Disappointing P1 Service Team

[ajca]

Just quietly I really enjoyed the SQ J flight back to SYD and have rebooked my next 4 J trips in the next 6 weeks to SQ

Just stick with the SQ J product and you'll never look back to QF. I doubt you will miss being woken up by the random stranger in the Skybed next to you after a trip or two on the SQ long-haul product...

 

[serfty]

I agree, and realistically QF were in no better position to facilitate than the OP, having had a similar issue where I was able to get my carrier to negotiate on my behalf with an Asian airline, the end result was no different and in fact a complete waste of time.

Maybe, but at least the Platinum One team could have tried to assist somewhat more than they did. They could have supplied more options, even contacted Garuda on the OP's behalf - rather than invoke a SEP¹.

No - Qantas promote this status level as indicated ... from the OP it seems their main aim was to get rid of him off the 'phone call ... not good enough, especially in regard to with their promotion of Platinum One.

Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Platinum Benefits - Platinum One

...
Dedicated to supporting Platinum One members, the team provides assistance when you need help beyond routine requests or where you need urgent assistance.

The team will also proactively monitor, support and enhance your travel experience every step of your journey. ...

¹ Apologies/Acknowledgement to Douglas Adams.

 

[flyingfan]

Tricky situation. I don't know the details of interline agreements etc but were I a P1 I'd definitely want QF to help me here. The travels of some P1s are going to be complex and prone to mishap and QF or even oneworld doesn't fly everywhere they need to go. With the qualification needed for P1 I would want "above and beyond" service to help me (where Qantas can act and there would be a gray area here) when I really need it, not just invites to sim sessions and a bottle of wine.

 

[Canny man]

My experience is different.
The one occasion when I was running very late (caught in heavy traffic, so nothing to do with QF), I phoned the P1 team and they pulled out all the stops to allow me to get on the plane - even to the detail of having someone drop off the car hire keys for me to save me a couple of minutes.

 

[moa999]

Agree the P1 desk should have done more but asking them to hold an international flight with hundreds of other passengers is not much particularly when.
your incoming flight on Garuda so unlikely QF staff would have visibility on exactly how late it would be.

Also when you say 5min was that from actual landing to scheduled takeoff? If so doors should have been closed at least 5 min before, so you are actually 10min and counting, plus the time to move from domestic terminal to international (admittedly MEL style layout at CGK)

Am also surprised that Garuda wasnt able to reticket on one of their services given they have more CGK-SYD flights, and frankly better service and a fully flat bed.

 

[richie9x]

So for the OP what were you wanting the P1 desk to do? Hold the flight? Rebook you on the next QF direct flight and pay for accommodation? Arrange for you to travel via Singapore on alternative flights? Chase Garuda Indonesia to do one of these?

Generally the airline that causes the delay that results in a missed connection is responsible for arranging alternative travel or accommodation. But it does depend on what is in their conditions of carriage. Although I would have expected the P1 desk to be a bit more helpful.

Qantas has quite a limited international network and the simple reality is that connections with other carriers are needed. The raises the question when would the P1 desk help out for other carriers? If a similar thing happened with a connection from OW carrier would P1 desk help out? What about a QF code share on another carrier? What about a Jetstar connection to a Qantas flight?

 

[GoldenWinger]

the OP acknowledges it was not directly QF's fault but nonetheless it is a very disappointing level of service...as I've said before the whole P1 product has been one big let down for me - nothing has been delivered on the marketing hype. It borders on misleading advertising.
Also just recently was in First class SYD-SIN and no even the crew give a stuff - was told "sorry we've run out of your choice"...so much for being given first priority...all I got at the start of the flight was a welcome from the CSM saying "Congrats on reaching Plat One and thank you for your continued loyalty to QF. You're our only P1 on this flight"...the P cabin was mainly non-revs and regraded pax - it's good to see they got their meal choice. I will point out that the CSM was genuinely apologetic at the end of the flight as acknowlegded that the situation should never have happened and she had "strong words" with the crew.
It really doesn't matter anyway - I won't bother with QF anymore. I won't write in as it won't do anything. There are lot more options out there which offer consistently good levels of service and won't run out of meals for premium pax due to not catering properly. QF thinks it can take people for a ride with marketing rubbish but we're not stupid.

