What should I have done?

[SamR]

Hi Folks

This is a little situation I found myself in yesterday in MEL, while checking in for a flight to SYD. Didn't quite have the outcome I would have liked, and I don't know what else I could have done.

I am recovering/maintaining after a massive pulmonary embolism that started as a DVT. (I'm allowed to fly!) I'm chock-full of rat poison to keep my blood thinned and require regular blood tests to check that my dosage is right.

I was booked on the 2.30pm service home to Sydney. I had had a call from my doctor in the morning saying that he wanted me to take a blood test that day, which meant that I needed to shift to an earlier flight if I was to make it in time.

I had baggage to check, so unfortunately was not able to head straight to the QP to try and sort it there. Baggage meant I needed to sort it out at the Service Desk. I headed for the desk (it wasn't busy, there was no queue) and was headed off by a floor dragon. I explained that I needed to discuss getting on an earlier flight, and she waved me in the direction of a kiosk, offering no help. I went on to explain that I knew I was traveling on a restricted fare but had a legitimate medical reason to try and change my flight and would like to discuss it with the good folk at the Service Desk, appealing to their discretion. She gave me a flat and emphatic NO, and wouldn't let me pass, Gandalf style. And she was rather rude about it, trying to tell me that ground staff can't change flights on restricted fares, when I know they can. Of course they can.

I realise that with the el-cheapo ticket I was on that I wasn't entitled to change anything, but I do believe I should have been allowed to ask the question, especially as I was polite and honest about the status of my ticket, and really did have a legit medical reason for my request.

So, for future reference, what else could I have done? Argued with the dragon that I know full well that my flight could be changed at the discretion of the ground staff (and that I would like to speak to the organ grinder and not the monkey)? Lied, and told her that the Magic Check-in Pole told me to go to the Service Desk for some reason? Something else?

Didn't make it back in time for the blood test either.

 

[NM]

I would have told the difficult ground staff member to please point me to the Qantas Ticket Sales counter so I could alter my ticket for the return journey as the current flight details no longer suited my needs.

Then made my way to the ticket counter and asked politely about changing to an earlier flight, being willing to pay the costs as required by the conditions of the fare I had originally purchased. Then I am empowered to make my own decision regarding the costs and importance of changing.

While your reason to want to change to an earlier flight is important to you, it may not meet the criteria for "legit medical reason" under the terms of the fare purchased. But I agree you should be able to ask. So I suggest the ticket sales counter, rather than the service desk, is the correct place for such requests to me made. Its a ticket/fare issue, which the ticket counter sales staff should be able to assist and there is no justified reason to stop you going to the ticket counter as that is where you would need to go if you wanted to purchase a new ticket for an earlier flight.

 

[thewinchester]

I would have told the difficult ground staff member to please point me to the Qantas Ticket Sales counter so I could alter my ticket for the return journey as the current flight details no longer suited my needs.

Then made my way to the ticket counter and asked politely about changing to an earlier flight, being willing to pay the costs as required by the conditions of the fare I had originally purchased. Then I am empowered to make my own decision regarding the costs and importance of changing.

While your reason to want to change to an earlier flight is important to you, it may not meet the criteria for "legit medical reason" under the terms of the fare purchased. But I agree you should be able to ask. So I suggest the ticket sales counter, rather than the service desk, is the correct place for such requests to me made. Its a ticket/fare issue, which the ticket counter sales staff should be able to assist and there is no justified reason to stop you going to the ticket counter as that is where you would need to go if you wanted to purchase a new ticket for an earlier flight.

Agreed, that would have been the best resolution path given the circumstances.

Having said that, the line dragon needs to be put on report for their behaivours. An email to QF with as much detail as possible should see her given the appropriate penalty for poor customer service, and failing to offer the customer appropriate solutions for their issue.

 

[markis10]

I would have asked your doctor if it was possible for them to arrange with the airport doctor to cover the blood test, which I am sure would have been the easiest way to resolve the issue, they are coincidently DVT specialists.

 

[TheInsider]

Having said that, the line dragon needs to be put on report for their behaivours. An email to QF with as much detail as possible should see her given the appropriate penalty for poor customer service, and failing to offer the customer appropriate solutions for their issue.

Please... When you get passengers all day who think they know more than an actual staff member, they need to be told directly and bluntly that it cannot/can happen. The way staff get treated by passengers is absolutly disgusting, they treat them like they are scraping **** off their shoe.

