the lying

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binalong

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Oct 14, 2004
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I live in the Philippines and regularly fly back to Aus. On a recent 8pm to Sydney flight with Qantas, it was delayed 4 hours. I luckily rang the airline in the early afternoon and discovered this and so was able to warn some colleagues. I also asked if Qantas was intending to ring passengers to inform them of this and was assured they were doing this. When I arrived at the gate I found some friends who had been waiting for 5 hours for the flight. They had started talking to others in the same dilemma and not one person they spoke or any of the ones I informed, were contacted in any manner.
This is what I hate - the pat answers the airline staff give to queries... for exit rows (will not allocate an exit row seat until you check in and then you arrive hrs before all other passengers to find that none are left); for upgrades ("only if economy is full"; "your ticket doesn't allow it"; "not authorised to do that"); when your meal choice isn't available (and one FA offers you only chocolate as a recompense and then another FA gets you a business meal); not allowed on earliest connecting flight (for some strange reason so you are stuck in the airport)
Have to keep flying, so what can I do?
 
As I said in my post on another thread 'what annoys you about flying' (or something like that), is the lying.

I agree, just some truth would go a long way, IMO, to establishing some integrity.

I have had some of the most bare faced lies told to me over the years, obviously with some twisted idea that you are an idiot and going to buy it.

When you are an extremely frequent flyer (or even an occasional one) they must realise you didn't come down in the last shower and have been through most of the situations at some airport, on board some aircraft with some airline before.

Obviously the airlines don't train well enough in customer service for some frontline staff, or, there is such a culture of fear that staff just make up reasons for problems.

Two airlines which I have been on which have impressed me, because of the honesty, have been South African and Air New Zealand, a problem acknowledged, investigated and although they couldn't fix it, apologised and assured that it would be advanced up the management chain, which in both cases it was with feedback to me later. Integrity.
 
While you might be disappointed with pat answers I dont see any of these as lying. In some cases could have been more helpful though.

AFAIK you can request an exit row seat but they are not pre-allocated. This is because check in is supposed to check if you are able to assist in an emergency. Note that getting there early doesnt guarantee you are at the head of the queue. Other passengers may have checked in at the same time as their connecting flight. (I am not sure if you are referring to the Phillipines flight as you said you didnt check-in early.)

Qantas, along with many other airlines in this part of the world has tight inventory management and does not freely provide upgrades, unlike say US-based airlines. One of the "enhancements" from May is the removal of ability to upgrade from the cheapest tickets, and of course awards are not able to be upgraded.

Qantas, as with all airlines, does not guarantee a particular meal choice will be available ... unless you pre-order a special meal. If you sometimes get a business meal while seated in economy then consider yourself lucky.

Not sure what you mean by earliest connecting flight? Are you travelling domestically straight after arriving in Australia? There are lots of possible reasons why you may not get the flight you want - eg not enough time to connect, no availability in your fare class.

Of course its also possible ground staff in MNL are not sufficiently trained.
 
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