Qantas Business Class - No meal for Row 3

[sambo]

Thank you for all of your responses, very much appreciated.

A few people have suggested I contact RedRoo to follow this up - is just a PM to RedRoo the best to do this?

 

[Hvr]

Thank you for all of your responses, very much appreciated.

A few people have suggested I contact RedRoo to follow this up - is just a PM to RedRoo the best to do this?

Yes, and link to this thread so they'll know what's been posted as well.

 

[tuapekastar]

Got to agree with the general trend here - unacceptable (lack of) service and equally unacceptable response from your initial feedback to QF. Even in an understandable no-service situation like turbulence, I would have thought some recompense would be in order, but in your case, it would seem doubly or trebly so.

 

[Isochronous]

That sort of response seems to be the norm from QF, and it's really not acceptable.

I've noticed every single response includes the phrase "sorry YOU FEEL xx_ didn't meet the standard of a premium airline" and "I have reviewed and there is nothing further we can do". How a customer care department is allowed to spit out such offensive dribble is beyond me.

Customer Care are useless? That's why if I have a serious grievance that I feel QF should know about, I always skip the form and send a letter to Mr Joyce by snail mail. Never fails to get a phone call back from the Executive team - even when I wrote in as a lowly PS.

 

[froggerADL]

If I was running J service this is what I'd do:

Prior to departure, take drink orders, and meal orders.
ASAP after departure, one FA serves drinks (P1s first of course ) while the other FA prepares the meals.
ASAP after departure, serve meals. If PAX want to talk, humour them while continuing to serve eveyone else.
Offer drink top-ups at regular intervals. Give five minute warning for last drinks.
Remove the tray within one minute of meal completion!

Seems easy to me .

 

[Austman]

But on 737s there's often just one crew attending J-class. I've been on BNE-MEL when they have almost run out of time. The reason? Chatting and doing no service at all in the J-cabin for the first 45-50 minutes (while the whole Y-cabin was served) and then hitting some turbulence. And leaving the J-cabin service to one extremely slow cabin crew. After well over an hour, I pointed out that no service at all had been given to me. The response: It was due to turbulence (but there was none at all for the first 50 mins).

The above has not been a one off either. On longer sectors crew sometimes seem to take their time. Shouldn't really happen at all, especially on shorter sectors, but sometimes seems to.

Even on CBR-SYD I've seen row 3 served just after the announcement was made to prepare the cabin for landing. In reality it only takes minutes to eat a small meal (without drink service etc). The crew can still make it (for the small J-class cabin) with a little bit of care.

 

[VHOEJ]

Whatever the SYD CBR crew do, do it across the board. If they can do it, anyone can

 

[N860CR]

In fairness, SYD-CBR is an abbreviated service so it flows much more quickly. Still no excuse for average service on the longer sectors.

 

[JohnK]

If I was running J service this is what I'd do:

Prior to departure, take drink orders, and meal orders.
ASAP after departure, one FA serves drinks (P1s first of course ) while the other FA prepares the meals.
ASAP after departure, serve meals. If PAX want to talk, humour them while continuing to serve eveyone else.
Offer drink top-ups at regular intervals. Give five minute warning for last drinks.
Remove the tray within one minute of meal completion!

Seems easy to me .

Have you been on MH recently?

 

[FxTrader]

So, my question to AFF is am I being unreasonable here? What would you expect in this situation?

No way are you being unreasonable.
On the Mel-Adl run, the QF 2 x J FAs have max 12 paxs to service. More likely 6 or less.
Sorry but I would get up and take a meal out the cart and say, "Seeing you are too busy to serve me, I'll help myself" in a rather loud voice.
You pay for a higher J level of service.
If it is not delivered you have rights to complain.
Trust me, I would.

 

[BensAdventures]

If I was running J service this is what I'd do:

Prior to departure, take drink orders, and meal orders.
ASAP after departure, one FA serves drinks (P1s first of course ) while the other FA prepares the meals.
ASAP after departure, serve meals. If PAX want to talk, humour them while continuing to serve eveyone else.
Offer drink top-ups at regular intervals. Give five minute warning for last drinks.
Remove the tray within one minute of meal completion!

Seems easy to me .

I've had similar service on AA & MH before.... It's quite simple really!

 

[Mal]

Yep very simple for airlines to manage how meals are ordered.
However once you factor in the flight staff, turbulence etc it isn't always possible.

Please send feedback to QF.

