Qantas Service = Absolutely Disgusting

[jsd]

*removed content*

 

[craven morehead]

Stick it too 'em !!! :mrgreen:

 

[munitalP]

Simple and in my opinion, DJ should have followed suite and banned your entrance as well.

The T & C of Qantas club membership is:

10.10 Children under the age of 18 years must be accompanied by an adult when visiting any lounge.

You have no entitlement to be in there as per this rule. Also if your DOB has been recorded as a 26YO, and you provided that information, you have committed fraud under the liquor licensing rules of Australia, exactly the same as you walking into a pub with a false ID

You have no sympathy from me for people doing their jobs im sorry

DJ exhibited a poor business form for handing a phone for you to listen to a potentially illegal action. I am sure after this thread is scanned by DJ, there will be further words especially with the AFP being involved.

Additionally:

From DJ website:

Children under the age of 18 are welcome in the Virgin Australia lounge, but must be accompanied and supervised by a parent or guardian. The Single entry fee of $35 (inc. GST) untill 30 July 2011 or $65 (inc. GST) applies to children over the age of 2 years.

So it would seem you are illegal in both lounges

Your letters will open a can of worms you will regret.

 

[Hvr]

Interesting that the DJ T&Cs have the following condition.

[h=4]Children[/h] Children under the age of 18 are welcome in the Virgin Australia lounge, but must be accompanied and supervised by a parent or guardian.

I wonder which airline values their liquor licence the most?

 

[jsd]

Section 120 of the Liquor Licensing Act says:

(1) If a person under the age of 18 years- (a) is on licensed premises or any authorised premises; and (b) is not- (i) in the company of a responsible adult; or (ii) on the premises for the purpose of partaking of a meal; or (iii) in the case of a licence under which accommodation is provided, a resident of those premises- the licensee or permittee is guilty of an offence. Penalty: 60 penalty units."

 

[serfty]

Qantas do indeed have rules about minimum ages (when solo) in lounges;

However, the rest of that stuff membership is very troubling.

There is an age limit for an "Individual membership", however, there appears to be no age specific age minimum for "Partner memberships". http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/qantas-club-terms-conditions/global/en#jump2

Seems like an education opportunity for someone ...

 

[markis10]

I don't see a service issue here, your not allowed into a pub alone, and that is what the QP and Lounge are, licensed premises. Perhaps the manager crossed the line by calling DJ but then again perhaps he/she exercised their duty of care under the licensing laws? All you seem to have done is highlight what could be seen as an illegal act or two on a public forum that has airline participants that hold liqour licences, I would be hitting the delete button!

 

[concorde71]

Your letters will open a can of worms you will regret.

Yep agree, best to really drop it I think, or you will be peering through the doors for the next two years. GUARENTEED

On a personal note, although technically right the QF guy sounds like a W$%$ker who needs to get a life.

 

[haydensydney]

Your letters will open a can of worms you will regret.

Very good point munitalP.

At first I was shocked about this story and your treatment, Josh - but the rules are against you on this one. VA appeared to be very lenient when applying the lounge rules and showed completely lack of professionalism by letting you listen in to the conversation. QF however just dropped the ball in terms of overall attitude and handling of the issue in the first place.

 

[JohnK]

I was not there and should more than likely not comment but the Qantas Club manager may have simply been trying to do his job as a 16 year old was trying to gain access into the lounge as a 26 year old. Perhaps he did over react and was rude but the lounge access rules are clear.

Good luck with your letter to Qantas customer service and would be interesting to see what sort of response you get from them.

 

[serfty]

Certainly agree about accessing the QP when solo and being under 18.

Now, putting that completely aside, the Lounge duty managers seems to have got it very wrong in relation to a 16 YO being able to have a membership.

Assuming your details do indeed indicate 16 years as your age then they were wrong.

 

[munitalP]

I would also like to point out the Partnership Issue:

Quote:

As a Partner member, your spouse or partner can also enjoy the exclusive privileges of The Qantas Club at reduced rates, whether you travel together or separately.
To be eligible for Partner membership, the Primary member must have a current membership and you must both reside at the same address.
Partner members must have their own membership card.

