Massive QF Fail [Airline moved PAX to earlier flight-did not inform PAX]

[MatF]

Didn't expect to see this in front of me yesterday afternoon.



Massive fail from QF. I was booked on QF541 BNE-SYD at 3:25pm yesterday afternoon (and had scored a points upgrade to J), connecting to QF2231 SYD-WGA at 6:50pm (on the same PNR)
QF541 was cancelled some time earlier in the day (I don't know when) and I was moved to QF537, leaving an hour earlier.

No worries, except that nobody bothered to let me know. No SMS, no email, no phone call. So I turned up at the airport an hour before QF541 was due to depart as usual, to find that I'd missed my new flight.

There were no seats on QF539, leaving half an hour later, so my only option to get to SYD in time to connect to my WGA flight was to snare a seat on VA960 (at the suggestion of the Lounge Angel in the BNE J Lounge). The Lounge Angel called Virgin, checked on flight loading, and then handed me the phone to organise and pay for the ticket myself. QF have already refunded the upgrade points and will apparently refund that sector. It'll be interesting to see if that's more or less than I had to pay out of my own pocket for the VA seat.

I then had to run down to the other end of the terminal (gate 48) to check in for my VA flight, and only just made it before check in closed.

Now I'm not normally someone to complain about airlines, I know a lot of stuff happens that's out of their control, but this is just poor service, plain and simple. If you get moved to a flight an hour earlier, I'd expect even the lowest of LCCs to at least attempt to contact you and get positive confirmation that you know about it.

I'm a QF WP, but status shouldn't have even mattered in this case. My phone was on all day, and absolutely nothing. Still no contact in fact, at nearly noon the next day. There's no doubt they had my phone number - it was on the booking, in my profile, and besides, the upgrade fairy SMS'd me the afternoon before re: my J upgrade. Had someone notified me, I would have arrived at the airport an hour earlier and I would have been perfectly happy.

I also thought that perhaps QF might have been able to proactively book me onto VA if they were unable to get me to SYD in time themselves, rather than having to organise and pay for the VA seat myself.

So, instead of my nice 1A seat that I'd preselected on QF541, I ended up in seat 18B on a Virgin flight. Yes, a middle seat - but at least I got home. Thank you VA!

I will follow this up with QF.

Not happy Jan.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I saw this on Facebook but reading it here for the second time still leaves me speechless :!:

That's a truly bad service failure from QF. To move you, not tell you and then make you pay for your own ticket
Back in the day I've even had BA re-book me at their cost on BMI due to late arrivals and cancellations of Club Europe seats. I wouldn't call BA the best exponents of customer service I've encountered but even they didn't expect me to pay !!

I hope Red Roo sees this

 

[dfcatch]

Red Roo.....

Care to get onto this one.

Clearly a MASSIVE QF FAIL.

No question about it.

That's poor even by JQ standards

 

[boomy]

Sorry to hear about that, terrible mistake by QF, hope you will get compensation for that and I'm not talking only about paying for your VA ticket because they MUST do it for you IMO.

 

[RooFlyer]

I think the nature of the conversation with the QF lounge angel will be relevant; jot some notes down if you haven't already. Depending on what was said (and requested) then, QF may argue "Well, you went off and arranged your own substitute flight, we are not going to pay for something you went off and did yourself."

I'm not saying that would be OK, just mentioning that you might need to be prepared for that debate with QF.

 

[kermatu]

Phone, SMS and email alerts are very hit and miss at best. I've had nothing for months even with delays, bring-forwards, one points upgrade - despite several updates of details and calls to the FF line. Was promised months ago it would be looked into.

 

[TomVexille]

I think the nature of the conversation with the QF lounge angel will be relevant; jot some notes down if you haven't already. Depending on what was said (and requested) then, QF may argue "Well, you went off and arranged your own substitute flight, we are not going to pay for something you went off and did yourself."

I'm not saying that would be OK, just mentioning that you might need to be prepared for that debate with QF.

Excellent point.

That said, it's just not good enough from any airline really.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I think the nature of the conversation with the QF lounge angel will be relevant; jot some notes down if you haven't already. Depending on what was said (and requested) then, QF may argue "Well, you went off and arranged your own substitute flight, we are not going to pay for something you went off and did yourself."

