Rewards seats changed from QR to QF without approval and from J to Y

[ricco]

Here's a long shot David. Try your local federal member. Between now and the general electionwould be a very opportune time to get your federal member to contact Joyce or one of his senior underlings to right the wrong. I say that because a few years ago I had a similar problem to yours with Qantas - let's say a truly magnificent stuff-up on their part - a tale too long to tell here. I had gone down the same path as you have recently before I ended up with foot-in-the-door approach I now have when dealing with large corporations. I was advised to go to the ACA but by that time my patience was exhausted; I wasn't prepared to wait so I contacted my local federal member, explained the situation and he promptly contacted either Joyce or one of the superior beings there and all was resolved in my favour within 2 days! I had forgotten that Qantas maintains a significant lobby presence in Canberra, maintains their Chairman's lounges to cosset fragile political egos and generally makes sure that it has good relations in Canberra. They never know when they'll need the next government bailout. Just a thought.

 

[DC3]

Not happy, Stephanie.

 

[Kendall Roy]

Had a similar issue whereby previously ticketed QR Award (U) flights were released as QF do not re-issue tickets within a reasonable timeframe.

A few phone calls later with some firm persistence, I was granted U seats on QF1/QF2.

 

[davidhes]

Had a similar issue whereby previously ticketed QR Award (U) flights were released as QF do not re-issue tickets within a reasonable timeframe.

A few phone calls later with some firm persistence, I was granted U seats on QF1/QF2.

That’s good to hear someone has been able to get them to offer a suitable alternative when Qantas have stuffed up.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I am absolutely speechless !!!
This is atrocious. Any business that has this kind of customer service doesn’t deserve to be in business at all.

QF needs to contact the OneWorld liaison and ask for these seats to be re-instated (I’m assuming that is what the Supervisor has done). If that’s not successful then the minimum they should do as service recovery is open up award seats for your family in J on QF metal.
Do not settle for any other outcome here.
This is a monumental screw up by QF and they should fix it.

The poorly trained, poorly paid overseas call Centre staff need to be stopped from being able to make changes to Awards until such times as they are capable of doing it.

 

[davidhes]

I am absolutely speechless !!!
This is atrocious. Any business that has this kind of customer service doesn’t deserve to be in business at all.

QF needs to contact the OneWorld liaison and ask for these seats to be re-instated (I’m assuming that is what the Supervisor has done). If that’s not successful then the minimum they should do as service recovery is open up award seats for your family in J on QF metal.
Do not settle for any other outcome here.
This is a monumental screw up by QF and they should fix it.

The poorly trained, poorly paid overseas call Centre staff need to stopped from being able to make changes to Awards until such times as they are capable of doing it.

I’m glad that others on here are as horrified by the service I’ve received as I have been. And yep you hit the nail on the head about poorly trained call centre staff. It seems all Qantas are focussing on now is trying to get the wait times down (which are still astronomical trust me) by hiring more overseas call staff. But not giving the them the necessary training to adequately handle the support they are giving.

I’m not holding my breath for a positive outcome. This whole fiasco has been going on for weeks now. I’ve lost count how many hours I’ve spent on hold and then talking to agents. Up over 15hrs on hold last time I counted. And about 6hrs on phone to agents.

 

[davidhes]

Still no call from Qantas. And no reply from Stephanie yet but it’s the weekend and a public holiday so that’s fair enough. Latest change though is that I now no longer have any flight from Brisbane to London in my account. Not even the economy ones they moved me to. And no refund of points or taxes. So who the heck knows what’s going on.

 

[DC3]

And no reply from Stephanie yet but it’s the weekend and a public holiday so that’s fair enough …

Maybe a public holiday in NT and QLD. Isn’t it business as usual elsewhere?

 

[davidhes]

Maybe a public holiday in NT and QLD. Isn’t it business as usual elsewhere?

Oh I didn’t realise it wasn‘t a national public holiday. I‘m a shift worker and don’t get them off so just assumed it was a national one haha. Hopefully I get a response from her then.

 

[aidan059]

Get them to give you a deadline date - that's what they did with me. Also another recommendation to try priority line to get through to Hobart - these agents are usually way way more willing to fix this stuff for you. In my case they gave me until 1 week later (the Wednesday) for MH to reinstate request, and if nothing by that date to then explore QF metal.

Also after 1 person has said no to QF metal, don't give up. Keep recalling and trying other operators who will be more open to doing this for you.

 

[davidhes]

Get them to give you a deadline date - that's what they did with me. Also another recommendation to try priority line to get through to Hobart - these agents are usually way way more willing to fix this stuff for you. In my case they gave me until 1 week later (the Wednesday) for MH to reinstate request, and if nothing by that date to then explore QF metal.

