Platinum A332

No. Just another reason to fly Virgin Australia.

whughes3

Yesterday morning I found myself empathising with the OP! I was booked on QF420, MEL-SYD @9:30, connecting to international in SYD. I was aware of the possibility of after-effects from all the disruptions of the week, with planes and crews being "out of position", so I got to the airport good and early just in case; but there seemed to be no cause for concern, with no indicated delays in my flight, or most others.

When 9:00 came around, the display screens were still showing QF420 on time, so I ambled down to the gate, only to find no plane and a rather bemused air crew twiddling their thumbs; apparently the plane had to be towed over from the maintenance hangar, with no ETA! So I sat for a while, with indicated "boarding" time changing first to 9:30 and then 10:00, so I returned to the J lounge for a while; eventually the plane arrived and boarding started round 10:10; we finally pushed back round 10:30.

And then we proceeded to sit on the tarmac for nearly 50 (!!) minutes waiting for 10 other planes to take off; finally got airborne round 11:20, and got to SYD round 12:30 with my ongoing flight scheduled for 13:00! Fortunately it was also slightly delayed by maintenance issues, and I got there just as boarding started, feeling more than a little agitated!

I suppose I should be thankful that I did actually get where I wanted in time; sitting next to me on the flight was a fairly well-known jockey, who was fuming that he was going miss his first race at Randwick. But all in all, not a great performance from Qantas.

Catweazle

At least my SIN-MEL flight arrived nicely on 28th September. Must have missed all this hullaballoo "by this much!"

BTW, FYI, I live in Lara near Geelong and although Melbourne's usually fairly windy at the best of time the weather hasn't seemed that bad in the last week. Or is it just me? Maybe I slept through it all with jetlag?

On another note, does anyone know why QF10 MEL-SIN arrived one hour after scheduled time, at 6am instead of 5am? I got an email about this slight change almost 2 months ago, and have been wondering ever since out of curiosity, but have no clue myself. Anything to do with this 'weather'?

QF WP

Daylight saving, that started on 1 October?

serfty

"QF10 MEL-SIN" does not compute!

It more likely "QF09 MEL-SIN" or "QF10 SIN-MEL".

Catweazle

You're right, silly me! I did mean QF10 SIN-MEL!

Kremmen

The next day, I went in to the airport with plenty of time to spare, as my flight was supposedly on time again.

The lousy communication continued. After they cancelled my flight, they had told us that our bags would have to be collected at baggage services and re-checked the next day. I was dropped off at departures, so I asked a staff member if that was the situation and he confirmed it. I therefore went downstairs and queued up at baggage services. The line started to move swiftly as they got to the people in my situation and told each one that our bags had already been sent to our destinations. So, we all had to file through and go back upstairs to check in.

Then those of us from the previous day couldn't check in at the kiosks (why? nobody seemed to know) and there were only two staff we could queue up at. (The guy who gave me the wrong information about baggage was also wandering about, but not trained to use the computer to check anyone in!)

QF777 had a gate. And a plane. An A332. And pilots who weren't out of time. Oh, wait a sec. We need FAs too! Bummer, eh?! About an hour after scheduled departure, we boarded and they announced that service might be a little slower as we were one FA short of standard crew size. They also asked several times of Mr Somethingorother was on the plane. How can that not know? Wishful thinking, I guess. He'd checked a bag and not boarded. So, we had to wait another 30 mins while they removed Mr S's bag from the hold, eventually taking off 2 hours late.

LOLABUNNY

One of many reasons I stopped flying Qantas a long time ago.And these strikes are bad for business

Kremmen

I emailed Customer Care a few days after the flight to request payment for my cab fares. When I've had things like this with other airlines, such as Delta, they've replied within days and given extra vouchers for future travel for the inconvenience. However, I haven't heard anything back from Qantas and it's been over two weeks.

Do any of you know how long they usually take to reply and/or pay?

nth_utsera_sth_utsera

Since QF customer service was flushed down the toilet a couple of years ago [and based on the experience of a 3 month reply re an issue with F service on intercon for a WP] I'd say, whistle...

Kremmen

That sucks. It's over 3 weeks now and I've had no response. Those of you who deal with Qantas more frequently than I, do you have any suggestions as to how or what part of Qantas to contact?

AndDee

I had 6 emails back and forward regarding an issue and the responses from customer service via email was just pathetic.

They either didn't read the issue or asked for information which was already in the email.

I lodged a complaint with my local Consumer Affairs department and the issue was resolved

AndDee

I would suggest a good old fashioned letter!

Customer Care
Qantas Airways Limited
Level 5 - Building A
203 Coward Street
Mascot NSW 2020

nth_utsera_sth_utsera

Ultimately, to the CEO, if you think customer service has dealt with the matter shoddily and you've given them every opportunity to, reasonably, deal with the matter. No reply or inadequate reply is sufficient for escalation in my book. But keep your powder dry until it's absolutely necessary. You should feel no shame in exposing poor customer service, whether through poor local management or an edict from higher up.

KFly

Hmmm, that's a long wait for a response. Just to give a recent personal experience from last week.

Emailed QF via their website because I was given a "bad" seat after an equipment change from a 767 to a 737. A pretty civil email, just stating it's not hard to assign me a better seat - went from the first row of Y class to almost the last row.

Got the standard confirmation after submitting my email. Then 2 days later, I received a phone call from QF Executive support apologizing for the situation and gave me a system wide domestic upgrade.

Just a WP, not even near a P1. But that's good customer service in my books!

Interesting how the experience can be so different, even for fellow WP.

K