New Next Gen Card and Bag Tags have arrived!

[significance]

Not young and know of these situations, but getting money out of an ATM is much quicker and easier than going inside a branch, filling in a form, joining a queue getting money etc etc.

With that, I agree. I must have misunderstood your meaning in the post I quoted.

Self-service shopping and airline check-in are not yet easier than service, however.

 

[drewbles]

You must be young, not to remember. The number of staff in each bank and the number of branches have both been greatly reduced since ATMs became commonplace.

And it seems the reduction of staff is directly proportional to the increase of fees for banking 'face to face'.

Whilst it may be easier to take cash out of an ATM (and I always do if that's what I want), there are some situations which warrant the use of a teller or CSA. To be charged for that is rude IMHO (considering how much they make from me in fees/charges).

 

[simongr]

Self-service shopping and airline check-in are not yet easier than service, however.

Sorry to disagree but my travel experience at the airport (domestic) is now better than ever before. Previously I had to find the right queue, then queue, be dependent on whether the pax in front was organised or doing some complex BEHEMOTH DONE4 and finally get my BP.

Now the day before my flight I check in on line when I have a few minutes spare. Then at the airport I walk straight through, through security and into the lounge - all before I would even been out of the check in queue. Then I get to the gate, swipe the card and board. No BP to lose, tear or fold...

The only issue now is whether the cabin crew can find the bit of paper to identify it as my jacket...

I am fortunate when flying internationally with QF exSYD or CX exHKG that I have access to the F check in so I don't bother with online check in at all. I know both F check ins are quite old now (4 years?) but they are both a delightful experience.

 

[significance]

Now the day before my flight I check in on line when I have a few minutes spare. Then at the airport I walk straight through, through security and into the lounge - all before I would even been out of the check in queue.

If you have no baggage, you could have gone straight through to the lounge under the old system. If you have baggage, you have the hassle of checking in and then checking your baggage in manually before you go through to security.

I've only used the system once, and found that it didn't work. I had the new tags, my partner didn't. We needed to print out and attach tags for his bags, then tried to send our bags through. After some fiddling, the system told us we'd already checked all our bags in and couldn't check in more. (By this stage, we still had no bags checked in). A service person came to our rescue, but had no idea why it was doing that or how to fix it from the self check-in terminal, so he took us over to the premium check-in line (which I believe as QC silver I am no longer eligible to use in the new system) and we got it all done in the old way.

 

[drewbles]

Funnily enough, it's not really NGCI that's streamlined my travel; it's travelling without checked luggage.

Prior to NGCI I could print out a BP and pass the queues and head straight to the lounge (without luggage). Now, I check-in online, walk past the queues, into the lounge, and use the barcode on my FF card at the gate to get my BP.

I've used the totem poles several times. I only have gotten the SMS once, and still just used my card at the gate. Would rather OLCI and card at gate

 

[JohnK]

hmmm this issue is concerning me. I'm due to reach SG on the 28th of feb- but then head to LAX for 5 weeks on the 8th of March. Not sure what my chances are of having my card before then- as it will make things a lot easier to get into lounges; priority etc.

I don't like your chances. It usually takes 10-14 days for a pack to arrive after attaining status but as has been reported on this thread it is now taking much longer.

Grab a printout of your QFF account profile when the status has changed over and you should be OK. I tried getting into the BA First Class lounge in LHR with an expired QFF card and after a phone call to QF they let me inside. My father was also with me.

Interesting that Mrs RB received a new silver card & tags in the mail this week. Was silver for 2010-2011 and had quiet QF yr with only 40 SC. Letter explained they appreciated her loyalty- she was comped another yr of gold a few yrs ago also

Qantas appreciates the loyalty of someone with 40 SCs.

 

[JohnK]

There are 7million FF'ers, with a high percentage of those people Silver, Gold, Platnium, Chairmans Lounge all due to receive their NGCI tags and pack.

High percentage? I don't think so. I would be surprised if more than 20% of QFFers had status. I believe the number may be closer to 12% but possibly lower.

All Gold, Platnium, Chairmans Lounge and Business customers (which are the majority of people on this forum) are welcome to join the permium service desk queue and so 'speak to a real person' in a transactional style.

....

The same things were said when the Quickcheck kiosks were installed many years ago, and the introduction of online checkin, advance seat selection and mobile checkin.. Now tell me how many of you haven't used these systems in anyway, shape or form and always decide to go to a checkin counter to 'speak to a real person' especially when you have no bags?

I use the check-in counter or bag drop counter all the time. I do not have a smart phone (and don't want one) and I want a real boarding pass. I refuse to use the new baggage tags (hockey pucks, discs) and I will not use the self-serve baggage system.

I don't care if I spend 2-3 minutes extra to check-in. I have plenty of time to visit the lounge and wait for my flight.

In time I may use the NGCI machines for simple things like I used the QuickCheck kiosks in the past.