 

[Sprucegoose]

But on 737s there's often just one crew attending J-class. I've been on BNE-MEL when they have almost run out of time. The reason? Chatting and doing no service at all in the J-cabin for the first 45-50 minutes (while the whole Y-cabin was served) and then hitting some turbulence. And leaving the J-cabin service to one extremely slow cabin crew. After well over an hour, I pointed out that no service at all had been given to me. The response: It was due to turbulence (but there was none at all for the first 50 mins).

The above has not been a one off either. On longer sectors crew sometimes seem to take their time. Shouldn't really happen at all, especially on shorter sectors, but sometimes seems to.

Even on CBR-SYD I've seen row 3 served just after the announcement was made to prepare the cabin for landing. In reality it only takes minutes to eat a small meal (without drink service etc). The crew can still make it (for the small J-class cabin) with a little bit of care.

One issue is special ie non wine drinks orders. Should bypass those and return later or get the 'spare' crew to oblige before heading down the back.

 

[harvyk]

I've enjoyed a very nice J meal on CBR-SYD where they have 22 minutes to serve the meal and clean up afterwards. For the crew to fail so spectacularly on a longer flight is very poor.

Perhaps PM Red Roo with actual flight numbers and dates, and the complete response from Qf so they can follow up?

I too have received a full (hot) meal and drinks service on a CBR-SYD flight in J, and that was with turbulence where everyone was instructed to sit down immediately which cut down the time which the crew had to serve in...

Perhaps it's a case of staff know CBR-SYD is a short sector so no time to stuff around, yet MEL-ADL is a longer sector so they didn't have the same time constraints, therefore time got away from them (still no excuse).

 

[maninblack]

Sorry to tell the OP that this is about par for the course with QF and whilst YMMV my last couple of flights on QF domestic J the service was intolerably slow, but at least it was friendly. My last few flights on QF international J the service was just intolerably bad, rude and slow. It's that arrogant Qantas 'we don't give a ****' attitude that began to permeate the company in the last few years of the Dicko and Jacko era and has unfortunately remained. QF has lost 90% of my business, and it's quite a bit of business $$$ as my travel has about tripled, in the last few years and I promise you that they don't give a .... and you needn't bother contacting customer care because I don't think they give a .... either I have voted with my feet and taken my business elsewhere. The assorted opposition isn't always perfect but mostly they do try and most of the time they are less $$$ too.

 

[opusman]

It really is outrageous given what they charge for domestic J these days. A few years ago ADL/MEL was about $450 - these days it's not unusual to see fares for $669 o/w.

 

[toowongman]

(On VA J) I often reply to the initial greeting when boarding with "I'm so hungry, can't wait for dinner/lunch etc" with a big grin. Works well. Might be worth a shot from your side of the airport.

 

[lukenet]

I have given up on QF and their regular poor service. You should be disappointed, but you are wasting your time complaining.

I only fly them as a last resort now.

The sad thing is, with good professional management, I genuinely think QF could be the worlds best airline. Sadly, it is not the case.

On a side note, I did laugh at the AJ having a whinge in the AFR today about Virgin and its bid to seek extra capital injection from OS Airline, thus allowing it to "unfairly compete domestically with QF". AJ was insinuating that it would cause QF to run into the ground due to "unfair" price competition due to the bottomless pockets of government backed Airlines. I think AJ is doing just fine all by himself running QF airline into the ground.

I personally don't think there will even be a QF branded airline flying in 10 years time, just Jetstar/JQ.

 

[maninblack]

On a side note, I did laugh at the AJ having a whinge in the AFR today about Virgin and its bid to seek extra capital injection from OS Airline, thus allowing it to "unfairly compete domestically with QF". AJ was insinuating that it would cause QF to run into the ground due to "unfair" price competition due to the bottomless pockets of government backed Airlines. I think AJ is doing just fine all by himself running QF airline into the ground.

I personally don't think there will even be a QF branded airline flying in 10 years time, just Jetstar/JQ.

Brand = Trashed

 

[harvyk]

I personally don't think there will even be a QF branded airline flying in 10 years time, just Jetstar/JQ.

Sure there will, all the time we have the QF group there will be QF branded planes flying, that I am positive of. Of course they may not serve the same number of destinations with more routes handed over to JQ, but especially for their flagship routes (think SYD-LHR, SYD-LAX, SYD-MEL) there will be a red tail and white roo option in 10 years time...