When the agent told you to head to a kiosk, that was the right thing to do. The staff at the service desk CANNOT change a flight if the fare is not flexible (under any circumstance). The changes to flights get tracked and if not within the appropiate fare class, they would get spoken to. This also applies for staff on duty travel who are heading home or heading to duty, we cannot change this and only the crewing department can change these flights.

If there was a circumstance where QF were moving passengers forward to an earlier flight (due to weather or operational circumstances), this can once again be done only by a kiosk. Service desk agents do not have the permissions to do this.

There are reasons why staff tell passengers these things, it is due to that they work for qantas, they are the ones who know policy and procedures, not the passengers! Generally the only time where staff start getting 'rude' is when people keep pushing for something they are not entitled to. Yes maybe more customer service training is needed, but customer service is not giving what the customer wants and the customer is not always right

 

[NM]

Please... When you get passengers all day who think they know more than an actual staff member, they need to be told directly and bluntly that it cannot/can happen. The way staff get treated by passengers is absolutly disgusting, they treat them like they are scraping **** off their shoe.

When the agent told you to head to a kiosk, that was the right thing to do. The staff at the service desk CANNOT change a flight if the fare is not flexible (under any circumstance). The changes to flights get tracked and if not within the appropiate fare class, they would get spoken to. This also applies for staff on duty travel who are heading home or heading to duty, we cannot change this and only the crewing department can change these flights.

If there was a circumstance where QF were moving passengers forward to an earlier flight (due to weather or operational circumstances), this can once again be done only by a kiosk. Service desk agents do not have the permissions to do this.

There are reasons why staff tell passengers these things, it is due to that they work for qantas, they are the ones who know policy and procedures, not the passenger.

While your information is of course 100% correct, allowing the passenger to approach the ticket counter (or perhaps even the service desk) to "ask", have the agent look up the fare purchased to confirm the restrictions and then reply with "sorry, but this cannot be changed" would seem to be a better way to address the situation.

 

[MelUser]

I don't agree. The check in staff has a phone and they can dial yield who can authorise for the passenger to be put on to the next available flight. I know as I have done this a number of times with both flexible and non-flexible tickets.

It takes a special staff member though who wants to go to the trouble of picking up the phone and requesting authorisation to place the passenger onto an earlier flight.

 

[TheInsider]

While your information is of course 100% correct, allowing the passenger to approach the ticket counter (or perhaps even the service desk) to "ask", have the agent look up the fare purchased to confirm the restrictions and then reply with "sorry, but this cannot be changed" would seem to be a better way to address the situation.

In a way i can agree, they are more than welcome to head to the sales desk. But for the service desk they need to set a precedent there. If you let one person through, all the others will follow, and then say 'well that person was allowed in there'.

 

[TheInsider]

Also based on the NGCI lay out, there are staff roaming around the floor. These would be the more 'appropiate' staff to ask first off. As where those 4 TV screens are next to the kiosks, they have a PC and phone there..

 

[Austman]

The correct response from the line supervisor:

"Sorry, if your flight is changeable it can be done at the check-in kiosk. If it is not changeable you will have to purchase a new ticket".

 

[TheInsider]

The correct response from the line supervisor:

"Sorry, if your flight is changeable it can be done at the check-in kiosk. If it is not changeable you will have to purchase a new ticket".

Which is generally said by most staff. But we cannot go into hearsay as it's one side of what was said and/or happened.

 

[serfty]

... The staff at the service desk CANNOT change a flight if the fare is not flexible (under any circumstance). ...

Sorry for your situation, although by saying that ground staff can change a cheap ticket, well that is completly false. ...

While thay may not be able to make such changes, it IS indeed possible for ground staff to pick up their 'phone and make a request of someone empowered. It was done for me earlier this month (I wanted to move to an earlier flight to SYD to have more time before QF12, O class fare).

Of course, I am WP, so I would not have been headed off.

As to the OP's question? A Qantas domestic Jet passenger is entitled to 2 x 7kg of carry-on (e.g 2 x 105cm rollaboards). It is generally quite easy to avoid having to check baggage in such circumstances.:idea:

 

[kpc]

I was booked on the 2.30pm service home to Sydney. I had had a call from my doctor in the morning saying that he wanted me to take a blood test that day, which meant that I needed to shift to an earlier flight if I was to make it in time.

I would have told your doctor that you were in Melbourne....could the test be done when you got back to Sydney or the following day? If it was really urgent (unlikely but I don't know what your INR was that alarmed your doctor), I would get it done in Melbourne.

 

[TheInsider]

Of course, I am WP, so I would not have been headed off.

