poor recognition of Oneworld status and pathetic response from Qantas CS

[ozflier]

Hi,

I am Oneworld Emerald and suffered at the hands of Qantas recently.

I am not naive enough to blame airlines for everything but I feel that, from experience, Qantas just does not get the idea of recognizing OW elites ( I guess a good example is no extra baggage allowance).

I would be grateful if a reader could give me an email or snail mail address for someone in Qantas management who looks after OneWorld affairs.

My wife and I, both OW Emerald elites, were booked under our American Airlines frequent flier numbers, to fly to Sydney and thence to SFO.

The flight was clearly going to be late into Sydney and our connection was at risk- notified by SMS early in morning that it was 30 minutes late .We arrived at the airport very early and requested to be transferred to an earlier flight for which the Agent accepted there were seats available.We were refused as we had the wrong fare basis. Then the flight became 60 minutes delayed and it was absolutely clear that the connection would be tight with our existing flight. I again approached the premium flier checkin desk and this time they agreed we could have seats BUT, sorry you have hold baggage, and 25 minutes was inadequate time to guarantee our baggage’s arrival.( needs to be 30 minutes minimum!)

In any case, the flight was 90 minutes late and we shared an extra day in Sydney and missed work opportunity in North America. Don’t get me wrong – I accept that Brisbane Airport has a name for delays and all flying has risks of inconvenient things happening .

You could say why not put all our points into QFF - in the past , previous employers in North America have insisted we use American and their FFP. After this experience , I hope to change that policy at least for us.

My issue is that being OW Emerald, we had hoped QF might have gone the extra mile!

I emailed QF customer Care and just got a “cut and pasted” generic response which nowhere seemed to accept that a OW elite status was the equivalent of QFF higher statuses and maybe we were entitled to consideration in the situation such we found ourselves in .

In any case, I asked the responding CS agent for the details of a OW executive but 4 weeks later – no response.

So, if anyone has a good contact address/ email for someone in QF head office who would appreciate some genuine feedback, please let me know.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Doesn't sound like a premium experience to me I agree. It's not unusual to get a cut and paste response ( complete with different fonts) from QF Customer Care.
Were the flights BNE-SYD-SFO on the same ticket so that QF had a responsibility to ensure that you met your SYD connection?

 

[Flyboy]

Don't expect any sort of reply from Qantas.

My partner and I wrote a letter to Qantas on 1 September 2012 address to Alan Joyce. We also sent a copy of the letter to each of the board members. We are still waiting for a reply 5 months later.

The address we used was

Level 9 Building A
203 Coward Street
MASCOT NSW 2020

 

[mannej]

Don't expect any sort of reply from Qantas.

My partner and I wrote a letter to Qantas on 1 September 2012 address to Alan Joyce. We also sent a copy of the letter to each of the board members. We are still waiting for a reply 5 months later.

The address we used was

Level 9 Building A
203 Coward Street
MASCOT NSW 2020

Have you contacted QF by phone? Much more chance of a better outcome then by writing to AJ and his team (same applies to the OP)

Out of curiosity, what was the complaint about that warranted a written letter to AJ?

 

[ozflier]

I should have clarified that.
The transpac flight was on United - our goverment policy at the moment.
Needless to say, I did not ask for my bags to go thru to the UA only to SYD.

 

[mannej]

I should have clarified that.
The transpac flight was on United - our goverment policy at the moment.
Needless to say, I did not ask for my bags to go thru to the UA only to SYD.

Was it on the same ticket (as yes it can be done)?

I guess that needs to be answered. If the answer is no, and you weren't on a flexible fare, you did not suffer because of Qantas, but whoever booked your ticket. If it was on the same ticket, I would say QF should have possibly done more to help.

 

[samh004]

I am Oneworld Emerald and suffered at the hands of Qantas recently.

I am not naive enough to blame airlines for everything but I feel that, from experience, Qantas just does not get the idea of recognizing OW elites ( I guess a good example is no extra baggage allowance).

I'm not sure I understand you as this is not a benefit offered by OneWorld. Maybe you're thinking of Star Alliance?

oneworld benefits - oneworld

As a member of American's frequent flyer programme, you earn miles and points towards your tier status every time you travel on an eligible oneworld® flight.
You are entitled to the following oneworld benefits:

• Priority First Class or Business Class check-in
• Preferred boarding
• Preferred seating (where offered)
• Priority standby and waitlisting
• Access to more than 550 airport lounges (with one guest) when travelling internationally*, including premium First Class, Business Class and frequent flyer lounges, regardless of the class of service flown that day

 

[mannej]

I'm not sure I understand you as this is not a benefit offered by OneWorld. Maybe you're thinking of Star Alliance?

oneworld benefits - oneworld

That is correct, luggage is not an alliance wide benefit (some like AA and BA will waive the fees or allow extra for status), so in that regard it's a bit unfair to have a dig at the Roo on this and irrelevant to the OP.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

And connection through to a United flight.... definitely would like to know if this was a same ticket itinerary before further comment.

 

[mannej]

And connection through to a United flight.... definitely would like to know if this was a same ticket itinerary before further comment.

It can be done, so I guess that is the important piece of information that we need before we can reach a definitive answer

 

[freepyjamas]

I might be on my own here, but personally I don't expect airlines from the OW alliance to go out of their way to look after me when I barely spend dollar one with them.