Also after 1 person has said no to QF metal, don't give up. Keep recalling and trying other operators who will be more open to doing this for you.

Thanks for the info. Sorry what’s the priority line? I’m just a lowly silver member with QF.

 

[jpp42]

Thanks for the info. Sorry what’s the priority line? I’m just a lowly silver member with QF.

See here: Qantas Call Centre Long Wait Times

 

[astrosly]

I’m glad that others on here are as horrified by the service I’ve received as I have been. And yep you hit the nail on the head about poorly trained call centre staff. It seems all Qantas are focussing on now is trying to get the wait times down (which are still astronomical trust me) by hiring more overseas call staff. But not giving the them the necessary training to adequately handle the support they are giving.

I’m not holding my breath for a positive outcome. This whole fiasco has been going on for weeks now. I’ve lost count how many hours I’ve spent on hold and then talking to agents. Up over 15hrs on hold last time I counted. And about 6hrs on phone to agents.

Qantas needs to take ownership of their mistakes. Their staff caused the problem so they are responsible for fixing it even if it means opening up award inventory on their flights. They can do this without checking a bot for availability, they just need to actually do it. Keep pushing for appropriate resolution that doesn't involve a refund to wash their hands of the error.

 

[aikman]

I don't get it. If Qantas won't open up award seats on their own flights, what makes them think that Qatar will?

 

[dylarr]

I don't get it. If Qantas won't open up award seats on their own flights, what makes them think that Qatar will?

Qantas can and should be opening up reward inventory on their own metal to fix their mistake — it's just the OP keeps getting Mindpearl agents who literally have no idea what they are doing or how to fix anything. But with regards to Qatar, there is a mechanism within the Oneworld alliance for airlines to make requests like this between each other to in order to resolve customer concerns (restoring incorrectly cancelled seats etc).

 

[davidhes]

Qantas needs to take ownership of their mistakes. Their staff caused the problem so they are responsible for fixing it even if it means opening up award inventory on their flights. They can do this without checking a bot for availability, they just need to actually do it. Keep pushing for appropriate resolution that doesn't involve a refund to wash their hands of the error.

Yep completely agree.. just a matter of actually finding a staff member willing and able to help though. All you get is untrained staff who answer and you spend hours re-explaining what has happened to them. And the apparent manager that I got escalated to still hasn’t ever actually called back after promising they would.

 

[hmmm]

I’m sorry for your experience but sadly it’s not unique. Qantas is the ‘spirit’ of Australia, because the airline died a long time ago, and a spirit is all that’s left!

 

[I love to travel]

We need to educate our journalists to read AFF.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I don't get it. If Qantas won't open up award seats on their own flights, what makes them think that Qatar will?

There’s a OneWorld liaison especially for this reason. Mix up on ticketing deadlines, seats dropping off etc.
I have had it used for Award tickets of mine, from memory it was a delay in ticketing a CX F sector.
We got it back.

 

[ricco]

Still no call from Qantas. And no reply from Stephanie yet but it’s the weekend and a public holiday so that’s fair enough. Latest change though is that I now no longer have any flight from Brisbane to London in my account. Not even the economy ones they moved me to. And no refund of points or taxes. So who the heck knows what’s going on.

David, this just keeps getting worse. When you handed over your hard earned and saved in return for the right tickets that was a deal done between yourself and Qantas. A contract if you like. Sofar, you've ended up with nothing - not even the economy nonsense - i.e. Qantas gave you something in exchange that was unfit for the purpose - enjoying a flight in the seats you expected. They broke the deal and you've given them plenty of time to fix it. Yes, certainly give them a deadline.

You can email your story or in this case a link to this thread or call A Current Affair/7.30 Report or call early morning radio talk back. Explain what has happened and indicate that you are going to call the priority line - if it works - and give them 30 minutes to fix the problem. Get the name of the journo and their number. Call the priority line and explain that you have called ACA7.30 and that Qantas has 30 minutes to fix it. Give the name of the journalist to Qantas. If Qantas comes back inside 30 minutes with some kind of nonesense offer, reject. Then go back to ACA and have a chat with them. You've spent a vast amount of time reacting to what Qantas is doing or in this case, not doing. Now its time to reverse the process and put them on the backfoot.

Checking Qantas' Facebook page lists page after page of people experiencing the kind of problems David. Qantas management is a clownshow.
They had months and months to prepare for all kinds of scenarios post COVID and what we are seeing now and what you are experiencing is the best they can do!!!! Dreadful corporate behaviour. If it were me David, I'd go to morning talk back around 7.30 and how quickly Qantas jumps.