 

[GoldenWinger]

...in terms of trying to assist, the P1 team could've easily tried to rebook the OP on one of the other close stations such as BKK, SIN, HKG or MNL - obviously there would've been extra charges such as a new ticket to get to these places and possible fare difference re-issue fees for re-ticketing the CGK-SYD...bascially what a good corporate travel agent would do in a situation like this. If this happened to me luckily I've got an amazing corporate agent who looks after me 24/7.

Edit: sorry just read that you were ticketed on QF/081 paper - in that instance even more so the P1 team should've have done a lot more to help you - what an absolute joke.

As others have said try SQ, CX, EK for a true premium experience - QF hasn't offered that in a long while. The only reason I have been flying them is that they still have some pretty amazing cabin on non-A380 flights - ie. meaning they are the original QAL.. going on a QCCA or QFCCUK flight - that's a different 'experience' all together...

 

[cmon0005]

Just a question to the OP how was it booked, through Qantas website?

 

[simongr]

Given that the OP has clarified since my post that the ticket was issued by QF on a single PNR - I would have expected the P1 SST (P1SST?) to have been monitoring this travel and looking for issues...

 

[Must...Fly!]

As others have said try SQ, CX, EK for a true premium experience - QF hasn't offered that in a long while.

Advising EK for a premium experience is rather ill-advised, IMHO (service wise, anyway)

 

[serfty]

So for the OP what were you wanting the P1 desk to do? Hold the flight? Rebook you on the next QF direct flight and pay for accommodation? Arrange for you to travel via Singapore on alternative flights? Chase Garuda Indonesia to do one of these?

Generally the airline that causes the delay that results in a missed connection is responsible for arranging alternative travel or accommodation. But it does depend on what is in their conditions of carriage. Although I would have expected the P1 desk to be a bit more helpful.

Qantas has quite a limited international network and the simple reality is that connections with other carriers are needed. The raises the question when would the P1 desk help out for other carriers? If a similar thing happened with a connection from OW carrier would P1 desk help out? What about a QF code share on another carrier? What about a Jetstar connection to a Qantas flight?

I would suggest that the Qantas Platinum one team contacting Garuda rather than the OP would have had more effect - i.e. Less likely to be fobbed off by Garuda as the OP was.

For the Platinum One agent to not even try to do this suggests they should not be working in an area that is advertised as "... when you need urgent assistance. ... The team will also proactively monitor, support and enhance your travel experience every step of your journey".

 

[GoldenWinger]

I would suggest that the Qantas Platinum one team contacting Garuda rather than the OP would have had more effect - i.e. Less likely to be fobbed off by Garuda as the OP was.

For the Platinum One agent to not even try to do this suggests they should not be working in an area that is advertised as "... when you need urgent assistance. ... The team will also proactively monitor, support and enhance your travel experience every step of your journey".

great point - basically an empty promise. this whole P1 thing has backfired on QF big time...possibly the worst thing they have done and also at the same time peed off their Plats too with diluted benefits.

 

[TonyHancock]

......and also at the same time peed off their Plats too with diluted benefits.

It is a bit of a worry. I always hoped, at 1200-2000 SC's per year* I'd get looked after a bit by QF, I'm not so sure now.


*I was at this level for 4-5 years.....and thanks to the European debt crisis will be in that position again in about 12 months time.

 

[ajca]

Advising EK for a premium experience is rather ill-advised, IMHO (service wise, anyway)

Agree 100%. Emirates offers a 'premium experience' in the same way that the slightly larger and more comfortable seats at the front of Jetstar's A330s offer a 'Business Class' experience. Emirates is basically an LCC with some admittedly nice F cabins up the front...

