No Qantas lounge in Paris - they lied!

[haydensydney]

....and probably had to get one of his grandkids to program his VCR to stop it flashing 12:00.

Awesome... love the VCR call - probably the best comment on this thread.

 

[docjames]

/Slightly OT but i'll plead relevance to character discussion in this thread/

I'm not IT wonder, but cant admin see the IP address of posters? In which case couldnt it be determined if the OP was posting from within the bowels of crikey???

/on topic/

THis thread is a big blowout for a simple:
- i was told one thing
- There was another situation to what i was told.

Welcome to travel - things dont always go as planned.

 

[serfty]

The OP has not used their handle to view any of the replies; their last activity was the same date and time as post one was submitted.

 

[moa999]

New post on crikey from poster "oldgran" which appears to provide additional detail to the OPs circumstances

The point is this – Qantas take money off you to belong to The Qantas Club which boasts you have access to clubs around the world. LIES!!! Dr Bruce is a paid up Qantas club member and also a silver frequent flyer.
Before I confirmed the booking I rang Qantas. I explained that I was travelling with 2 young Grandchildren and would not book code share flights unless I knew for certain we had lounge access. Our flight out of paris departed at 11.30pm, I knew by then the children would be btired and felt they could settle in queit lounge and maybe even fall asleep – they had 28 hours of flying time alone ahead of them.

This is what I was told by Qantas staffer….`If you book Air France flight direct then you will have no lounge access. However, because you are booking Qantas flights and it happens to be a code share flight out of Paris then naturally you have all the benefits of your Qantas club membership and can use the lounge in Paris. As long as you book code share flights through Qantas, and the flight carries a Qantas flight number (which ours did) then its just the same as travellign ona Qantas operated flight.’. Now that to be is a pretty dedfinate and specific answer. But no, we find ourselves at CDG airport, Sunday night and they had one cafe open. They were ready to close at 7.50pm and we managed to buy 2 bowls of soup which was the last of their real food, The only other offerings were cakes, chocolate and desserts. We knew the children would not be able to stay awake until the in flight dinner was served so were grateful to buy for 20 Euros the 2 bowls of soup.

The flight departed one hour late and the meal was finally served at 2am Paris time, the children were sound asleep. I was told to go to the galley when the children woke and they could have their diunners then. But no, the attendant looked up from his magazine to wave his hand and say meal service was over but the children could have Hot Spicy Noodles, Ice cream of a Tuna sandwich. We went for the snadwich which was a dry as!
Finally breakfast is served and my darlings who had eaten nothingof any real substance for 12 hours were served up a tub of very very sweet stewed fruit, a cup of juice, a dry crumbly fruit bun and a tub of Nutella. I asked for fruit or cereal and they said, Madam, this is breakfast.
So I told them I was unhappy, that the children had had no dinner and was told Madam, their meals are in the galley. Great I said, please bring them now. Oh no madam, they are dinner meals not breakfast meals!
The issue with seating was that for each leg of the journey, our seats had been reassigned so we find at check in we are not seated together. This despite seats having been assigned on booking. Boarding in sydney, for the last leg of our marathon flight we were seated in 4 different rows! The rude madam at the gate screamed at Bruce, I am closing this flight you can take or leave your sassigned seats.

All i can say is this, qantas must be raking it in if they can afford to treat folk who travel internationally with them at least 6 times a year, often two trips a year to Europe. We have been Frequent Flyer and Qantas club members since 1994.

Now they can have all the policies they want, that is their prerogative, however, what I WILL NOT tolerate is being lied nor abused. QANTAS, our relationship is over.

Is written in a very similar manner to the original post.

I do like however the use of the words "lies" - rather than incompetent Qantas phone service person.
and how QF is blamed for the bad service on AF

 

[drron]

"All i can say is this, qantas must be raking it in if they can afford to treat folk who travel internationally with them at least 6 times a year, often two trips a year to Europe. We have been Frequent Flyer and Qantas club members since 1994."
So QP member for 15 years and still doesn't know QP availability despite 6 international trips per year.Though i guess with DrBruce still being PS those trips are probably mainly across the ditch as 2 discount Y trips to europe would get him at least the 300 SCs to retain PS.
Again is it really the QF's staff fault.The FT thread I linked to previously has the AF lounge dragons denying access to elites from UA,LH,BMI and others because their airline doesnt pay for access.
Also it is possible that the QF staff thought they were just answering for a QFF SG when answering the question.
Then again as the OP has not even bothered to check the thread(though obviously follows the crikey discussion) i think we are dealing with a one Gripe post individual and we are talking to ourselves.

 

[Moody]

This is what the Qantas website says about associated lounge access.

Sorry - but I am none the wiser about Paris (CDG) and the specifics of an Air France operated flight with a QF flight number. Even I would call to confirm the position on lounge access for the flight, and it sounds like the customer was led astray which resulted in a bad start to the flight.

This was exasperated by an air-crew who couldn't be coughd to re-arrange seating to keep a family together or provide anything but the stipulated meals service.

Yes - this was not Qantas metal or check-in/lounge/air-crew, but if they want to put a premium on the QF brand then they need to back it up with QF-quality service. This is the heart of the matter and is something that Qantas have to sort out. I should say that in all the QF/BA flights my family have been on I have never had a bad experience with air-crew, and find it strange that the AF crew were so unsympathetic. I certainly won't be trying their service out.

 

[mannej]

I think this is more a case of poor information being handed over by the QF staff then anyone lying.
The information regarding lounge availability is available on the QF website, which from what I can see does not list CDG as an associated lounge.

