Massive QF Fail [Airline moved PAX to earlier flight-did not inform PAX]

[RooFlyer]

<snip>

Originally Posted by RooFlyer I think the nature of the conversation with the QF lounge angel will be relevant; jot some notes down if you haven't already. Depending on what was said (and requested) then, QF may argue "Well, you went off and arranged your own substitute flight, we are not going to pay for something you went off and did yourself."

This is a good point. It was definitely initiated by the J Lounge Angels, as the only way I could get to SYD in time to connect through to WGA. They looked up which VA flight I'd need to catch, then one of them called VA and asked about availability (and then she handed me the phone).

<snip>

I'm still concerned about that there may be something missing on the part of the lounge angel, such as saying ".... here's the phone, but if you do this, rather than letting our customer care handle things, you are on your own".

A helpful act by one employee without all the facts and implications to hand may leave you skewered with respect to re-imbursement.

Hope not.

 

[opusman]

Red Roo.....

Care to get onto this one.

The fact that Red Roo has said nothing suggests that how this has played out is acceptable from QF's point of view.

OP, I wouldn't expect any more than a refund of your QF flight.

 

[Ansett]

In a worse case scenario would TI not cover it?

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I have seen QF engineers arrive in HBA on a VA plane in order to fix a QF plane stuck on the tarmac at HBA :shock:

That was going to be quicker than waiting for the next QF arrival into HBA.

So QF does arrange bookings on VA when it suits them.

Umm well, actually I do. The lead in time was about 30 minutes for QF to arrange the VA ticket.

The people handling disruptions do not get involved with re accommodating duty staff travel so the engineering department would simply do a booking for two employees on the VA website on whatever fare was going at the time.

This is a completely different scenario to commercial pax being booked on a QF flight that is cancelled & QF having to arrange uplift on VA via a FIM.

 

[maninblack]

Massive QF Fail yesterday

The fact that Red Roo has said nothing suggests that how this has played out is acceptable from QF's point of view.

OP, I wouldn't expect any more than a refund of your QF flight.

Don't know that we should expect company reps to chime in immediately on every complaint before they have had an opportunity to look into a matter properly, perhaps contact the member privately, prior to that they could only provide a fairly glib PR response. Even though airlines are a 24/7 business, it is the weekend.

 

[Pleb Status]

Definitely no SMS, email or phone call.

I actually think that in a situation where you've been moved forward by an hour, an SMS isn't sufficient. I think QF should really call, to get positive confirmation that you know about it. I suppose they probably do for WP1's .....

For info, I have been advised that a delay has to be in excess of one hour before the P1 SST are even advised of the delay (more for them to actually do anything about it). Less than that, it is a SMS for P1 like everyone else. I have found the QF android app quite handy for updates.

SQ called me to confirm a 5 minute flight time change (6:25am instead of 6:30am) ....

 

[Ansett]

SQ called me to confirm a 5 minute flight time change (6:25am instead of 6:30am) ....[/QUOTE]

And therein lays the difference in attention to detail for high tier flyers from competing airlines.

One Cares and one not so much.

 

[drron]

Also had that response from SQ with changes of a few minutes being notified to me.
Twice when we have had F awards on an AA flight the flight has been cancelled.
First time was because of weather-flight couldn't leave DFW because of ice storm so no plane at NRT for return service.No notification but when we arrived at checkin we had already been rerouted via ORD and onward to LGA.
Second was a flight being cancelled.The original route was JFK-LHR.The notification email came with the new e ticket for JFK-MIA-LHR.And we each got 5000 AA miles for the inconvenience.

 

[boomy]

For info, I have been advised that a delay has to be in excess of one hour before the P1 SST are even advised of the delay (more for them to actually do anything about it). Less than that, it is a SMS for P1 like everyone else. I have found the QF android app quite handy for updates.

SQ called me to confirm a 5 minute flight time change (6:25am instead of 6:30am) ....

I always get a call from QF when there is a cancellation or delay, even when it's less then one hour but not as little as 5 minutes.

 

[RooFlyer]

For info, I have been advised that a delay has to be in excess of one hour before the P1 SST are even advised of the delay (more for them to actually do anything about it). Less than that, it is a SMS for P1 like everyone else. I have found the QF android app quite handy for updates.

SQ called me to confirm a 5 minute flight time change (6:25am instead of 6:30am) ....

I always get a call from QF when there is a cancellation or delay, even when it's less then one hour but not as little as 5 minutes.

What have I heard around here before?

That's right! Consistently inconsistent.

 

[codash1099]

Once upon a time, TAA and Ansett used to have a supply of each other's tickets under the counter, and would just ring the other and write a ticket on the other's stock. I used to prefer TAA and remember that one day, when I couldn't get on a TAA flight on a particular day (open dated ticket) the ticket clerk just rang AN, arranged everything and gave me the AN ticket - no cost involved. That was customer service. How times have changed.

All dead easy when you had a cosy Government instigated and supported arrangement that included identical prices, aircraft and flight times.

