Attention: WA Qantas Frequent Flyer members

[Sirbernie]

Below is an email that I have sent tonight to Qantas re their Frequent Flyer program and the poor showing of offers to WA members. be nice to see if I'm alone on this issue:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I mentioned this to your office about two months ago and will mention it again today - it is just so disappointing to see the "Special Offers" that are being given to the east coast Frequent Flyer members which are extensive compared to the offers available to the "ex" West coast customers.

I realise that it depends on seat capacities and so forth - but to mention Perth or WA "ZERO" times, smacks in the face of our equally costing membership.

You need to allow some priviledges to West Coast members that are looking to spend their FF points on International or Domestic flights... even if it means just a few seats on selected flights - You didn't even mention Western Australia in the Domestic section once - this is just bizarre! (every State except for WA!!)

Nothing that you have offered in the past four months has been remotely worth looking at and whilst you may think that is an unfair comment - have a look back - a year ago - you offered a trip to Hong Kong for 25,000 points... nowdays the best that Perth customers are seeing is a trip to Paris for 90,000 points (about two months ago).

I'd like the Frequent Flyer department to stop for just a minute and imagine that they live in the West coast and they recieve this newsletter each month and it doesn't even mention WA once in the domestic or international sections...

Please don't respond with a reason such as seating out of the West coast - Make an allocation of seats for WA - even if it costs you - even if it's just a small allocation - but god sake - do more than NOTHING!

A long term FF member from WA..

Bernie

 

[redrat]

Bernie, I think the sad truth in all of this is that you are in a captive market. To travel out of Perth domestically is a long haul flight and the aircraft are probably always full.
The deals that QF offer are to fill otherwise empty seats that have in the past proven empty statistically.
In this QF are not being customer centric, it's probably just good business practice.

 

[The Pope]

I think it probably also has a bit to do with the fact that there are a lot of FF points going to FIFO mining employees (Fly-in-Fly-out). Have a look in the Perth QC most weekday mornings at about 6am. More permanent press King Gee than Armani suits and ties!

 

[Guest]

heheheh

for a while there qantas had no point specials from brisbane.... i always got a cheapie ticket to syd or mel to use them.
i know perth is a little further, but it sure beats paying full fair right?

also most of the good destinations QF flies to are EAST of perth!

other than that... sucks to be in perth :twisted:

 

[Davo]

Fellow Sandgropers, I didn't know there was already a thread on this and posted something myself last week at "The Australian Frequent Flyer Forum Index -> Qantas Frequent Flyer" under "Qantas points specials"

Who spends the most time, distance and money travelling from A to B in Australia? That's right, people from WA! The least Qantas can do is give us some FF specials like the rest of Australia.

On the A330s there are usually many spare seats, I have frequently flown to Melbourne or Sydney on half empty flights in the late afternoon.

It is really insulting to receive computer-generated letters or e-mails trumpeting "special offers" that you cannot receive.

But coming from Perth we should be used to being dissed around by Wise Men from the East.

 

[petef]

I agree that Qantas's has a bias against West Australians.

For many years qantas used to send me lots of free domestic upgrade award coupons because of my silver or gold status. But unfortunately they were not redemable on flights from perth to the eastern states, so they all expired without being redemed (they were not transferable to other flyers).

Being a business traveller Qantas have no trouble charging $1670 for a next day return trip to Sydney in economy (about the same as an all inclusive overseas holiday), but they have very limited short term award seats or upgrades available for redemption. I currently have over 500,000 QFF points left and I find it very hard to find value for money domestically when redeming these points from Perth compared with paying Virgin's pricing. Internationally the main city I fly to is Kuala Lumpur and Qantas has not flown there from perth for a while now.

I am now back to being a standard bronze QFF, and paying virgin for my flights domestically and Singapore Air internationally.

I will just use up the remaining points on the occasional overseas trip where dates are flexible enough for the mighty qantas awards reservation system to grant me a seat

Peter.

 

[Sirbernie]

WAY OUT WEST

Just for the record, I'm still waiting for a reply from Qantas - but haven't heard squat.

