Qantas law unto themselves - don't waste your time with ACA complaint

[MEL_Traveller]

They can only recommend but not enforce. I don’t know why they exist.

I would suspect they don't want formal regulation so have opted for the 'self regulation' afforded by the ACA.

 

[amaroo]

Assuming your employer booked and paid for the flight - why not seek satisfaction directly from them?

You were within the allotted check-in time, the bag was initially accepted, then rejected, their (assumed) preferred carrier failed in service. Based on all of that - your employer should not be penalising you.

 

[UP4014]

What I have found when heading into an arguement with a company or govt authority is get the names of the staff you spoke to. Even when in a rush I note the name and put other details in later.

When you start naming the staff with the chain of events companies often want you to go away and it gets sorted.

 

[Franky]

Poor Donald he gets the blame for everything!

I'm surprised Scomo didn't get a mention as well...

 

[drron]

Absolutely terrible QF service.Thank goodness I don't have to fly with them.However worth at least an email to consumer affairs in WA.

 

[juddles]

Hmmm,

your narrative is IMHO very clear and believable. And as such I get the anguish that both the events of the day brought, and even worse, the followup. Seems you sufferred one of those moments where just nothing went right with a company....

I also get the reaction by a couple of posters regarding your need to include a reference to Trump - again IMHO, an unnecessary inclusion that devalues your position - but I get that you are so outraged that you reverted to references to other things that you hate.

This sort of experience (and most of us have had them, on whatever airline) are hard to get past, because you know you are in the right, you know you did the correct thing, yet you get bounced off a corporate brick wall in the end - powerlessness is a horrible feeling.

But forget just migrating to Virgin - they are guilty of equal experiences. Try, even though it is hard, to just see that airlines (and other businesses will do this sort of thing to you from time to time. Go Zen....

 

[Legoman]

With Qantas one of my special tags failed and I had enough time to get a paper tag.

I looked at this but the queues were even longer at the baggage kiosks. Twice as many people don't have Q-tags than do, even on FIFO charter flights. My best and only option was to continue with the faulty bag drop machine where I was.

 

[Mrmaxwell]

If you're standing in a queue within T-30 you really need to make a fuss.

Not really an appropriate course of action to be honest in the circumstances.

If my flight is departing within 30mins and I am having baggage issues along with QF ground staff not giving a toss - making a fuss is the exact course of action.

How anyone gets in a line for customer service while their flight is boarding I cannot understand.

 

[Legoman]

Not getting involved but Just need to point out that it makes zero difference if the flight departed 2 minutes early. Passengers are advised that boarding closes 10 minutes prior to departure.

Except that yes it does make a very significant difference because the time requirement is based on what duration they consider is needed logistically for handlers to load the plane. If they were able to depart the plane 3 minutes early as they did, then by extension they could have easily relaxed the check in time requirement by that same 3 minutes when their equipment failed and not suffered any hardship whatsoever. The fact is they simply chose not to do that because some naz_ decided to stop the conveyor with my bag already on it and in the process of being whisked away.

 

[Legoman]

HLO is Hand Luggage Only.

I clearly wasn’t there and don’t know the airport Setup. Having flown out of a small airports only about 5 times, I would still be there well before the cutoff time. Sometimes will checkin and drop bags and then Take car back out to explore.

Yeah right. A really late FIFO flight departs at 6am. If you think I'm getting up at 3am twice a week for Qantas's pleasure so I can explore around a carpark, you are very mistaken.

 

[Legoman]

If my flight is departing within 30mins and I am having baggage issues along with QF ground staff not giving a toss - making a fuss is the exact course of action.

How anyone gets in a line for customer service while their flight is boarding I cannot understand.

I'm curious, what would you have done, exactly? Run through the X-ray past security? Screamed and yelled and stamped your feet in the terminal? Tried to take your check-in bag as hand luggage when it is clearly oversize and overweight? There were a sum total of two accessible Qantas ground staff, one at the baggage check-in, who was extremely young and clearly had no idea how to deal with the situation and the one at the service desk who was behind a counter and trying to deal with at least six other customers with other complaints. Who would you have had your tantrum to? And how would you have done it without being arrested? This is an airport remember. They don't take kindly to obnoxious behaviour and there are CCTV everywhere recording everything you do.

 

[amaroo]

Yeah right. A really late FIFO flight departs at 6am. If you think I'm getting up at 3am twice a week for Qantas's pleasure so I can explore around a carpark, you are very mistaken.

You might need to change your occupation!

 

[opusman]

Making a fuss doesn't mean throwing a tantrum, it means excusing yourself as you push to the front of the queue, and telling the person behind the counter firmly but politely that your flight is closing and the automatic bag check doesn't work.

 

[levelnine]

How did all the other people on your flight check-in on time then?

And what are you expecting Qantas/ACA to do exactly?

Write you a letter that says one check-in bag machine wasn't working on the day?

Write you a letter that says there was a longer queue than usual for manual check-in?

 

[TheInsider]

Except that yes it does make a very significant difference because the time requirement is based on what duration they consider is needed logistically for handlers to load the plane. If they were able to depart the plane 3 minutes early as they did, then by extension they could have easily relaxed the check in time requirement by that same 3 minutes when their equipment failed and not suffered any hardship whatsoever. The fact is they simply chose not to do that because some naz_ decided to stop the conveyor with my bag already on it and in the process of being whisked away.

No it really makes zero difference to any complaint.

 

[Danielb56]

Poor Donald, he gets the blame for everything!

I agree...whats Donald Trump got to do with Qantas issues. The analogy and connection is nonsense...?

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2020

They can only recommend but not enforce. I don’t know why they exist.

I agree- whats the point of ACA if they are powerless to do anything when you are in the right?

 

[Harthagan]

No it really makes zero difference to any complaint.

Especially so given that he was still land-side at the Qantas service desk when the flight departed. What he needed was for the flight to be delayed half an hour!

 

[Blackswan]

ACA is absolutely useless. Seems to have one employee, who simply forwards correspondence back and forth between the PAX and the airline.

I used them for a baggage complaint (damaged suitcase) - they were absolutely useless. They forwarded on correspondence meant for another PAX's complaint.

I ended up telling the ACA that they should not mark the complaint as closed or resolved (hopefully affecting their metrics), and then successfully had the issue dealt with through VCAT small claims.

 

[tgh]

The only thing a hard case airline like Qantas understands is material brand damage -v- the rectification cost.
As a media neophyte you can (perhaps) now understand the power of words and the possible consequences.
The pointless Trump slight saw you lose almost every right wing reader here (the majority) , why would you do that when you were looking for sympathy ?

You probably do have some redress.. somewhere, more likely against your employer.
You can use the public system to consume their legal resources but most companies have a legal "float" where actions are effectively insured by an annual contract.
Unless you have the intellect, the time and the determination (most of us do not have all three).. to fight a war loaded against you ... it's best to turn the other cheek and move on.

 

[Legoman]

How did all the other people on your flight check-in on time then?

They were fortunate enough to have gone to the other 7 bag drop machines that were working reliably. I got the one and only one that wasn't.

And what are you expecting Qantas/ACA to do exactly?

Quite simply to reimburse me the day's pay that I was docked by my employer as a result of missing the flight due to their equipment failure. This was all documented with an exact figure easily justified.

Write you a letter that says one check-in bag machine wasn't working on the day?

Well a letter admitting responsibility would have helped to get compensation direct from my employer too, but they weren't willing to do that either.

Write you a letter that says there was a longer queue than usual for manual check-in?

No, that would not have helped.