You are clearly and knowingly in violation of a number of rules and that are set out by both Qantas and Virgin. As previously said, you will be looking through the doors for at least the next two years into I dare say both of these lounges. I wouldn't be surprised if QF also conduct an investigation into the 26YO who has partnered you and his privilege suspended as well for knowingly breaking the rules.

The fact that the AFP have been involved means that there is a paper trail, and regardless of how well you may think you can BS your way out of this one, the rules are against you and as I have previously mentioned, no different than any other licensed premises in the country, regardless of how many vague quotes you can pull from the LLA.

Now this thread is up and running again, I hope you can put up with the heat. As recommended by myself and others, you should have deleted this and pretended it didn't happen. More fool you letting it rise to the surface.

As far as comments regarding the professionalism of the QF staff - excellent.

They have done what was required to prove that this 26YO flyer who turns out to be a 16 year old boy who is trying to illegally gain access to a part of the airport, was not a thief of someones ID.

If my FF Card was stolen and someone tried to enter the QC with my card, and QF DIDN'T do everything they possibly can to try and prove who the card holder was, I would be disappointed.

If I was a manager of the DJ lounge, I would be sacking the front staff first thing Monday morning - the only unprofessional acts at play were from them people if this actually happened.

 

[nlagalle]

I had a few more drinks and a few more snacks in the Virgin Australia lounge before going back up to terminal 1 to board QF1013, no flags were raised at the boarding counter but walking down the aerobridge I was approached by two federal police officers and walked back up into the departures area, asked for a whole heap of personal details and after matching my passport with my boarding pass I was sent back on my way.

So it is safe to assume those few more drinks you had in the VA lounge were not alcoholic?

I think you are own on this one. As the QP is a licensed establishment, the Manager on Duty is liable if you are found there underage (as well as the Licence holder) big fines and loss of their liquor licence.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I think the thread title doesn't reflect the facts.

 

[Noob]

Come on guys this is disgusting, no staff member should talk to anyone like that no matter what.

 

[nlagalle]

Come on guys this is disgusting, no staff member should talk to anyone like that no matter what.

Without hearing the other side there is no way to be certain as how he was spoken to. Looking at the facts, as a 16yo he shouldn't have been there without an adult. How do we not know that JDevereux3 wasn't rude when it first sparked up? We only know one side of the story.

i actually can't believe the Virgin rep was unprofessional enough to let him "listen in" to the phone call. Add to that they let him in the lounge in clear breach of their own rules!

 

[Mal]

Come on guys this is disgusting, no staff member should talk to anyone like that no matter what.

Yep, appalling behaviour from them.

BTW, I don't see any T&Cs that prevent a <18 yo Business customer from entering the J lounge based on their ticket.

 

[munitalP]

Come on guys this is disgusting, no staff member should talk to anyone like that no matter what.

Please for my benefit (and others I would guess) "quote" the parts of the conversation you found offensive?

Im sure the "word for word" account from Josh is very accurate to make this judgement!

 

[drron]

Yes it is illegal to enter the lounges unaccompanied when under 18.
However does that justify what happened afterwards?
A 16 year old whose status run has been absolutely thrown into chaos with the ash cloud and who has spent several days waiting to get home to Hobart to be greeted by the Federal police.I can tell you if that had been me at the age of 16 I would have needed a change of underpants!
So Josh if you do write a letter make sure you apologise for trying to enter the lounge as you did not realise you couldn't but ask for an explanation of why the subsequent events happened,pointing out how long you had been waitng to get home.
In the circumstances it would be a long time before I would consider using QF again.
But I bet you never thought your run would end this way!

 

[oz_mark]

Yep, appalling behaviour from them.

BTW, I don't see any T&Cs that prevent a <18 yo Business customer from entering the J lounge based on their ticket.

As pointed out above, rule 10.10 provides that access to the lounge by someone less than 18 requires them to be accompanied by an adult.

The fact that Virgin Australia chose not to enforce their own equivalent rule, does not mean that Qantas was wrong in enforcing the rules.

Having said all that, this rules are quite troublesome to enforce (as someone who worked in hospitality). The actions of the Qantas staff member could be called into question (but there was an identity issue as well due to the age discrepancy).

At the very least, I think an investigation of this occurrence may not be pretty.