 

[Pleb Status]

I always get a call from QF when there is a cancellation or delay, even when it's less then one hour but not as little as 5 minutes.

I was told this directly from the P1 SST (after yet another QF service failure) and this has been confirmed from my experiences as a P1. However, from what you have posted here, the service I have received over the past 21 months is almost the polar opposite to your experiences. I think you are in a different P1 bracket to me.

 

[boomy]

Massive QF Fail yesterday

I was told this directly from the P1 SST (after yet another QF service failure) and this has been confirmed from my experiences as a P1. However, from what you have posted here, the service I have received over the past 21 months is almost the polar opposite to your experiences. I think you are in a different P1 bracket to me.

Maybe there is a different policy regarding domestic and international flights. My experience is with mostly domestic last minute delays/cancellations.

 

[Quickstatus]

In defence of QF (devils advocate hat).

the Lounge staff or checkin staff really do not have anyway of knowing whether the late passenger was late due to a QF lack of communication.

And Im sure that they get passengers making all sorts of excuses for being late and missing flight.

REDROO. may I propose a system: QF nneds to change a passengers itinerary. QF not only needs to send a message to passenger but also get a confirmed reply from that passenger to that message. If the passenger does not reply and arrives late QF then has to recover that situation without cost to the passenger.

Not getting a reply to a message is basically the same as the message never being sent in the first place. Your pilots are trained to confirm /repeat all communications in the coughpit and with ATC. QF need to do the same with their communications with their passengers.

 

[medhead]

The fact that Red Roo has said nothing suggests that how this has played out is acceptable from QF's point of view.

OP, I wouldn't expect any more than a refund of your QF flight.

Or it's the weekend.

Still at least here there is a chance to have a reply, unlike "the other place" where this was first posted.

 

[dfcatch]

[email protected] with a nice PM to Red Roo so that they can follow up on your behalf.

 

[woodborer]

All dead easy when you had a cosy Government instigated and supported arrangement that included identical prices, aircraft and flight times.

Indeed, back in the day the only thing airlines competed on was service (the prices justification tribunal set the prices, the schedules were the same). Nowadays, price is a bigger determinant in competition - and people wonder why the airlines are different now.....But hey, lets go back to Super Apex fares, where getting the discount required a Saturday Night away from home, pricing was on return fares, not so much on one way....it was all so better back then...

 

[MatF]

I'm still concerned about that there may be something missing on the part of the lounge angel, such as saying ".... here's the phone, but if you do this, rather than letting our customer care handle things, you are on your own".

A helpful act by one employee without all the facts and implications to hand may leave you skewered with respect to re-imbursement.

Hope not.

There was definitely no suggestion that customer care could handle things. There was some discussion around the fact that there were no seats on any QF flights that could get me to SYD in time for my connection, and then the Lounge Angels suggested that flying VA was a potential solution, if there was an available seat. I said yes, that sounds like it might be a good option - then one of them called VA to check on availability, then handed me the phone to pay for the ticket. Simple as that.

It was a helpful suggestion, and I was grateful that she called them, as that was the fastest way to get it sorted, and time was short. I'm just a bit surprised that I had to go out of pocket to buy the ticket.

In the end, I think it'll end up being cost neutral for me, as the price I paid for the VA seat will probably be around the same as the refund QF will give me for the QF seat, but what if the VA seat had been significantly more expensive? I was actually expecting it to be, since it was purchased at the last minute.

My main gripe however is the lack of notification of the flight cancellation and new flight details.

REDROO. may I propose a system: QF nneds to change a passengers itinerary. QF not only needs to send a message to passenger but also get a confirmed reply from that passenger to that message. If the passenger does not reply and arrives late QF then has to recover that situation without cost to the passenger.

Not getting a reply to a message is basically the same as the message never being sent in the first place. Your pilots are trained to confirm /repeat all communications in the coughpit and with ATC. QF need to do the same with their communications with their passengers.

This is what I meant when I said that I think QF should get positive confirmation that a passenger knows they've been moved forward by an hour. An SMS (even if they had sent one) isn't really enough in this case. It's not such a big deal if you've been moved back in time, but moving forward is obviously not so simple.

Is that too much to ask?

 

[Interlude]

On numerous occasions over many years I have been very very pleased with the way QF accommodated my needs. Seldom any compensation as such, but taking care of re-routing (often involving other OW carriers and taking the long way round) and enforced overnights has been very well handled. Also, original miles and SCs credited either automatically or when asked for, if more than the re-routed flight. I've often told family and friends that one of the great benefits of status is that you have a sense of comfort that if things go wrong, QF will take care of you. My experience is that they do.....which shows that it is perfectly within their capability to handle these situations well....which in turn makes OP's experience all the more galling.

 

[drron]

I now remember 2.5 years ago when the morning flights out of DPO were cancelled and I as a QPNB was rung by QF to say they had arranged a seat that afternoon out of LST.I then missed the last JQ flight MEL-MCY so QF then put me on the last QF flight to BNE.Fantastic service.
As roo flyer says consistently inconsistent.