Is this worthy of complaint to QF?

[simongr]

Hi all

I am just wondering whether I am getting too picky with QF. There were a couple of incidents on my QF136 flight down from NRT on Friday night. As is typical with Qf the service ranged from excellent to awful.

There was one member of the made everyone aware that she was ex-Ansett who just made me feel uncomfortable for the entire flight. I guess compared to the rest of the cabin I was not either as old or perhaps as neatly attired (I wear Polo Cargo pants and a Polo Shirt when flying now for comfort and the passport/BP fits neatly in the front of cargo pants pocket) so perhaps she didnt think I was deserving of her attention (I was also travelling incognito as a lowly QF SG).

There was first the slightly disparaging comments in the galley area about the fact that this was an Airbus rather than a Boeing - not sure the point she was trying to make but if it was to make customers comfortable it wasn't working (I actually prefer the Airbus in a no-F config as the overhead bins fir my rollaboard end on and the cabin feels fresher and newer). Obviously this is not worthy of a complaint in itself.

My main complaint was the food service. I had read the menu and decided on the Chicken with a Tzatziki dressing - trying to avoid more beef. Firstly when they served dinner it seemed to be missing the Soup course which was listed on the menu. I mentioned this and the cabin crew went back to the galley to check and reported that it hadn't been loaded. I then pointed out that the chicken was missing the Tzatziki dressing - she took it away and brought it with dressing applied. My main issue was that she had no idea that the soup was missing or that the dressing was missing. Shouldnt she have known what was on the menu?

I could understand on a busy flight but there were only 8 people in J in total.

I am tempted to email QF about the lack of soup - not a big deal but just a bit lazy on QF's part. I am just wondering whether I should mention the attitude I got from her. It was finally compounded for me when I heard her saying goodbye to all the other pax by name and not me (acampbell is probably chortling now at me complaining that someone got obvious preferential treatment over me and that annoyed me ).

On the flip side some of the other staff were great, pleasant and helpful - perhaps the ex-Ansett chick is carrying a grudge still that she has to work for QF as opposed to her beloved Ansett?

Any thoughts - is my hyper-critical nature taking a step too far?

S

P.s. I really was looking forward to that soup!

 

[Yada Yada]

Any thoughts - is my hyper-critical nature taking a step too far?

No, I'd feel the same. When you (or your employer) are paying for J or F, I think you are entitled to expect good service and good meals/beverages. Especially given the spruiking the airlines do about the special level of service in these cabins.

I am surprised about the ex-AN crew member's behaviour. I used to fly AN within Australia and in my experience, they were always a cut above the service you'd get on TN, which seemed to have a real old-fashioned public service "take it or leave it" mentality. Maybe she is still carrying a grudge.

Definitely worth writing to QF about, IMO.

 

[Travel Guru]

I agree, i'd certainly be making my feelings known to Qantas.

Irrespective of what you choose to wear on a flight (incidently i wear something similar) they have no right to judge on appearances.

If you don't complain QF can't hope to do anything about it.

TG

 

[moa999]

Or could we put it down to this thread:

http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/playground/movember-11286.html

 

[JohnK]

I would definitely send feedback to QF regarding your experience.

It is just not good enough to advertise something that should be included in the service you paid for and then find that is is not available.

If people don't send in feedback of issues with their flights then QF won't find out about it.

 

[Homer]

My wife and I consider ourselves "super consumers". Or rather that's a polite term we use to describe the fact that we are super sensitive to bad service/attitude. The behaviour you describe is shoddy at best.

If I were you I would be advising Qantas. You'll know that you are speaking to the right person if they are genuinely interested in what you have to say and thank you for telling them. If not I usually ask to speak to someone with a last name as I find that people without last names (eg "Welcome to Qantas, you're speaking with Jo") usually aren't skilled at taking customer complaints seriously and seem to be more worried about getting their mates into trouble than anything else.

 

[Cheatah]

Similar thing has happened to me recently. I've flown sin/bkk to lhr in First 3 times in last few months and on every flight there has always been at least 1 item(normally more) that I have asked for and the response has been "sorry sir, it hasnt been loaded".

Nothing major, and the crew have been very polite and apologetic but my last flight from BKK included 1 main course choice, 1 of the desert options and the cheese plate all not loaded...and they ran out of water bottles towards the end of the flight which happens all the time.

Interestingly, I've also noticed that QF never mention the arrivals lounge available at Heathrow anymore, not sure why as F/J pax are still entitled to use it.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

If not I usually ask to speak to someone with a last name as I find that people without last names (eg "Welcome to Qantas, you're speaking with Jo") usually aren't skilled at taking customer complaints seriously and seem to be more worried about getting their mates into trouble than anything else.

