Thanks to Qantas

[DrA]

Just wanted to send a shout out to Qantas for making up for a miserable trip last week. I had a return flight from LHR-SIN on BA and it was a nightmare. Firstly I'd ordered a vegan special meal for medical purposes. When it was placed in front of me, it raised an eyebrow and I went to confirm with the cabin crew that it was in fact vegan and not just vegetarian. I was assured it was vegan. I ended up having to go for my epi-pen 10 minutes later and then spent the next ~12 hours in the lav. In between my bouts of illness, I spoke to the cabin crew about it and they literally just shrugged their shoulders at me. No apology, nothing. I know I have no status with BA specifically, but as a OWE/QF WP, I expect better. To be honest, even if I had no status I would expect better. Then I found out that they'd not loaded a special meal for my breakfast and was given the option of an omelette, or an English breakfast - neither of which I could eat.

Upon reaching Singapore and heading straight for the QF lounge, I was asked by one of the lovely ladies at reception if I was ok. Presumably I was looking still very off-colour and haggard after the flight. I vaguely explained what had happened and just said I wanted a shower and something to eat before having to make my connecting flight home. While I was in the shower, she must have spoken to the kitchen staff, because when I came out, and went to find myself a table, I had a nice vegan dish placed in front of me without ever having to ask for it. And then when I went to get on the plane home, it was like the QF cabin crew went out of their way to make me comfortable. While this doesn't actually make up for what happened with BA serving me food which I have a very violent allergy to, it was just a nice way to end the trip.

I know occasionally I will moan about Qantas costing more, but at the end of the day, they do provide pretty good customer service and seem to go out of their way to keep their higher status passengers happy. So I wanted to say a big thanks to the staff in the QF Singapore lounge, and to the crew on my SIN-PER flight last week

 

[boomy]

Shame on BA, what a shocking service!
Even after they made such a terrible mistake with the meal they didn't even bother to apologize or do anything about it.
You should send them a written complaint and ask for compensation IMO. This is not the treatment you come to expect from a premium airline such as BA.

And the QF service in SIN... Amazing!
I'm glad you finished your long journey with a positive experience.

 

[anat0l]

Not sure about high status, but I do know that QF do, at more times than not in my experience, take good care of you if you are in some medical discomfort of sorts. I've been ill or tripped in the airbridge and QF have been fantastic on board. (I'm sure there are stories of people with otherwise experiences....)

Are you allergic to eggs or dairy? I think most people won't understand what in hell a vegan diet is (compared to vegetarian), though BA should know better being a Western country carrier. Sometimes the fruit platter meal is a safer bet.

The QF Singapore Lounge team are fantastic and are a credit to the brand.

 

[samh004]

Your experience with BA pretty much sums up a few things I've been reading about them lately. They've got big attitude problems.

I know a member of AFF once had an allergy-related issue onboard resulting in a medical diversion and a hefty chunk of points as compensation, but that's good customer service for you, I'm not sure what an airline lacking in any would do.

Glad you're okay and it's a huge credit to Qantas for going out of their way to look after you.

 

[DrA]

Not sure about high status, but I do know that QF do, at more times than not in my experience, take good care of you if you are in some medical discomfort of sorts. I've been ill or tripped in the airbridge and QF have been fantastic on board. (I'm sure there are stories of people with otherwise experiences....)

Are you allergic to eggs or dairy? I think most people won't understand what in hell a vegan diet is (compared to vegetarian), though BA should know better being a Western country carrier. Sometimes the fruit platter meal is a safer bet.

The QF Singapore Lounge team are fantastic and are a credit to the brand.

Violently allergic to dairy. But also unable to eat meat or eggs for other medical reasons - albeit ones that won't kill me in the immediate future.

I think the concern is that BA specifically differentiate between vegan and vegetarian when you're ordering a special meal. So when I explicitly select vegan, I expect it to be vegan, not vegetarian. While it's fine for a vegetarian to eat vegan food, it does not necessarily work the other way around, as you obviously seem to understand

 

[anat0l]

While it's fine for a vegetarian to eat vegan food, it does not necessarily work the other way around, as you obviously seem to understand

I understand only as far as there is a difference between vegan and vegetarian, and vegan is "more strict" than vegetarian, and generally understand what they mean.

