Media request for your anecdotes about bad service

[Kirsty]

The Sydney Morning Herald is interested in hearing anecdotes from seasoned flyers for a feature story we are preparing tomorrow. The airline world has changed, and flying Qantas ain't what it used to be. Have you had an experience of poor service in the skies? Would love to hear from you.
Kirsty Needham
Consumer Affairs Writer
The Sydney Morning Herald
kneedham@smh.com.au

 

[icemann]

When is this story likely to go to press ?

 

[trevor_s]

In my opinion, QANTAS have made a poor decision introducing a new airline, all that will happen is they will take passengers from their own airline. Look at BA in the UK for a classic example of this, all they ended up doing was canalbalising their own passengers ! Perhaps that?s the idea, open a greenfiel airline, moan about the Unions and QANTAS and then shut QANTAS down altogether and run a no frill airline only, until the pendulum swings back the other way in a decade or so and people demand more service ?

Change the current aircraft configuration !
They should simply introduce a three tier system in their current fleet, where it is justified (i.e. on the bigger planes). Change the current Business class to 1st class, have a new section named business class that has the same seats as economy now has with a little more legroom and bring back the food of yesteryear that used to be served to economy, then have a no frills class, with all the lack of frill that no-frills airlines run, little service to that part of the plane, seat yourself anywhere pay for your meals, the same ticketing restrictions as no-frills airlines etc etc

 

[straitman]

They should simply introduce a three tier system in their current fleet, where it is justified (i.e. on the bigger planes). Change the current Business class to 1st class, have a new section named business class that has the same seats as economy now has with a little more legroom and bring back the food of yesteryear that used to be served to economy, then have a no frills class, with all the lack of frill that no-frills airlines run, little service to that part of the plane, seat yourself anywhere pay for your meals, the same ticketing restrictions as no-frills airlines etc etc

Now that sounds interesting :?:

A cross between the current Qantas and Virgin Blue :wink:

 

[straitman]

The Sydney Morning Herald is interested in hearing anecdotes from seasoned flyers for a feature story we are preparing tomorrow. The airline world has changed, and flying Qantas ain't what it used to be. Have you had an experience of poor service in the skies? Would love to hear from you.
Kirsty Needham
Consumer Affairs Writer
The Sydney Morning Herald
kneedham@smh.com.au

Sorry Kirsty we quickly got off your track.
I hope someone responded appropriately. Maybe with some good service stories as well. (It happens more often you know) :!:

 

[thadocta]

I responded with a "I have rarely had a bad experience with QF, and when I have, the CSM has put it right after I demanded to see him or her. My beef is with inconsistent service standards. Why is it free beer/wine but no tea/coffee on CityFlyer services after 1600 on weekdays, but you have to pay for the beer/wine on weekends?"

Basically chanted the "What you get on a weekday should be available on a weekend" mantra.

Got a "Thank you for your input" (she forget to add "F*ck off, we don't want to talk to people who aren't willing to support our intended story line, if you don't tell us what we want to hear, we don't want to hear from you").

Did add that I was QF Gold, with 95% of it being from discount Y on short haul ops, so am eminently qualified to comment about service shortcomings on domestic sectors.

Dave

 

[shillard]

Got a "Thank you for your input" (she forget to add "F*ck off, we don't want to talk to people who aren't willing to support our intended story line, if you don't tell us what we want to hear, we don't want to hear from you").Dave

I put in my 2c:

"Hi Kirsty,

I agree that flying QF isn't what it used to be - it is infinitely better.

I think I qualify as a "seasoned" flyer - I've held Platinum status with QF for years, and have racked up tens of thousands of miles on American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, Air Pacific, Delta, United, etc. Never had QF lose a bag - only Air New Zealand has that distinction.

In my experience most people who complain about bad service from airlines are chronic whingers who will complain about anything - justifiable or not.

