Rogue Crew or signs of the times?

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anchew

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Flew MEL-CBR Monday afternoon which was relatively light with many middle seats empty and only one person in J. Before we pushed back, the CSM greeted the pax in front of me by name and offered a newspaper. He then asked the other two pax sitting next to him the same question. First I didn't think much of it. I was already deeply engrossed in a copy of a newspaper I collected from the QP and thought that one of the pax must have been WP1 (he would have been in J if he was CL).

After the safety demo, the CSM came up to me, addressed me by name (no list in hand) and asked if I was interested in another newspaper in addition to the one I was reading. After I graciously declined, he stated that if there were anything he could do to make the flight more comfortable, just let him know.

Then, after we took off and the seat belt sign went out, the CSM stopped at my row again, but this time asked the gent in the aisle seat (by name) whether he wanted a newspaper and all the jazz (I later discovered that he was WP as well). By this time, it felt like I stepped into a parallel universe. The QF I was familiar with, particularly on the CBR flights, don't usually give us WPs much individual treatment. Although I wasn't sure why the CSM didn't just ask both of us at the same time.

Now, what blew my mind away was when the refreshment service came along, the FA addressed me by name, and after serving my drug of choice, mentioned that if there's anything else I need to make my (albeit a whole 45 minute) flight more comfortable, just let the crew know :shock:. By this time I was experiencing some shock and didn't really catch if my row buddy got similar treatment.

I wonder if this was just a factor of the light load on the flight (I usually catch heavily loaded Sun afternoon flights) or a conscious effort of QFd to schmooze WP in wake of DJ competition with Strambi's investment in staff training starting to shine through. Or is it just simply a case of rouge crew?
 
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Sounds like you had a good flight.

I've noticed similar treatment lately, including them fluffing around me after I fell asleep on take off and missing the snack trolley.

I'm hoping this is the new look QF crew.
 
I got a double welcome from the CSS & then CSM on my MEL-LAX flight last week and was offered noise canceling headphones by both of them and the nebulous "anything else you'd like" offer as well. They both stopped by for chats later in the flight as well. It could be an anomaly or perhaps QF has realised that the cheapest thing they can do to enhance the experience is excellent, friendly customer service.
 
Same for me on BNE-SYD in the 767 mini-cabin. After door close the CSS came past with a short passenger manifest for the mini-cabin. During breakfast service all folks with status were addressed by name and asked if they wanted breakfast. The manifest was attached to the trolley as they came past much like in J. The extra newspaper and attention to detail makes for a more enjoyable journey, hope they keep it up.
 
The only thing I prefer is warm , nice and friendly customer service. Its no good to me if they fly me in a brand new shiny jet with food served on silver plates if it's served by a person who has a frown on his/her face. Which has happened to me a lot on QFi flights.
 
We fly long haul QF a couple of times a year for holidays and have just returned from London. The crew we had flying over and coming back were the friendliest and most helpful bunch we have ever had on Qantas. Nothing was too much trouble and all was done with a genuine smile. We felt special and well looked after. We are glad we have stayed with Qantas although there have been times in the past where we longed for the smiling Singaporean flight crew. Now, if only i could get our award flight to London next year on QF all the way I would be even happier.
 
we can only hope as the crew that serviced J on the SIN-SYD QF2 the other night were young and underwhelming
 
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What date was that boylero? I found the crew on QF2 on Saturday to be pretty good through both legs.
 
I've had similar experience on few flights lately with wine offered from business class offered. Last one was weekend flight from BNE CBR so would have been paying for wine without the offer.


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On a Syd to Mel sector a few weeks ago there were around 30 off duty Qantas staff on my flight (combination of some in uniform and others in casual attire but it was obvious they worked for Qantas). I was seated in J in 2A, there was one other normal passenger in J and the rest were all staff including the male off duty FA sitting next to me. I got chatting to him and asked what was going on with this flight. He said it was not specific to this flight and in fact most flights out of Sydney that afternoon / evening were full of staff because they had a major training day in Sydney. It would seem Qantas is undergoing a major staff retraining at the moment for both Domestic and international cabin crew and front line ground staff. He was specific in saying that it was customer service training and was across the board for all staff. He advised he was a CSM for the South African sector and had been for many years. He advised that the current emphasis on customer service was a first during the 20+ years he had been working for Qantas.

I would expect that the current "better customer service" mentioned in this thread will be here to stay for a while. I hope that Virgin's recent moves to gain market share will continue to push Qantas to better service, recognition and treatment of their premium customers.

I have a MEL-SIN-LHR return trip coming up on Saturday currently in Y. I'm interested to see if there is any notable difference in the service.
 
adamj said:
On a Syd to Mel sector a few weeks ago there were around 30 off duty Qantas staff on my flight (combination of some in uniform and others in casual attire but it was obvious they worked for Qantas). I was seated in J in 2A, there was one other normal passenger in J and the rest were all staff including the male off duty FA sitting next to me. I got chatting to him and asked what was going on with this flight. He said it was not specific to this flight and in fact most flights out of Sydney that afternoon / evening were full of staff because they had a major training day in Sydney. It would seem Qantas is undergoing a major staff retraining at the moment for both Domestic and international cabin crew and front line ground staff. He was specific in saying that it was customer service training and was across the board for all staff. He advised he was a CSM for the South African sector and had been for many years. He advised that the current emphasis on customer service was a first during the 20+ years he had been working for Qantas.

I would expect that the current "better customer service" mentioned in this thread will be here to stay for a while. I hope that Virgin's recent moves to gain market share will continue to push Qantas to better service, recognition and treatment of their premium customers.
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Exactly what l was thinking.
If Virgin were still LCC, would this training at QF even be happening? Probably not. Win for pax though.
 
Massive glut of seats in the Oz Dom market, due to dumping. Virgin upping capacity aggressively. Tiger back and running things properly with full support of Singapore.

Massive amount of competition Int, right now too.

Unless AJ is a complete idiot, you'd really hope QF was taking customer service extremely seriously.
 
Maybe there was a DJ Crew accidentally running your flight!
 
I really hope that this brings some consistancy, I have had some fantastic crews but equally some others that are shockers! at least with DJ you can pretty much count on a smile and reasonable service!
 
After, what, 4 years? It sounds like the service excellence training center in Sydney is getting used.


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