Seriously Disappointed with Qantas

[Mrmaxwell]

The only way you'll get true 'compassion' from Qantas these days is be in charge of an Instagram or Twitter account with 50k ++ followers and post a whinge about their terrible inflexibility...all of a sudden mountains will be moved and magic will happen.

The rest of us have to be content with waiting for the next Alan Joyce 'enhancement'

 

[maroonone]

Yes it is unfortunate but I suspect similar or worse circumstances happen every day. I love how when you want to disregard booking and upgrade rules somehow it is the airlines flight. I had a situation last year where the dark side (VA - not booked by me) was asked by me to help out and did with no charge, Sometimes it is the person on the end of the phone but it always in my mind comes back to "what did I pay for" and anyhting more is always a bonus - conversely if they don't deliver what I paid for I will make my feelings felt and most(but not always) they try to remedy.

 

[dajop]

IIRC, QF rules around who you can gift to are there to prevent abuse (eg. selling to all and sundry), a one off "cousin" redemption is neither going to be investigated nor any action taken in regards to it. Make a habit of it, then yes could be an issue. There are probably some people out there who can legally gift to nobody (but is it morally wrong for them to gift to a best friend?) , where there would be others who could perhaps gift to 100 people.

 

[dajop]

I have no moral dilemma in upgrading a "cousin" ....aren't we all from the same mitochondrial eve?

Unfortunately it needs to be "first cousin" ....

 

[mviy]

I wouldn't risk my membership putting in an upgrade request for someone I'm not allowed to.

 

[serfty]

Unfortunately it needs to be "first cousin" ....

There's always a brother/sister in-law waiting in the wings ...

 

[Pushka]

I wouldn't risk my membership putting in an upgrade request for someone I'm not allowed to.

Seriously? Good heavens. I've not had to do it but if there was a long term relationship with that person then I would in a heartbeat. What is a cousin after all. Relationship via marriage. And so on.

I do think the OP wanted the upgrade done on the spot and not just put in a request that may not be granted or known until as late as the gate.

But like others I don't think it qualifies as compassionate grounds.

I told a story of last week where trans Tasman Qantas made no accommodations whatsoever for a multiple WP1 and WP for many years and now SG who'd broken a toe that week and whose foot was awfully swollen on that flight. This was a trans Tasman route staffed by NZ crew. They were very uncaring. Awful in fact. She was in J in the Aus leg (MrP flew through with her to Adl from Auckland). Thankfully the J Qantas crew were much more accommodating to her need to raise her leg.

 

[Spongbob]

Unfortunately it needs to be "first cousin" ....

Is that the first person you request an upgrade for is your "first cousin", and the next person you make an upgrade request for is a "second cousin"? So if you make a request for only one person at a time it would always be a "first cousin"?

 

[badseed]

Like most people on here I certainly have plenty of 'cousins', at least as far as QF are concerned ;-)

The front-line staff really couldn't care less about your relationship - nor should they.

Really it's a terrible policy - if I want to treat myself and a mate to an upgrade on the way home from seeing an away A-League or AFL game in Perth, why should QF frown on that, but magically smile if he's my 'cousin' or 'partner'?

Just change the policy QF.

 

[docjames]

How is the applied/enforced for ODUs in the QP (for pax travelling on same pnr)?

 

[bam71]

Unfortunately it needs to be "first cousin" ....

Somehow it always is....

 

[RichardMEL]

Yes I've upgraded a fried, I mean cousin on domestic flights.. no issues because hey you don't need to show ID or prove anything. I don't make a habit of it though. I would suspect some accounts may get audited from time to time if lots of "family upgrades" occur they might look more closel (and over at the dark side I know of people who have had their accounts terminated and points lost for, what the airline suspected, to be fraud of the family pooling or something similar... I was never quite sure what the deal was but there was little recourse for the affected people who as far as I am aware did nothing wrong... )

I understand the anti-fraud/selling reason for the policy.. but people can already get around that, and have so.... (eg selling of points as family transfers etc). I know with UA I've gifted free upgrades to friends happily and UA doesn't know (or likely care) if I got money or not for it.

I see both sides of this argument. I suspect QF doesn't care for the odd "cousin" type thing.

However in the OP's case I could see an slightly elevated risk of pursuing upgrades in this booking further - because they called QF and enquired (a reasonable thing to do in my book!) it MAY be that the PNR may have had notes added to it and/or a flag. Probably not, but you never know.

Just a thought.

 

[JohnK]

Sorry to hear the OP has had this experience. Sometimes it's the person on the end of the phone that could make the world of difference.

Seriously? Good heavens. I've not had to do it but if there was a long term relationship with that person then I would in a heartbeat. What is a cousin after all. Relationship via marriage. And so on.

Depends what you have to lose. I have ~1.3m QFF points and I wouldn't risk those points to put in a 20,000 QFF upgrade request for a friend.

 

[RichardMEL]

Sorry to hear the OP has had this experience. Sometimes it's the person on the end of the phone that could make the world of difference.

yes, but what the OP is asking for is against the rules. I don't see how a phone agent (or any agent really, but some have more ability to override and make it happen than others) could even agree to a violation of the rules.. they might have felt it was stupid and wanted to help personally but how could they? Suggest the OP just put in the request for their "cousin"? that would be frowned upon by management in the extreme.

Now, we don't know how the particular agent(s) handled the OP's call and their level of stated empathy.. eg: "I'm so sorry to hear this happened to your friend. I'd love to be able to assist, but as ou know you can't upgrade a non family member and there's little I can do to help with that" vs "No. You can't." kind of thing.

I still think it's entirely possible that ground staff in PER will note the person's situation and hopefully probide an exit row or even op up (which is the way around this rule) but that's all airport control. Phone agents who are bound by the rules (good or bad) don't have a lot of space to move in this sort of situation I think.

 

[BacchusMarsh]

I still think it's entierely possible that ground staff in PER will note the person's situation and hopefully probide an exit row or even op up (which is the way around this rule) but that's all airport control. Phone agents who are bound by the rules (good or bad) don't have a lot of space to move in this sort of situation I think.

I really don't think someone in a sling and back brace should be in an exit row.

 

[RichardMEL]

I really don't think someone in a sling and back brace should be in an exit row.

ah yes, very good point. my bad

OK bulkhead

 

[JohnPhelan]

Like most people on here I certainly have plenty of 'cousins', at least as far as QF are concerned ;-)

The front-line staff really couldn't care less about your relationship - nor should they.

Really it's a terrible policy - if I want to treat myself and a mate to an upgrade on the way home from seeing an away A-League or AFL game in Perth, why should QF frown on that, but magically smile if he's my 'cousin' or 'partner'?

Just change the policy QF.

The concern is that people will sell the upgrades online.