QF stands out time and again for consistently good service. Not exceptional, like Cathay's business class service, but consistently good. When they get it wrong, they go the extra mile to make it right. QF is, by international standards, EXCEPTIONALLY good at looking after its most loyal customers. I know that if I need a seat on an oversold flight departing tomorrow, I can get it.

Depsite no competition on my most frequent route (Newcastle-Sydney return), I can get an internet fare for next-day travel for $79 each way - a few years ago, with competition from Impulse, that was over $150....

What, precisely, are people whingeing about? We are blessed with one of the best domestic airlines in the world - certainly far better than anything on offer in America. Those who howl and scream about QF need to get out more, and see what bad service from airlines is REALLY like."

Didn't even get an acknowledgement of receipt....clearly my story was even further from the intended spin than yours was. Saw the article in today's herald, just another hatchet-job, proving yet again that the SMH is just a tabloid in broadsheet's clothing. Still, the clowns running it keep printing the crap poured out by Hugh McKay (who has the distinction of being the stupidest person in Australia).

What did we expect?

 

[shillard]

In my opinion, QANTAS have made a poor decision introducing a new airline,

Qantas have done no such thing. At this stage, according to Dixon on ABC radio this morning, they are "considering it".

No firm plans, no announcement of firm plans, nada. I doubt it will get off the ground. If it did, expect something along the lines of AO, which hasn't really canibalised traffic from QF at all. You can be sure that Geoff will be VERY careful to ensure that QF pax don't float across to any new venture.

 

[JakDac]

Article

Home > National News > Article
Unhappy travellers let fly at Qantas
By Kirsty Needham, Consumer Writer
August 23, 2003

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A plan by Qantas to launch a no-frills domestic carrier has sparked a torrent of complaints from passengers about the existing level of "full service" on the airline.

A poll on the Herald's website yesterday drew 130 tales of misadventure and neglect flying Qantas. About a dozen responses were positive.

Rob Bruce, a Sydney marketing strategy manager, wrote to Qantas to officially complain about being called a "piece of shit" by a Qantas call centre operator. Although the call centre manager apologised that this was "just an expression she uses", Mr Bruce said the letter was not acted upon.

A Coffs Harbour woman had her honeymoon plans disrupted when Qantas changed the couple's flights four times. Another "gold" frequent flyer complained that Qantas had tried to cut short her three-day stay in Melbourne by phoning, after she had arrived, to say the departure flight was overbooked and she would now have to leave within 24 hours.

Bill Nixon often flies business-class, and believes service is poor because the airline "has antagonised the Qantas staff to the point they are angry, and it is spilling out onto the customer".


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In December he flew from Los Angeles to Sydney and was "dumbfounded" when the lights were dimmed 30 minutes into the 14-hour flight, with no offer of food or beverages. After complaints, the crew announced they would serve a meal if hungry passengers pressed the call button. He was "ashamed it was our national carrier" when the American businessman seated next to him asked if this was typical service.

When the two men pressed the button, "about 10 minutes later a surly looking older male attendant came and asked us what we wanted. The impression we got was that we were a nuisance, and he was not happy with us".

James Duncan, an Australian based in Britain, said many expats won't use Qantas to come home because cabin staff "generally seem tired and tetchy".

A Qantas spokesman, Michael Sharpe, said he did not think the picture of Qantas service was as bleak as that reported by Herald readers. Qantas ranked fifth in an international survey of 120 airlines recently and was spending money to upgrade its aircraft and club lounge facilities.

Conceding that frequent flyers needed to book early and may have difficulty finding seats in peak periods, Mr Sharpe said: "More frequent flyers than ever before are redeeming points to fly Qantas. About 6 per cent of our capacity is made up of frequent flyers, which means 3 million trips every year."