 

[Boris spatsky]

Tried NGCI today for the first time ex PER and QF lost my bags! Don't know why I bother sometimes. So much for streamlining the process!

Doesn't look good for QF.

 

[samiam]

Tried NGCI today for the first time ex PER and QF lost my bags!

Did you use the Next Gen tags or the Printed Poly tag (wasn't clear to me on reading)?

Having read earlier posts re lost/removed NGCI tags etc, I must admit I am anxious about only using the 'coaster' and not a super sticky paper/polypropylene tag, next time I have to check luggage.

Would be interested to hear the outcome of your lost baggage, and whether it related to the NGCI tagging system (whichever one it was) or whether it was an error that would/could have occurred regardless.

Good luck with recovery, btw.

 

[JohnPhelan]

And if the bags were lost because the RFID tags got ripped off the bags somewhere, how will QF know where they have gone, or to whom they belong?

(They will have to look for the bags based on the description of what they look like!)

I'm certainly making sure I still keep an old style luggage tag on every bag, with name and contact info, so at least they have a way of identifying whose bag it is if the paperweights get lost.

 

[Boris spatsky]

I went for the full NGCI experience - just the RFID disc and nothing else! Whoops. If the disc is gone, I am stuffed. There is another tag on the bag but it is in one of the zipped areas - not obvious.

I almost put a normal sticky white bag tag on it but the helpful QF lady persuaded me not to!

My bag had all my work in it too.

 

[JohnK]

So let me get this straight - You are calling QF idiots because they haven't sent you something.

As previously pointed out there, there's likely over 2m+ people due to receive new cards and tags under the NGCI rollout. Based on current information, their designated mailing house is processing the maximum they can handle each week, beleived to be in the realm of 20,000-40,000 units.

And producing these kits is no easy process, as there's custom data printing, tags & packs dependent on the member type, and custom contents based on membership level. It's dammed complex.

So, rather than QF being idiots, I think you're being a bit of a DYKWIA and lacking perspective in the grand scheme of things.

Here is a thought.

There is nothing like 2+ million status QFFers (more like ~840,000) but lets assume that there are that many and delivery of cards and tags is going to take a long time (somewhere between 50-100 weeks minimum based on 20,000-40,000 maximum mailouts a week). Why would you start rolling out NGCI when only a handful of QFFers have the Next gen card and bag tags?

To me the sensible thing to do would be to send out Next Gen Cards and bag tags and then start rolling out NGCI. But I wouldn;t expect QF senior management to know what a constitutes a sensible decision if their lifes depended on it.

 

[medhead]

Here is a thought.

There is nothing like 2+ million status QFFers (more like ~840,000) but lets assume that there are that many and delivery of cards and tags is going to take a long time (somewhere between 50-100 weeks minimum based on 20,000-40,000 maximum mailouts a week).

Just to confirm that thought, we know that the roll out is no more then 6 months long or 26 weeks. It started in about October 2010 and according to qantas we'll have our tags by early 2011, which is no more than the end if March IMO. 6 months maximum, 1040000 packs sent out agreeing well with 840000, and also about 14% of 7 million

 

[Carlous Moochous]

i got my bronze qf card a week after I qualified for silver... guess it was already in the mix when i qualified.. oh well.. will get a new treat soon

 

[Boris spatsky]

Got mY lost bag back today, RFID disc intact. It never even got onto the first plane at the first dep point. Go figure.

I have emailed QF to let them know that it is a poor showing for my first time effort at NGCI.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Got mY lost bag back today, RFID disc intact. It never even got onto the first plane at the first dep point. Go figure.

I have emailed QF to let them know that it is a poor showing for my first time effort at NGCI.

Good news that you got your bag back. Did they explain what had happened? Was the RFID reader unable to read the data on the tag chip?

 

[Boris spatsky]

No unfortunately. So should I run the NGCI gauntlet again?

 

[samiam]

Got mY lost bag back today, RFID disc intact. It never even got onto the first plane at the first dep point. Go figure.

Thanks for the update

 

[samiam]

Just to confirm that thought, we know that the roll out is no more then 6 months long or 26 weeks. It started in about October 2010 and according to qantas we'll have our tags by early 2011, which is no more than the end if March IMO. 6 months maximum, 1040000 packs sent out agreeing well with 840000, and also about 14% of 7 million

I'm not certain what all the fuss is about

Since October, I have received:

1. A gold NGCI FF Card
2. An additional NGCI FF Card + RFID Tags
3. A platinum NGCI FF Card + RFID Tags

Honestly, they are just all creating clutter

 

[ozmille]

I'm not certain what all the fuss is about

Since October, I have received:

1. A gold NGCI FF Card
2. An additional NGCI FF Card + RFID Tags
3. A platinum NGCI FF Card + RFID Tags

Honestly, they are just all creating clutter

:shock::shock::shock::shock::shock: I still haven't received my first NGCI card and you got 3 :?::!: I even ordered the extra ones from the QF website but still haven't received anything