Having just spent a little over two weeks in China and undertaking a very QF-Centric journey (and given my recent rantings about issues at Qantas!) I thought it might be nice to give a (largely) positive recap of my QF experience. I had hoped to be able to provide a better report card, however unfortunatley in the home stretch the big Q let themself down a little.
The Intl legs were originally supposed to be simple. SYD-PEK then PVG-SYD. Of course, SYD-PEK was cancelled about a month after I booked it. Not a problem, re-routed SYD-HKG-PEK on QF/KA. Doesn't bother me too much - I've always quite enjoyed Dragon Air. A month out, QF127 is rescheduled so the KA connection doesn't work, whoops, now I'm doing SYD-PVG-PEK with a QF codeshare on a domestic China Eastern flight. Add to this about 5 changes to the domestic QF/QLink legs and we have some messed up travel plans! No big drama though (however not once did anyone in the QF call centre say "oh sorry for all these changes" - seemed like they all thought they were doing me a favour).
Not to worry, day 1 comes and I'm not overly bothered. Didn't suspect any problems (surely the QF call centre staff know how to change bookings...) and my two domestic legs go off without any dramas. Day 2 and its off to SYD Intl to checkin for QF129 to PVG. We arrive at checkin about 1:45 before the flight - later than I had planned due to a hectic Avis drop off desk. At the counter the checkin lady swipes my passport only to go "hmm". "hmm"... that can't be good.
"Have you changed your flight?"
"Well I haven't no, but there were a few schedule changes"
"hmm well we have you going to Hong Kong but then a domestic PVG-PEK. Give me a minute"
So off she wanders to the desk down near First checkin. We stand waiting... and waiting... and waiting... 20 minutes later she returns holding papers and what I figured was a problem solved.
"Sorry I took so long, that was just waiting to print the e-ticket. I've got to go across to ticketing now"
So off she trots and I cop some very unhappy stares from the now very large Business checkin line that I'm holding up. 30 minutes passes... there we still stand. Finally (as the flight is called as closing) she returns.
"Sorry about that, someone forgot to cancel the Dragonair flight and it messed up the whole booking. I had to reticket the whole thing"
It was a bit of a pain, but in the end (so I thought) no harm was done. We did miss breakfast in the QP though! The flight was at final call as we passed through security. Interestingly, our bags were only tagged as far as PVG and no onwards boarding pass was issued (nor were we given any instructions on the connection in PVG). I know we'd have had to clear customs in PVG anyway, but I'd assumed our bags would be tagged through so that a simple dropoff at the domestic transfer desk was all that would be required.
Doesn't sound like a positive start to my positive report! However once onboard, things began to turn around. The CSM greeted us with a warm good morning at the door before glancing at my boarding pass and offering a "Welcome back Mr R". Doesn't happen often on QF so I was impressed. All the crew on this particular flight were very pleasant. The A330 was a new one and was thus in good shape - shame about the little PTV's though. The next supprise was after takeoff. The advertised "Breakfast" service (which I was not happy about) had become a "Lunch" so by 11am we were chop-stick deep in noodles with a full bar service. The food was the best QF economy food I can remember having, and the prearrival refreshment was just as good. I dozed on and off, however I remember the crew making at least three drinks runs - again, something I haven't seen on QF for a long while. The fairly long flight flew by and we both walked off commenting that it was the best QF (Y) flight we could remember taking. Given my previous poor run, QF was back in my goodbooks even with the pre-flight dramas.
Now... what goes up must unfortunatley come down. The ground arrangements in PVG are non-existant. We collected our bags and (given we had no other instructions) walked towards the domestic connections counter. We find the MU one empty, however another airline employee directs us down a ramp. Here we are met by a domestic screening point and a Chinese security guard yelling "What are you doing? Go get boarding pass!". Ok I wasn't going to argue, we do an about face and walk back into the arrivals area and out the general exit. I find a terminal map and see that we're in T2. MU operate out of T1 which is a fair hike away however I figured its the place to go. While passing a departures screen I try looking for our flight (remembering our ticket only says QF4009 - Operated by China Eastern). Fortunatley I'd thought to look up the MU flight number. After spotting that, I see listed below it "Australian Airlines OS4009" with the orange Australian logo. We drag ourselves into the hectic MU checkin area (about a 10-15 minute walk from arrivals) and find a general checkin line. Fortunatley, the checkin goes off without any dramas.
