Where is the warm welcome ? Qantas Domestic Lounge.

[Max Samuels]

Your experience of QF is very different to mine. I am past 650 QF flights and have hardly ever encountered that.

Buy a lotto ticket then you are obviously very lucky

 

[Max Samuels]

Qantas also like to extend the rude service to their flights, even in business class.

I think that is part of the brand? Consistent across all areas?

 

[mannej]

I think that is part of the brand? Consistent across all areas?

Anecdotally the forum would suggest the opposite is true for QF, I.e consistently inconsistent...

 

[bcworld]

anyone reading this would think QF has the worst customer service of any/most airline(s).

I wouldn't find that particularly hyperbolic...I wouldn't say the worst, one of the worst would be fair though.

 

[Max Samuels]

I wouldn't find that particularly hyperbolic...I wouldn't say the worst, one of the worst would be fair though.

Of all airlines in the world? Probably bottom half. Of all the NICE airlines that people take seriously? Definitely the bottom 5. Seriously - how hard can it be Qantas? Look around you - look at all the other airlines that consistently beat you in every global airline ratings list - look at them and think "what are they doing that we aren't"? And I can tell you that almost 100% of the time it is your STAFF that let you down. And yet we still have the die-hard believers blaming everything from the weather to the "near minimum" wage...

I hope AJ reads these forums

 

[bcworld]

And I can tell you that almost 100% of the time it is your STAFF that let you down.

From my perspective its actually the leadership. It's the failure to properly staff the call centre. It's the failure to give staff options to deal with issues. It's the failure to treat people fairly in the event of IRROPS. It's the completely inept and often downright incorrect responses from likely poorly trained people in customer 'care'. It's the being made to jump through every hoop just to be properly refunded when necessary. These are BAD customer service issues. To be honest, dealing with grumpy staff pales into insignificance in comparison to these systemic failures.

I appreciate a P1 might see things in a different light, but try seeing things through the perspective of joe public...and don't just tell yourself every airline treats no status pax this badly.

 

[Daver6]

Too nice and lenient and they get in trouble with their supervisors for not doing their jobs well. Too stern and they risk receiving written complaints about them.

This is the underlying issue IMHO then. QF should empower their front line staff to make the right decision with the goal of giving their customers a great experience and putting them first.

I know, for example, that at Conrad Hotels, staff are empowered to do whatever they believe is the right thing in order to rectify a guest issue. They (staff) are told that they will not get into trouble for their decision in how to make a customer happy. There might be a debrief to understand why a decision was made, but no negative repercussions. So we have two things. A clear mandate on making customers happy as well as empowering the front line staff to do so. This is clearly not the case at QF.

 

[Ade]

I never get scanned in ADL.

I never get scanned in MEL or SYD. A simple sighting of the BP on my phone seems to be sufficient

 

[KSC]

A start for Qantas service will be the ability to answer calls. Every call with Virgin Australia I have had is answered within minutes or seconds.

Qantas is a 1 hour wait.

I’m both Bronze with Qantas and Virgin.

 

[Andy_M]

This, my friend, is where normal people like us run afoul of the flying kangaroo....
It is a law until itself...

Tired old cabin crew are the worst - but can we be surprised? In a system that basically tells them the longer you stick around, the less you have to work, and the more we pay you! As far as QF are concerned, pax are just a nuisance to deal with - their "job" is something else (I don't know what it is though)

I find this to be true especially with the Sydney domestic crews. I hate flying domestically with crews based in Sydney. Most of the time they are rude, arrogant, and grumpy. If they are so dissatisfied with the job they should retire instead of trying to make their passengers miserable. Its got to the stage now I`ve stopped trying to be friendly with them and just treat them in a polite matter of fact manner, noise cancelling headphones are on as soon as I`m on the plane, (obviously I take them off if I need to acknowledge them) so I don't have to listen to them speak to other passengers. I have really lost a lot of respect for them.

Crews from other cities seem to be the complete opposite, and speaking to those crews about Sydney they agree mostly as well, because when they are passengers on those flights they observe the same things I do about Sydney crews and are equally disgusted with their attitude.

However on international flights ex Sydney which i fly regularly Sydney based cabin crew are a credit to Qantas, I cant speak more highly of them.

I don't have much interaction with ground staff other than checking in at the international terminal so I cant comment, except that the staff at the first class lounge are exceptional, but then I again I`ve been going there regularly on a monthly basis for the last 8 years or so since it opened so they know me.

 

[Tropic]

The internet and social media has had a fundamental impact on all aspects of society including the traditional transactional processes of business and commerce. People buying a product or service now generally have researched the cough out of it or have formed a (often totally unrealistic) expectation regarding the product or service based on what FB or some vacuous influencer has told them...Anyone working in service industry or retail will have lots of experiences with these "uber" customers... but QF's problem is simple - while it emphasises the safety angle, it over promises and consistently underdelivers it's premium product. And pax having to "be grateful" for being served by grumpy disinterested staff with attitude.

 

[Max Samuels]

From my perspective its actually the leadership. It's the failure to properly staff the call centre. It's the failure to give staff options to deal with issues. It's the failure to treat people fairly in the event of IRROPS. It's the completely inept and often downright incorrect responses from likely poorly trained people in customer 'care'. It's the being made to jump through every hoop just to be properly refunded when necessary. These are BAD customer service issues. To be honest, dealing with grumpy staff pales into insignificance in comparison to these systemic failures.

I appreciate a P1 might see things in a different light, but try seeing things through the perspective of joe public...and don't just tell yourself every airline treats no status pax this badly.

One of the most well-thought responses I've seen!

 

[stm1sydney]

I wouldn't find that particularly hyperbolic...I wouldn't say the worst, one of the worst would be fair though.

"One of the worst in the free world" one could say.

 

[RichardMEL]

I appreciate a P1 might see things in a different light, but try seeing things through the perspective of joe public...and don't just tell yourself every airline treats no status pax this badly.

Sure P1's have it a bit better specially with the call centre queues but at least I have NEVER been rose coloured about the well known and horrendous issues with QF from the website failures, "glitches" (some of which can work in one's favour it must be admitted) and the totally unacceptable call wait times, some of the nonsense one has to go through with refunds and the like. Absolutely. These are epic fails and it IS an indictment on the leadership that these have not been addressed as priority (specially the phone issue).

I still reject the OP's suggestion that the ground staff are rude and all the rest.

I visited MEL lounges yesterday so took note - several staff were at the top of the ecalators rather than at each lounge entrance and checking passes. Given a fair volume of traffic there wasn't a lot of interaction but it wasn't rude or anything. I also received a warm welcome back in BNE, but half the staff there know me for one reason or another (and we'll just leave that there ) but again I saw interaction with others - eg one pax looking confused "Have you been to the Business lounge here before? It's right down there..." as an example I witnessed as I passed by the entrance.

I really do find it unfair to use anecdotal experience to then generalise about the *STAFF* (not the policies, including things like horrible stafing or the useless offshore chat agents) like that.