TopazKaz
Newbie
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2015
- Posts
- 4
I sufferer from asthma, chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), and an autoimmune condition, which all have environmental triggers, especially mould. It’s progressed to the point where I can no longer work. People in my situation have to go to great lengths to create the most pristine living environment, and we get to know which public places, we can’t spend much time in. When it comes to areas that I only have to be briefly though, so long as a good level of cleanliness has been maintained, I live with the fact that things are not going to be perfect. If it’s off the charts bad, that’s a serious problem.
I recently took a QantasLink flight from Brisbane to Newcastle, and I became unstuck fast in the departure lounge for Gates 1 to 3. The air seemed heavy, and I started to have trouble breathing. The longer I was in there, the more laboured it became, along with my eyes and skin burning. When it got that bad, I looked around to see if I could detect what was doing this to me… which I certainly could, mould all over the place. I had to get out… if I got any worse I wouldn’t be able to catch my plane. I told the Qantas staff what was happening, and that I’d have to go outside (which meant getting past the boarding gate before it opened). They were good about it, I was taken outside and my breathing got better than it was at least, but I was still dealing with other distressing symptoms for a period of time afterwards. I posted about it in a forum for sufferers of my condition, and found that others have had reactions to that exact same Qantas area.
I have asked Customer Care to let me know when this situation has been rectified… only because I can’t board there again until it is, and Brisbane is always going to be my place of origin. I don’t mind the fact that they can’t give me a timeframe immediately (I already knew that would be impossible). I just want to be informed after this has been actioned, whenever that may be.
My complaint keeps getting closed after nonchalant replies, and I have to keep reopening it to try and find out when the area will be safe due to upcoming travel plans. The first email I got from them contained the words “we were concerned to read about your disappointment on departure from Newcastle”, when it was clear that I was talking about Brisbane airport, not Newcastle. At another stage I was told that I would get a response, and an approximate timeframe for that, then after waiting a good couple of weeks beyond it, called and said I never heard back when I was told I would. I was met with the age old customer service no-no “Well I don’t know who you spoke to then but…” with an explanation that that’s not the kind of thing they say. I’m not 100% sure if she was implying that the previous representative was out of line for saying I'd get a response, or that I am making that part up. Either way, she made it clear that I was never going to hear back, not in any timeframe.
I get the impression they twisted the paper trail to make it sound like I have asked for something ludicrously unreasonable. The most recent reply contained the sentence “As i'm [sic] sure you can understand we cannot provide you with a full report to the outcome due to this being commercially sensitive information.” That email was written by that same unempathetic person I had just been on the phone with. When I told her that I am just going to need to know when the area is safe again, she said that she can assure me that all their areas are safe. When I told her that it isn’t clean enough for a person with my condition, she assured me that it is cleaned every day. When I said asked her if she has even looked at the photo attached to this complaint, she admitted that she hadn’t.
It’s felt like a debacle. I am seeking a refund on my club membership, dated from the first time I raised this issue, and I am about to open the complaint for the fifth time to do so. I can’t imagine many scenarios where I would advise anyone to do that, but I scrape together that membership every year, despite what my illness has done to me financially, largely to ensure that I have a clean safe environment to wait before flights. Now that choice of airline is actually what is putting me at risk. They are apparently looking at the problem in that area, but they will never inform me of progress, and I can’t put myself through finding out the hard way that it hasn’t been done yet.
Does anyone have similar challenges when flying? And is anyone familiar enough with regional flights out of Brisbane with Virgin Australia, to be able to tell me if I would fare better with them? The picture below is one of the vents in the QantasLink area, and they all look like that. That's the kind of thing I strictly have to avoid.
I recently took a QantasLink flight from Brisbane to Newcastle, and I became unstuck fast in the departure lounge for Gates 1 to 3. The air seemed heavy, and I started to have trouble breathing. The longer I was in there, the more laboured it became, along with my eyes and skin burning. When it got that bad, I looked around to see if I could detect what was doing this to me… which I certainly could, mould all over the place. I had to get out… if I got any worse I wouldn’t be able to catch my plane. I told the Qantas staff what was happening, and that I’d have to go outside (which meant getting past the boarding gate before it opened). They were good about it, I was taken outside and my breathing got better than it was at least, but I was still dealing with other distressing symptoms for a period of time afterwards. I posted about it in a forum for sufferers of my condition, and found that others have had reactions to that exact same Qantas area.
I have asked Customer Care to let me know when this situation has been rectified… only because I can’t board there again until it is, and Brisbane is always going to be my place of origin. I don’t mind the fact that they can’t give me a timeframe immediately (I already knew that would be impossible). I just want to be informed after this has been actioned, whenever that may be.
My complaint keeps getting closed after nonchalant replies, and I have to keep reopening it to try and find out when the area will be safe due to upcoming travel plans. The first email I got from them contained the words “we were concerned to read about your disappointment on departure from Newcastle”, when it was clear that I was talking about Brisbane airport, not Newcastle. At another stage I was told that I would get a response, and an approximate timeframe for that, then after waiting a good couple of weeks beyond it, called and said I never heard back when I was told I would. I was met with the age old customer service no-no “Well I don’t know who you spoke to then but…” with an explanation that that’s not the kind of thing they say. I’m not 100% sure if she was implying that the previous representative was out of line for saying I'd get a response, or that I am making that part up. Either way, she made it clear that I was never going to hear back, not in any timeframe.
I get the impression they twisted the paper trail to make it sound like I have asked for something ludicrously unreasonable. The most recent reply contained the sentence “As i'm [sic] sure you can understand we cannot provide you with a full report to the outcome due to this being commercially sensitive information.” That email was written by that same unempathetic person I had just been on the phone with. When I told her that I am just going to need to know when the area is safe again, she said that she can assure me that all their areas are safe. When I told her that it isn’t clean enough for a person with my condition, she assured me that it is cleaned every day. When I said asked her if she has even looked at the photo attached to this complaint, she admitted that she hadn’t.
It’s felt like a debacle. I am seeking a refund on my club membership, dated from the first time I raised this issue, and I am about to open the complaint for the fifth time to do so. I can’t imagine many scenarios where I would advise anyone to do that, but I scrape together that membership every year, despite what my illness has done to me financially, largely to ensure that I have a clean safe environment to wait before flights. Now that choice of airline is actually what is putting me at risk. They are apparently looking at the problem in that area, but they will never inform me of progress, and I can’t put myself through finding out the hard way that it hasn’t been done yet.
Does anyone have similar challenges when flying? And is anyone familiar enough with regional flights out of Brisbane with Virgin Australia, to be able to tell me if I would fare better with them? The picture below is one of the vents in the QantasLink area, and they all look like that. That's the kind of thing I strictly have to avoid.
