Qantas customer care - doesn't

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medhead

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I just wanted to add this fine example of qantas customer care. It relates to a morning trip I took to Wellcamp airport in November. The idea being to get some pictures and that sort of thing. On the way up I was moved next to the engine for weight and balance reasons, a light load seemed fine. I had a boarding pass for 2D on the return. Plenty of time for pictures.

When boarding the return flight. I get handed a boarding pass for a seat next to the engine. The ground crew assure me that it is for weight and balance issues, 2D will be empty. Get on board 2D isn't empty, the aircraft is pretty full.

The substantive issue I have is the utter lie by qantas staff. I also wonder which qantas manager wanted the seat. But feedback was submitted about lying to a platinum QFF member. The response is below. In combination with the lying it is a massive F you, qantas have just shoved their middle finger in my face.

The least they could've done is leave it as "Dear [insertname]" for the comedy value.

We endeavour to make your flight as relaxing as possible and do try to give everybody the seat of their choice however, as I’m sure you can understand, there is a lot of demand for premium seats. In the past, every attempt was made to provide premium members with their preferred seat for travel, however this was never guaranteed.

We do strive to provide exceptional service and feedback such as yours plays an important role in our continuous improvement process. Your comments have been forwarded to Management as part of this process so we do appreciate you taking the time to provide your firsthand experience. We do value your ongoing loyalty, and hope that we can make you more comfortable next time you travel with us.
 
The standard cut and paste response which completely ignores the fact that you were lied to.
 
Not to mention the first paragraph does not even apply. I had the boarding pass in my hand - I had the premium seat! "Every attempt" to provide my preferred seat had worked, until someone decided to mess with the system.

Anyway, that'll learn me to be a plane spotter.
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

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So wait, you had a BP, then your BP was rejected when you went to board, or when you what? I'm sure the staff member didn't deliberately lie to you - did they check their computer? They may have ASSUMED (different to a lie) that 2D was going to be empty because you were moved. Yes, it seems poor treatment. I've never had that happen on any regional/prop service myself, but there could be any number of reasons (valid or not).

And as they always say "Seat assignments are not guaranteed"

I'm not trying to defend anyone here. I wasn't there I don't know, but I am trying to provide another angle.
 
Yes I did have a board pass and was given a new one when I tried to board. (Thought I wrote that). I did specifically question this at the gate and made a bit of a fuss such that I was absolutely last to board. I specifically asked them if 2D was empty, they did have a good look at the computer and they said it would be empty.

As for seats not being guaranteed. I had the seat assigned to me. The guy that ended up in the seat was roughly my size making no apparent load or balance issues for either of us to sit there. So moving me was an F you. Lying to me was a F you. The reply that fails to address the service issues is now the icing on the cake.
 
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Agree with the other posters that this is the standard copy and paste boilerplate apology that Qantas sends out - pretty much the same wording regardless of the nature of the original complaint.

Not too sure what happened with the seat selection and reallocation at the gate but I can only add my general observation that the smaller the aircraft the more difficult it is to get seating far forward or far back due to less tolerances with weight and balance, especially bad if cargo hold is fore or aft and if it is totally empty or has something really heavy in it. Even when pax loads are light I have found that operators like to bunch up pax in the centre of the aircraft, of course the old Metro 23s and Saab 340s were a bit notorious for this, I assume your flight was a Dash 8 200 or 300 series?

Dosen't explain the misleading info or the fact that another passenger got 2D though.
 
That is pretty poor, and it seems seat displacements are becoming more common these days from what I have seen in other AFF posts, even with WP's.
It happened to me over a year ago on a 737 flight from SYD-OOL, I had selected 4D a week in advance, at T-24 did Online checkin and found I had been put in 5D. Called QF for an explanation, they put me on hold and spoke with their Operations team, and told me it was a wheelchair passenger.
Low and behold the next day I board the full flight 4D has an able bodied man with CL bag tags, so I know the feeling of being lied to instead of getting the real answer.
 
.... this is the standard copy and paste .....

I am the ultimate Qantas-lover, but sometimes I do feel the need to get mad with them.

That standard ¨cut and paste¨ response reeks of professional advisors telling Qantas what they think is a message that will pacify the biggest percentage of disgruntled passengers. It is an advisor-dreamt response. What seems to be missing is that Qantas understand that US and similar processes do NOT work with Australians. I think we may agree that it is OFFENSIVE to the average Aussie to receive such a dismissive and patronizing letter - we want a true ¨sorry but we just couldnt do it¨ or ¨sorry but we had to bump you for someone even more important¨. Hard facts but not soft lies.

I suspect that there is a fundamental difference between Aussie customer expectations, and the magic US-based pandering consultant advice that QF management gets told is the bees knees.
 
That is pretty poor, and it seems seat displacements are becoming more common these days from what I have seen in other AFF posts, even with WP's.
It happened to me over a year ago on a 737 flight from SYD-OOL, I had selected 4D a week in advance, at T-24 did Online checkin and found I had been put in 5D. Called QF for an explanation, they put me on hold and spoke with their Operations team, and told me it was a wheelchair passenger.
Low and behold the next day I board the full flight 4D has an able bodied man with CL bag tags, so I know the feeling of being lied to instead of getting the real answer.

And this seems unfair but I can offer another explanation which could be likely as counter.

