I am flying out with my family on 23 December with Qantas first-classreturn from Melbourne to London. Like many others I cannot make any onward plans.
I have telephoned Qantas numerous times since March and 95% of the staffhave no idea that Qantas actually made an announcement that flights from Melbourneto London return were going to be retimed from November.
I e-mailed Qantas "customer help" on 30 March andsaid in my initial e-mail "I refer to the two booking references that Ihave with Qantas xx_xx_ and xx_xx_ flying from Melbourne to London on23 December 2014 and returning from London to Melbourne on 23 January 2015.Qantas announced over a month ago that they are retiming these flights. Forpeople like myself with families and many others that have already booked ourflights we are paralysed by Qantas in making any onward bookings because ofyour failure to release the new timings. I cannot begin to tell you howoutrageous and arrogant I find Qantas. As you can see from my booking I'm goingto Europe for Christmas. The extraordinary thing about this is that when I havetelephoned to enquire about the pending changes no one has any idea what I'mtalking about let alone knowing that there was actually a media release from Qantasat the end of February about these flights being retimed. Any loyalty I had toQantas fast evaporated over the last month. Qantas you treat frequent-fliermembers and the travelling public with absolute contempt. Please release theretimed schedules for our flights so that we can make the appropriatearrangements so that we can get to our destinations in Europe on time forChristmas day."
Qantas replied on 1 May
"Dear xx_xx_X, Thank you for taking the time to write to us.Operating a worldwide timetable means that despite our best planning, we areoccasionally forced to change our schedules for a variety of reasons, mostlyoperational, a situation encountered by all airlines. As a change to schedule forms part of ourconditions of carriage to which passengers are bound at the time of ticketpurchase, we are unable to guarantee this will not occur on any reservation.
These changes certainly challenge our planning and we know they can bevery disruptive to our customers, so we commit to informing our customers assoon as we are aware of any impending change.
If you require further assistance please contact Qantas Telephone Saleson 131313 in Australia, or your local Qantas office.
Regards
Allison
The Qantas Team