Qantas Customer Service

[dfcatch]

Is catering guarenteed on a upgrade?

On international, with a confirmed points upgrade - yes!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Is catering guarenteed on a upgrade?

Yes, my understanding is that it is on a points upgrade on an international flight. Not guaranteed on op-up or ODU domestic.

 

[oz_mark]

On international, with a confirmed points upgrade - yes!

Yes, my understanding is that it is on a points upgrade on an international flight. Not guaranteed on op-up or ODU domestic.

In this case, it seems that catering on the whole flight was pretty sparse, so I wonder what paid J PAX got.

Anyway, the issue now seems to be the lack of responsiveness from customer service, and this seems to be a widespread problem across QF, with many here reporting such a lack of response. It certainly looks like an area that Qantas needs to lift its game.

 

[mannej]

It was reported on the news that everyone upon checking in received such vouchers, so the OP was not alone and would have received the same flying at the back of the bus.

I guess similar issues may have arose when QF wet leased the 340 from Air Tahiti nui? During the 380 groundings.

 

[samiam]

I sent a complaint some 2 years ago.Yet to be replied to.

I'm guessing that has to be some kind of record!

However what gets me is when you send in a compliment and still no answer.

I've sent 2 compliments in the past 6 months and received a phone call within 48 hours on both occasions - consistency, again?

I agree that based upon my reading of threads on AFF, QF don't do complaints anywhere near as well as they do compliments.

 

[Batesy]

It seems that as usual the biggest issue is with the lack of appropriate response in a reasonable timeframe.

I spok with a senior Qantas manager in the executive relations team a couple of years ago and she mentioned that QF were aware of the lack of inconsistency in most areas and that is why they established the centre of excellence which seems to not be excelling!!!

 

[JohnK]

If I had used points to upgrade to business class and did not receive the full business class service then I would also be asking for some sort of refund of the points as well.

I used to feel Qantas customer service was very good but recently it has been slipping.

- Constant problems on certain types of bookings where I cannot even display the booking on my account. This is a known issue and I was told it would be fixed sometime in the new year. Yes, your guess is as good as mine.
- Certain bookings where an aircraft has been substituted somewhere along the way have issues with advance seat selection. I called about one of these bookings recently and got 2 premium customer service agents and neither had heard of better seats (possibly) becoming available at T-80 hours.
- I had 6 CX business class flights on 1 October 2011 and only 2 of those flights posted automatically. I still have not received credit for the remainder of the flights. I called again on Friday 30 December 2011 and was told someone will call me back within 20 minutes and confirmed my mobile phone number. No call and now I see the 4 flights on the account have been rejected even though I have sent them the boarding passes.

 

[Simo]

I've sent 2 compliments in the past 6 months and received a phone call within 48 hours on both occasions - consistency, again?

I agree that based upon my reading of threads on AFF, QF don't do complaints anywhere near as well as they do compliments.

So why don't you send a compliment and then do your complaint when you get the phone call.

Simo

 

[medhead]

So why don't you send a compliment and then do your complaint when you get the phone call.

Simo

I usually provide a compliment and a complaint at the same time. The best one I had was receiving an email to say "that's no good" and I couldn't even remember my complaint ...

 

[Vinny]

I sent in a complaint in July 2010 about a flight attendant's behaviour. Received the standard email. Waited. Waited. Received a phone call with a promise of a voucher. Waited. Waited. Sent a reminder email. Waited. Waited.

Sent an email while grounded Oct/Nov and really annoyed about QF management grounding me. Reminded them of the missing voucher. While I was grounded they were still selling tickets out of where I was to where I needed to be but QF said they could not get me on a flight. Computer said no. Pfft.

Waited. Waited. Two months later the voucher arrived.

Being reimbursed for my expenses while stuck are another story.

Am now enjoying other airlines.

 

[skywalkerLAX]

Handing a passenger a food voucher for dining at LAX to compensate a missing catering on a 13h international premium class flight... well to be honest I consider that a joke.

Not sure if everybody here knows the food outlets but in LA the QF flights depart either from TBIT ir T4 (the AA Gates).

At TBIT there is a Diner Outside Security in the middle section upstairs from the escalator, next to a Panda Express, McDonalds and a Baskin Robbins or whatever it was. The Diner has ok food but being outside of security means you eat ~ 60+ Minutes prior to boarding.

At T4 there is nothing outside security, however inside the sterile area there is a Chilis, Burger King, Starbucks and See's Candies. Correct me if I miss something. Not really anything light and nice I would expect to cover 13 hours of flying. Especially not prior to the flight. Also: Even if I buy something to take on board - do I have to eat cold food when sitting in Business Class?

