QF staff trying to 'push in' service desk queue

[QF029]

I'm curious as to whether others think this is worth a complaint to QF.

I recently travelled CDG-LHR-SIN-MEL-SYD (yes it was exhausting) with BA/QF in J on a OWE award ticket. At BA check in at CDG they were able to check my bags through but not issue any other boarding passes. They also checked by DPD.

At LHR I transferred from T5 to T3 and there was a HUGE queue at QF check in about 3.5 hours before the flight. I queued at the service desk where there were 2 groups in front of me. After 30 mins or so I was about to be called forward and a lady in a QF uniform asked to go ahead of me. At this point I was fairly annoyed at having to queue for a BP or even worse be offboarded like I was on my first leg MEL-LAX (I was seeing similar behaviour in my booking where I could no longer select my seat) and I declined to let her go first. She made a comment along the lines of the flight won't take off without the crew. This was at least 3 hours before the scheduled departure. It turns out they just wanted to see my DPD (again) and it took 2 mins. All good.

Fast forward to boarding and this lady was sitting in the seat in front of me already in her PJs but it was definitely her. She wasn't on the flight from SIN-SYD that I could tell so presumably she was deadheading to SIN.

I think it's pretty poor that she tried to push ahead when she clearly had plenty of time to make the flight and in my view mislead me to believe she was working crew on my flight. I appreciate she was probably integral to another flight out of SIN.

It's not the same thing as deadheading but when I've been on staff travel in J and F with a friend who was a senior exec at a OW airline we were not allowed to push in lines or even accept amenity kits.

Thoughts?

 

[Princess Fiona]

Yes it’s a bit ordinary but no way would I think my time valuable enough to fire off a complaint that will get ignored.

I’d forget about the extra 5 minutes I waited in the line.

 

[justinbrett]

I mean - she did ask - I'm not sure you can blame her for that, it's not pushing in if you ask.

She's on duty, I'm not sure if it's the norm or not to give priority to crew at check in - it certainly is at security check points. I'm surprised you said no. If she was your crew you might not have had a nice flight!

 

[RooFlyer]

Nah, not worth a complaint. Not only would you be very lucky to even get a reply but as justinbrett said, she did ask. But the sense of entitlement is noted. Just or of curiosity, after you declined did you notice if she went to the back of the queue, or did she find someone else?

 

[QF029]

Nah, not worth a complaint. Not only would you be very lucky to even get a reply but as justinbrett said, she did ask. But the sense of entitlement is noted. Just or of curiosity, after you declined did you notice if she went to the back of the queue, or did she find someone else?

She (and a colleague) were the only ones behind me in the queue. Coincidentally they were in the seats immediately in front and behind me.

 

[QF029]

She's on duty, I'm not sure if it's the norm or not to give priority to crew at check in - it certainly is at security check points. I'm surprised you said no. If she was your crew you might not have had a nice flight!

Part of my thinking is the agent at the desk could have called them forward at which point I would have accepted it.

It did occur to me after the fact that it could impact my flight but the service wasn't great so other than spit in my food I'm not sure what else they could have done.

 

[justinbrett]

Part of my thinking is the agent at the desk could have called them forward at which point I would have accepted it.

It did occur to me after the fact that it could impact my flight but the service wasn't great so other than spit in my food I'm not sure what else they could have done.

Well, maybe she did name and shame you to the crew

 

[QF029]

Well, maybe she did name and shame you to the crew

Maybe but it wasn't dissimilar to the two other QF long haul flights on the same trip.

 

[cjd600]

It did occur to me after the fact that it could impact my flight but the service wasn't great so other than spit in my food I'm not sure what else they could have done.

Going by recent experience, that may have improved the food

 

[RooFlyer]

She (and a colleague) were the only ones behind me in the queue. Coincidentally they were in the seats immediately in front and behind me.

so she didn’t want to wait just a couple of minutes for you to get served when the flight was 3+ hours away and she a pax? She asked to go in front of you even though you were the only person in front? In your OP I thought she must’ve come from the back of a long queue to try and expedite her getting to the plane.

You were definitely right to decline then. Don’t want to encourage such a sense of entitlement, ( presumed) deadheading cabin crew or not.

 

[RichardMEL]

While I agree this was such poor form by the FA (and seemingly lying by implying she was operating crew) I tend to agree that at the end of the day the inconvenience level was a couple of minutes and yes aggravating after being in a long queue (which should not have been a thing too, but I digress) it's probably not worth a formal complaint. Everyone got on the plane and all.

We're all used to crew going to the front at security checkpoints and that's annoying but a thing and well at a service desk.. seems unusual to me and again you'd think they would wait for you first so some entitlement there it seems but in the grand scheme of travel things that go on.. a big deal? not really (though conversely I understand that if we just accept these things that then can reinforce that entitlement that it's OK to do this... so it's a bit grey).

I wouldn't take it any further at all and would have probably forgotten about it by the time the flight landed imo.

 

[Vic]

Another who wouldn't complain about it formally. they'll do nothing...

But I'm extremely disturbed by the sense of entitlement of the crew member/s. Especially to try to suggest they're needed to actually operate the flight, as if there was some massive urgency in them getting on board. Turns out the urgency was getting all snuggled up in their PJs... It's a pathetic way to try to deceive the customer.

Personally, if I was in that situation, when seeing them NOT operating crew on board, I would've have said something like "the plane also doesn't go without pax paying for it to fly".

I can't believe there are people defending this in thread.

 

[drron]

I have always given way to crew in uniform. but why would the operating crew be going to the service desk? You always see them striding through the terminal to the security lanes.
I would not complain for the reasons given by several but given the way QF is treating passengers ATM I would not have let them in on this occasion and may just have said sorry I am going to treat you like QF treats it's passengers. I would have had to bite my lip really hard.
Just thinking that if there were 2 of them and they were passengers were they trying to get in ahead of you to try and get seats together?

 

[Rangalad]

I have always given way to crew in uniform. but why would the operating crew be going to the service desk? You always see them striding through the terminal to the security lanes.
I would not complain for the reasons given by several but given the way QF is treating passengers ATM I would not have let them in on this occasion and may just have said sorry I am going to treat you like QF treats it's passengers. I would have had to bite my lip really hard.
Just thinking that if there were 2 of them and they were passengers were they trying to get in ahead of you to try and get seats together?

Qantas Staff Travel policy *used* to state commercial passengers take priority over dead heading crew.

 

[TheInsider]

Something doesn't make sense here, crew don't rock up in uniform to the airport to then be on duty travel on a LHR-SIN flight. Nor any other long-haul flight.
Just strange is all.

 

[RichardMEL]

I have always given way to crew in uniform. but why would the operating crew be going to the service desk? You always see them striding through the terminal to the security lanes.
I would not complain for the reasons given by several but given the way QF is treating passengers ATM I would not have let them in on this occasion and may just have said sorry I am going to treat you like QF treats it's passengers. I would have had to bite my lip really hard.
Just thinking that if there were 2 of them and they were passengers were they trying to get in ahead of you to try and get seats together?

Very good point. I can only imagine this crew member was going standby perhaps? It is strange to be in uniform though in that case.

I too defer to crew and would have in this case also, though as I wrote above I'd be a bit frustrated by the behaviour.

 

[Daver6]

Something doesn't make sense here, crew don't rock up in uniform to the airport to then be on duty travel on a LHR-SIN flight. Nor any other long-haul flight.
Just strange is all.

Recently on QF70 I noticed there was a cabin crew member in uniform already boarded prior to J boarding commencing. She was seated in 2E. She was clearly not working on the flight. She changed into pyjamas and back into her uniform prior to landing. Any reason she would have been in uniform?

I actually did wonder if she was possibly not feeling well. No visible signs of that but just the way some of the working crew interacted with her made me wonder.

As to the OPs issue. I'd be incensed too. I'd want to complain but we all know we'd be wasting our time.

 

[dajop]

Very strange. Sometimes DYWKIA's aren't just people talking loudly on their phone in lounges, QF are not immune to having some in their employ as well.

In the context of the broader customer service issues with Qantas at the moment, putting in a complaint would be like someone in Sydney right now moaning about their washing machine overflowing and flooding their laundry. Yes a problem for the individual, but in the context of everything else …

 

[milehighclub]

Recently on QF70 I noticed there was a cabin crew member in uniform already boarded prior to J boarding commencing. She was seated in 2E. She was clearly not working on the flight. She changed into pyjamas and back into her uniform prior to landing. Any reason she would have been in uniform?

India has some complexities around paxing and visas. Crew have to board in uniform (and first) and then change onboard (in either direction).

Some other ports also have similar requirements mostly related around COVID testing etc, where crew not operating must be in uniform still.

 

[jb747]

So from your original post, this is something in the order of 3 hours before departure....crew, paxing or working, wouldn't be there that early. It's all quite odd.