LordChaos
Junior Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2013
- Posts
- 19
Hi all!
I just thought I'd quickly write to document my experience on arrival at the TBIT Qantas Business Lounge on Friday.
I'm a Qantas Club member, and the short version is - I was denied access.
The long version:
I was flying from Sydney->Lax->SEA in economy. The Sydney->LAX was great, and I kicked it off with a stint in the Sydney business lounge - always a pleasure there, and the staff are lovely.
The LAX->SEA leg is where it gets interesting. The boarding pass for this leg was printed in Sydney, and sold to me as QF3739. The whole trip was purchased directly from Qantas, and both my boarding passes were issued by Qantas. The operator for this leg, however, was Alaskan - and the primary flight number was AS475.
Ahead of time I checked the access rules for the TBIT lounge for Qantas Club members, which are as follows:
'Next onward flight that day must be a Qantas, or Jetstar Airlines+ flight number.One guest allowed and must be travelling with the member on the same flight.'
I made sure to call the QFF hotline ahead of time to clarify this, and these assured me that there would be no issue. In fact, I further clarified this at the Qantas checkin desk in TBIT before heading through security (I didn't want to waste my time). However, upon arriving at the front desk of the lounge, there were two issues:
1. The staff member at the desk didn't know what the Qantas Club was, despite entry rules for Qantas Club members being clearly posted on the Qantas website for this lounge. It was a bit odd standing at the desk explaining the concept of the Qantas Club to this staff member, who perhaps might not be a Qantas employee - but was still representing Qantas.
2. Despite my boarding pass clearly having a Qantas flight number allocated 'Sold as QF3739', and the flight clearly showing as QF3739 in my Qantas app on my phone, the staff member was quite abrupt, and would only scan the boarding pass and say 'computer says no'. I should have thought of it at the time, but I didn't get call the QC hotline to discuss it further (I'd just got off a long flight!).
I'm now in Seattle, and have made several calls to the QFF line (I called first on Sunday, Australian time, and there was no supervisor available). I have subsequently spoken to a supervisor, and they agreed after a quick internal conference that they see no reason I should have been denied access, and my reading of the rules was correct.
They have offered to 'pass my comments on' - but honestly I feel like this has had the effect of reducing the value of my QC membership (lounge access being the very reason I purchased it in the first place...) has been substantially reduced here - and that 'passing my comments on' is a polite way of simply getting rid of me.
Has anyone else had an experience such as this? I was originally unsure as to whether I would be allowed lounge access at TBIT on this codeshare flight, but now that every Qantas staff member I've spoken to seem to believe that I should have been - it seems odd to me that they're being so dismissive of this. The whole experience was a bit embarrassing to me, as I had a staff member with me as my 'lounge guest', so to be turned away was an even less pleasant experience.
As I said to them, this kind of dismissal of Qantas Club members is precisely what will make me reconsider renewing next year..
I just thought I'd quickly write to document my experience on arrival at the TBIT Qantas Business Lounge on Friday.
I'm a Qantas Club member, and the short version is - I was denied access.
The long version:
I was flying from Sydney->Lax->SEA in economy. The Sydney->LAX was great, and I kicked it off with a stint in the Sydney business lounge - always a pleasure there, and the staff are lovely.
The LAX->SEA leg is where it gets interesting. The boarding pass for this leg was printed in Sydney, and sold to me as QF3739. The whole trip was purchased directly from Qantas, and both my boarding passes were issued by Qantas. The operator for this leg, however, was Alaskan - and the primary flight number was AS475.
Ahead of time I checked the access rules for the TBIT lounge for Qantas Club members, which are as follows:
'Next onward flight that day must be a Qantas, or Jetstar Airlines+ flight number.One guest allowed and must be travelling with the member on the same flight.'
I made sure to call the QFF hotline ahead of time to clarify this, and these assured me that there would be no issue. In fact, I further clarified this at the Qantas checkin desk in TBIT before heading through security (I didn't want to waste my time). However, upon arriving at the front desk of the lounge, there were two issues:
1. The staff member at the desk didn't know what the Qantas Club was, despite entry rules for Qantas Club members being clearly posted on the Qantas website for this lounge. It was a bit odd standing at the desk explaining the concept of the Qantas Club to this staff member, who perhaps might not be a Qantas employee - but was still representing Qantas.
2. Despite my boarding pass clearly having a Qantas flight number allocated 'Sold as QF3739', and the flight clearly showing as QF3739 in my Qantas app on my phone, the staff member was quite abrupt, and would only scan the boarding pass and say 'computer says no'. I should have thought of it at the time, but I didn't get call the QC hotline to discuss it further (I'd just got off a long flight!).
I'm now in Seattle, and have made several calls to the QFF line (I called first on Sunday, Australian time, and there was no supervisor available). I have subsequently spoken to a supervisor, and they agreed after a quick internal conference that they see no reason I should have been denied access, and my reading of the rules was correct.
They have offered to 'pass my comments on' - but honestly I feel like this has had the effect of reducing the value of my QC membership (lounge access being the very reason I purchased it in the first place...) has been substantially reduced here - and that 'passing my comments on' is a polite way of simply getting rid of me.
Has anyone else had an experience such as this? I was originally unsure as to whether I would be allowed lounge access at TBIT on this codeshare flight, but now that every Qantas staff member I've spoken to seem to believe that I should have been - it seems odd to me that they're being so dismissive of this. The whole experience was a bit embarrassing to me, as I had a staff member with me as my 'lounge guest', so to be turned away was an even less pleasant experience.
As I said to them, this kind of dismissal of Qantas Club members is precisely what will make me reconsider renewing next year..
Last edited:
. As a new member you may not be able to send a PM (Private Message) - but I expect Red Roo will be along shortly. or maybe a Moderator can send something on your behalf, if you indicate you'd like that.
