Unusual antithesis of the P1 experience on QF24 BKK to MEL today. Mundane boarding into the J cabin, got settled, offered glass of bubbly, chose dinner options, filled in breakfast menu...and then things went awry. Neils plant based frippery - carrot soup - was lukewarm and watery, ho hum, thought beef massaman curry would be better. Sadly inedible - fatty chunks of beef in a slick of oily sauce - and basically stone cold. Soooo, given that it was just horrible so I said to my crew member it really wasn't edible and sent it back. She was fine and asked if I wanted to try something else - Qantas menus are like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun but, nevertheless, went for the roast chicken - reasoning that it was hard to destroy that. It arrived swimming in (I hope) olive oil, warm exterior, stone cold inside, accompanied by leather like sweet potato chips and beans that had the tensile strength of carbon fibre. So I sent that back too and politely said that it too wasn't really edible, that I didn't want anything else but that I'd appreciate my feedback on the quality of food being passed onto the QF catering division. All pretty standard stuff, no one seemed upset, crew member said she was sorry I hadn't liked the food and that she would indeed pass on my comments.
Then a bit later heard the CSM doing the P1 greeting and thanking a couple of PAX sitting behind me for their loyalty etc, usual sort of stuff, didn't get to me speaking to me but so what, I didn't think anything of it. Anyhow.... latter on I bumped into him and said hello (literally just hello), he let out an enormous huff, spat out the words that he would fill out the forms about my food complaint Mr Jcwhizz, turned on his heel and stalked off
. Literally the only time I had met or spoken to him on the flight but clearly he was super offended that I had had the temerity to complain about the food. Like a scene from Fawlty Towers. Then they misplaced my breakfast menu but offered me a bit of everything instead (to be fair the breakfast was fine), we reached top of descent and I heard the CSM again loudly thanking his seemingly more compliant P1 PAX behind me for their loyalty, then he marched past me head in the air, and ignored me at the door on deplaning. I had to laugh. Maybe instead of simply ignoring complaints Qantas have decided to up the ante and enter a new era of actively dealing with dissent via a "silent tantrum" approach.