Has Qantas lost your business due to its failure to provide customer service?

[grant32]

I suspect Rhonda Burchmore, and a 737 worth of QF pax may rethink their business with QF. News of a (delayed) flight MEL-BNE today where ZERO bags were loaded and QF doesn't know (with Easter here) when they can get the bags up to BNE for the pax.

oh dear.

(only added here as didn't think it warranted a new thread)

Last nights QF783 also left without any bags. Everyone with checked in luggage filled in a form on board and provided it to ground staff on arrival. No ref number and no information. I suspect I’ll be back in Melbourne before I see my luggage again. Hand luggage only from now on!

 

[Must...Fly!]

This will surely be costing Swissport an absolute fortune and Qantas a decent pile of money in lost reputation/goodwill as well

 

[drron]

I've taken a BA flight in the past to LCY that left without half the bags, didn't see my bag for a week and then discovered the tags on it and saw it had gone further than I did. Still flew them in the future. Stuff happens.

AA lost our bags on a SFO-LAX segment. When we did get them back they had flown via JFK and MIA. They knocked me back on the request for miles flow by our bags.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

AA lost our bags on a SFO-LAX segment. When we did get them back they had flown via JFK and MIA. They knocked me back on the request for miles flow by our bags.

So far having flown internationally and domestically I have yet to have my checked bags lost **knock on wood** so I can confidently tell you that the checked bags I carry around have at most travelled the same milage as yours truly.

-RooFlyer88

 

[jase05]

Bags didn’t arrive in CBR last night.
We will call you blah, blah, blah.
Several flights from MEL-CBR this morning and nada so drive back to airport and was told “I’m really sorry for the coughk up but we are a shambles at the moment and MEL simply doesn’t have any staff. Might be today but could be a couple of days so head back to your hotel and we will call you”
So no spare clothes and nothing open in Canberra on Good Friday so thanks Qantas

 

[ferntree]

All perfectly good points. For me, however, it's all about compromise. Of course there's no such thing as a perfect airline, so I have to choose which one meets my needs the best, compared to other options. And for me that's a no brainer. After over 20 years loyal to Qantas I switched to Virgin about 6 months ago, choosing Qantas only when Virgin can't offer an acceptable itinerary.

Thus far, I have had no reason to regret that decision.

 

[RooFlyer]

The thing that is fuelling the ongoing conversation is the fact that the only competition (domestically) is not that appealing for many to move to, for lots of different reasons - so it’s not as simple as ‘just stop using QF, stop complaining and just fly someone else’.

I have to disagree, sorry. I think the thing that is fuelling the ongoing conversion is cough-up after cough-up and continuing cough- ups by Qantas - that is , the management. We all bend a bit more because of Covid stuff - but removing service desks from airports wasn’t caused by Covid; the coughpy web site isn’t anything new and the hideous experiences from the SA call centre also isn’t new. Hour plus phone wait times for Plats is, mass going without bags for days is, blaming the customers is ( at least in public).

That’s bad enough, but the airline still calls itself a ‘premium airline’ and charges accordingly!

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

I've taken a BA flight in the past to LCY that left without half the bags, didn't see my bag for a week and then discovered the tags on it and saw it had gone further than I did. Still flew them in the future. Stuff happens.

I have in my three decades of traveling experienced delays, cancellations, missed connections, poor or rude service, misdirected or damaged baggage, excessive phone waits, program enhancements etc etc on a range of airlines from AA, Delta, United, BA, Singapore, Qantas, Ansett, Virgin, LATAM, Lufthansa, Air NZ, Air Canada etc etc.

Each time I realised my hissy fit involving vows to never fly them again / cut up credit cards / empty out frequent flyer accounts was futile because:

- it's not unique to me and that airline
- at some I'll be flying them again just because it makes sense

These forums are a place to vent but as @samh004 says, stuff happens and I've learnt to move on and accept what I cannot change.

I might even fly United again one day...