1. At that stage there was a wheelchair pax assigned there
2. Between T-24 and flight time, pax changed flights, cancelled, whatever
3. Seat empty, if you'd already OLCI to 5D, then the seat went to a late booking, or not assigned prior to airport check-in or whatever to a late booking CL.

I don't know obviously.

My point is from your perspective you feel like you'be been dudded and potentially lied to, and I don't blame you at all, but you just don't have the full story of what went on.

just like the OP, which seems a much clearer case in my view, you have what you see and reasonably deduct, but who knows the reality.

yes, it looks like you were bumped out for a CL to sit there. That's the surface implication, and it's not great, but I'm just saying there could be other scenarios at play here.

I don't work for QF or it's PR firm :D
 
That is pretty poor, and it seems seat displacements are becoming more common these days from what I have seen in other AFF posts, even with WP's.
It happened to me over a year ago on a 737 flight from SYD-OOL, I had selected 4D a week in advance, at T-24 did Online checkin and found I had been put in 5D. Called QF for an explanation, they put me on hold and spoke with their Operations team, and told me it was a wheelchair passenger.
Low and behold the next day I board the full flight 4D has an able bodied man with CL bag tags, so I know the feeling of being lied to instead of getting the real answer.

It just doesnt make sense - expecting someone in a wheelchair - you'll probably realise they aren't in a wheelchair when you see 4D on your flight.. makes no sense.
 
QF can and do play games.
Had a booking and seat selection for 29A all the way. This was for a BNE to SYD trip, not the ADL to MEL trip when I met JessicaTam.
Had put in for myself 29A into the booking when I paid for it.
Used the OLCI feature, and then scanned my QFF/QCC at the gate.
Noticed they had put me into 28A.
The gall of them, and that 29A, had yes, a bleeding older seat kicker behind me.
I am not at all pleased, not to mention them chaning my beloved 767 to a 737, no matter if retro.
I am not all pleased too, if and when, I just know they will do a sub, for my last 767, paying extra through my dog snout and nose, to get the 23Dec14, SYD to MEL 767, at 6am.
I just know they will do a swap.
So, Medhead, yes, you and I do disagree a lot of the time, but in this instance, I agree, QF CC don't care.
AJ says they are going back into profit soon, eh?
 
Is it possible the pax in 2D just plonked themself there hoping it was vacant?
 
I think you are totally justified for feeling peeved with what happened and even more so with that disgrace of a response.
 
I should add it was a dash 8 aircraft. So weight and load is much more critical. That's why the move on the way up, with a light load was clearly about the weight and balance. On the way back there was someone in every row with people bunched around the wings.

With the 4D wheelchair person, I find it implausible on a 737 with fixed armrests in row 4.
 
If you're the last one on, there is a risk someone did a bit of self seat assignment. On the other hand, if the plane is pretty full, why would they leave 2D empty?
 
And this seems unfair but I can offer another explanation which could be likely as counter.

1. At that stage there was a wheelchair pax assigned there
2. Between T-24 and flight time, pax changed flights, cancelled, whatever
3. Seat empty, if you'd already OLCI to 5D, then the seat went to a late booking, or not assigned prior to airport check-in or whatever to a late booking CL.

I don't know obviously.

My point is from your perspective you feel like you'be been dudded and potentially lied to, and I don't blame you at all, but you just don't have the full story of what went on.

just like the OP, which seems a much clearer case in my view, you have what you see and reasonably deduct, but who knows the reality.

yes, it looks like you were bumped out for a CL to sit there. That's the surface implication, and it's not great, but I'm just saying there could be other scenarios at play here.

I don't work for QF or it's PR firm :D


Apply Occam's razor - choose the simpler explanation rather than a more complicated one.

The CL asked for, and got the seat. Those of us with (say) Plat status have to grin and bear this (or maybe not the grinning bit), as our status might be giving us similar perks lower down the food chain.

But as someone above says: Just tell the bloody truth!!
 
For sure. I'm the sort that would rather be told up front... a CL took your seat.. but you can understand why they wouldn't want to do that. Perhaps an agent misread the internal code for CL and confused it with wheelchair pax.

Here's a question not intended to inflame things further, but would you prefer an explanation of - in all thase of something like "Operational requirements forced us to make this change. We apologise for any inconvenience" (which can cover a lot of "sins") or "A CL was a late booking and given priority"? I'm thinking if the former, people could be felt like they were being fobbed off, when in fact it can be the truth. I am sure these sorts of decisions aren't made by GA's per se yet they often have to deal with it (for better or worse) and it would be thankless. I recall in the case of the "WC pax" this was done on the phone, but still you're a CS agent - do you upset a loyal customer b telling them up front someone - not an air marshal for example - took your seat because they are "more important" than you, make up a lie that sounds reasonable at firsh blush, but then upse the pax later on - but hey someone else's problem - or do you give a coverall of "operational requirements" type deal. I don't really like any of those personally.
 
Unfortunately this is becoming par for the course with Qantas.

Still no response regarding bonus points 4 weeks later when I was promised a call back.
 
If you're the last one on, there is a risk someone did a bit of self seat assignment. On the other hand, if the plane is pretty full, why would they leave 2D empty?

Fair point. However, they were super vigilant about people sitting in their correct seats on both the flight up and back, same crew. I'm not sure they'd just let self seating slide.
 
I see they've moved on from their standard "the seat is faulty" lie.

We need to start a thread "a$$holes that took my seat"
 
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