I've felt the sting of the QFF Loyalty Middle Finger

[dajop]

Okay, venting over. Off to go see what Star Alliance offer for Circle Pacific type First fares.

Good luck with that, grass isn't always greener. Star Alliance Circle Pacific is vastly inferior to oneworld product. It won't get you past the main west coast centres. Stopovers in North America only permitted at LAX/SFO/SEA/HNL/YVR.

I fail the 3 year average rule (which the first phone agent quoted and calculated for me) by 250 SC. My last 5 years were roughly 2600, 3400, 1400, 1250 and 180 SC.

Don't worry, you'll get over it. This wasn't dissimilar to my pattern, although I think last 3 were more like 1700, 1270, 520 or something like that, and not comped. In fact I haven't flown QF at all for 12 months now (and even then it was QF link) and almost 2 years since QF mainline (not necessarily deliberate, just the way its turned out, I don't go out of my way to avoid QF, but nor do I go out of my way to fly them either).

 

[medhead]

The only loyalty Qantas care about is the last 12 months. That is abundantly clear since the game change program started.

 

[Deleted member]

It's not called Qantas Loyal flyer. It's called Qantas Frequent flyer.
I'm not angry about my situation. A bit miffed. But it's the rules. If I had not pulled out of the Bali flight (volcanoes notwithstanding) I would now be WP again. So instead of the 90 days 400 SC's deal, I shall get the 250 needed by doing a status run to NZ.
If / when I stop or severely reduce my flying pattern. I expect to be downgraded accordingly.

 

[Austman]

It's not called Qantas Loyal flyer. It's called Qantas Frequent flyer.

Yes, but the latest email I received from them was from [email protected]

 

[Deleted member]

Yes, I understand. My point is that it's never about loyalty, it's always about frequency.

 

[cove]

Bring back MASAs,JASAs and FASAs is what we would really like to see happen. It cannot be that hard IT wise.

 

[QF029]

The problem is the all the silly gimmicks in place to offer status to those who have spent and are spending a lot less to maintain Platinum.

JohnK I'm not sure why we have to go through this every time. You've previously admitted to doing status runs (on cheap CX fares in Asia from memory) so the selective moral high horse stuff wears a bit thin.

 

[Pleb Status]

By the same token, that's what annoys me the most. Aside from the risk that I cancel my booked flights after extending my WP membership Qantas has pretty much nothing to gain from rejecting my request. It's going to cost them the same in glasses of Veuve at the F Lounge regardless of whether I'm WP or SG at the time.

By rejecting my extension request all they've done is make me feel worthless - all these years and lots of money spent and they don't feel there's any need to reward that loyalty in kind, even in such a trivial way.

The biggest issue QF have by granting your request is precedence. Once they grant the request once and you post that on social media, everyone else will want it as well (especially if they believe they are worth more to QF than you are). QF should generally never break the rules for anyone, no matter how important the customer thinks they are.

 

[Deleted member]

The biggest issue QF have by granting your request is precedence. Once they grant the request once and you post that on social media, everyone else will want it as well (especially if they believe they are worth more to QF than you are). QF should generally never break the rules for anyone, no matter how important the customer thinks they are.

Bollocks. They break the rules all the time

 

[jamesatfish]

The biggest issue QF have by granting your request is precedence. Once they grant the request once and you post that on social media, everyone else will want it as well (especially if they believe they are worth more to QF than you are). QF should generally never break the rules for anyone, no matter how important the customer thinks they are.

I'm not sure that my 23 Facebook friends will have that much of an influence, but what's wrong with creating the perception that Qantas will bend their rules for their frequent flyers?

Part of my decision to have flown QF these last 10 years came from the way the FF area handled a not dissimilar request from my mother in the mid-2000s. For her it was a requested extension of her Gold status that allowed her to access the lounges in LHR when flying back to Australia with my sister and her 2 kids under 3.

On that occasion QFF bent their rules and repaid her loyalty to the airline, which helped cement my decision to do the same and keep flying with QF.

I'm a million miles short of being an airline CEO but in my small businesses I'd prefer the public perception of being flexible to support my customers rather than being stubborn to the point of pissing them off.

 

[opusman]

If one thing has become evident over the past couple of years it's that QFF do not consider WPs to be all that important any more.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If one thing has become evident over the past couple of years it's that QFF do not consider WPs to be all that important any more.

Yeah. Gold these days is a bit like shopping at Aldi: the bare basics. Platinum is like Waitrose.

But if you want the Harrods food hall, you need P1 now.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

The biggest issue QF have by granting your request is precedence. Once they grant the request once and you post that on social media, everyone else will want it as well (especially if they believe they are worth more to QF than you are). QF should generally never break the rules for anyone, no matter how important the customer thinks they are.