If you have international connections, there are different procedures again.

But for something based on a stand-alone DOM flight to SYD for a blood test they needed to do on a cheap ticket then that's different again.
Why not call reservations when the doctor made the call to the OP? Or even speak to the salesdesk? Or even another staff member wandering around the floor.

 

[serfty]

If you have international connections, there are different procedures again. ...

Actually, no.

With the implementation of NGCI, there is no longer any Domestic connection to International service desk at MEL.

I spent 5 minutes looking for it before finding an attendant and asking - I was directed to the 'premium' service desk.

 

[TheInsider]

Actually, no.

I spent 5 minutes looking for it before finding an attendant and asking - I was directed to the 'premium' service desk.

Yes, for international connections (some) they would like to get you out as early as possible to SYD, so you wouldn't miss the connection based on SYD/MEL atc, delays, wx, u/s aircraft.

Not any stand-alone connection desk, but it's what the service desks are used for. And also sometimes in the mornings you'll see the signage say Service - International Connections

 

[TheInsider]

I apologise if i sound a little harsh in my responses but to be called liars, monkeys, floor dragons, and organ grinders only because someone wants something they are not entitled to.
It just shows what people can actually be like when they are face-to-face with staff members.

 

[notzac]

Please... When you get passengers all day who think they know more than an actual staff member, they need to be told directly and bluntly that it cannot/can happen.

I appreciate you're not here in any official capacity .. but no one needs to be told anything bluntly. I'd be pretty annoyed if I'd politely asked to speak with the service desk folk and been bluntly told to go speak to a computer (the kiosk) instead.

While none of us know how SamR actually presented themselves, nor do we know how the QF ground agent actually responded (beyond what SamR has written) -- if it played out as it's been reported, surely the ground agent would have been better off suggesting that the sales desk (so that they could talk to a human being about their ticket) were in a much better position to assist than the service desk?

[size=-2]In case anyone is wondering, I don't subscribe to the "the customer is always right" mantra. The customer is frequently misguided, and it's my opinion that good customer service is providing the customer with options to solve an issue -- rather than forcefully ending the conversation with a negative sounding response. *end rant*[/size]

 

[TheInsider]

I appreciate you're not here in any official capacity .. but no one needs to be told anything bluntly. I'd be pretty annoyed if I'd politely asked to speak with the service desk folk and been bluntly told to go speak to a computer (the kiosk) instead.

Okay, i think you're misinterpreting what i'm mean by saying it to them bluntly.
If someone comes up to you yelling and screaming, you're not going to say "oh hi sir, how can i help you today?"
You cannot reason with people when they are fustrated or angry, they will not listen to logic, nor care about 'customer service'. They don't want an answer where somone is beating around the bush taking 2 minutes to answer a simple 2/3 word question.
I'll change the word to 'to the point' then. :-|:shock:

[SIZE=-2]In case anyone is wondering, I don't subscribe to the "the customer is always right" mantra. The customer is frequently misguided, and it's my opinion that good customer service is providing the customer with options to solve an issue -- rather than forcefully ending the conversation with a negative sounding response. *end rant*[/SIZE]

Well on an internet forum you are only going to get one side of the story and not always the truth of the whole story, no matter how adamant posters are.

 

[dfcatch]

There are reasons why staff tell passengers these things, it is due to that they work for qantas, they are the ones who know policy and procedures, not the passengers! ............. Yes maybe more customer service training is needed, but customer service is not giving what the customer wants and the customer is not always right

QFCSA - it's always good reading your input from a person that actually knows what the system can and can't do.

However - as I'm sure you're more than well aware....

1/ It does seem (from personal experience and those of other AFFers) that more senior staff (eg. lounge staff, premium desk staff etc) are able to perform some tasks that "standard check-in staff" are either unauthorised, unable or unwilling to perform.

2/ Whilst I respect staff in any organisation - QF staff are notorious for being inconsistent. This forum is full of examples where staff "get it wrong".

Now in this instance - the customer may not be "right", and may not be "entitled" to use the premium desk to "ask" if his request could be accommodated. But that doesn't mean it can't be handled in a professional and customer-focused way.
In the old days - he could have asked the check-in staff who (as you say) may not have been able to do anything (although they may have suggested he ask in the QP).

In this situation - a kiosk is only going to tell him whatever its been programmed to tell him.


Not knocking your input (which is always appreciated), but the reality of real-world experiences demonstrates that sometimes things do work "outside the square".

Perhaps with NGCI - this frontline discretion gets removed for everyone....???