Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[gwilli1]

Just adding my experience ...Epic fail on priority boarding this afternoon on QF438 in Melb . No priority boarding called . Did try to call by rows to board , epic fail again here . everyone just swarmed to get on . Its just not happening & frankly from what i saw today staff don't give a damn. End of rant .

 

[TheInsider]

Its just not happening & frankly from what i saw today staff don't give a damn. End of rant .

FWIW alot of staff don't give a damn. Just like their local managers don't give a damn about their staff. Although there are quite a few staff that do try and try and try but eventually just give up as no-one cares.

Also i know people here will say that they will just fly another carrier in the future and use that as a 'threat', but the staff couldn't care, alot would like a package anyway

 

[Moopere]

Hope everyone is emailing either QF or Red Roo with these PB failures. Flight numbers and dates are being posted and should be enough information. Surely management (now) care? DJ is outdoing QF on this front by miles

 

[Oneworldplus2]

DJ is outdoing QF on this front by miles

1) From what l saw in BNE a few days ago, DJ/VA are miles in front!!!
2) QF is still only doing a half a$$ed job of PB, because QF Golds are missing out.

 

[gwilli1]

Hope everyone is emailing either QF or Red Roo with these PB failures. Flight numbers and dates are being posted and should be enough information. Surely management (now) care? DJ is outdoing QF on this front by miles

Yes , I dropped a message through to Red Roo tonight . Whilst I didn't qualify for PB today , it can't be fixed if they don't get any feedback on what is happening out there.
And your right , VA is killing it with PB at the moment . I travelled with them yesterday & it is working a treat.

 

[frankxinyu]

DJ is outdoing QF on this front by miles

i think every other airline is in front on this

 

[Hvr]

Last night QF822 MEL-CBR, I left the lounge before the call but when the sign changed to 'proceed to gate'. Arrived at gate 9 and boarding had started with a long line for regular boarding. There was a priority line with very few people in it.

Crossed through the regular line, got a few dagger looks and boarded via the priority boarding line.

This is how it should work.

 

[tm.smile]

Just did a round australia trip on Virgin and I cannot believe how easily priority boarding can work. Have matched DJ gold and on 6 out of 7 flights i did not have to wait to board - breezed through the queue and had BP scanned (each time with only one gate agent boarding pax). Travelling as a standby, status isn't shown on pass or in booking, but wasn't questioned once. I think the different coloured signs help with differentiating between priority and regular boarding.

Can't believe how much of a shambles Qantas continues to be in this regard. How difficult is it to have proper signage and consistently enforce priority queues?!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

ok ok!! I think we get the picture now... virgin Australia can do it, all American airlines can do it, Cathay pacific and dragon air can do it, even the birds and bees can do it...

this really doesn't bode well for the new super supreme qantas Asia airline. if they don't see it as a priority in Australia, they certainly aren't going to see it as a priority elsewhere. passengers on asian sectors paying premium fares will not appreciate that (especially given the amount of carry on in those regions)

 

[Timba-Jet]

On my SYD-MEL/MEL-SYD flight last week, PB was very organised.

On first flight I hung around til the end to observe, also was a bit hesitant to jump to huge queue on Xmas eve.

2nd flight, no hesitations skipped by long queue, to empty lane, agent saw me and motioned me through

So QF can do it well, just not all the time.

 

[straitman]

On my SYD-MEL/MEL-SYD flight last week, PB was very organised.

On first flight I hung around til the end to observe, also was a bit hesitant to jump to huge queue on Xmas eve.

2nd flight, no hesitations skipped by long queue, to empty lane, agent saw me and motioned me through

So QF can do it well, just not all the time.

It's a case of the usual consistently, inconsistent from Qantas.

 

[reductionist]

It would be interesting to know what level of "completeness" various levels of QF staff/management see the implementation of this benefit being at.

Red Roo should obviously know from reading reports here (I hope) that it's only partially implemented.

The FAs seemingly appear to have completed implementation in accordance with their enthusiasm for their job, sometimes with funny interpretations of the rules.

And management? I'll go ahead and speculate. They ran the trial. They sent out a memo and had some signs put up at the gates. Are they done with this issue now? It sure seems like it. Maybe they were hoping a few signs would shut us up.

I like many others see the broader issue of inconsistent service throughout the whole organization. If possible they need to put someone on charge of fixing this. Someone who can make uncooperative heads roll if need be.

In the mean time I guess stepping up the amount of feedback we send (good & bad) is an appropriate course of action. :/

 

[dfcatch]

IMHO - I see the half-hearted in consistent implementation of PB as fitting in perfectly with the corporate culture of refusing to offer it in the first place (despite it being a published benefit).

I maintain my initial speculation that there remains a particular senior manager/executive in place who opposed PB - eventually got overruled - but whom is in charge of its implementation.

It's the only plausible explanation for this sorry saga.

 

[dk4]

I like many others see the broader issue of inconsistent service throughout the whole organization. If possible they need to put someone on charge of fixing this. Someone who can make uncooperative heads roll if need be.

They did have someone at the top, dealing with this issue -
Qantas aims for better customer service with $10m training centre | News.com.au

Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti ... said one of the main changes Qantas passengers could expect as a result of the new centre was more consistency in the airline's customer service.

But, then he jumped ship.

So in typical Qantas executive style, someone probably good at playing the internal politics game, but not so good at managing people & delivering results, ended up in charge of "our experience" Visit the Qantas Centre of Service Excellence, - another great Qantas enhancement!

But remember one of the big problems for Qantas, with priority "anything", is that thanks to its two brand strategy, the proportion of its customers that think they deserve to fall into the priority category (F, J, CL, WP1, WP, SG, PS, 1W, QP, reality-TV-stars, CIP...) is so high, that non-priority queues (i.e. those few non-priorities sitting in the back two rows of an evening 737 service, who haven't moved on to Jetstar yet) could be shorter than the priority ones!