It must be the same policy on replying to emails as we see with the distribution of frequent flyer specials... perhaps if I had posted the email on the east coast?

Sir Bernie

 

[Guest]

Re: WAY OUT WEST

Just for the record, I'm still waiting for a reply from Qantas - but haven't heard squat.

It must be the same policy on replying to emails as we see with the distribution of frequent flyer specials... perhaps if I had posted the email on the east coast?

Sir Bernie

Not responding to emails for 6 weeks is a common thing among AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES... if you want good email service, email qantas usa.. those guys have their heads screwed on!

 

[Sirbernie]

QANTAS REPLIES WITH WA OFFER

Qantas replied today with the following email:

Thank you for your recent feedback concerning Award flight offers, submitted via our web-site on 25 November.

I support your concern re the availability of special Award flight offers
ex Western Australia.

As part of our status within Qantas, my department (Relationship Marketing) is continually looking to maximise the flight opportunities for our Frequent Flyers.

Most importantly, please note that you can also connect with most of the Qantas Award flight offers currently listed on qantas.com from your home
port within Australia.

This means, for example, that you could fly from Perth to Darwin, via Alice Springs and save 5,000 points. Or from Perth to Cairns, via Sydney, and save 5,000 points. Internationally, you could fly Perth to Tokyo, via Sydney, and save 10,000 points, or Perth to Wellington, via Melbourne and save 5,000 points.

This is what we mean we say beside the Qantas Award flight offers on qantas.com, and within our e-newsletters:

"You can also connect with this offer on Qantas Award flights from your home port within Australia"

The flight offers on our web-site are updated every two weeks, so it is perhaps worth checking at different times to see what may have come up. An offer was loaded this morning, for example, between Perth and Melbourne, offering a 5,000 point discount.

Thanks again for your email, and if I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.


My reply to Qantas will recognise their acknowledgement of this issue, however I want to stress to Qantas that this issue is about equality in membership and the disparity of offers...

For me to travel direct to Tokyo is 50,000 points. To travel via Sydney as suggested above (even with the special offer discount of 10,000 points) would require an associated cost of 70,000 points. Probably not one of the best examples from Qantas to notate...

In any case, it's nice to see that Qantas have mentioned Perth (WA) in todays update - perhaps when we next see the Tokyo offer it will read Perth to Tokyo "Save 10,000 points" - rather than (with respect) via Sydney!

I look forward to receiving the special offers each month and I visit the website every week in search of travel locations and special offers... but I remain committed to maintaining an equality for members who pay equal annual membership fees. My final suggestion to the Marketing department of Qantas is to remember what they learnt in university about empathy and place themselves in a WA members shoes when they next write their monthly newsletter...

Safe Travels

Sir Bernie

 

[laker]

FF bookings from Perth

We currently returned from a trip to Bali from Perth which we had to book 7 months in advance as it was the first available flight.
On departure from Perth, the flight was half full.

When returning home from Bali, we decided to upgrade to Business class.
We were told this was not possible due to redemption points. We then offered to pay cash to upgrade. This was also rejected.
On boarding the new 737, of the 18 business class seats, only 3 were occupied.
Qantas, the silly fools could have taken our money but declined.
We sat in BC anyway but without the privilages.

I've now tried to book our trip for next year, to find out the first available direct flight from Perth to Bali is in October 2004.

There are some flights from Perth to Karratha, Karratha to Darwin, Darwin to Denpasar. Totalling 12.5 hours instead of 3.5.

Am I alone thinking this is unacceptable, or just stupid?

 

[Rossmurdoch]

Q's policy of not permitting international upgrades on departure is a foolish and bureaucratic approach. If seats are available why not permit passengers to purchase upgrades using points, it would create some goodwill and reduce their outstanding points liability

 

[petef]

I am also annoyed with the stupidity of not allowing on departure upgrades if you wish to pay with either with points or cash.

It's even worse if you have already paid for the business class seat with points but are not allowed to make use of it.

