Qantas Frequent Flyer Service Centre takes 2 months to reply

[Mattg]

Back in October, I received an offer of 50% bonus status credits on flights to London.

It was unclear from the offer T&Cs whether this would earn 50% status credits only on flights from Australia to London, or whether it would also apply in the other direction and/or to flights to NZ. I was thinking about booking a trip from LHR to AKL, so I emailed the Qantas Frequent Flyer Service Centre with a copy of the promotional email attached to enquire about this.

Today, in December, I finally received a reply which didn't actually answer my question at all and asked me to send them a copy of the offer email (again). The thing is, this promotion already expired in October and I have already booked my flights... with another airline!

With this kind of service, I don't think Qantas deserves my business.

 

[Spongbob]

Would Qantas record this a a "resolved" customer matter in their Annual Report?

 

[Mattg]

Would Qantas record this a a "resolved" customer matter in their Annual Report?

I'm sure they would!

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I am only surprised they replied at all.

 

[Rangalad]

Back in October, I received an offer of 50% bonus status credits on flights to London.

It was unclear from the offer T&Cs whether this would earn 50% status credits only on flights from Australia to London, or whether it would also apply in the other direction and/or to flights to NZ. I was thinking about booking a trip from LHR to AKL, so I emailed the Qantas Frequent Flyer Service Centre with a copy of the promotional email attached to enquire about this.

Today, in December, I finally received a reply which didn't actually answer my question at all and asked me to send them a copy of the offer email (again). The thing is, this promotion already expired in October and I have already booked my flights... with another airline!

With this kind of service, I don't think Qantas deserves my business.

Had a similar but opposite situation.
Major service delivery failure by Emirates.
Submitted a complaint, nothing for almost two months. Then out of the blue, a two page apology from Qantas. Banged on about how valuable our frequent flyers are, and a ‘genuine’ apology for the service delivery failure. There was however, no QF involvement. Appears EK hand balled it to QF as I was booked as QF*.

Resubmitted a complaint to EK, was advised very bluntly: the matter is closed, you have received a response. No further action will be taken.

 

[N860CR]

That's pretty common with the middle eastern airlines unfortunatley. Actually most in the ME struggle quite a bit with customer service.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I went back and forth with them for over 12months a couple of years ago regarding an online shopping mall purchase. I spent over $1k on a promotion that was 5pts per $. Didn't get anything in the end - despite the merchant putting in writing that I wan entitled to the points.

What frustrates me is that each email you send them raises a new Service Request. They claim to all be tied back to your profile, but it was evident that each SR was being treated as a new case. So they would respond asking for more information. I'd reply, and that reply generated a new SR. So another agent would pickup this new SR and ask for more information, I would reply again, raising yet another SR. It got to the point where I was starting each response off with a list of all the previous SR's on the topic. Finally, I got the silent treatment by then and never heard any more about it.

 

[33kft]

Actually most in the ME struggle quite a bit with customer service.

What's interesting is that in most cases, those who don't have to deal with anything going wrong will tend to find MEA airlines to be very good based on price, network and in-flight service. Yet when something goes wrong and you deal with their ground staff, you may be astonished to see how they operate. I have refused for years now to deal with a particular MEA carrier on exactly this basis, after experiencing how they handled a minor mix up. Spoiler: they had a chef masquerade as a manager to deal with a complaint (lucky I was thinking on my feet), and while dealing with it, I had to intervene on behalf of a fellow passenger, a confused and upset lady being yelled at by a man behind their customer service desk - it's a different world for some of these carriers as some find out the hard way during IRROPS.

 

[exceladdict]

Two months, wow. And I was getting upset about two hour replies on sms

 

[Colesmore]

Spoiler: they had a chef masquerade as a manager to deal with a complaint (lucky I was thinking on my feet), and while dealing with it, I had to intervene on behalf of a fellow passenger, a confused and upset lady being yelled at by a man behind their customer service desk - it's a different world for some of these carriers as some find out the hard way during IRROPS.

This sounds like a skit from a TV show, if it was, I'm hooked. Surely you can fill us in a little bit more?

 

[N860CR]

What's interesting is that in most cases, those who don't have to deal with anything going wrong will tend to find MEA airlines to be very good based on price, network and in-flight service. Yet when something goes wrong and you deal with their ground staff, you may be astonished to see how they operate. I have refused for years now to deal with a particular MEA carrier on exactly this basis, after experiencing how they handled a minor mix up. Spoiler: they had a chef masquerade as a manager to deal with a complaint (lucky I was thinking on my feet), and while dealing with it, I had to intervene on behalf of a fellow passenger, a confused and upset lady being yelled at by a man behind their customer service desk - it's a different world for some of these carriers as some find out the hard way during IRROPS.

Yes. And people don’t seem to listen when you try to tell them. I’ve flown Emirates in business maybe 6 times and can honestly say they were below average at best. Etihad was terrible. Yet I always hear stories about how great they are... RJ is without a doubt the worst airline I’ve ever flown (and their followup service was shocking) but I guess they’re not exactly highly regarded.

 

[serfty]

What frustrates me is that each email you send them raises a new Service Request. They claim to all be tied back to your profile, but it was evident that each SR was being treated as a new case. So they would respond asking for more information. I'd reply, and that reply generated a new SR. So another agent would pickup this new SR and ask for more information, I would reply again, raising yet another SR. It got to the point where I was starting each response off with a list of all the previous SR's on the topic. Finally, I got the silent treatment by then and never heard any more about it.

This is where a collection of SR numbers can assist. I think I had 5 to quote (You enter them in onto the web form) when I used the ACA to get redress for an issue a couple of years ago.

Industry Ombudsmen & Dispute Resolution

Here you can discuss how you have used the Airline Customer Advocate or another Industry Ombudsmen to resolve issues you have had with companies providing services.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au