 

[AIRwin]

These forums are a place to vent but as @samh004 says, stuff happens and I've learnt to move on and accept what I cannot change.

Best to stick with SQ (Status Quo)...

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Although a significant amount of this thread's discussion has been centred about the customer's perception of the customer service failings of QF, I thought I'd share a story from 9News which details some of the struggle from the agent's point of view whereby they claim to bear the brunt of abusive calls day in and day out:

The stream of abuse, day after day, has taken a mental toll, Tom said.
He described call centre staff as being in "crisis mode" since the start of the pandemic, way back in March 2019.
"You're exhausted before you even start a shift," he said.
"You have to physically push yourself to go in there."

This quote from the article confirms something that those of us on the forum having been saying for a while, these cut corners to customer service aren't all coming from COVID, they've been around for years now and QF is entering a perfect storm with record high bookings and record low support staff to deal with them. Remember too that every IRROP that occurs at the airport now must be handled through these contact centres and not through a dedicated customer service department at the airport.

For the record, I'm never abusive with customer service workers. Firm sometimes? Yes. But never disrespectful or harsh. And coincidentally I find that I almost get what I want. Attitude is more important than Altitude (status)!

-RooFlyer88

 

[RAM]

This will surely be costing Swissport an absolute fortune and Qantas a decent pile of money in lost reputation/goodwill as well

I don't know, but suspect that Q is footing the bulk of the bill & is making the call to dispatch a flight instead of facing additional gate fees & disrupting every subsequent Q plane scheduled to use the gate.

Knowing Q's love of linear planning - I would not be surprised if they choose the flight to 'no bag' at least an hour before its departure, probably more like 2 hours...

The growing backlog of bag handling (lack of margin before gate departure) quite likely sees Q operational mgmt look through impending flights (about to open for check-in) to see which has the lowest customer load (least likely number of impacted bags).

Shall we call it 'Qantas roulette'?

Similar to EzyJet roulette - where one of their senior pilots revealed to me (staying at same Gatwick Inn) that to boost profits they'd cancel a flight to a multiple per day destination using excuses of mechanical failure etc in order to achieve 95%+ flight loading.

 

[ferntree]

I don't know if this is coincidence or "opportunity marketing", but as I browse this thread, all the video ads that come up on my screen are for Virgin!

 

[sudoer]

I don't know, but suspect that Q is footing the bulk of the bill & is making the call to dispatch a flight instead of facing additional gate fees & disrupting every subsequent Q plane scheduled to use the gate.

Swissport would surely be breaching all their SLAs given the number of flights departing without without baggage, which would result in some significant financial penalties. I imagine Dnata would be in the same position for the flights leaving without catering (assuming they still have the Qantas contract since swallowing Q Catering in 2018)

 

[jase05]

Some real rocket scientists at QF

Get a phone call about a hour ago saying they have found my luggage and will return it tomorrow afternoon. I ask why they hadn’t sent it on 1 of the several flights this morning and he said “we had no room on any ADL flights” to which I reply that’s great but I’m in Canberra and don’t want my luggage returned to my home and that I would like my luggage in CBR tonight.

He says he will speak to his manager and call me back ASAP. So 15 minutes ago he calls back and says sorry we have no room on any flights and we will load it on the first flight tomorrow and you will see it at your hotel by 9:30am tomorrow.

I then asked him if the planes were all full how come they are still selling seats on the last 2 MEL-CBR flights tonight to which he couldn’t answer (or knew that I had caught him out) I then asked him if I could escalate this higher and after a brief pause he says that they will endeavour to get it on the next flight and at our hotel by 10pm tonight. Seriously what a incompetent lot QF are currently,

 

[ferntree]

Not defending bad customer service, but I do have sympathy with the employees in the front line who must be constantly and relentlessly bearing the brunt of customers' anger and frustrations for which they are not responsible. An earlier post mentioned the plight of call centre staff, and I guess these folks must be experiencing something similar.