To the savvy traveller, the above isn't any big drama. However, to those who are not quite so with it, it would have been a huge hassle. There were no QF staff on the ground at all and very few other airline reps spoke English so I can imagine quite a few tired, lost and upset people who were connecting onto the PEK flight. As for the MU flight itself, it departed over an hour late with no announcements and the "Dinner" promised by Qantas was half a dry sandwhich (we were starving so we took what we could get!). It seems as though this MU codeshare agreement has just been slapped together without any real thought as to its implementation and needless to say I wasn't overly impressed. We finally collected our bags in PEK just on 2am local, or 4am Sydney time - 24 hours since dragging ourselves out of bed.
The next two weeks across China were very interesting. Having only been in PEK before it was facinating to see how the country is developing. I don't think they're quite ready to lead the world yet... however at the rate the place is changing I dare say it won't be too much longer.
Unfortunatley the return trip was not quite as good. Checkin was quick and painless. The lounge used is the standard Priority Pass job, so it was basic but did the job. We boarded ontime and sat waiting until the captain perked up and advised that due to "ATC delays" we had been issued a departure slot in an hour and a half and "there's nothing I can do about it so you'll just have to sit and wait". What a lovely way to put it! So there we sat for the next 90 minutes, no service was offered and noone was allowed to use the rest rooms (a number of Chinese passengers copped a serving from the CSM for standing up). The icing on the cake, a FA proceeded through the cabin handing out Australian arrival forms and thought it would be hillarious to rudely remark "You want a Chinese one yeah?" FYI, for those that don't know me, I'm as white as can be! Just what everyone needed during a long delay - a smart cough!
Eventually we got airbourne and on our way to SYD. The PVG loaded food was well below the standard of the SYD stuff coming over, and once the dinner service was complete the crew were never to be seen again (I had to call twice for the beer I'd asked for with dinner). After being so impressed with the trip over - the run home wasn't overly good. Somehow, though, we arrived just ten minutes late.
After one night back home in SYD it was time to head back to lovely ROK. I arrived at about 6:40 for the 7:35 SYD-BNE. I'd tried to checkin online however received an error message so proceeded straight to the standard priority checkin counter. Being busy, I wasn't served until 6:55. Then it happens again.
"Good morning. Hmm...." - hmm is never good!
"Have you changed your flight?" - I almost laughed and explained the issue at Intl a few weeks earlier. A few hurried phonecalls and I'm told
"It hasn't been ticketed properly - you'll have to go and call your travel agent" - Helpful, I thought. Fortunatley it was booked online through Qantas so no middleman was involved. This caused yet another hurried phone call with the agent looking up saying "You're going to miss your flight". Finally, after a few quick strokes, it's fixed and I'm boarding passes in hand and told "Go straight to the gate". The next two flights were standard domestic runs - no complaints.
The last little drama was not a nice way to end the experience. I still don't fully understand the problem (all my flight were shown in my FF profile correctly) however from what I gathered someone at the call centre stuffed the change up, and then when the ticket was reissued at Intl it wasn't done properly. I was far from impressed when I was to to "go and call the travel agent" at 7 in the morning when the flight was departing in 35 minutes time - esp considering it was a QF problem to begin with. I can only thank my good judgement that I handled the flights myself. I have no doubt that if a TA was involved I'd still be stuck in SYD - even though it was not a problem with the original booking.
Hmm (there it is again!) so much for my positive report! Even though there were a few problems I must stress that overall I was fairly happy with QF this time around. I think that the China arrangements they have made have been rushed into place without a lot of thought - and hopefully they'll improve. The next long haul will (thankfully) be back in J, and its a very simple SYD-BKK and HKG-SYD with no connections, so surely it can't be stuffed up! Sorry I went on for so long, seems to happen occasionally!