Surely people in a call centre answer the phone according to a script (for all the various quality assurance palaver)? They probably have no control over what they say to you as a greeting, and they're probably even given fake names so that they all appear to be unique

 

[Homer]

Surely people in a call centre answer the phone according to a script (for all the various quality assurance palaver)? They probably have no control over what they say to you as a greeting, and they're probably even given fake names so that they all appear to be unique

Re-reading my post I realise it was a little obscure and not meant to be entirely serious. You're right about fake names - I hear that's pretty common. What I meant was that supervisors/managers/senior people usually give you both a first name and a last name because they are working at a level where that is the practice, whereas people on the front lines generally just give you a first name. Scripted or not, if someone introduces themselves using their full name then you generally know that you've reached a level of accountability above that first response level. As I said though...just a tounge-in-cheek post and not to be read too literally.

 

[tuapekastar]

Hi all

I am just wondering whether I am getting too picky with QF. There were a couple of incidents on my QF136 flight down from NRT on Friday night. As is typical with Qf the service ranged from excellent to awful.

There was one member of the made everyone aware that she was ex-Ansett who just made me feel uncomfortable for the entire flight. I guess compared to the rest of the cabin I was not either as old or perhaps as neatly attired (I wear Polo Cargo pants and a Polo Shirt when flying now for comfort and the passport/BP fits neatly in the front of cargo pants pocket) so perhaps she didnt think I was deserving of her attention (I was also travelling incognito as a lowly QF SG).

There was first the slightly disparaging comments in the galley area about the fact that this was an Airbus rather than a Boeing - not sure the point she was trying to make but if it was to make customers comfortable it wasn't working (I actually prefer the Airbus in a no-F config as the overhead bins fir my rollaboard end on and the cabin feels fresher and newer). Obviously this is not worthy of a complaint in itself.

My main complaint was the food service. I had read the menu and decided on the Chicken with a Tzatziki dressing - trying to avoid more beef. Firstly when they served dinner it seemed to be missing the Soup course which was listed on the menu. I mentioned this and the cabin crew went back to the galley to check and reported that it hadn't been loaded. I then pointed out that the chicken was missing the Tzatziki dressing - she took it away and brought it with dressing applied. My main issue was that she had no idea that the soup was missing or that the dressing was missing. Shouldnt she have known what was on the menu?

I could understand on a busy flight but there were only 8 people in J in total.

I am tempted to email QF about the lack of soup - not a big deal but just a bit lazy on QF's part. I am just wondering whether I should mention the attitude I got from her. It was finally compounded for me when I heard her saying goodbye to all the other pax by name and not me (acampbell is probably chortling now at me complaining that someone got obvious preferential treatment over me and that annoyed me ).

On the flip side some of the other staff were great, pleasant and helpful - perhaps the ex-Ansett chick is carrying a grudge still that she has to work for QF as opposed to her beloved Ansett?

Any thoughts - is my hyper-critical nature taking a step too far?

S

P.s. I really was looking forward to that soup!

Nearly got me there simongr...nice wind-up!!

 

[NM]

There was first the slightly disparaging comments in the galley area about the fact that this was an Airbus rather than a Boeing

I wish my upcoming NRT-BNE flight was going to be oped by an Airbus rather than a Boeing. The A330 with Skybeds is much nicer than the QF operated 763 with Dreamtime seats. I would take an Airbus A330-300 over a Boeing 767-300 any day.

 

[acampbel]

Nearly got me there simongr...nice wind-up!!

That was my first thought, but then I re-read the post and realised that he was serious. Even more disappointing is the chorus of "hear-hear's" from the other brahmins.

The term "Get a life" springs to mind ....


Cheers,

Andrew

.

 

[serfty]

I would certainly find the time to make a comment to Qantas.

Any feed back is good - the old saw about the restaurant owner preferring to know there was a problem with the food/service than not knowing why the customer never came back holds just as true here.

Forgetting discount/special fares, SYD-NRT-SYD in J on Skybed equipped aircraft AUD9082 (Non Skybed AUD8663) and flexible WHY is AUD2383 - that's over 3½ times more for J - for that price you should expect far better service.

(FWIW, discount fares are available from AUD5815 in J and AUD1500 in WHY {Feb})

 

[simongr]

For the record I did only pay $4,900

Thanks for the replies guys - all of them. For me this was not "spit the dummy and fly *A sort of service but just frankly a little disappointing. I was just wondering what other people thought - I was actually surprised at the number of people suggesting to complain over a relatively minor thing. I will take it under advisement and consider a course of action

Cheers

S

 

[Sequel]

I would (and have twice in the last 6 weeks) complain to QF. As Serfty pointed out, if the people at Mascot dont know what is going on on-board the flights it will never get fixed.

