If you had a day to spend with AJ to fix QF what would you say ?

[Peter B Simpson]

I'd sit with Alan and try to explain to him just what it means to be a QFF of over 30 years. We suck with QF during thick and thin -- and now the airline couldn't care less if we flew with them at all. I joined the current FF program on day 1. My FF number is less than 500. Over the years I've flown millions of km with the flying kangaroo. I was Platinum from the day that tier was introduced........BUT, I'm still only Lifetime Gold, because I now don't fly enough to attain Platinum status. I've retired and now only travel on my own dime.

I know that Platinum Lifetime is on offer ..... BUT Qantas only counts that from some period years AFTER I joined the FF program. I'm at 45000 points.

I now only travel in business class internationally; so if I choose QF there is NO BENEFIT in being a Lifetime Gold. There is only a lounge benefit if I choose to fly Economy. Does QF only want Y class passengers?

So .... I now choose the cheapest J Class; which invariably is Qatar or Emirates. I get into the same lounge or one that is just as good as the fairly ordinary Qantas J class lounge in Melbourne. I get QF points.

Am I the only one in this situation?

As a final point to Alan I'd ask him when was the last time he was served a J Class meal on his flights. Our recent flight from HKG to SYD was probably the worst airline food I'd ever been served on any airline in any class. Neil Perry? If you value your brand you cannot serve cough like that and expect people to frequent your restaurants

 

[MikeG]

News flash - the SMS service has been downgraded, as they will no longer adjust bookings by SMS - so after waiting for about 12 hrs to go through the rigmorole, I was asked to call 131313 to talk to a consultant. WTF???

 

[MikeG]

The Website is an item that has undergone limited upgrades over the years, and as someone who works in the industry, there's few points I want to share:

- Usability (User Experience) is maybe a 7/10 for this website. For such a large customer service organisation, this needs to be remedied. I find myself lost in the FF section, and its just ridiculous that the design was allowed to go live - talk to User Experience companies and professional website designers. Ensure they do User type analysis, and alot of the content on there can be put deep down in the menus to get them out of the way. I don't need to see 100 widgets on my accounts page. Seriously.
- Fix the rewards booking functionality for complicated flights. This MUST be the cause of 90% of the callcentre overrun. Its not rcket science guys. Get some quality test engineers and designers onboard and you'll end up with a booking engine that is the envy of every other airline. Added bonus, most of the code will work fine for cash paying customers too, so you will be greasing the road to customers wanting to spend their cash. Don't make them call you, thats just stupid...
- Fix the availability differences between call centre, mobile site and desktop site - they all give different results. And if there is a seat available but it has strange rules (such as JAL) then explain that - we're not dummies, and you could even help us to work around some of these airline specific constraints.

 

[Max Samuels]

I'd tel him and Neil to do everyone a favour and just go away. Don't care where.
Just. Go. Away.

 

[stoney]

It would appear that the correct decision has been taken. I belted my head against the wall for 7 hours playing the SMS game for absolutely no gain from an untrained twit at the other end playing an idiot at my end. Why did I think that I could win?
I then decided there was no option but to make the dreaded 2 hour phone waiting game listening to the dreaded”we are sorry......” stuff and low and behold problem solved in about 4 minutes. Good move Qantas.

 

[Max Samuels]

I totally agree with the above, as a Platinum Flyer for many years not once have I received a call from QANTAS to ask why I and my partner are not flying QANTAS as often as we have in the past...

They actually did when I spat the dummy at them last April.... I had maybe 6 "cheap" but refundable J domestic sectors booked and I cancelled them all and then flew VA exclusively for about 4 months. Then I got a call..... didn't make me change my mind though!

 

[MikeG]

It would appear that the correct decision has been taken. I belted my head against the wall for 7 hours playing the SMS game for absolutely no gain from an untrained twit at the other end playing an idiot at my end. Why did I think that I could win?
I then decided there was no option but to make the dreaded 2 hour phone waiting game listening to the dreaded”we are sorry......” stuff and low and behold problem solved in about 4 minutes. Good move Qantas.

Your call was answered and solved in 4 mins? Wow! The fastest I've had was 2 hours, out of the last 20 or so calls I've made in the last 12 months. I've spent more than 60 hours in total on the phone to Qantas. If we get to 100 hours in a year do we get a status upgrade???

 

[stoney]

The Website is an item that has undergone limited upgrades over the years, and as someone who works in the industry, there's few points I want to share:

- Usability (User Experience) is maybe a 7/10 for this website. For such a large customer service organisation, this needs to be remedied. I find myself lost in the FF section, and its just ridiculous that the design was allowed to go live - talk to User Experience companies and professional website designers. Ensure they do User type analysis, and alot of the content on there can be put deep down in the menus to get them out of the way. I don't need to see 100 widgets on my accounts page. Seriously.
- Fix the rewards booking functionality for complicated flights. This MUST be the cause of 90% of the callcentre overrun. Its not rcket science guys. Get some quality test engineers and designers onboard and you'll end up with a booking engine that is the envy of every other airline. Added bonus, most of the code will work fine for cash paying customers too, so you will be greasing the road to customers wanting to spend their cash. Don't make them call you, thats just stupid...
- Fix the availability differences between call centre, mobile site and desktop site - they all give different results. And if there is a seat available but it has strange rules (such as JAL) then explain that - we're not dummies, and you could even help us to work around some of these airline specific constraints.

Well said! It would be nice if someone actually headed your wisdom and got the whole show working the way it should. Easy!

 

[Max Samuels]

.... the fairly ordinary Qantas J class lounge in Melbourne...

OMG the dungeon. I forgot how terrible that place was. Pretty shameful for a "premium" airline's 2nd hub.
I bet you could make it pretty flash for less than $24m..

 

[stoney]

Your call was answered and solved in 4 mins? Wow! The fastest I've had was 2 hours, out of the last 20 or so calls I've made in the last 12 months. I've spent more than 60 hours in total on the phone to Qantas. If we get to 100 hours in a year do we get a status upgrade???

Sorry if I did not explain it properly, my wait time was still over 2 hours but when I eventually got into a customer service lady in Auckland she fixed my flight change in 4 minutes.

 

[MikeG]

The SMS channel seems to cycle through consultants on a regular basis, I'm unsure if this is because lazy operators "drop the line" and another operator picks it up. Every time you see the message "We are working on responding to you as soon as possible, our response times are taking longer due to increased customer queries." you have been flicked to a new consultant...

On a single enquiry I usualy get flicked 2-3 times before I actually get an answer. How is this efficient? The consultant needs to read through all the notes every time they pickup a new job. Sure they might be serving 5-10 people at once, but still where is the customer focus???

 

[GoYouBlues53]

Pick up your phone, dial 131313, and start your timer.

I'm up to 107 minutes at 10.15pm!! A disgrace. And I know that the guy in the Philippines won't be able to get done the thing I'm calling about.

 

[GoYouBlues53]

I'm up to 107 minutes at 10.15pm!! A disgrace. And I know that the guy in the Philippines won't be able to get done the thing I'm calling about.

It's now 10.53 pm. Been waiting 2 hours and five minutes! What do you have to say about that, Mr Joyce! When I have burned my QFF points on a trip in Qatar Airlines to Doha and London in a Q suite, I'll be throwing away my QFF card and it will be good riddance to bad rubbish.