I don't think I'd look forward to going into work every day to look forward to that.

 

[Melburnian1]

Some real rocket scientists at QF

Get a phone call about a hour ago saying they have found my luggage and will return it tomorrow afternoon. I ask why they hadn’t sent it on 1 of the several flights this morning and he said “we had no room on any ADL flights” to which I reply that’s great but I’m in Canberra and don’t want my luggage returned to my home and that I would like my luggage in CBR tonight.

He says he will speak to his manager and call me back ASAP. So 15 minutes ago he calls back and says sorry we have no room on any flights and we will load it on the first flight tomorrow and you will see it at your hotel by 9:30am tomorrow.

I then asked him if the planes were all full how come they are still selling seats on the last 2 MEL-CBR flights tonight to which he couldn’t answer (or knew that I had caught him out) I then asked him if I could escalate this higher and after a brief pause he says that they will endeavour to get it on the next flight and at our hotel by 10pm tonight. Seriously what a incompetent lot QF are currently,

Correct me if mistaken, but in years of travelling and observing baggage handling on B738s (and A320s), even when flights are full, there seems to be room for freight and (if offering) Australia Post mail in the forward hold in particular.

Surely the trend in recent years to bring more 'kitchen sinks' on board into the cabin must have created a bit more room down below?

I acknowledge it's school holidays so presumably more checked luggage, but shouldn't there be a bit of spare space on each flight? (Unless the backlog is SO great that QFd is still working on conveying several other flights' worth of luggage that departed prior to yours).

 

[ferntree]

Correct me if mistaken, but in years of travelling and observing baggage handling on B738s (and A320s), even when flights are full, there seems to be room for freight and (if offering) Australia Post mail in the forward hold in particular.

Yes, sounds like an excuse. All the room in the world isn't going to help if you haven't got anybody there to load the baggage.

 

[jase05]

Correct me if mistaken, but in years of travelling and observing baggage handling on B738s (and A320s), even when flights are full, there seems to be room for freight and (if offering) Australia Post mail in the forward hold in particular.

Surely the trend in recent years to bring more 'kitchen sinks' on board into the cabin must have created a bit more room down below?

I acknowledge it's school holidays so presumably more checked luggage, but shouldn't there be a bit of spare space on each flight? (Unless the backlog is SO great that QFd is still working on conveying several other flights' worth of luggage that departed prior to yours).

Yes there is always space reserved for freight and mail but my point was that of the aircraft were truly full then why are they still selling tickets?
Are they hoping any new bookings are going to have carry on only?
I think it’s just an excuse for them having no staff to load the bags.
if they had told me from the start it was going to be 2 days I would have got a VA flight down to MEL and picked them up

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes I fully agree, and I think it was clear when I posted those threads, many of which were articles, and that particular editor has certainly been painting a picture clearly coloured by personal experience - something I would have avoided myself for journalistic integrity - but I fully accept AFF is a commercial entity and is free to push whatever agenda it wants and will likely always side with its own staff.

I’ve made my point, enough people agreed with me that I’m glad I made it, and even if it has just a subtle impact in the way this site is run than it would have been worth it.

So someone ( I’m not sure that AFF Editor styles themselves as a ‘journalist’) writes after some personal experiences and somehow you would have avoided do so for ‘journalistic integrity’? Better that they make stuff up, then? .

As far as I know the site is ALL about our experiences in flying and travel ( plus Covid, recently and done other more flippant stuff). SO start a thread “ Things I didn’t experience flying”.

I wouldn’t flatter yourself that you’ll make a difference on how the site is run. When I’ve got suggestions on the site, I find a PM to the relevant people is the best way.

 

[jase05]

So, after all that it appears QF can’t distinguish between blatant lies and the truth.
Just had a knock at our hotel door and low and behold there is our luggage.
The attached stickers clearly show the luggage left MEL this morning and arrived in CBR at 0945 and has been sitting there all day.