Are my expectations of QF customer service too high?

[PaulST]

I'm a long standing QF Platinum member. For business & family reasons I make several trips business class a year to Europe.
I have to make a return trip to the UK with my elderly father, who is on a separate business class ticket & will be travelling with a wheelchair.
As we are both leaving from and travelling to the same locations, I thought it would be simpler for me to make the chauffeur drive requests on my ticket. Unfortunately the QANTAS website does not give you the option of noting with the car booking that there is more than 1 pax and that you are travelling with a wheelchair. Something which the chauffeur drive company should know so they can allocate an appropriate vehicle.

So after booking the car online I telephoned the service desk and relayed my problem. The CSO wouldn't note the additional requirements on my booking and told me to inform the car company when they ring to confirm pickup time. That may work fine when being collected from home but what happens at the destination airport ? I thought, it was a simple basic request to annotate my booking request & potential link the two tickets.

In frustration, I called the Emirates Service Centre, and relayed my issue. The response,"you're kidding? Is that the way QF treat their Platinum customers?". Yes, unfortunately it is. THE CSO couldn't touch my booking as it was in the QF system. But he came up with a solution, he booked the cars on my fathers ticket (EK), made a request for a large car, noted there were two pax & a wheelchair and put a link to my booking. What a difference in service!!

I subsequently filled in a QF Customer CAre form to let them know I was not happy with the service. So far no response.

As a QF frequent flyer, I always book my trips on QF codeshare flights for which I usually pay a premium of anything up to a couple of hundred dollars over the same ticket booked with EK. Surely for that premium I should expect at least the same standard of service from QF?

Ironically, the EK guy probably earns half of what the QF guy makes. The unions will destroy Australia well before climate change does...

 

[Flying mermaid]

Precisely the question I have been asking myself! One word, loyalty!

I have just rabbiting onto Mr FM on this very subject (in between eating a beautiful meal in Istanbul). You see I am a very loyal person as well - it takes a lot to make me change brands, suppliers etc. But I think the word has a different meaning these days. It used to be a two way contract - the supplier provided a consistent product that met what you were looking for and you then rewarded them with loyalty and really didn't look elsewhere. You might know you were paying a slight premium but you didn't care.

These days whole departments are devoted to loyalty, which seems to mean paying people with points/credits/free goodies in return for them sticking with you. It also seems to mean that it doesn't matter whether the goods/service are consistent or not, as the rewards will be enough to keep them with you. So over time there is less incentive to provide a good product, as long as you can keep people by providing a double status credit offer or the like, or throw them some points as compensation.

 

[serfty]

Of course rise who know about AFF can see this thread:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....yer-program/qantas-contact-details-54901.html

 

[JohnK]

That is very customer support.

I beg to differ - it's just a matter of putting in a code for WCHR - wheelchair and the system automatically does the rest.
Could also be a case of the CSO did not do that and ignored the booking and could not find the booking again after the call ended!

Doesn't Qantas do SQA reviews? Staff that don't do their jobs shouldn't be employed. Especially staff that deal customers in a support role.