I go four or five times a year in Y class LHR<->SYD, and last May changed to the Qantas route via Perth.

First time went fine, but yesterday lunchtime’s QF577 was delayed, and they bumped me off literally just as they scanned the boarding card in the queue, despite me checking at the desk and then confirming an hour would still be enough.

The gave me a new boarding card for QF1 marked SBY, and a boarding time of 15:10 - while I was in the domestic terminal at 15:00.

Then there was a huge queue for a bus over to the international terminal, and confusion from staff over whether to go to desk C or D.

Once there all they could offer was 52F - and the checkin staff unprompted said it was a “bad seat”. And it was. A middle bassinet seat with a toddler that screamed, or a mother that sang to stop him screaming, and who kept wanting to touch me (although bless him he was quite sweet really). The plane itself in that section seemed really loud too.

The final issue was of course they didn’t have a gluten free meal ready, but the staff were initially quite rude, I guess assuming I was just a trumped up economy passenger on a hipster fad diet. To be fair they seemed more understanding when I said I was coeliac and had been moved to this flight. However, they still brought me food they had no idea had gluten in or not, and then got hissy again when I said I had to be really quite sure. On the second leg they brought me a tiny plate of rice with two small sections of asparagus, deapite me making clear I could have anything except gluten (and I know they have plain fish and steak).

I arrived into LHR at 07:20 ish, rather than the two hours earlier, which had the knock on effect of yet another hour to get out of the car park in Uber.

Anyway, after that rant, what’s the best way to complain to Qantas, and what, if anything, could I reasonably expect?

Should add I have BA Silver status and had a Y class ticket, but perhaps unsurprisingly that seemed to make no difference at all.

They didn’t even tag my bag with business class, which is one of the few benefits, and makes a difference collecting them

Priority tags mean nothing. They look nice, but IME bags appear at random times no matter whether tagged with Business or First or Priority. Very occasionally they come out early, but you can’t count on it.

Yes that’s what I read too.

Looking st flightsware, QF 577 reached the gate at PER at 1807, only 38 mins before the scheduled departure of QF9, effectively leaving less than 20mkns from doors opening on QF577 to gate closing on QF9.

As luck would have it , QF9 didn’t depart until 1935, some 50 mins late so OP would have made it, but Qantas probably didn’t know that at the time.

Always difficult when you have special meals ordered and seat prebooked, but Qantas were taking measures to avoid a possible 24 hr delay in PER, so sometimes we just have to make do with what we’ve been given in the circumstances.

I am not sure if complaining to QF would achieve anything, apart from a stock standard reply, as I am sure they bellieved they were doing you a favour to get you there with minimal delay.

Still, would have been a 7 hr delay and may not have solved meal and seating problems.

It’s almost impossible for airlines to keep people happy. ... delays and they’re the worst for the delays ... actually do something to mitigate a potential singinifcant delay and it’s seating problem.

On the meal, whilst at short notice can’t expect catering to ihave special meals available, it seems that the documentation needs to be better for crew to refer to, for understanding what is and isn’t gluten free. If making a complaint would make that the focus and (if applicable) seek a refund of any advance seating fee paid.