounge here is completely full but the desk attendant inside was happy for me to take food and drink from the lounge into the terminal. Here is a quick run down of my journey so far which commenced early Saturday Morning.
Flight 1: Mel to Syd @ 7:00am on Saturday - JASA. Well this was my most eventful flight so far. I got on the plane with my boarding pass for seat 2A and was pleasantly surprised by a very hard core looking bikey sitting in my seat holding a boarding pass in his hand for seat 42E. I politely advised him that he was in my seat, he looked at me with a death stare and then proceeded to turn the other way. I must admit i felt very intimidated and didnt want to hold up the rest of the boarding process so I just sat down in 2B. As per usual the FA's didn't bother to greet passengers and therefore did not pickup on the fact that this guy was not sitting where he should have been. Doors closed and the FA's went to there jump seats and the departure was now in motion. So now I had a little dilemma on my hands, if I complain to the FA about this guy several things could happen, 1. he could get into an argument with the FA's and make the plane turn around because the FA's would be scared (no good for me as I had connections to catch), 2. I could advise the front cabin attendant and then have this passenger know that I dobbed him in. 3. I could go to the FA's in the next cabin and explain the situation to them. I decided to go with option 3 once the plane had leveled out after take off. This is how the conversation went:
Adam: Excuse me what does my boarding card say
FA: it says seat 2A sir.
Adam: So why is there a very intimidating person sitting in my seat?
FA: What do you mean?
Adam: I mean that I pay a premium over the other passengers to sit at the front of the aircraft and there is a passenger sitting next to me holding a boarding card to 42E, he is a pretty intimidating looking person and I should not have to be put into a position where I feel intimidated when I fly with your airline, especially in Business Class.
FA: Yes sir this is definitely a problem, lets go back to row 2 and we can have him moved to his actual seat.
Adam: I dont want to come with you to row 2 and have him moved, I dont want this person knowing that I am the reason he is being moved, the last thing I want is this guy and/or his friends confronting me on arrival into Sydney, I should never have been put in this position in the first place and its unacceptable.
FA: Ok, you hide in the galley and as he walks one direction we will signal you and you walk the other direction so you don't make any contact with him.
Adam: OK
This happened and I then went back to my seat (already 30 mins into the flight)
CSM: Hi sir, I just wanted to let you know that we would have realized that he was in the wrong seat as we go through the manifest.
Adam: you would have realised when you serve the food because thats when you would check the manifest for Business Class.
CSM: no, this is not the case we would have picked it up straight away......
Adam: whatever you say, the fact that I had to go and tell FA's in the middle cabin because I felt intimidated is completely unacceptable and this should never have occured. You can see the entire business cabin when you board the plane and the fact that he sat in 2A straight away shows a lack of awareness from your Cabin Crew when boarding the plane.
CSM: enjoy the rest of the flight MR ******.
I have to say in all my years of flying this was definitely the most awkward situation I have been in. I spent the remainder of the flight worried about my personal safety in case this guy saw me when we got off the plane. As soon as i got off I went straight to the lounge to ensure that he would not be able to spot me. I told the staff at the counter at the lounge, they handed me a business card with a web address to the online submission form for complaints.........Wow what an amazing customer service system they have in place, what a disgrace.
Flight 2: Sydney to Alice Springs - JASA - Was a pleasent flight with no problems at all, FA's extremely nice.
Flight 3: Alice Springs to Sydney - YASA (same plane and crew) - I was in 13A (Exit Row), as soon as I was seated the CSM came to me and said "Adam we were expecting you up the front of the plane again, please let us know if you would like anything throughout the flight, they even offered me the Business Class meal". I was really happy with the service on this flight and the FA's did a great job to ensure I was comfortable even though I was in the Y cabin.
Flight 4: Sydney to Melbourne - YASA - I was supposed to be on the 6:00pm service, managed to get moved to the 5:00pm service with no hassle after landing at 4:40pm from the previous flight, hence I got home an hour earlier, went out for dinner with the other half and had a nice evening.
Flight 5: Melbourne to Alice Springs - JASA - 1A was nice, only 3 other pax in Business class, I had A/B to myself, really nice FA's......great flight, great crew and best of all was a very new plane with good entertainment system etc.
Flight 6: boarding in 40 minutes.......Ill update the post once my mission is over.
It's been an interesting 36 hours to say the least! Im still trying to decide what to do about the incident on my first flight and if I should escalate it with Executive Relations......or just leave it alone and see if either the FA's or the lounge lodged a report and therefore ill get a follow up during the week.
Im sorry to have written such a large post but thought that some members on here may find it interesting and if this situation has occured with any members previosuly and what was the outcome?
Im not re-reading the post so sorry for any spelling or gramatical errors.
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