Moody, QF clearly do not have CDG on their list of associated lounges.
Fly - The Qantas Club - Lounge Locations - UK/Europe

I have heard mixed reviews on AF, but you can not blame QF for AF choice of meals, or the fact the flight was delayed one hour.

And in regards to the seating allocation, QF do not promise that you will keep the original seat allocations, so in a sense commonsense was lacking, but they do state in their T&C's that seat allocations can be changed at any time.

So I find that with the evidence presented, the OP was not lied to or abused. They were given bad advice (which they could have found out themselves on the QP T&C website), and did not have the best of luck with the flights.

Heck, it happens to everyone from time to time, its a matter of luck.

 

[medhead]

Also it is possible that the QF staff thought they were just answering for a QFF SG when answering the question.

the lastest quote from crikey specifically addresses this suggestion and goes to some length to explain that they made it clear it wasn't just a SG travelling.

Not that I'm sure that should be accepted as true or not.

In terms of lounge access the trouble with quoting the T&C is that the SG was let into the lounge. On what basis. Clearly not as an assoicate lounge from the T&C. But then what and why did that happen.

 

[docjames]

Methinks crikey has no real news to focus on - perhaps a bit less QF-bash and a bit more critique of the Copenhagen conference would be a better use of crikey's time........

 

[Travel Guru]

Methinks crikey has no real news to focus on - perhaps a bit less QF-bash and a bit more critique of the Copenhagen conference would be a better use of crikey's time........

Me things the OP and Crikey both need to get a life!

TG

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Are there any dedicated OW lounges?
I thought that there was a dedicated Star Alliance Lounge in SIN?

 

[moa999]

No 'oneworld' branded lounges,
although the LAX TBIT lounge and LHR T4 come close as multi-airline JV lounges

As for the Star lounges, well CDG is meant to be a Star lounge, unless you belong to certain members.

 

[JohnK]

THis thread is a big blowout for a simple:
- i was told one thing
- There was another situation to what i was told.

Welcome to travel - things dont always go as planned.

Agree. This is now reply #53.

The OP has not used their handle to view any of the replies; their last activity was the same date and time as post one was submitted.

It is possible to view a thread without using a handle to gauge the responses to the thread. If responses are negative and attack the OP then why bother replying?

 

[drron]

Are there any dedicated OW lounges?
I thought that there was a dedicated Star Alliance Lounge in SIN?

Yes i have been in the Admirals Club in CDG.
Of course travelling on AF means you would not get in and probably a long way from their gate or even terminal.

 

[Danger]

In the interests of clarity, a QFF Gold flying on the AF codeshare (QF flight number) does or does not have lounge access at CDG?

 

[drron]

In the interests of clarity, a QFF Gold flying on the AF codeshare (QF flight number) does or does not have lounge access at CDG?

Is some one game enough to ring QFF and find out?:shock:

 

[Danger]

Is some one game enough to ring QFF and find out

Okay, I bit the bullet.

I phoned Qantas Premium and asked the following: as a Qantas FF Gold, travelling on the Qantas flight number on the Air France codeshare between Singapore and Paris, would I receive lounge access at (i) Singapore and (ii) Paris?


The response went like this:

1. "Let me have a look at the Gold benefits."
2. Long wait.
3. "I'm going to pop you on hold and ask someone. Won't be long."
4. Long wait.
5. "You've gotta be flying on a oneworld marketed and operated flight. The only exclusion to that is if it's an Australian port with a Qantas Lounge."
6. I asked "So even with the joint lounge in Singapore?"
7. "That's what I'm told, because it's not a QF lounge."
8. "Would you mind holding again for one moment?"
9. "Sure," I said.
10. Long wait.
11. "Correction. I just phoned the Singapore lounge directly and, yes, if you're flying on the QF flight number you do have access to the lounge." But wait, it gets better.
12. "And if you're on the same codeshare flight on the return Paris-Singapore, you'll have access to an Air France Lounge."
13. "Oh, the L'Espace Lounge?" I asked.
14. "Yes, that's the one."
15. "So that's for a Gold FF?" I clarified.
16. "That's for anyone that has Qantas Club access; they have access to the Air France Lounge."

I repeat my statement from many posts ago - the Qantas rules and regulations (for lounge access and points earning) are not in any way clear or easy to understand.

Now I reckon I could guarantee that if five people called Qantas and asked them the same question they'd have a similar experience (ie. long waits and call on hold) but get varied responses. It is not an easy program to understand.

 

[drron]

So QF may indeed have an arrangement with AF re lounge access.The problem therefore could as has been stated in the FT thread i linked to be the AF lounge dragons at CDG.

 

[Aus ATC]

My own experience as an SG + wife travelling QFxx_x code share CDG-SIN in April this year. I did not check with QFA re access, but enquired at an Air France office in Paris the day before our flight. After what seemed like genuine effort to find out, the consultant advised that access to L'espace lounge would not be available. I'm not sure if they were looking from the perspective of QP or OWS membership.

After check-in we try our luck anyway, and had no trouble getting access (me + guest). I don't know whether the rules provide for the access (they seemed to based on how our access was processed), or if we got lucky!

 

[luckypierre]

Yes i have been in the Admirals Club in CDG.
Of course travelling on AF means you would not get in and probably a long way from their gate or even terminal.

Likewise. We were travelling on the return trek to OZ 30/11/09 , CDG to LHR on a BA flight. We walked up to the AA Admirals club and were given access. The lounge didn't seem overly busy for a friday evening. Basic facilities, quiet and wifi access