I wouldn't put my hand up to cook for you any time soon, though unless you are a rabbit *runs away*

I feel sorry for people who fly and require special dietary needs, especially if those dietary needs are strict (e.g. medical reasons, e.g. allergies that must be treated with epipen upon exposure). Doesn't matter if you fly in Y or F, most airlines do not do a good job at all with special meals (most don't serve something appetising, and many just plain fail, as DrA has exemplified).

 

[DrA]

Well no, most airlines don't do a great job. But normally it's blatantly obvious. I've been served cheese pasta on South African. And Salmon with hollandaise sauce on SAS. The list goes on.

It's why I always fly with my own stash of food (usually just some rice crackers and a tube of vegemite). If it's immediately obvious that catering's stuffed up, I just eat my own food (or if it's short haul, I can go without). The problem is when it's not immediately obvious that there's dairy (or meat/egg) in something.

I don't want to turn this into a BA-bashing thread, because I posted this more to thank Qantas for their service. But when I specifically asked the BA crew to clarify that the meal was in fact vegan and they said "yes", I had to take them at their word. It was a 13 hour flight, I needed to eat more than a few rice crackers at some point.

My main quandry now is what I'm going to do about my European travel. I refuse to fly through DXB unless absolutely necessary, as I've had problems there with harassment in the past as a single female - even in the airport. This incident with BA has unsurprisingly made me not want to fly with BA anymore. And that leaves very few options ex-PER that will let me accrue miles to my Qantas account. I know CX is theoretically an option, but that's backtracking and annoying.

 

[MarcB]

My main quandry now is what I'm going to do about my European travel. I refuse to fly through DXB unless absolutely necessary, as I've had problems there with harassment in the past as a single female - even in the airport. This incident with BA has unsurprisingly made me not want to fly with BA anymore. And that leaves very few options ex-PER that will let me accrue miles to my Qantas account. I know CX is theoretically an option, but that's backtracking and annoying.

Sounds like a terrible experience - glad to hear you were looked after in the end (albeit by QF!). Regarding your travel options to Europe, have you considered AY via SIN with QF codeshare?

 

[dairyfloss]

My main quandry now is what I'm going to do about my European travel. I refuse to fly through DXB unless absolutely necessary, as I've had problems there with harassment in the past as a single female - even in the airport. This incident with BA has unsurprisingly made me not want to fly with BA anymore. And that leaves very few options ex-PER that will let me accrue miles to my Qantas account. I know CX is theoretically an option, but that's backtracking and annoying.

You might give MH a try? A330 from PER-KUL and then the A380 from KUL to LHR. Given their home base, I imagine they would be quite careful about what is in which meals? I don't have any dietary restrictions myself, but the quality and service of food is quite reasonable on MH, in my experience thus far, and that is 50/50 Y and J regional services only. Might be worth the research. QFF points earn is low (same as BA?), but SCs are the same.

 

[Hope The PA]

Well done Qantas!

 

[BD1959]

You might give MH a try? A330 from PER-KUL and then the A380 from KUL to LHR. Given their home base, I imagine they would be quite careful about what is in which meals? I don't have any dietary restrictions myself, but the quality and service of food is quite reasonable on MH, in my experience thus far, and that is 50/50 Y and J regional services only. Might be worth the research. QFF points earn is low (same as BA?), but SCs are the same.

Another plus for MH may be their Chef on Call service, if you're flying J. This is available from PER, too. The range is pretty good - excuse my ignorance with respect to what may be vegan.

Regards,

BD

 

[DrA]

Another plus for MH may be their Chef on Call service, if you're flying J. This is available from PER, too. The range is pretty good - excuse my ignorance with respect to what may be vegan.

For all intents and purposes, vegan means no animal products (whereas vegetarian usually just means no meat). So vegan is basically no meat, eggs, dairy, or honey. Technically I'm only allergic to dairy, but have another medical condition which means I have been ordered not to eat meat or egg. Honey doesn't bother me one way or the other, so it's simpler to just say I'm vegan.

I will look into the MH option, it seems like the most practical for me out of Perth Unfortunately I fly whatever class my consulting jobs pay me to fly. Sometimes it's J, most of the time it's Y or Y+ (and I take my chances with the upgrade lottery), so no guarantee with the Chef on Call service. But if MH's J fares are reasonable, then it might be more realistic to get the jobs to pay for it.