 

[GoldenWinger]

Agree 100%. Emirates offers a 'premium experience' in the same way that the slightly larger and more comfortable seats at the front of Jetstar's A330s offer a 'Business Class' experience. Emirates is basically an LCC with some admittedly nice F cabins up the front...

Really? what about the the trans-tasman to AKL - EK then must be the only LCC in Y to offer 30kg, IFE and on board meals - all included in the fare. I guess I must've misunderstood what the LCC product is then.

 

[markis10]

I cannot help but wonder on how much the segmentation of Qantas is making promises such as the one to P1s harder to deliver, there would have been plenty of options to grab a JQ flight to a nearest QF port for instance as pointed out by others (and a more likely outcome than any engagement with Garuda based on two past issues of a similar nature I have had with them). One also wonders how the further segmentation into domestic and international will affect the capacity to deliver on such service commitments in the future?

 

[jamesatfish]

Also just recently was in First class SYD-SIN and no even the crew give a stuff - was told "sorry we've run out of your choice"...so much for being given first priority...all I got at the start of the flight was a welcome from the CSM saying "Congrats on reaching Plat One and thank you for your continued loyalty to QF. You're our only P1 on this flight"...the P cabin was mainly non-revs and regraded pax - it's good to see they got their meal choice.

This situation is wrong in so many ways.

If Qantas are going to acknowledge their top-tier fliers with a new status level then there shouldn't be situations where the short straw is drawn by a P1 member. Putting P1 members on a level above WP can only be a negative (or neutral) thing for 1200-3599 SC WPs, but singling out a P1 member to tell them how important they are and then not treating them as top of the pile is worse than not having the P1 tier at all.

On the other hand, if I'm in the F cabin I don't find it acceptable to miss out on any of my dining selections, especially with so much of the menu similar to what is served in J. It shouldn't matter if a passenger is CL or a non-status flier - there are only a maximum of 14 people in the cabin so it shouldn't be beyond QF's ability to come up with menu options that allow everyone in F to get their first choice. What I'm hearing from this is that paying for a F ticket is no longer enough to guarantee top-notch service in the air - I really need to first earn P1 or CL status and THEN buy my F ticket.

 

[GoldenWinger]

This situation is wrong in so many ways.

If Qantas are going to acknowledge their top-tier fliers with a new status level then there shouldn't be situations where the short straw is drawn by a P1 member. Putting P1 members on a level above WP can only be a negative (or neutral) thing for 1200-3599 SC WPs, but singling out a P1 member to tell them how important they are and then not treating them as top of the pile is worse than not having the P1 tier at all.

On the other hand, if I'm in the F cabin I don't find it acceptable to miss out on any of my dining selections, especially with so much of the menu similar to what is served in J. It shouldn't matter if a passenger is CL or a non-status flier - there are only a maximum of 14 people in the cabin so it shouldn't be beyond QF's ability to come up with menu options that allow everyone in F to get their first choice. What I'm hearing from this is that paying for a F ticket is no longer enough to guarantee top-notch service in the air - I really need to first earn P1 or CL status and THEN buy my F ticket.

Great points jamesatfish - I agree if you're in F you should be able to expect a very high chance of scoring your preferred choice. The problem with QF is that it is so severely undercatered in First Class the chances of getting your choice are very reduced. What is even more pathetic is that QF chooses not to put the "we are sorry if your choice is not available" wording on their First menus setting up false expectations. SQ even puts this on their First and Suites menus.

 

[Leumas]

Has the OP talked to Qantas about this? I'd like to see what they've to say...

It wouldn't surprise me if the P1 agent didn't even bother to read the ticket was an 081 ticket. They probably just thought it's an incoming non-QF/OW flight and just brush the OP off - and even then you can argue the P1 team can do a bit more...