Qantas has had all sorts of IT problems over the past week. Its scheduled system upgrade last Wednesday took far longer than expected, leaving frequent flyers unable to access their accounts or use their Qantas points for many hours.
But it’s a different IT problem that has upset AFF member juddles this week. Qantas routinely emails flyers with invitations to purchase one-time Qantas Club lounge access ahead of their flight. Qantas Club passes are typically offered to Qantas Frequent Flyer members with Bronze or Silver status that would not otherwise have access to the lounge.
An AFF member’s child received one such invitation last week. Trouble is, this person is under the age of 18. Qantas would know this too, as her age would be listed in her Qantas Frequent Flyer profile. This matters because passengers aged under 18 are not legally allowed to enter Qantas Club lounges unaccompanied.
My daughter is a QFF member. Any member has to state their date of birth. She is under 18. She has a flight coming up in a few days, travelling solo. And she was just sent an invite to spend $39 to get QP lounge access.
I am half tempted to get her to buy this, then see if they let her in solo to the QP.
Minors are not allowed to enter airport lounges, where alcohol is freely available, due to liquor licensing laws. It is therefore likely that this person would be turned away if they tried to gain lounge access with the Qantas Club pass sold to them.
The problem, it appears, is that there are no systems in place to ensure lounge invitations are not being sent to minors. Qantas would know the ages of their Frequent Flyer members, so it would be relatively simple to cross-check this information.
Juddles has some strong words for Qantas…
Sorry for being emotive in the title, but really, Qantas need to get their sh_t together. I love Qantas, but they fail in the easiest areas to NOT fail.
How hard is IT these days? As in using that magnificent beast that is the internet and electronic data matching / analysis / understanding that should be central to any company in today’s age.
A number of IT professionals have commented on this thread. In their experience, these types of errors are not always IT’s fault…
The IT person doing the change? They may not have ever been to a Qantas Club, let alone know there’s service of alcohol. They’re given a list of things to do and they go ahead and do them.
Blame I.T all you want. A marketing person would/should have signed off, and ultimately set the parameters, on an offer sent to customers. If anything its a QA fail.
Either way, selling a Qantas Club pass to someone that is not legally allowed to use it is not a good look.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: For Christ’s sake QF! Who does your IT????