Anyway I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here. Why was there not enough catering? What did F & Y Passengers eat? Was it the same treatment for all Business Class passengers? I'm pretty sure there were enough hot Y meals.

Qantas should have done either of these things:
a) offer rebooking on another flight (plus compensation)
b) delay the flight until catering is ensured or even cancel (drastic decision but after all, flight prep is incomplete)
c) offer and confirm monetary or CS Voucher compensation, respectively a downgrade or upgrade. Handing over a malfunctioning product in inexcusable.

This sounds so very much like Qantas unfortunately.

How much is an upgrade Y to Premium Economy? The difference between Y -> J should be a fair compensation I think.

 

[samiam]

So why don't you send a compliment and then do your complaint when you get the phone call.

Simo

Because I don't have cause to complain, at the time of receiving a phone call to acknowledge a compliment.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Compensation is due. I complained about a similar issue (partial lack of catering) and received a $200 voucher for use with future travel. My flight was only 9 hours.

 

[mannej]

Anyway I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here. Why was there not enough catering? What did F & Y Passengers eat? Was it the same treatment for all Business Class passengers? I'm pretty sure there were enough hot Y meals.

Qantas should have done either of these things:
a) offer rebooking on another flight (plus compensation)
b) delay the flight until catering is ensured or even cancel (drastic decision but after all, flight prep is incomplete)
c) offer and confirm monetary or CS Voucher compensation, respectively a downgrade or upgrade. Handing over a malfunctioning product in inexcusable.

This sounds so very much like Qantas unfortunately.

How much is an upgrade Y to Premium Economy? The difference between Y -> J should be a fair compensation I think.

From what it seems, all passengers were given the food vouchers (indicating no meals on board at all).
The reasons given (in the media) tend to point towards being flight being organised on an ad hoc basis.
The people interviewed at the time just wanted to get home, so I am not sure that delaying the flight would have been good practice in this situation.

 

[skywalkerLAX]

From what it seems, all passengers were given the food vouchers (indicating no meals on board at all).
The reasons given (in the media) tend to point towards being flight being organised on an ad hoc basis.
The people interviewed at the time just wanted to get home, so I am not sure that delaying the flight would have been good practice in this situation.

In that case the flight should have been cancelled. Not to say if they wouldn't cancel I would refuse to take the flight.

 

[mannej]

In that case the flight should have been cancelled. Not to say if they wouldn't cancel I would refuse to take the flight.

On the flip side- that would have irritated those who wanted (or needed) to get home even more...

Not saying it is right but their are pro's and con's to everything.

 

[awarty]

I found myself in a somewhat situation similar to the OP.

I burnt 24K points on an upgrade from Y to J on QF42, CGK-SYD. My seat (SkyBed Mk.1 on an A330) was damaged and as the J cabin was full there was nowhere else to move.

I was in the middle of a longish period of continous travel (17 flights in 3 weeks, 6 of them long haul) and was fighting off the flu, so I was really looking forward to getting some sleep, the damaged seat made that difficult.

I submitted my feedback on the QF website on the morning after my flight, and hadn’t heard back (apart from the automated response) for over 2 weeks. I then PM'd Red Roo (with the help of the mods) with the same feedback and he forwarded it to his customer service team.

I heard back promptly from the customer service team, they acknowledged the problem and the solution they proposed was fair.

Its possible the website queries go into the general queue and don't get auctioned upon promptly, so it may be better to raise the issue thru other channels in order to get a prompter response.

 

[Simo]

I found myself in a somewhat situation similar to the OP.

I burnt 24K points on an upgrade from Y to J on QF42, CGK-SYD. My seat (SkyBed Mk.1 on an A330) was damaged and as the J cabin was full there was nowhere else to move.

I was in the middle of a longish period of continous travel (17 flights in 3 weeks, 6 of them long haul) and was fighting off the flu, so I was really looking forward to getting some sleep, the damaged seat made that difficult.

I submitted my feedback on the QF website on the morning after my flight, and hadn’t heard back (apart from the automated response) for over 2 weeks. I then PM'd Red Roo (with the help of the mods) with the same feedback and he forwarded it to his customer service team.

I heard back promptly from the customer service team, they acknowledged the problem and the solution they proposed was fair.

Its possible the website queries go into the general queue and don't get auctioned upon promptly, so it may be better to raise the issue thru other channels in order to get a prompter response.

What was the fair offer?

Was it the travel voucher?

 

[awarty]

What was the fair offer?

Was it the travel voucher?

It was a $500 voucher, I was expecting a points refund, partial or otherwise.

The voucher is more useful for a new booking, but less useful for an upgrade (I don't think that i will be able to upgrade from Y to J for just $500 on a route that requires 24K miles for an upgrade)

 

[skywalkerLAX]

Sounds fair !