It took 3 emails and 3 weeks to get a response for the first complaint ("...we WILL respond in 5 days..." my ar$e!). Fortunately I missed the phone call and it went to message bank, and they left a name and number for me to call, which I now have at handy reach (02 number not 1800). I told them Neil Perry would be sick (like I almost was trying to cut the raw snappper) if he saw what they were serving in his name (raw fish, raw spuds, cold garnish, dry tough steak) and the service left alot to be desired (telling me they had run out of Merlot when there was a full bottle in the J bar, 15 mins for a glass of wine with lunch in a 1/2 full J cabin etc).

If you have no luck speaking to any one, PM me and I will give you the direct number.

 

[Platy]

I usually find that a professional and welcoming attitude by cabin crew can over-ride any disappointment when advsertised service levels go awry. However, if basic quality control of premium product is lacking AND crew are disinterested I would be annoyed, personally. At the huge cost of these premium fares there really is no excuse for failure to supply the complete product as advertised. The airline won't change anything UNLESS customers make their feelings felt. At the end of the day the situation caused you disappointment, you were a dissatisfied customer, so let them know, they need to hear it! If anything they will let standards slip further (because it costs them less, thus more profit) until the chorus of complaint forces a change.

 

[tuapekastar]

Hmmm...the reference in the 2nd para to SG - the 2nd highest of 5 levels if you include non-FF scheme membership as level 5 - as being "lowly" fooled me. I took it to be jocular (could it be anything but?) and setting the tone for the rest of the thread.

By all means let them know that the soup listed on the menu wasn't available, though they may already know it through internal means/audits. But I (and I know this thread is about what you would/could/should do) wouldn't in any way represent it as a complaint. Simply too trivial. Just some potentially useful feedback. Of course if it happened ten flights running I might change my thinking!

As for the FA, you haven't posted examples of her 'attitude' so I cannot say whether I think a complaint is warranted. Certainly not from what I have read. I don't think the Airbus vs. Boeing thing, or the no-name farewell come under 'attitude' or singularly or collectively warrant a complaint.

 

[Keith009]

I too subscribe to the "best customers are the ones who complain" mantra as it helps QF management if they know what frontline staff are getting up to. It'd be even more effective if you'd noted the name of the offending crew member.

 

[simongr]

Hmmm...the reference in the 2nd para to SG - the 2nd highest of 5 levels if you include non-FF scheme membership as level 5 - as being "lowly" fooled me. I took it to be jocular (could it be anything but?) and setting the tone for the rest of the thread.

Apologies for the confusion on that. Linking that comment to the WP greeting thread I really do see a difference between WP and SG - based on what I experienced I wondered if the rest were WP/CL.

By all means let them know that the soup listed on the menu wasn't available, though they may already know it through internal means/audits. But I (and I know this thread is about what you would/could/should do) wouldn't in any way represent it as a complaint. Simply too trivial. Just some potentially useful feedback. Of course if it happened ten flights running I might change my thinking!

As for the FA, you haven't posted examples of her 'attitude' so I cannot say whether I think a complaint is warranted. Certainly not from what I have read. I don't think the Airbus vs. Boeing thing, or the no-name farewell come under 'attitude' or singularly or collectively warrant a complaint.

Good points re the service - it was really intangible how she made me feel uncomfortable. After such a great flight on the way up to HKG with CC who worked exactly as I liked this was quite the reverse.

I have some spare time on Thursday so will make my feelings.. umm felt

 

[tuapekastar]

Apologies for the confusion on that. Linking that comment to the WP greeting thread I really do see a difference between WP and SG - based on what I experienced I wondered if the rest were WP/CL.



Good points re the service - it was really intangible how she made me feel uncomfortable. After such a great flight on the way up to HKG with CC who worked exactly as I liked this was quite the reverse.

I have some spare time on Thursday so will make my feelings.. umm felt

Take your point re a difference between WP and SG (I'm guessing the only tangible difference in J/F is the greeting?), but I'd still struggle to call SG lowly.

Re "uncomfortableness" I used the F checkin at MEL when flying Y to HKG recently (I would have been quite happy at QP checkin but was just plain curious and wondered if I'd be offered an express security/immgration card which may have proved useful - I was - and though the agent was polite I had the feeling she would much rather be talking to either an F pax or a QF WP. Perhaps the opening questions she had for me - Do you realise this is the first class suite?, followed by Do you realise you're flying economy? contributed to this. I allowed that I was reasonably aware on both counts then mentioned the CX Diamond Card I had handed over with the BP. She didn't miss a beat and even told me where the QF Flounge was. Have no idea whether she hadn't twigged to the OWE or just didn't want me there!

I used QP checkin on the way back.