The Intl legs were originally supposed to be simple. SYD-PEK then PVG-SYD. Of course, SYD-PEK was cancelled about a month after I booked it. Not a problem, re-routed SYD-HKG-PEK on QF/KA. Doesn't bother me too much - I've always quite enjoyed Dragon Air. A month out, QF127 is rescheduled so the KA connection doesn't work, whoops, now I'm doing SYD-PVG-PEK with a QF codeshare on a domestic China Eastern flight. Add to this about 5 changes to the domestic QF/QLink legs and we have some messed up travel plans! No big drama though (however not once did anyone in the QF call centre say "oh sorry for all these changes" - seemed like they all thought they were doing me a favour).
Not to worry, day 1 comes and I'm not overly bothered. Didn't suspect any problems (surely the QF call centre staff know how to change bookings...) and my two domestic legs go off without any dramas. Day 2 and its off to SYD Intl to checkin for QF129 to PVG. We arrive at checkin about 1:45 before the flight - later than I had planned due to a hectic Avis drop off desk. At the counter the checkin lady swipes my passport only to go "hmm". "hmm"... that can't be good.
"Have you changed your flight?"
"Well I haven't no, but there were a few schedule changes"
"hmm well we have you going to Hong Kong but then a domestic PVG-PEK. Give me a minute"
So off she wanders to the desk down near First checkin. We stand waiting... and waiting... and waiting... 20 minutes later she returns holding papers and what I figured was a problem solved.
"Sorry I took so long, that was just waiting to print the e-ticket. I've got to go across to ticketing now"
So off she trots and I cop some very unhappy stares from the now very large Business checkin line that I'm holding up. 30 minutes passes... there we still stand. Finally (as the flight is called as closing) she returns.
"Sorry about that, someone forgot to cancel the Dragonair flight and it messed up the whole booking. I had to reticket the whole thing"
It was a bit of a pain, but in the end (so I thought) no harm was done. We did miss breakfast in the QP though! The flight was at final call as we passed through security. Interestingly, our bags were only tagged as far as PVG and no onwards boarding pass was issued (nor were we given any instructions on the connection in PVG). I know we'd have had to clear customs in PVG anyway, but I'd assumed our bags would be tagged through so that a simple dropoff at the domestic transfer desk was all that would be required.
Doesn't sound like a positive start to my positive report! However once onboard, things began to turn around. The CSM greeted us with a warm good morning at the door before glancing at my boarding pass and offering a "Welcome back Mr R". Doesn't happen often on QF so I was impressed. All the crew on this particular flight were very pleasant. The A330 was a new one and was thus in good shape - shame about the little PTV's though. The next supprise was after takeoff. The advertised "Breakfast" service (which I was not happy about) had become a "Lunch" so by 11am we were chop-stick deep in noodles with a full bar service. The food was the best QF economy food I can remember having, and the prearrival refreshment was just as good. I dozed on and off, however I remember the crew making at least three drinks runs - again, something I haven't seen on QF for a long while. The fairly long flight flew by and we both walked off commenting that it was the best QF (Y) flight we could remember taking. Given my previous poor run, QF was back in my goodbooks even with the pre-flight dramas.
Now... what goes up must unfortunatley come down. The ground arrangements in PVG are non-existant. We collected our bags and (given we had no other instructions) walked towards the domestic connections counter. We find the MU one empty, however another airline employee directs us down a ramp. Here we are met by a domestic screening point and a Chinese security guard yelling "What are you doing? Go get boarding pass!". Ok I wasn't going to argue, we do an about face and walk back into the arrivals area and out the general exit. I find a terminal map and see that we're in T2. MU operate out of T1 which is a fair hike away however I figured its the place to go. While passing a departures screen I try looking for our flight (remembering our ticket only says QF4009 - Operated by China Eastern). Fortunatley I'd thought to look up the MU flight number. After spotting that, I see listed below it "Australian Airlines OS4009" with the orange Australian logo. We drag ourselves into the hectic MU checkin area (about a 10-15 minute walk from arrivals) and find a general checkin line. Fortunatley, the checkin goes off without any dramas.
