My Qantas Saga (and why I am about to toss my loyalty)

[Daver6]

It would take some serious effort by QF to try and get it so wrong!

 

[turnip666]

Not to diminish the OP's experience, but to err is human. To really stuff things up requires a computer.

Sounds like every human intervention caused down-line issues the operator did not foresee. You wonder if it is poor training and documentation, poor implementation, poor scenario testing or poor attitude that led to and compounded all the issues.

All the best for a satisfactory outcome.

 

[takenbyaliens]

Very stressful situation!! I once 'disappeared' off a flight out of JNB. V difficult to fix at the airport with time running out. Someone has just hit the wrong button...most likely poor training. But as usual its the OP who suffers! Go for 'em!!

 

[JohnK]

Not a nice thing to have go through on holidays.

I changed a number of bookings a few years back when I was sick and the worse one of the lot was arriving in SIN from BKK to find that I did not have a booking. The person at DNATA check-in called Qantas in Australia and the glitch was that the credit card payment for changes did not go through months back when I made the change and that nobody had bothered to follow up. Took up around an hour of my time but all was fixed with payment on the spot and everything was restored. Luckily I did not lose my pre-assigned bulkhead seat. B

ut that is nothing compared to this situation. Sorry to hear.

Do not for one moment take that BS line that is a "system glitch", there is no such thing in IT. It's not the Matrix.

I have see some nice "system glitches" the past few years. The code looks fantastic when code reviewed but produces erroneous results when executed. Disfunctional code? Not sure that is the right way to describe it but if left unchecked the results continue to amaze.

 

[Fly Boy Jerry]

OMG I know the pain, I had to call up once to change my flight due some changes of work schedules. Taken me about an hr (give or take) on the phone with the guy, but man I have to tell him multiple time on which flight need to be changed. I was smart enough to look up what the new flight number needed to be, but he still having problems. On top he wanted to charge me the changes, but i told him the Qantas policy "no change fee before midnight on the date you book" (it might only for business direct im not too sure) anyway he told me to hold, about 10min later and confirm what i said to him. lucky for me he got it right the 1st time so i dont have to call them back

 

[JB expat]

My submission has been acknowledged...investigation being conducted...we shall see. I am taking an unusual approach in that I am just going to be patient and wait for a positive outcome (need to be optimistic in order to be patient).

 

[Major]

Make sure you know what your bottom line is. In other words what is the minimum you will accept to finalize this matter. If they offer more then that is a bonus.

 

[JB expat]

So I finally have resolution...each member of our family was granted 5,000 points so 20,000 in total for the issues around seating and I was refunded the difference between the cost of the ticket at the counter vs what we were quoted when we needed to rebook my husband's return. The error was theirs - the ticket was never pushed through for issuance due to some kind of error (not sure if it was human or computer) - there is a difference between "booking a ticket" and the ticket actually being issued which is what matters at the end of the day. Also, there was an issue around the currency to be used and Q listened to the phone calls around the rebooking and my version won out based on the recordings.

So, am I happy? - I guess - or more accurately, I'm not angry...the mishandling of the seating and the change in return ticket for my husband was acknowledged and we were compensated. Would I have liked more compensation (in terms of points - yes, but I didn't really think they'd deliver). Also, I didn't feel like pushing on the fee we owed the car company when my husband was a no show due to being put on a different flight than his original rebooked ticket. I am very happy that the currency issue was resolved in our favor as that would have involved a lot of money had it not and I KNEW what I had (or more accurately, had not) been told when changing the return leg. Also, the customer service rep who handled this matter was very good at keeping me apprised (they needed to do a lot of internal investigating) and also acknowledged how long my phone calls with agents were as she had to listen to a few of them.

Lessons learned - keep notes of who you spoke to (first name and location of rep), time of your calls and phone number you are calling from - this helps them easily find the recordings. The recordings are only kept for x weeks (I think 6) so act promptly if it is going to come down to what was said on one of the phone calls. If you have a messy booking because of changes, check & recheck again and again. I should have confirmed my husband's ticket at the Qantas counter in the lounge although frankly, it still surprises me that it fell through the cracks and was never reissued - I'm also not so sure much could have been achieved in the 40 minutes we had at the lounge other than knowing that the ticket was a mess and not booked.

Thanks for the support on this forum! happy travels.

 

[OATEK]

Glad you got resolution JB expat, and thanks for the tip about the recordings. Wish you and yours a much smoother trip next time.

 

[JohnK]

Glad to see some resolution. Feel sorry for the people involved everytime I read one of these stories. Should never happen.

 

[eminere]

Hi JB expat, sorry to hear of your troubles. Personally I think the quantum of compensation offered is nowhere near satisfactory given all the frustration and aggravation but at least you received a personalised response and you now have closure. A tip for the future, should you choose to fly QF again (but equally applicable for all airlines that ticket using Amadeus): use CheckMyTrip to verify that your ticket has been successfully processed and issued = you have a (new) ticket number. I too had to make a change recently to an existing booking and went through no fewer than four agents over as many calls. Like you, there seemed to be a problem with the backend and the change wasn't actually effected in the system, despite the copious notes attached to the booking from all my phone calls. Thankfully the last agent I spoke to was able to resolve the issue before the flight date.