I completed a big trip 2 years ago using QFF points. The routing was Perth-Sydney-Los Angeles-Las Vegas-Orlando-Miami-Los Angeles-Sydney-Perth. We booked and paid for the entire trip in business class using QFF points.
The booking was made a year in advance, most of the sectors flown by Qantas were not initially available in Business. All the secotors flown by American Airlines were available right away. We made Continual calls over the period of a year and were slowly able to secure one business seat here and another there. Even the Sydney-Los Angeles sector was eventually upgraded, but we had to fly Sydney-Brisbane-Auckland-Los Angeles to do it (how stupid). At departure all of the sectors were in business except the last leg Sydney to Perth. Even after starting the trip we continually tried to have the last seats changed to business without any luck. There were plenty of seats available for sale, but not for redemption.
On return to Sydney we had 5 hours in transit before boarding the flight to Perth which had been delayed. I was a Silver Frequent flyer at that time and tried to have the last upgrade made in the Qantas Club without any success. They said I should be able to do it at the customer service counter. But the staff at the counter were plain rude and not willing to help. They did not seem to understand that I already paid for the business class seats and if they were available I should be able to make use of them. I tried every half hour for 5 hours to have the business seats reallocated.

So after a wonderful holiday flying business class the very last leg we were in economy 2 rows behind business class where there were 8 empty seats, two of which we had paid for but were not allowed to use.

Letters to Qantas went unanswered.

Since that flight I have not paid money for another Qantas flight, but I have been redeeming my QFF points and still have over 500,000. Qantas have lost a good customer, due to poor service.

 

[Paco]

WA offers?

The Qantas 5.000 pts off PER/MEL/PER has gone now (lasted 2 weeks) and WA frequent flyers are back to the usual embargo on award offers to/from PER. Maybe we might get another 'token' offer again in 6 months.

 

[Sirbernie]

IMPROVEMENTS

There has definitely been a marked improvement in this months offers to WA residents. I'm still looking for an offer similar to the Eastern States where we can fly to Hong Kong or Tokyo from Perth rather than from an Eastern States port.

When I see that - then I know that we have accomplished what I have set out to achieve - equity for WA Frequent Flyer members.

Safe holidays

Sir Bernie

 

[petef]

Unfortunately with no direct PER-HKG flights since SARS this is but a dream even for paying customers. With only 3 flights a week direct PER-NRT and the service only using a 767, QFF award seats are very rare and upgrades to J even on a paid ticket almost non existant to Japan. I am currently booked with qantas to travel to Tokyo in late Jan and the best price offered was over $1800 each. I'm considering the inconvenience of using SQ which which means a $600 saving per ticket, just for transiting through SIN. And I still have more chance of using Kris Points than QFF points.

Peter.

 

[thadocta]

Q's policy of not permitting international upgrades on departure is a foolish and bureaucratic approach. If seats are available why not permit passengers to purchase upgrades using points, it would create some goodwill and reduce their outstanding points liability

Because then people who would otherwise pay for J seats will instead pay for Y seats and try and use points to upgrade on departure, thereby costing QF revenue. Sort of like what happens in the US at the moment, where hardly anyone actually PAYS for J or F, instead using upgrades, which is why it is called 'Upgrade Class'.

Dave

 

[ffhound]

Poor attitude from Qantas

Hi all

Having read the posts above and monitored the special offers from time to time I have to agree that Qantas are definently biased against West Australians. For the record I am a Victorian Qantas Frequent Flyer living in Victoria so saying this has no personal benefit for me.

I might add that the current (and only) international Special ex Perth is to Jakarta which has had terrorist bombings recently and is hardly an appropriate destination to be encouraging Sandgroper holidaymakers to be going to.

Pull your socks up Qantas!

cheers Peter

 

[straitman]

Re: Poor attitude from Qantas

Hi all

Having read the posts above and monitored the special offers from time to time I have to agree that Qantas are definently biased against West Australians. For the record I am a Victorian Qantas Frequent Flyer living in Victoria so saying this has no personal benefit for me.

I might add that the current (and only) international Special ex Perth is to Jakarta which has had terrorist bombings recently and is hardly an appropriate destination to be encouraging Sandgroper holidaymakers to be going to.

Pull your socks up Qantas!

cheers Peter

Maybe it's a great place to send Sandgropers :twisted: