QF vs CX

[JohnK]

Perhaps you could outline some of these shortcomings?

Service recovery is poor in my experience.

- MNL-HKG flight delayed and missed connection to BKK. I was with another AFFer in business. Last flight of the night. We were first at service desk. Best he could do was last flight of the night the next day. All flights were full apparently. Told to go to Novotel. As it turns out he booked us in same room. Different PNR, not related in any way just travelling together. Poor.
- Went to First Class lounge before going to hotel. Asked about earlier flight the next day. All flights full apparently. Had a drink and the other AFFer got onto ExpertFlyer and all flights the next day wide open. Went back to reception to show them and miraculously seats now appeared. Why lie? And yes I am not afraid to make them lose face. Don't lie to your customers.
- Another trip golf bag gets badly damaged. Report it in BKK. Nothing gets done for months after being promised a call as soon as I arrived in Australia. Had to chase up and eventually got the money for replacement golf bag.

There are other issues of poor service. Some staff are great when dealing with you face to face but then don't follow through with the action plan.

Service on board is OK. Greetings are hit and miss but not that I care.

If I had a choice I know which I would choose. Clearly. No second thought.

 

[eosphoros]

Service recovery is poor in my experience. ...

- Another trip golf bag gets badly damaged. Report it in BKK. Nothing gets done for months after being promised a call as soon as I arrived in Australia. Had to chase up and eventually got the money for replacement golf bag.

There are other issues of poor service. Some staff are great when dealing with you face to face but then don't follow through with the action plan.

Service on board is OK. Greetings are hit and miss but not that I care.

If I had a choice I know which I would choose. Clearly. No second thought.

I totally forgot about my horrendous experience dealing with damaged baggage with CX. You can read all about it here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....stions/damaged-case-cx-four-months-64678.html

TL;DR version: CX did not replace, repair nor pay compensation for my damaged Rimowa case for over five months. The case was, at the time, one month old. First, they said it was irreparable. Second, they said that there was no stock in Australia (blatant lie). Third, they said they needed to get one of the CX SYD managers to buy one in HK when he went for a meeting. Then they said the manager did not have time to go and buy it. (Why an airline cannot simply ship one is beyond belief.) Then, the agent dealing with my claim apparently went on annual leave and no one else could handle it. After all that time, they finally just paid me the money. I then walked into Hunt Leather in Melbourne and bought the exact same bag. No stock in Australia? What a load of bull.

 

[Pleb Status]

As a QF P1, I would go out of my way to fly CX over QF. Particularly in J. The service standard as a OWE on CX in any class is far superior to a P1 travelling on QF.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Service recovery is poor in my experience.

All flights were full apparently.

...

Why lie?

JohnK - I agree with you that CX's service recovery is not the best. I had a similar experience last year... flight HKG-PVG was 'delayed' by 3 hours, 'due to ATC' restrictions we were told. Checked in the lounge to get on one of the earlier flights (they were every 30 minutes at that time of night) only to be told 'they're full, and because it's ATC, nothing we can do'.

Got on the plane and the pilot apologised because our original plane was taken by the SFO flight and we had to wait for another plane to come in from elsewhere!

Understandably I was upset by that as I now missed the last train and bus from PVG, and a taxi was going to cost a lot more... plus I was three hours late. If I'd known about the reason for the delay, I would have pushed to get CX to make room on one of the earlier flights (there were spare seats in first and they could have upgraded a business passenger to make room for me).

however... on explaining all this to the purser, she was genuinely concerned, and relayed this to the pilot who was equally concerned (or so she said!). There was an offer about 5 minutes later to pay for my taxi. That was good service recovery!

But I agree - I don't know why lounge staff are so disinterested in helping. I suspect however they are more proactive for their own CX diamonds and diamond plus.