 

[TiredOldFlyer]

Problem seems to be loading through the front door - a better solution would be to load rear rows first so paxs sorting themselves out don't block
the isles. Many US domestic airlines do this and if it is policed works well.

On Xmas eve BNE to MEL there was a priority boarding lane but it had a bigger line up than the "ordinary" line.

By the way has anybody worked out what the prize is for disembarking first ? Must be good by the pushing and shoving that goes on !

 

[TheInsider]

So in typical Qantas executive style, someone probably good at playing the internal politics game, but not so good at managing people & delivering results, ended up in charge of "our experience" Visit the Qantas Centre of Service Excellence, - another great Qantas enhancement!

This centre is only for cabin crew, not ground staff. QF wouldn't pay for all ground staff to travel to SYD from outside ports.

 

[Kangol]

Problem seems to be loading through the front door - a better solution would be to load rear rows first so paxs sorting themselves out don't block
the isles. Many US domestic airlines do this and if it is policed works well.

On Xmas eve BNE to MEL there was a priority boarding lane but it had a bigger line up than the "ordinary" line.

By the way has anybody worked out what the prize is for disembarking first ? Must be good by the pushing and shoving that goes on !

On the AA domestic flights I've been on, they only board through the front door and their priority boarding works perfectly. Part of it is probably due to the culture there where passengers know who do (and don't) get priority. If you've seen it in action, it will bring a tear to your eye - it's that good.
Kinda reminds me of the "give a man a fish - feed him for a day, teach a man to fish - feed him for a lifetime" saying...

Anyway, I flew on Christmas Eve MEL-ADL and got there after boarding commenced - PB worked a treat! (not that I was flying J or WP/OWE) Two lanes, general was full, priority was empty, 2 FAs scanning BPs with both scanning the general line as no PB passengers were there at the time. They must've done something right, but given that I got there late I wasn't around to hear their boarding call. Maybe people simply read the sign and obeyed it? Then again this is the first flight I've been on since PB was officially introduced.

The prize for disembarking first is a secret! Try it and let us know what you think of it...

 

[milehighclub]

This centre is only for cabin crew, not ground staff. QF wouldn't pay for all ground staff to travel to SYD from outside ports.

Qantas paid for nearly 18,000 employees to do one day training during throughout most of 2009. Employees came from as far as London, and certainly from around Australia. (Obviously no cost for those who lived in Sydney)

The centre is for all employees although is predominately used by cabin crew for training, other departments can use it. It also gets used from outsiders who pay to use the facilities (and allows Qantas to showcase it's products)

 

[samiam]

So in typical Qantas executive style, someone probably good at playing the internal politics game, but not so good at managing people & delivering results, ended up in charge of "our experience" Visit the Qantas Centre of Service Excellence, - another great Qantas enhancement!

Who is this person? Are you joking or stating a fact based on something that you know?

But remember one of the big problems for Qantas, with priority "anything", is that thanks to its two brand strategy, the proportion of its customers that think they deserve to fall into the priority category (F, J, CL, WP1, WP, SG, PS, 1W, QP, reality-TV-stars, CIP...) is so high, that non-priority queues (i.e. those few non-priorities sitting in the back two rows of an evening 737 service, who haven't moved on to Jetstar yet) could be shorter than the priority ones!

I know the above statement says 'could' and has a smiley at the end, however the majority of feedback in this particular thread does not support that assumption.

As far as I'm aware, domestic PB has been rolled out since mid-November at some ports (at the earliest) - all up less than 6 weeks...

I'm all for giving things a chance, before forming a glass-half-full opinion.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

FWIW alot of staff don't give a damn. Just like their local managers don't give a damn about their staff. Although there are quite a few staff that do try and try and try but eventually just give up as no-one cares.

Also i know people here will say that they will just fly another carrier in the future and use that as a 'threat', but the staff couldn't care, alot would like a package anyway

That sounds like a defeatist attitude to have!

There are also a lot of staff who do care & don't give up because they just get on with the job at hand & don't let ineffective management decisions interfere with how they apply themselves to the task at hand which is looking after the customer.

It's really up to the individual & their own work ethic as to how they choose to manage a situation.

To those staff who don't care: if you can't handle the heat, get out of Hiroshima.

Just did a round australia trip on Virgin and I cannot believe how easily priority boarding can work. Have matched DJ gold and on 6 out of 7 flights i did not have to wait to board - breezed through the queue and had BP scanned (each time with only one gate agent boarding pax). Travelling as a standby, status isn't shown on pass or in booking, but wasn't questioned once. I think the different coloured signs help with differentiating between priority and regular boarding.

Can't believe how much of a shambles Qantas continues to be in this regard. How difficult is it to have proper signage and consistently enforce priority queues?!

Are you saying as a staff traveller, you were not entitled to DJ PB, however they overlooked the lack of any status on your boarding pass & you breezed through the queue every time? Technically that would mean that DJ priority boarding isn't working as they are not questioning the bonafides of pax using their PB queue.

You contradict yourself by saying QF PB is a shambles as they are not enforcing the priority queues as DJ are doing exactly the same thing ie not enforcing priority queues as you used DJ PB on 7 occasions when you weren't entitled to but you don't call it a shambles as long as you benefited from that situation.

They did have someone at the top, dealing with this issue -
Qantas aims for better customer service with $10m training centre | News.com.au
But, then he jumped ship!

It was more a case of JB not being given any alternative other than to leave as his 36 years of experience at QF was overlooked in favour of AJ as the QF Board didn't share JB's view of QF as an airline longterm but rather how they could chop it up, sell it off and pocket a nice little bonus for their fire sale.