Why I don't fly Qantas

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Farnarkler

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My 11 year old Grandson was booked to fly as an unaccompanied minor on a Qantas domestic flight from Melbourne to Perth the other day. His father made the booking but just a few days before his departure, we received a message that Qantas had transferred him onto QF9 - the much publicised flight from Melbourne to Perth, then non stop to London. Despite being a nervous flyer, he was excited that he would be flying on the new 787.
We took him to check in only to be told that, as he had no photo ID, he could not board the flight! Bizarre. I explained that he was only 11 but the check in lady then asked him if he had a drivers licence! Hopeless.
She continued to insist that he could not board that flight claiming it was an immigration restriction, (it isn't) and proceeded to check him on a much later domestic flight to Perth. I asked for a supervisor who sadly also didn't seem to know what was allowed, so I pointed out that it was Qantas, and not us, who put him on that flight, (they were blaming us) plus the Qantas web site clearly stated that minors travelling on domestic legs do not need photo ID. All they had to do was walk him through immigration and he would be fine. The supervisor called someone else who happily did know the rules and suddenly our Grandson was back on QF9. The same check in lady, now very miffed, then walked our young man through immigration to his flight. All this stuffing around and arguing did nothing to calm his nerves. Training their check in staff is clearly not a priority at Qantas. I have too many other stories of Qantas letting us down, so we avoid them if we can. You should do the same.
 
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I read this earlier and thought, no, I'll come back a bit later and it will be updated or something to make the story less bizarre.

Regrettably not.

Unforgivable.
 
I'm afraid you are going to encounter DFs at every airline. We had a similar issue with Malaysian in KL a few years back - nearly denied our kids boarding while saying we had to travel on.... Ridiculous
But at least the supervisor got secondary advice and you were sorted out in the end
 
LOL at the agent who asked the 11yo for a driver's license - you should have just laughed in her face.
 
I don't think anyone has claimed that Qantas is perfect 100% all of the time. They are a very large airline carrying large numbers of passengers everyday. Things do and will continue to go wrong. I've had bad experiences with them. But to tell everyone that they should never fly Qantas or even to 'avoid them if you can' is simply absurd and unreasonable. Show me a perfect airline with 100% customer satisfaction first!
 
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By what measure do you class QF as "a very large airline". They're a tinpot little business from the bottom of the earth, and not in the same league as LARGE airlines - AA, UA, BA, SG, CA, etc, etc.
 
By what measure do you class QF as "a very large airline". They're a tinpot little business from the bottom of the earth, and not in the same league as LARGE airlines - AA, UA, BA, SG, CA, etc, etc.
I don't think anyone has claimed that Qantas is perfect 100% all of the time. They are a very large airline carrying large numbers of passengers everyday. Things do and will continue to go wrong. I've had bad experiences with them. But to tell everyone that they should never fly Qantas or even to 'avoid them if you can' is simply absurd and unreasonable. Show me a perfect airline with 100% customer satisfaction first!

@jgm they are by far the biggest airline in Australia who can fly the OP’s grandson from MEL-PER.
 
I don't think anyone has claimed that Qantas is perfect 100% all of the time. They are a very large airline carrying large numbers of passengers everyday. Things do and will continue to go wrong. I've had bad experiences with them. But to tell everyone that they should never fly Qantas or even to 'avoid them if you can' is simply absurd and unreasonable. Show me a perfect airline with 100% customer satisfaction first!
I don't think anyone would dispute that things won't go perfectly all the time but this is basic stuff and sheer incompetence. No excuses can possibly be made
 
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Ok I may have my rose tinted glasses on here but it seems that there’s something nobody has commented on.
QF9 departs from the international terminal at MEL and is a relatively recent addition to the MEL-PER flights. There are a fair few differences for check-in procedures for International and Domestic Flights.
I get that QF changed the original flight to QF9 and then there was a complete clusterf*ck at the airport but I don’t think that means that nobody should fly QF. I can’t see why that’s even being advocated really.
YMMV
 
I agree with PF - it is not an indication of "sheer incompetence" that a minor travelling on a possibly international flight could cause caution on the part of the staff.

As for asking for an 11 year old's driving licence - I suspect there is more to this story......

In my experience, Qantas, although suffering "fails", are generally better than most airlines at handling kids. Maybe the OP could state which airline has a fool-proof record??
 
I agree with PF - it is not an indication of "sheer incompetence" that a minor travelling on a possibly international flight could cause caution on the part of the staff.

As for asking for an 11 year old's driving licence - I suspect there is more to this story......

In my experience, Qantas, although suffering "fails", are generally better than most airlines at handling kids. Maybe the OP could state which airline has a fool-proof record??

I chuckled when I read this.

When QF81 still flew SYD-ADL I would regularly do a FLOUNGE run. And had the comedy of errors where a mature male at the QF international J check-in who apparently was a novice at that desk checked me in.

All good, I drift through Customs and Security with my orange sticker on the boarding pass, stroll thru duty-free and sidle into the Flounge, my lips just waiting for that fine champers. I get to the upstairs host desk only to be asked "why are you here ? You're checked onto a QF domestic flight!"

Jeepers, my bags heading onto one flight and me to another, and of course, the desk saying "it's your fault!!! (Kinda you know in that tone that infers that you're the one that's stupid and dumb)

My fault?? but they were insistent. I had to go off to the domestic terminal. But with like 15 'minutes TIL THAT FLIGHT, like really? I'm fast but not that quick

Eventually found the paper copy of the booking and oh gosh, it was someone's fault.

QF

Sheepishly, and unapologetic, they then set about figuring out how to get me to Adelaide on QF81

..my only problem then was how to sample all the fine champagne in Syd Flounge
 
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The flight's only been going for a few weeks. It's entirely possible this was the first unaccompanied minor that check in agent had dealt with on this flight. Cut them some slack I say.
 
The flight's only been going for a few weeks. It's entirely possible this was the first unaccompanied minor that check in agent had dealt with on this flight. Cut them some slack I say.
Probably their first D sticker Unaccompanied minor ever. So there was some on the job training done - for both the check in (eventually miffed) person and their supervisor.

That the latter should require such training definitely should not happen.
 
I don't much like QF.... I fly NZ most of the time....but I can only assume that everyone expecting perfection from QF first time everytime has ensured same in their own work...and throughout their own entire business/companies/places of work..... Right?
 
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@jgm they are by far the biggest airline in Australia who can fly the OP’s grandson from MEL-PER.
That doesn't make them "a very large airline", just a bigger fish in a very small pond. The only measure where they compete with large airlines is the CEO's salary.
 
@jgm they are by far the biggest airline in Australia who can fly the OP’s grandson from MEL-PER.


Yeah But!!!!

Fiona in comparison to other large airlines companies like as AA ( by fleet size and Revenue)or Delta or Lufthansa ( by number of its employees), BA, Qantas is small maybe not tinpot. But it was tinpot when it was posting not posting any profits just deficits !
 
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