 

[Red Roo]

Just wanted to send a shout out to Qantas for making up for a miserable trip last week. I had a return flight from LHR-SIN on BA and it was a nightmare. Firstly I'd ordered a vegan special meal for medical purposes. When it was placed in front of me, it raised an eyebrow and I went to confirm with the cabin crew that it was in fact vegan and not just vegetarian. I was assured it was vegan. I ended up having to go for my epi-pen 10 minutes later and then spent the next ~12 hours in the lav. In between my bouts of illness, I spoke to the cabin crew about it and they literally just shrugged their shoulders at me. No apology, nothing. I know I have no status with BA specifically, but as a OWE/QF WP, I expect better. To be honest, even if I had no status I would expect better. Then I found out that they'd not loaded a special meal for my breakfast and was given the option of an omelette, or an English breakfast - neither of which I could eat.

Upon reaching Singapore and heading straight for the QF lounge, I was asked by one of the lovely ladies at reception if I was ok. Presumably I was looking still very off-colour and haggard after the flight. I vaguely explained what had happened and just said I wanted a shower and something to eat before having to make my connecting flight home. While I was in the shower, she must have spoken to the kitchen staff, because when I came out, and went to find myself a table, I had a nice vegan dish placed in front of me without ever having to ask for it. And then when I went to get on the plane home, it was like the QF cabin crew went out of their way to make me comfortable. While this doesn't actually make up for what happened with BA serving me food which I have a very violent allergy to, it was just a nice way to end the trip.

I know occasionally I will moan about Qantas costing more, but at the end of the day, they do provide pretty good customer service and seem to go out of their way to keep their higher status passengers happy. So I wanted to say a big thanks to the staff in the QF Singapore lounge, and to the crew on my SIN-PER flight last week

Thanks for sharing your story. I would love to pass on your appreciation to our lounge staff and cabin crew. Please send me a private message with your details so I can do this formally via our internal recognition program.

However, I would encourage you to contact BA regarding your recent experience too. I'm sure they would appreciate an opportunity to follow up with their teams internally also. If you would like me to assist you with this, please let me know in your private message.

I hope you've since made a fully recovery, and thank you once again for your kind and encouraging words.

 

[anat0l]

Just purely out of sheer curiosity, what was the nice vegan dish that the Singapore lounge prepared for you?

I think one time the Singapore lounge did a dish with spicy eggplant, but it was served with a meat (duck, or pork). That's not vegan, though if it were cooked well away from the meat, and the oil was vegetable based with no meat stock, it could probably stand well on its own.

 

[DrA]

Just purely out of sheer curiosity, what was the nice vegan dish that the Singapore lounge prepared for you?

I think one time the Singapore lounge did a dish with spicy eggplant, but it was served with a meat (duck, or pork). That's not vegan, though if it were cooked well away from the meat, and the oil was vegetable based with no meat stock, it could probably stand well on its own.

Fried rice. There was a non-vegetarian/vegan version on the dining menu that day with egg and shrimp etc. The chef just modified the ingredients accordingly for me. It was very much appreciated!

 

[badseed]

Good to hear!

Yeah the QF J lounge staff in SIN are great. On the 3 occasions I've been through in the past couple of years and asked about whether any of the vegetarian food was possibly vegan they've known what it means and then sorted something out for me if nothing was suitable.

Have found the staff in the Int-J lounge at MEL very good too.

QF in general rarely stuff-up my VGML meal order either - probably only happened once in ~ 25 meal-time flights. Whereas recently on LX (in J) they stuffed up 3 out of 4.

 

[JohnK]

Very good to hear that Qantas went out of their way to assist.

I am not sure I understand the attitude of the BA cabin crew in this situation. Clearly something was wrong and they should have done a lot more.

 

[Simo]

Great result from QF.

Well over and above what they have to do.

Now these type incidents builds brand loyalty.

 

[Limewood]

Just completed a SYD/HKG/SYD in Y for a change, seated upper exit 35 J/K and return 32A/B bulkhead, must say the flight over received top notch service from FA Derrick, he couldn't do enough for us, not sure if it was the WP status or not, the CSM also made herself known to us later on. The flight home just another pax. The 1st lounge in SYD was excellent, the table service and food as good as one could ask for, the Q 1st lounge in HKG was OK (bit drab) with limited food, but the one that took the cake was the 1st CX Wing lounge in HK, absolutely brilliant from the black marble walls to the fantastic array of food and wine in the dining room.