How to escalate a complaint about status drop?

[Whipster]

How to escalate a request for status review?

Hoping that the forum can advise me on the best next step for a problem I have.

I've held Qantas gold for the last year, after being bumped from silver the year before (lots of QF flights, but fell short of SC threshold by a few SCs - either 5 or 25, I can't remember - and they were kind enough to comp me). Held silver before that for years and years.

This year I've done lots of flying to, from and within South America, probably 40-ish flights. All self-funded and exclusively with OneWorld - Qantas, LAN and TAM (tens of thousands of dollars for myself and my wife, much of which booked via Qantas themselves).

Obviously, QF codes are not available within South America. So while I blew past the required SCs to retain gold (earned 635, needed only 600), I flew only two of the four QF sectors they want.

So this year they've dropped me back to silver. I don't dispute this is consistent with their T+Cs, but I also know that at their discretion they could keep me at gold if they wanted to (eg my wife has retained silver this year despite flying only 2 out of 4 QF sectors).

Given the circumstances, I think my case is worth another look. (a) I've shown great loyalty to Qantas (eg it would have been cheaper to book nothing at all through Qantas, or I could have ditched QFF and credited to LAN, etc), (b) It's been simply impossible to fly extra QF sectors this year, and (c) looking at my flights over two years instead of just one I've easily met requirements to earn and retain gold.

Despite this, when I phoned the call centre to request a review the woman I spoke to said that because they manually gave me the initial bump to gold I've lost any right to future flexibility on their part. She also declined to give me contact details of somebody to whom I could escalate my request for a review - she said the buck stopped with her, although she'd pass on 'feedback'.

Can anybody suggest an appropriate email to which I can submit a request for review? I'm reluctant to just send something through to the generic email, as per the Qantas contacts sticky. Responses to that are always slow and generic, if possible I'd like to contact a 'higher level' and maybe even have an actual person read and think about my case for more than just 10 seconds!

I get this mightn't work out, but I at least want to make a case. If they can't show flexibility it will be disappointing, but I'd hope they'd nonetheless want to hear my side of things as a customer who did his utmost to be 'loyal' within the circumstances.

 

[dfcatch]

I would suggest that you're out of luck.

You haven't fulfilled the most basic of requirements to complete four sectors with QF flight numbers.

You have already received a comp at your level (which is well known as a "once-off"). You can't play that card twice.

In this case - you should chalk it up to a lesson learned that you need to achieve 4 sectors, which is not an onerous task.

 

[Whipster]

Well, it's onerous if you're outside of Aus for a 12-month period :-|. I had just hoped that some understanding could prevail, given that flying 2 QF sectors this year is a small blip on a record of otherwise flying 20-30 QF sectors yearly for the past 3 or 4 years (and having the same in the pipeline for next year).

But you're very right that it's a lesson learnt! In hindsight I should have credited all my miles to LATAM, and saved a pile of cash by making bookings directly with them instead of via Qantas. Then I'd be gold or plat with them right now, and wouldn't be arguing about the definition of loyalty with Qantas!

 

[Deleted member]

Dfcatch is right. I had a similar issue, ( SC's not QF flights) ended up doing two status runs to get over the line

 

[opusman]

For what it's worth, a complimentary "bump up" when you haven't fulfilled the requirements for the next level seems to be exceedingly rare - much more so than a comp renewal. You probably should be grateful you got that and stop complaining

 

[offshore171]

Not sure "complaint" is the right mindset here.

To my way of thinking, a complaint is for when you have been wronged (eg by an airline).

In this case, it's more a case of you seeking a gesture of goodwill to obtain something you are not strictly entitled to.

Sure (graciously) make a request a GOGW, but it's not grounds for complaint, especially since you have been comped already.

 

[Whipster]

Not sure "complaint" is the right mindset here.

...

In this case, it's more a case of you seeking a gesture of goodwill to obtain something you are not strictly entitled to.

...

Thanks offshore171! That's exactly right - I tried to convey these concepts in my post, but you've summarised the situation more clearly than my clumsy attempt.

I'm going to change this thread title and wording (if I can?) because that's the mindset I do have, but I've obviously greatly bollocksed up the description of it

 

[offshore171]

If it were me, I'd hold my fire on this one. There's going to be a time one day when you really do have a legitimate complaint.

You don't want to end up with a note against your account over this one, and then be taken less seriously one day when you really need to be heard.

Also if you go in boots and all on this one, it's going to tie up resources who could be working on far more serious complaints (bereavement cases etc)

Anyway that's my 2c

 

[Whipster]

Thanks again

If it were me, I'd hold my fire on this one.

Yeah, I think maybe that's where I'm headed with this. Given the general consensus here, and the fact that I really don't need it chewing up my time, it could be best to let it lie.

You don't want to end up with a note against your account ove r this one

Yikes - yet another reason. I'd hate to assume a service-oriented company could black-flag a customer over a disagreement - but I guess making assumptions is what got me here so it's probably time to stop, haha.

 

[OzEire]

Re: How to escalate a request for status review?

It's a worry when loyalty = a note against your file if you dare to complain or ask for anything.
It sounds to me as though the OP tried to fly QF a lot (going by SCs) but the lack of QF services in their region meant that was not possible. But the OP should get some credit for trying to stay loyal.
We AFFers may argue the finer points of what they ought to have done (credit elsewhere, take a ~ run, etc) but, equally, QF might acknowledge a loyal customer who decided not to take their business elsewhere (but I wouldn't hold my breath).