I get that it's an alliance and all, but I fly pretty much exclusively on QF metal, and with my own flying and that of my family, put between 60k and 90k a year into QF. So I don't mind hearing that QF will look after me better than they will another OW Emerald who hardly flies with them at all.

On the flip side, I have absolutely no expectations of better service when I'm flying on other OW airlines, other than the mandatory stated benefits. I just don't see the business sense in them treating me like a valued customer, when I am quite the opposite.

 

[samh004]

I might be on my own here, but personally I don't expect airlines from the OW alliance to go out of their way to look after me when I barely spend dollar one with them.

I get that it's an alliance and all, but I fly pretty much exclusively on QF metal, and with my own flying and that of my family, put between 60k and 90k a year into QF. So I don't mind hearing that QF will look after me better than they will another OW Emerald who hardly flies with them at all.

On the flip side, I have absolutely no expectations of better service when I'm flying on other OW airlines, other than the mandatory stated benefits. I just don't see the business sense in them treating me like a valued customer, when I am quite the opposite.

I guess we tend to expect more, because without the alliance we might have chosen another airline. That said, we probably only choose an Alliance airline to earn and burn

 

[Robert K]

you missed the connection because your plane was 90 minuets late?
how much time did you put aside for the connection?

My tickets usually tell me to be at the airport 2 hours before departure.

Plus don't send letters to AJ or the board members. They're not customer service like JB.

 

[zachary.august]

Well, honestly I think you're being unreasonable. At no point were you unfairly treated, there was originally no available fare bucket and then you missed the baggage cutoff. Again as others have asked was your booking all on one ticket? If not QF had no obligation to ensure you made the connection. Remember on these domestic routes QF have a lot of FFs traveling. OWE isn't that ground breaking in the QF scheme of things.

 

[dajop]

I might be on my own here, but personally I don't expect airlines from the OW alliance to go out of their way to look after me when I barely spend dollar one with them.

I get that it's an alliance and all, but I fly pretty much exclusively on QF metal, and with my own flying and that of my family, put between 60k and 90k a year into QF. So I don't mind hearing that QF will look after me better than they will another OW Emerald who hardly flies with them at all.

On the flip side, I have absolutely no expectations of better service when I'm flying on other OW airlines, other than the mandatory stated benefits. I just don't see the business sense in them treating me like a valued customer, when I am quite the opposite.

But isn't the whole point of alliances that QF can't/won't take you everywhere you want to go, so other alliance members recognise your custom to the alliance ("virtual airline") as a whole? Otherwise what is the point of alliances other than earning or burning, and that can be achieved without the need for global alliances.

Whilst most know luggage is not a benefit of OW that does not mean it is invalid to criticize that (lack of benefit).

As for the OP, sometimes frontline staff are just not empowered to do what at the time seems quite sensible and indeed taking an action that may actually reduce QF's cost (who paid for your extra night in SYD, you/Travel insurance or QF?), if it was QF that wore the cost of the missed connection .... well they should have got you on earlier flight, saves them cost and hassle. If it was you, it's really just tough/bad luck. One of the key planks of the QF business model is the fare type, and moving to earlier flight when booked in a more restricted category is only really something that happens when they offer it to you.

 

[freepyjamas]

But isn't the whole point of alliances that QF can't/won't take you everywhere you want to go, so other alliance members recognise your custom to the alliance ("virtual airline") as a whole? Otherwise what is the point of alliances other than earning or burning, and that can be achieved without the need for global alliances.

Sure, I get that.

But I also like to think that as someone who gives QF quite a lot of business every year, they'd be inclined to treat me better than they would a OW Emerald who has earned the majority of their status on an entirely different airline. There has to be some benefit to actually being a loyal customer to the business.

Personally, I think the ability to earn SC's and points, and usage of top-tier lounges all over the world is benefit enough to be honest. Anything else is cream. If an alliance partner wants to treat me like one of their own, well I won't stop them. But I certainly don't expect it, outside of the listed benefits.

 

[zachary.august]

My view is if you're traveling on an OW codeshare service you should have the rights of the carrier marketing the service. For example, take a flight from DFW-PDL. It is marketed as QF4543 but operated as AA400. You are entitled to the baggage allowance of the airline who marketed the service, through check in to your international flight and comparable service to that airline. In my experience this is what happens. Unless you were booked on an AA codeshare I really think that you should be satisfied with lounge access, status credits, priority boarding and nothing else. To QF you were another flier and of no real importance.

 

[amaroo]

I should have clarified that.
The transpac flight was on United - our goverment policy at the moment.

IMHO asking for special attention when you are:-

Flying el cheapo ticket
Flying a competitor

Is simply unrealistic.

I did not ask for my bags to go thru to the UA only to SYD.

Wouldn't QF be negligent allowing someone to travel to SYD knowing full well the bags would not make the next leg? If it was that easy.......it would be a pretty easy strategy for someone who wanted to get up to no good!

 

[JohnPhelan]

Really, the most significant information here is that your international flight was on UA. Had it been on QF, I suspect the whole outcome would have been quite different. If you're changing carriers (and they're not in the same alliance), then you really need to build several hours leeway time into the connection - or, as I do in such circumstances, fly to SYD the night before. Making the UA flight was your responsibility, not QFs.

 

[serfty]

The subsequent post indicates separate tickets, otherwise you bags would have indeed been checked through.

You took a risk and lost. Did UA reaccomodate you on the next days flight at no charge?