No Catering - Domestic J

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LPS144

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Hi All

I had an unpleasant experience on Friday (11/02) on QF 486 (A330) in J class.

We were in Melbourne for my wife's 30th, i bid and landed a successful upgrade bid for our flight back to Sydney. Wouldn't usually bid for such a short flight but was a low price and special occasion and been a while since i was up the front so thought why not.

Anyways as we were sitting ready to go I could sense a slight delay and then just before we were due to depart they announced that no one had bothered to cater the flight! Having a look at FR24 the plane hadn't been used for 2-3 days prior so its not like they didn't have any time to stock it up.

The pilot made the decision to depart so we could all get to Sydney at a reasonable time (which i didnt mind) but all we were given was a cup of water and a small packet of nuts. Both on the ground in Melbourne and just as we got to Sydney were told a QF rep will be there with vouchers to use in the terminal.

As we spoke to the rep in Sydney she explained no one had told her up until 5min before we landed and that Qantas prefers to focus on on-time performance.

Is this a common thing with Qantas am i ranting too much or can I put in a complaint? you pay for a service and obviously to get to a destination safely but am i banging my head against a brick wall if i try and complain?
 
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Mattg said:
I would expect to receive some compensation (at least 5,000 Qantas points each) if you complain. This is clearly not a normal occurrence.
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Agree with mattg. You should follow this up with an email to customer care and ask for compensation. Specifying the amount - such as 5000 points or $20, whatever - will give them a figure to base their response on.
 
Very abnormal.

Agree a (fair and reasonably worded) complaint likely to (should) yield some rebate of points.
 
LPS144 said:
Hi All

I had an unpleasant experience on Friday (11/02) on QF 486 (A330) in J class.

We were in Melbourne for my wife's 30th, i bid and landed a successful upgrade bid for our flight back to Sydney. Wouldn't usually bid for such a short flight but was a low price and special occasion and been a while since i was up the front so thought why not.

Anyways as we were sitting ready to go I could sense a slight delay and then just before we were due to depart they announced that no one had bothered to cater the flight! Having a look at FR24 the plane hadn't been used for 2-3 days prior so its not like they didn't have any time to stock it up.

The pilot made the decision to depart so we could all get to Sydney at a reasonable time (which i didnt mind) but all we were given was a cup of water and a small packet of nuts. Both on the ground in Melbourne and just as we got to Sydney were told a QF rep will be there with vouchers to use in the terminal.

As we spoke to the rep in Sydney she explained no one had told her up until 5min before we landed and that Qantas prefers to focus on on-time performance.

Is this a common thing with Qantas am i ranting too much or can I put in a complaint? you pay for a service and obviously to get to a destination safely but am i banging my head against a brick wall if i try and complain?
Click to expand...
I experienced the exact same thing on a SYD-MEL about 6 weeks ago.
 
TheInsider said:
6 weeks ago would've been due to the high covid numbers in DNATA catering and their sick leave.
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Indeed, no doubt. The lack of catering wasn't so much the odd thing as the crew informing the plane that ground staff were ready and waiting with vouchers at the service desk and then those staff having absolutely no idea what the arriving passengers were talking about when they approached them.
 
ozstamps said:
5000 points -- or $20? :rolleyes:

Your time is worth far more than that to send a letter.

Start by asking for a $A200 voucher or 20,000 points each.

They screwed up -- not an issue of the customer's making.
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I think it’s the principle? It will cost QF far more than 5000/$20 to arrange compensation.

In terms of the level of compensation, I value QFd J meals at around $2.50 per passenger. The 5000/$20 reflects the cost to buy a sarnie at the airport.
 
Thanks for everyone's input, I've sent off complaint a so we'll see what they say (if anything!) and in what timeframe.

But to the point above that's probably the thing I'm most confused about both cabin crew and captain confirmed prior to departure and upon arrival that there were vouchers available. Now surely they (Qantas) would know at that time of evening no eateries would be open and looked to fob off any complaints and had a PR person ready in waiting.
 
Franky said:
I would have thought that was the first thing to come to mind...
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It looked like the OP bid with cash rather than points, but equally that'd be a logical starting position. "I wouldn't have bid had catering not been part of the experience" perhaps.

While this was on a 330 and the hard product is substantially different, catering is a marketed point of difference and it's worth a shot?
 
Just a comment on the comment that the A330 had not flown for a few days per FR24.

it's not really relevant to catering IMO (unless, of course, the aircraft came in late, and they were aiming for a super quick turn for some reason, though unlikely on an A330). It's a reasonable thing to check in case it was a late arriving aircraft, but given bag loading and all they would have time to load catering anyway.

My point more is a general one that aircraft catering is more or less done to a "just in time" ideal - while catering knows scheduled flights, pax, special meal requests etc 24h prior and they begin the prep process hours and hours before for large numbers of meals, the actual freezing of meals in the carts and delivery to aircraft is planned to be as close to departure as possible (additionally this is why the infamous Catering Not Assured message can show up with last minute upgrades or flight changes).

So even if the aircraft was sitting on the ground all night catering would not be loaded then of course.

(agree, some form of compensation would be due. Even though it is a pretty short flight and all it should be there).

seems like a SNAFU. Never had that happen with QF before. Once on AA (and that was due to an accident of the catering truck on its way to the aircraft - oops!).

Hopefully OP and wife got to enjoy the lounge offerings!
 
RichardMEL said:
Just a comment on the comment that the A330 had not flown for a few days per FR24.

it's not really relevant to catering IMO (unless, of course, the aircraft came in late, and they were aiming for a super quick turn for some reason, though unlikely on an A330). It's a reasonable thing to check in case it was a late arriving aircraft, but given bag loading and all they would have time to load catering anyway.

My point more is a general one that aircraft catering is more or less done to a "just in time" ideal - while catering knows scheduled flights, pax, special meal requests etc 24h prior and they begin the prep process hours and hours before for large numbers of meals, the actual freezing of meals in the carts and delivery to aircraft is planned to be as close to departure as possible (additionally this is why the infamous Catering Not Assured message can show up with last minute upgrades or flight changes).

So even if the aircraft was sitting on the ground all night catering would not be loaded then of course.

(agree, some form of compensation would be due. Even though it is a pretty short flight and all it should be there).

seems like a SNAFU. Never had that happen with QF before. Once on AA (and that was due to an accident of the catering truck on its way to the aircraft - oops!).

Hopefully OP and wife got to enjoy the lounge offerings!
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Yeah my FR24 reference was more out of sarcasm as to how you miss a A330 sitting at the terminal for some time. To be fair it was at the gate for at least 2 hours prior to departure so wasn't a need to turn things around quickly as possible.

We did get to enjoy the lounge but I held off on eating too much as I wanted to save some room for the trip home - lesson learnt!!

I'll see what Qantas has to say if I get a reply at all.
 
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