Every for-profit company 'breaks the rules' if it's to benefit the overall strategy. This is how people and corporations commercially evolve - by taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves.

In the OP's case it simply could be that the person they interacted with at QFF was not empowered to make these types of decisions in a commercial manner or perhaps it's a hard line stance on comp years. In any case I hate to think how many other customers have a similar conversation and walk away feeling abandoned.

Should QFF comp the OP another year of Plat for past loyalty? Maybe/maybe not, but there's more considerations than status credits. For example:
- How many points is the OP sending into the FF program from CC/partners etc? What's the value of these?
- Is the OP sending 100% share of wallet of their flights to Qantas already? What is the internal risk calculation that this customer will shift their business in the future?
- Does this customer buy tickets for others? If so how much/what's the value?
- What personality does this customer have? (Complex issue but basically if OP explains this to the wife - what are her feelings towards QF? Many mothers will see this as being penalised for having a family and instantly cut QF future travel - Velocity solved this perfectly FYI).
- When the OP does buy tickets, what type of tickets and is this type of customer one we want on our books? (pax buying F tickets is incrementally more valuable -- and harder to win back - than an all economy purchaser)
- Potential future spend of the OP, how much and what does it look like?

It's never black and white with so many variables to consider but it sounds like the QFF system doesn't make this type of data available to the very people who take the call when a customer calls to discuss their situation. It's unfortunate.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

I wouldn't want my call centre staff trying to make a decision based on these variables.
They also want to keep their algorithms close to the chest w management.

Might be a case of better response training, train the operator to say something that is middle of the road, better outcome for management and it doesn't come across as negative.

Either way, front line people do create perceptions based on their answers, that will never change.

Cheers
BF

It's never black and white with so many variables to consider but it sounds like the QFF system doesn't make this type of data available to the very people who take the call when a customer calls to discuss their situation. It's unfortunate.

 

[Flying Fox]

Bring back MASAs,JASAs and FASAs is what we would really like to see happen. It cannot be that hard IT wise.

If we read between the lines; it's not really an IT issue but more a management decision not to offer this product any more.

So sad.

 

[jamesatfish]

The information gap in terms of the data I have to calculate my "ongoing value" to Qantas versus what Qantas themselves hold is an interesting one here.

Without going into details, I would have expected that the higher up the request chain you go, the more information would be available to Qantas to make a decision.

In my case it seems to be the opposite.

When I first made the request it was via the telephone cal centre. The first line support person who answered my call reviewed my 3 year average, looked at a number of other factors but wasn't able to approve the request with the power bestowed upon him at that level.

His suggestion was that I book my upcoming travel and then email the higher level of support with all that information, as they could factor my past history, booked travel, family situation and more into their decision.

In the end however, the 2nd line contact was clear that my lack of flying this last year was the end of the discussion. No consideration at all of my history, upcoming flights or anything else - just "your shortfall is too great this year to consider your request". Even when I asked specifically about my travel history with QF - no, nothing had been considered aside from that little SC number this year.

 

[puppysparkes]

Firstly, hi five for approaching Qantas in the first instance. There is nothing more annoying than hearing or reading posts from a WHINER who has not raised their complaint directly with the organisation they are complaining about. It does sound like you got a below par second line experience.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Your reasons are sound and it seems logical to me that QF should extend you WP for the next year.
Reason and logic aren't common in the call centre at times though.
I'd be very tempted to give it one last go by sending an email to QFF and perhaps a PM here to Red Roo.
You certainly couldn't be worse off after doing that.

 

[Kangol]

I'd be very tempted to give it one last go by sending an email to QFF and perhaps a PM here to Red Roo.
You certainly couldn't be worse off after doing that.

That's what this person thought, too
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....program/qf-social-media-team-being-68332.html

 

[jamesatfish]

Your reasons are sound and it seems logical to me that QF should extend you WP for the next year.
Reason and logic aren't common in the call centre at times though.
I'd be very tempted to give it one last go by sending an email to QFF and perhaps a PM here to Red Roo.
You certainly couldn't be worse off after doing that.

I've sent off an email to Lesley Grant's office as my last point of escalation, so we'll see if anything comes back from there next week.

I still have my fingers crossed that everything will come good, the magic wand will be brushed over my account, a shiny new WP card will arrive in the mail and I'll jump into 5K on QF11 and leave this all in the past.

As you suggest, there's not much to lose by asking again. If the boss of QF Loyalty says no to my request then obviously that's about as definite an answer as I'll ever get.