I've said before that the poor way QF handles the call centres and wait times is ridiculously poor in the main. And really they're killing some percentage of their customers despite the arrogance afford by a large domestic market share and "rusted on" loyalty for many tied to QFF etc.
It seems to me the price sensitive will stay price sensitive and thus do BFOD and whatever works and will be annoyed by the call wait times, but probably will not change their practices if somehow QF is the best deal for their needs (seems unlikely in the main). Same with the casual flyers - the <= 2-3 trips a year crowd more or less. Some may sure move to VA or Rex or whoever in frustration, but those folks are not the huge yield earners (Yes I know someone will say they paid full F to LHR that one time to go to Band Camp and never again) QF probably cares about keeping happy
to me, the (pun intended) Golden Goose of people REALLY impacted by this kind of stuff are your Silvers, Golds(the pun) and Platinums - those who fly enough and/or make the effort to attain/retain status and that represents some level of yield to QF, even if it's mostly DSC or by flying OW partners.. it's still people QF *should* be trying their best to cater too.
(don't take this to mean that I think it's OK for Joe once-a-year flyer to have to wait > 5min to be answered and given competent service - not at all. Good Customer Service is about meeting these reasonable expectations for all customers, not just the special few
but significantly, in my view it's the core of lower-mid and even to higher (WP) tier flyers who QF is endlessly pissing off with cough like this, and then having to wait for an hour or two or a call back, get agents who can;'t seem to manage the simplest things? Just pushes away people you really should be working so much harder to keep happy.
This ties in to the whole goal of vastly improving online self service abilities and fixing all these stupid glitches that send us into a rage and HAVE to call up to get cough fixed. Yes, QF have announced extra efforts in these areas - improvements to the app and website and so on, and I absolutely applaud these goals (not seen too much show up in reality yet though). These have to be happening. If punters can solve their problems online they don't need to call.. or if things sending bookings to the manual queue for were resolved then again, punters not need to call so yes please.
Initiatives like converting flight credits to Passes are good things that assist with all of this, and I really like this rollout by QF as a positive step. More please.
And yes, I'm a P1 and have had the huge advantage of almost instant answers by VIP team and whatever.. my experiences have been very good.. but I also feel guilty that they are and I try to do everything I can to avoid calling to tie up agents with trivial things (for example, why when QF cancel a flight, can't the "Cancel to Qantas Pass with DSC/points/whatever offer" flow be done online? Seems like this would be a no brainer to implement, but I digress). I also realise, of course, that I am NOT typical with my experiences and that the vast majority of customers are getting a ridiculous subpar experience and I think that's wrong.