To the savvy traveller, the above isn't any big drama. However, to those who are not quite so with it, it would have been a huge hassle. There were no QF staff on the ground at all and very few other airline reps spoke English so I can imagine quite a few tired, lost and upset people who were connecting onto the PEK flight. As for the MU flight itself, it departed over an hour late with no announcements and the "Dinner" promised by Qantas was half a dry sandwhich (we were starving so we took what we could get!). It seems as though this MU codeshare agreement has just been slapped together without any real thought as to its implementation and needless to say I wasn't overly impressed. We finally collected our bags in PEK just on 2am local, or 4am Sydney time - 24 hours since dragging ourselves out of bed.
The next two weeks across China were very interesting. Having only been in PEK before it was facinating to see how the country is developing. I don't think they're quite ready to lead the world yet... however at the rate the place is changing I dare say it won't be too much longer.
Unfortunatley the return trip was not quite as good. Checkin was quick and painless. The lounge used is the standard Priority Pass job, so it was basic but did the job. We boarded ontime and sat waiting until the captain perked up and advised that due to "ATC delays" we had been issued a departure slot in an hour and a half and "there's nothing I can do about it so you'll just have to sit and wait". What a lovely way to put it! So there we sat for the next 90 minutes, no service was offered and noone was allowed to use the rest rooms (a number of Chinese passengers copped a serving from the CSM for standing up). The icing on the cake, a FA proceeded through the cabin handing out Australian arrival forms and thought it would be hillarious to rudely remark "You want a Chinese one yeah?" FYI, for those that don't know me, I'm as white as can be! Just what everyone needed during a long delay - a smart cough!
Eventually we got airbourne and on our way to SYD. The PVG loaded food was well below the standard of the SYD stuff coming over, and once the dinner service was complete the crew were never to be seen again (I had to call twice for the beer I'd asked for with dinner). After being so impressed with the trip over - the run home wasn't overly good. Somehow, though, we arrived just ten minutes late.
After one night back home in SYD it was time to head back to lovely ROK. I arrived at about 6:40 for the 7:35 SYD-BNE. I'd tried to checkin online however received an error message so proceeded straight to the standard priority checkin counter. Being busy, I wasn't served until 6:55. Then it happens again.
"Good morning. Hmm...." - hmm is never good!
"Have you changed your flight?" - I almost laughed and explained the issue at Intl a few weeks earlier. A few hurried phonecalls and I'm told
"It hasn't been ticketed properly - you'll have to go and call your travel agent" - Helpful, I thought. Fortunatley it was booked online through Qantas so no middleman was involved. This caused yet another hurried phone call with the agent looking up saying "You're going to miss your flight". Finally, after a few quick strokes, it's fixed and I'm boarding passes in hand and told "Go straight to the gate". The next two flights were standard domestic runs - no complaints.
The last little drama was not a nice way to end the experience. I still don't fully understand the problem (all my flight were shown in my FF profile correctly) however from what I gathered someone at the call centre stuffed the change up, and then when the ticket was reissued at Intl it wasn't done properly. I was far from impressed when I was to to "go and call the travel agent" at 7 in the morning when the flight was departing in 35 minutes time - esp considering it was a QF problem to begin with. I can only thank my good judgement that I handled the flights myself. I have no doubt that if a TA was involved I'd still be stuck in SYD - even though it was not a problem with the original booking.
Hmm (there it is again!) so much for my positive report! Even though there were a few problems I must stress that overall I was fairly happy with QF this time around. I think that the China arrangements they have made have been rushed into place without a lot of thought - and hopefully they'll improve. The next long haul will (thankfully) be back in J, and its a very simple SYD-BKK and HKG-SYD with no connections, so surely it can't be stuffed up! Sorry I went on for so long, seems to happen occasionally!
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