 

[dajop]

Change the current aircraft configuration !
They should simply introduce a three tier system in their current fleet, where it is justified (i.e. on the bigger planes). Change the current Business class to 1st class, have a new section named business class that has the same seats as economy now has with a little more legroom and bring back the food of yesteryear that used to be served to economy, then have a no frills class, with all the lack of frill that no-frills airlines run, little service to that part of the plane, seat yourself anywhere pay for your meals, the same ticketing restrictions as no-frills airlines etc etc

Not bad concept, but don't call it first/business/economy. Call it business/economy/budget or business/premium economy/economy. Why? To get around corporate travel policies that do not allow business class over short sectors.

 

[Kirsty]

SMH story

Thankyou again to the people who emailed me with Qantas stories. To those unhappy with my brief personal replies on the day, please consider I received over 150 emails that morning from people with Qantas stories, which had to be read, tallied, verified if we were to quote from them, leaving little time to also write the two stories.
Take this posting as another thankyou for your time.
Cheers,
Kirsty Needham
The Sydney Morning Herald

 

[Kirsty]

PS SMH Story

Also, the story you have posted above is only the shorter "pointer" version. The full 1800 word feature spends a lot of time giving the Qantas side of the story.
However, with such an overwhelming number of responses from people who were not happy with Qantas - I am still receiving very detailed stories from consumers today - ranging from "average joe" to chief executives - the story angle was the only reasonable one, I believe.
Kirsty
SMH

 

[straitman]

:evil: Anyone care to do a story on the SMH :?:

 

[JakDac]

The full 1800 word feature spends a lot of time url?

The full 1800 word feature spends a lot of time what is the url?

 

[icemann]

Trevor S is right.

For personal flights (read :- leisure), I'd be willing to pay for a bit more in the way of legroom. If someone else is paying, I don't care (read :- company)

The one thing that gets me is NOT the food. It is the legroom. On a long haul flight, if I'm not flying business, I would happily give up food and alcohol, just for a seat that actually allowed me to stretch out and get some proper sleep. I'm only 5'6 (160cm), so I'm not a basketball player, but even I feel the cramps and sore legs after the MEL-LAX run. Also, if you've seen my other threads, when I travel 'rough' like this, I feel absolutely terrible at the other end.

If people want the no-frills end, fair enough, give it to them, but for those of us who want to travel a bit better, please, give us some more legroom, instead of just having 'one economy class' type.

What strikes me is the difference between J and economy. It's like, there's a massive difference between J and economy, and (I apologise and please correct me if I am wrong, because I've never flown full economy international on QF), no 'in between' on the QF flights.

My mate in the UK had the same view - there's very little difference (in AA and BA between first and business, but there's the world of difference between business and economy). IMHO, he's right.

 

[dajop]

Re: PS SMH Story

However, with such an overwhelming number of responses from people who were not happy with Qantas - I am still receiving very detailed stories from consumers today - ranging from "average joe" to chief executives - the story angle was the only reasonable one, I believe.
Kirsty
SMH

The trouble is that people always remember the one or two bad experiences they have, and not the average or good ones. In the last two years I've flown on about 200 individual flights with Qantas, and it is easy to pick out the 1 flight that wasmemorably bad. The rest have been average, with the occassional exceptional flight (.... except for Qantas Link's Dash 8s, where service is always exceptional). I think QF's two biggest problems are lack of consistency (in how staff treat customers) and expectations (eg fly on DJ on a $80 fare and have a bad experience - people don't expect that much because DJ is "cheap"; pay $80 for the same flight on QF and people are upset - they expect more of QF).

 

[icemann]

Yes. Like the check in attendant at PER, who just went and did the little things, like saw my boarding pass was knackered as after a long-haul international and with a smile, printed me a new one.

Little things like that, that make (or break) people's day. Like the QC staff in SIN, who gave me Panadols, because I was feeling lousy after a red-eye PER-SIN trip. For everyone who has ever gone the extra mile, or done something that has just made me say "Wow, that's nice", I always send a letter to their boss and tell them just what a good job they did.