I'm not saying that would be OK, just mentioning that you might need to be prepared for that debate with QF.

I'd think the Lounge Angel suggesting VA, calling them up on the lounge phone to check availability and then handing the OP the telephone to book and pay for it is pretty good evidence that the VA flight was instigated by QF.
In fact up until the point that the phone was handed to me I'd have thought the Lounge Angel was booking it!!
He/she would have had to pick me back up off the floor afterwards if I'd been handed the phone to pay :!:

 

[Quickstatus]

Prima facie this is a stuffup by QF. They may say they sent you SMS/email to inform you of change. I would just check email /SMS just in case. However as with any transaction, sending an email or SMS to an inbox does not constitute receipt.

If you don't already have it, I would suggest getting the Qantas App. And also get into the habit of checking your upcoming trips more regularly the closer you get to your blastoff time.

I have been saved by this routine a number of times. Motto: "Don't rely on any airline to ever get anything right".

Qantas (and other airlines) is at it's very base an intricate system of hardware, software, people, policies. Nothing is ever foolproof. The more intricate the more stuffups

WP just means that when the proverbial hits the fan, you may come out of it copping less .... Sometimes the same amount of .... But they give it to you with a smile and maybe the better quality ....

 

[RooFlyer]

Prima facie this is a stuffup by QF. They may say they sent you SMS/email to inform you of change. I would just check email /SMS just in case. However as with any transaction, sending an email or SMS to an inbox does not constitute receipt.

If you don't already have it, I would suggest getting the Qantas App. And also get into the habit of checking your upcoming trips more regularly the closer you get to your blastoff time.

I have been saved by this routine a number of times. Motto: "Don't rely on any airline to ever get anything right".

Qantas (and other airlines) is at it's very base an intricate system of hardware, software, people, policies. Nothing is ever foolproof. The more intricate the more stuffups

WP just means that when the proverbial hits the fan, you may come out of it copping less .... Sometimes the same amount of .... But they give it to you with a smile and maybe the better quality ....

What you say is no doubt true. But when the guy is up at the counter, talking to QF agent how to recover the situation, and is handed the phone to pay for a flight on VA, then IMHO that's where things went beyond a stuff up.

 

[Quickstatus]

What you say is no doubt true. But when the guy is up at the counter, talking to QF agent how to recover the situation, and is handed the phone to pay for a flight on VA, then IMHO that's where things went beyond a stuff up.

Totaly agree there. Thats QF giving you the middle finger and a slap.

 

[cmon0005]

Do QF have an interline agreement with VA at all? ie.could they have even booked a VA seat on QF ticket stock if they wanted to?

 

[drron]

A big fail.Even Malev just before it failed put us on to LH at their expense when they cancelled a flight on us BUD-FRA with an onward connection to ORD.

 

[Quickstatus]

QF and VA are arch enemies. Definitely no interline there.

Qf could/should have paid for a VA ticket.

 

[TomVexille]

QF and VA are arch enemies. Definitely no interline there.

Qf could/should have paid for a VA ticket.

Exactly. No requirement for an interline for QF to endorse the ticket over to VA.

 

[Quickstatus]

Do QF have an interline agreement with VA at all? ie.could they have even booked a VA seat on QF ticket stock if they wanted to?

The most important part of the above is "if they wanted to"

As my builder said. Anything is possible but when money is in the equation, anything is still possible but you will likely get nothing for it.

 

[maninblack]

Massive QF Fail yesterday

Qualifies as a raw F in every regard, especially as you had to make a connection

 

[cmon0005]

Exactly. No requirement for an interline for QF to endorse the ticket over to VA.

I always thought that QF would only endorse the ticket to other OW airlines? (although I'm not sure how endorsement actually works ?)

 

[Welsh-Kiwi]

I'm interested to hear what QFs service recovery is on this issue.

 

[Anna]

QF and VA are arch enemies. Definitely no interline there.

I have seen QF engineers arrive in HBA on a VA plane in order to fix a QF plane stuck on the tarmac at HBA :shock:

That was going to be quicker than waiting for the next QF arrival into HBA.

So QF does arrange bookings on VA when it suits them.