Qantas Perth Domestic business class check-in service failure

[ozbeachbabe]

You can check in at a kiosk with an infant however if you tick yes to the question "are you travelling with any of the following items" (strollers, car seats, porta-a-cots etc) it will print out a slip of paper referring you to a customer service agent. This is so you will not be charged excess baggage for those items. You can also do OLCI with an infant

When people use the airport kiosks for checkin some people will be randomly selected to provide additional ID & be asked to proceed to a CSA to verify this which is more than likely a CASA or OTS (formerly DOTARS) requirement.

Any airline has the right to deny boarding to passengers if they feel that person could be a threat to crew, staff or other passengers, so for them to do that indicates they felt theatened by your behaviour which may have been your reaction to their request for proof of age of the infant rather than their initial request to provide it.

 

[Steady]

However I have experienced some interesting check in encounters at PER, so I guess anything is possible.

Dom Perth is the only place I've ever been asked to produce photo ID and my QF card was not suitable enough.

I have also been told my QFF card is not acceptable in PER. They were very condescending/rude.

OT but I had been getting the QF post flight surveys for maybe 7-9 months before hand and then had 3 flights out of PER in a row where I added detail about the sub standard checkin and and they stopped sending the surveys

 

[vetrade]

The bottom line is that nowadays you just cannot win against officious / unreasonable staff, especially where airlines are involved. Rational discussion is impossible because even the most innocuous of comments or raised tone of your voice can be enough for some staff to invoke the "he threatened me" mantra. As soon as they do that facts and reason are the first casualties and you are all out of luck. Remember that they're there till the end of their shift no matter what, but how long they make you cool your heels is entirely out of your control.

I hate to say it but being right is almost irrelevant these days - your only hope is to preemptively manage the situation by having all the documentation (preferably their own official docs) on hand to substantiate your position. It's time consuming and inconvenient but it's one of the reasons that these days I travel with a pile of paperwork so as to leave the minimum amount possible to chance. Everything relevant to the next part of our trip, including car hire stuff, is carried in a backpack as carry-on and the rest is in our checked luggage. Yes, it's "overkill" but necessary I think - the fact is staff will take more seriously something in writing over anything you just say.

Discussions should be kept to a minimum because when discussing matters within earshot of other pax the staff member will NEVER want to be proven wrong, and you most definitely cannot afford any hint that you are being argumentative, no matter how correct your argument is. If you don't want them to become obstinate you just have to suck it up and keep everything very low key.

 

[JohnK]

Thank you everyone for confirming what I suspected that they were making these requirements up to delay and inconvenience us, that is not customer service of any standard, but qantas management are verbally backing their staff and saying they can request everything and more if they choose even after you have produced 100 points of identification and satisfied published requirements. I have asked for this in writing

Sorry to hear about your experience.

Out of interest why would the check-in agent try to delay and inconvenience you? Full flight and they had given your seats to someone else?

 

[drron]

I don't care if the agent thought he/she was right or even if the OP was a little aggressive in questioning the agent about the decision.
Here was a couple with an infant,booked in Business class with a LTG FF card indicating a great deal of loyalty to QF.Nothing justifies the agent's behaviour.The OP is the sort of customer you should do everything to retain.


So with pax being bumped down to Y in LAX,ludicrous RSA rules in the Flounges-and being close to abusive when enforcing their defective policy QF seems to be doing a lot to p*** off their loyal customers.
About time they got the CEO of JAL to teach them how to keep staff and customers happy.I saw a recent interview with the current CEO on TV where when asked what was his strategy for the future his answer was to have the happiest staff so we will have the most satisfied customers.Sorry I cant find it through Google.But a former CEO is probably available to help-

Former Japan Airlines CEO Reminds Us of What a Great Boss Should Really Be Like | NextShark

Also an interesting interview from the current President of JAL-
A simple philosophy: Yoshiharu Ueki, President, Japan Airlines | Airlines International

So QF management-get to work and improve your game.

 

[RooFlyer]

This sounds like the 'RSA' thread, and hence is a job for Red Roo. kenkat, can you send private messages (PMs)? I think there may be a post count hurdle before you can do that. But if you can, send a PM to Red Roo, (the company rep on this forum) clearly and unemotionally spelling out your experience, with dates and hopefully names etc. Just ask for an investigation, and what you want as a result of your experience. Be reasonable, of course. And refer RR to this thread, as some PER check-in staff appear to have issues WRT QFF card, not to mention bad manners, and it may help solve a wider issue for Qantas and their passenger interactions in PER.

if you can't send PMs, let us know and we'll alert RR to this thread (if they aren't already here ) and hopefully RR will get in touch with you.

