Qantas poor service with Delayed Flight missing connection

[stil]

I just wanted to give my experience regarding Qantas customer service.

I booked directly with Qantas for a return flight for three from Syd to Colombo (codeshare Sri Lankan airlines CMB to SING leg).

Six hours before the syart of our return leg, Sri Lankan airlines sent an email advising the flight was delayed by 5 hours, meaning we would miss our connecting flight Singapore to Sydney.

Noone from Qantas contacted us. We had to call Qantas help centre multiple times at our own expense, to sort out our final flight to Sydney. After more than 2 and half hours on the phone, a new flight leaving Singapore 24 hours after the original flight, was booked.

We were told multiple times Qantas could not allocate our seats, and would have to wait until 24 hours before departure from Singapore. Customer Service agent kept reassuring us that family groups are always seated together, and were dismissive of our concerns that we would end up with being seated apart.

The reason given for not allocating seats was that the seating plan had not been released. However at check in at Colombo airport, only one hour after our call with Qantas, the check in staff told us seats had been allocated, and were NOT together. This was still more than 24 hours before Singapore departure.

When we contacted Qantas again, we were told seats cannot be changed by Qantas, even though this seat selection had been already been made by Qantas. Of note, they also advised they would not assist us with accommodation for our unexpected stop over in Singapore. We had to find and pay for hotels on our own, with no mention of compensation or assistance from Qantas.

The whole experience has been disappointing and frustrating. So much for Qantas Customer Service trying harder to meet our expectations! The change in CEO has clearly not changed their attitude to customers.

 

[Princess Fiona]

This begs the questions "Why didn't Qantas tell the OP to contact UL?" and "Why didn't UL deal with it when they contacted the OP about the first flight delay?".

Seems like QF dealt with something they didn't have to, albeit with a less than stellar outcome for the OP. I would also have contacted QF in the first instance as they ticketed it, so I learned something

Because the offshore QF call centre staff are poorly trained and continue to offer an awful service whenever anything goes wrong that’s even remotely outside the scripted replies.

As regards UL the op received a (presumably) automated email about the delay.

 

[serfty]

Firstly, yes, Sri Lankan Airlines are responsible for the cost of any re-routing required - this includes the cost of any stopover in SIN as well as incidentals. @stil you should be getting UL to reimburse you.

Secondly, Qantas, as the Booking agency, are responsible for enabling/enacting any rerouting - which they did.

Sadly it simply shows how poor Qantas customer service agents can be these days (and even worse, generally is) with the rubbish regarding "seating plan had not been released" and "cannot be changed by Qantas".

Now it could be that most of the cabin seating in the new flight had been allocated and all being seating together at that stage was not possible by the CSA's, but even if that were the case they should have simply said so and afvised @stil to ask at the airport (SIN).