It might be nothing to you, but to the valet guy, to the waiter, that might be the pat on the back that gets him to be the top manager one day. And to be told "Hey, this customer sent a letter and told me about you, and you did well" is nice for anyone to hear.

Shillard is right, in that, we have a good airline (even though it may be inconsistent in some ways) ; go on some other carriers and you'll see what rickety planes or bad service is like. Try Canada 3000. By the time the luggage came off the plane (30 minutes later) at YVR-MAN, I lead the round of sarcastic applause that engulfed the terminal because it was finally off the plane.

I say inconsistent, because sometimes, my luggage has been earmarked PRIORITY and it's QC tagged, and it comes off with the rest of everyone else's luggage. ADL is a favourite for this. QF managed to lose 15 kilos of scuba gear on a flight to Vanuatu one year too, so, so far, I've had BA and QF lose my bags (but I have been reunited with them and their contents the next day, so I'm happy).

In LAX, it came off on the wrong carousel - I was waiting at the F/J carousel (where the priority baggage was said to come off on), and instead, ALL the baggage ended up together !

 

[redrat]

Trevor S is right.

For personal flights (read :- leisure), I'd be willing to pay for a bit more in the way of legroom. If someone else is paying, I don't care (read :- company)

The one thing that gets me is NOT the food. It is the legroom. On a long haul flight, if I'm not flying business, I would happily give up food and alcohol, just for a seat that actually allowed me to stretch out and get some proper sleep. I'm only 5'6 (160cm), so I'm not a basketball player, but even I feel the cramps and sore legs after the MEL-LAX run. Also, if you've seen my other threads, when I travel 'rough' like this, I feel absolutely terrible at the other end.

If people want the no-frills end, fair enough, give it to them, but for those of us who want to travel a bit better, please, give us some more legroom, instead of just having 'one economy class' type.

What strikes me is the difference between J and economy. It's like, there's a massive difference between J and economy, and (I apologise and please correct me if I am wrong, because I've never flown full economy international on QF), no 'in between' on the QF flights.

My mate in the UK had the same view - there's very little difference (in AA and BA between first and business, but there's the world of difference between business and economy). IMHO, he's right.

Icemann, I'm with you on the legroom issue. I'm 6'4" and would happily forgo the food (maybe a liitle bottle of water) for the extra legroom. Air NZ figured that one out, ie. the seat is slightly higher off the floor.
The other difference is definitely the INT travel economy with the screens in the headrest of the seat in front. I just spent a week in Fiji courtesy of QFF and Starwood points and the Air Pacific B744s were good with that type of IFE incorporated. Air Pacific also has the upper deck as economy class.

Cheers

 

[icemann]

Agreed.

The new look IFE on QF is a lot better than it used to be, where I either craned my neck upwards to look at the TV or just had to watch 'the big screen' (sic)

I much prefer the individual screens and I feel like Capt. Jean Luc Picard (Star Trek Next Generation) in J !

 

[ethernet]

Well, they should do a story on our fee gourging international airports, benchmarking 'International' prices. I am sure our 'taxes' are more than a weekend London-Paris ditch hop.

Or how airlines let unhealthy, stressed oldies fly (DVT angle) ,and blackmail them expensive flight alterations if they need a medical condition stopover, and the negligence of airline staff (unless objectionally drunk). Hint. Non-refundable means non-refundable OR DISCRETION.

Or Artice 'Airline Luggage Scam' - how Virgin made a gold QF passanger miss his flight as they bickered over a 2kg excess luggage charge. (Now the gate girls should note those Frequent Milage luggage tags, and react WISELY). Mr Branson has obviously taken away discretion and empowerment and authority from the check-in chicks. That business gent has scrubbed that airline.

BTW. The partner of that gentleman who had checked in luggage (arrived early) failed to board, so I presume there was expensive luggage unload going on, plane delay, flight slot alteration - all because of 2kgs.