cut my be the operative word here - a different word to slack but also starting with s - staff.
IIRC the SST staff in CBR are all gone. Maybe some redeployed(?) but I believe all gone sadly.
The VIP Team just may not have this function any more. Or perhaps "suspended for the duration" perhaps?
I mean VIP team did have a few invites and things out there iirc so there is still that functionality out there, and some comp upgrades (and things like CL invites too). Flight monitoring? seems to have gone.
I suppose it remains to be seen if this service, such as it was, will return whenever more general flying (and international) is a good question.
I do agree with al the cancels and disruptions going on for the relative few that have been actually flying over the past 18 or so months you might have thought this kind of thing would have improved.. but I definitely think this is probably a staff (shortage) issue.
I would like to say though on a very positive note I had great experience this week.
On Sunday I called (and got on to a VIP agent in HBA) to enquire about a flight credit booking that had not ticketed. Turns out it had a problem with a tax not being charged or something. Anyway agent very helpfully sorted that out quickly. Was friendly and pleasant.
The next day as it was near my membership anniversary I wanted to change my platinum gift for the next year. I decided not to phone and tie up QFF on this, but send an email to VIP Team. Well I got a call maybe 30 minutes later.. and blow me if it wasn't THE SAME agent from the day before(!). Long story short she liased with QFF to organise it but actually proactively called me back before doing it to check because it turns out my friend was to be extended anyway and thus wuld have Plat regardless so she wanted to check if I still wanted to do it, or leave it so I could pick someone else or whatever. Now I thought that was very good follow up on such a minor issue. I'd mentioned to her I'd emailed as I did not see it as a phone worthy thing given the times and demand but she was very clear in saying they were happy to have "their' VIP's call for anything and it was no problem. So I had a quickly responded to mail, personally via phone (rather than just a "OK we'll do it" email which would have been fine) and checked back with me again later on.
So they're still able to deliver some service. I was quite impressed.
I guess we have to wait and see what may happen with flight monitoring and other functions of the old SST as (hopefully, sometime) things improve.
). All my flying is domestic and I felt I was very well looked after by the SST. I've seen a few comments saying that they were totally focused on international but that was not my experience. I have to say though, that considering P1 is WP x 3, none of the perks I've received were worth serious effort chasing but still gratefully received when you're doing the travel anyway.
The competition is actually pretty good.