 

[collcars]

Yesterday in Perth I had no trouble checking in using my qantas card, but on boarding the flight everyone had to produce personnel Id and boarding cards to show to Police as we boarded.

 

[RooFlyer]

Yesterday in Perth I had no trouble checking in using my qantas card, but on boarding the flight everyone had to produce personnel Id and boarding cards to show to Police as we boarded.

Obviously looking for infants who couldn't produce photo ID!

 

[harvyk]

Yesterday in Perth I had no trouble checking in using my qantas card, but on boarding the flight everyone had to produce personnel Id and boarding cards to show to Police as we boarded.

Interesting, that might suggest that WA is cracking down on IDs. Prehaps the checkin agent's hands really were tied, and / or was missing the customer service training on how to deal with that situation.

I could easy imagine how a CSA could get easily confused if they were told "by the way" but then not given sufficient instruction on how to handle fringe cases.

 

[anat0l]

Yesterday in Perth I had no trouble checking in using my qantas card, but on boarding the flight everyone had to produce personnel Id and boarding cards to show to Police as we boarded.

Interesting, that might suggest that WA is cracking down on IDs. Prehaps the checkin agent's hands really were tied, and / or was missing the customer service training on how to deal with that situation.

I could easy imagine how a CSA could get easily confused if they were told "by the way" but then not given sufficient instruction on how to handle fringe cases.

What the hell are you Western folk doing to raise the faux security concern level up a notch?

 

[ashleyn]

What the hell are you Western folk doing to raise the faux security concern level up a notch?

Well this for starters
Sydney Self-Styled Islamic Sheik Junaid Thorne Facing Criminal Charges Following Police House Raid

 

[harvyk]

Well this for starters
Sydney Self-Styled Islamic Sheik Junaid Thorne Facing Criminal Charges Following Police House Raid

That might do it, although I'd be expecting NSW to also be upping the ID requirements

 

[kalboy]

Off topic sorry.. However I was under the belief that State Police had no jurisdiction airside and that was the domain of the Federal Police. Hence wouldn't it be illegal for WAPOL to be demanding ID's at the aircraft door.

 

[vetrade]

Off topic sorry.. However I was under the belief that State Police had no jurisdiction airside and that was the domain of the Federal Police. Hence wouldn't it be illegal for WAPOL to be demanding ID's at the aircraft door.

I think the OP just referred to "police" without specifying what type.

 

[Archphoto]

Off topic sorry.. However I was under the belief that State Police had no jurisdiction airside and that was the domain of the Federal Police. Hence wouldn't it be illegal for WAPOL to be demanding ID's at the aircraft door.

Most probably it was Federal Police rather than State Police?

Here in Thailand, photo ID is a given for *all* flights regardless of it being domestic, and when my partner flies, she has to carry birth certificates for the kids; some airlines actually require the originals, whilst others are happy with copies - and you can't checkin online when you have an infant, much to my dismay when I travel with them. :shock::shock:

Now I sometimes get weird looks from QF when I fly domestic in AU, because I hand over my licence with my boarding pass out of habit.

 

[FrustratedQP]

Most probably it was Federal Police rather than State Police?

Here in Thailand, photo ID is a given for *all* flights regardless of it being domestic, and when my partner flies, she has to carry birth certificates for the kids; some airlines actually require the originals, whilst others are happy with copies - and you can't checkin online when you have an infant, much to my dismay when I travel with them. :shock::shock:

Now I sometimes get weird looks from QF when I fly domestic in AU, because I hand over my licence with my boarding pass out of habit.

State police have full State powers on 'federal property' within their State and most of the Federal Powers. State Laws apply except where they are inconsistent with the federal legislation.

 

[11sjw]

What the hell are you Western folk doing to raise the faux security concern level up a notch?

Not maintaining our strict HiVis ratios would be my guess!

 

[basso]

What the hell are you Western folk doing to raise the faux security concern level up a notch?

Tone down a notch. The most likely thing that happened is that the police had a tip off that someone of interest was on that flight....

 

[jukebox333]

Tone down a notch. The most likely thing that happened is that the police had a tip off that someone of interest was on that flight....

Nah. Ben Cousins was out taking photos outside a Mosque, apparently....

 

[collcars]

It was the local Police, they where in the Lounge earlier (I assumed they must want Breakfast) we where tipped off they wanted ID when we showed our boarding pass at the gate as they where half way down the Skybridge.