Can‘t the team at the Premium Service Desk check in your checked baggage with the Q Bag Tag by scanning the barcode and importing your flight details from your BP? I don‘t know if that is a thing but it does seem suprising 9 years later, there are still having faults with them...
Staff at the checkin counters can put a paper tag on your bag and send it off. I'm not even sure that the Qtag scanners on the checkin counters even work anymore. When using the automated bag drop make sure you only have a Qtag or paper tag - not both, otherwise the system may try to charge you $100.00 for the 'extra bag' you don't have.
Thanks for that, good to know and I'll give that a shot next time.
Interestingly enough, my original Q tags never had an issue...it's only after I changed my nice old grey metal Marc Newson ones to the new...evidently less expensive ones...that things started to go awry.
That said, I think the key point for me is that check-in areas seem to be severely under-resourced for premium pax during peak periods. Contrary to TheInsider's supposition, either having no premium desk (MEL) or only one counter open (PER) during Easter and the end of school holidays suggests their forecasting was a bit off.
Same in BNE - depends what time you're at the airport. The Premium Lounge Entry is open 0500-1700 daily I believe so after 1700 you'd either need to brave the kiosks or use the regular checkin counters which are probably full of people who need assistance like unaccompanied minors, people requiring wheelchairs, pax with international connections on EK, QR etc ie not a quick process.
Are they still going to have roaming agents near the self service kiosks? I quite often fly both QF and VA on the same booking and on numerous occasions, myself and colleagues have not been able to check-in either using either the QF app or the kiosks despite entering the correct QF 6 digit code (not VA or travel agent code), name, frequent flyer # or scanning FF card. This despite having FF# attached to booking and flights showing up logged into the app. We have been told by different staff at separate times it is because we have legs on VA within the same booking. Never had a problem when it is a QF only booking.
The thought process of the roaming agent(s) thing was about relocating staff from service desk (the sole service desk airside that deals with flight disruptions etc) to the checkin area in the event of a major flight delay or cancellation. This is different to the checkin counters which confusingly are also signposted as 'service desks' however these (checkin counters) are not closing.
There would still be the garden variety CSA's on the floor around the kiosks to facilitate the usual checkin issues but these people are not trained in flight disruptions, misconnects etc unlike their service desk counterparts.
I don't think they've made a final decision as to what will happen once the airside service/disruptions desk closes re managing situations that were handled by those staff as the priority has been finishing up the sales & ticketing desk staff which is a whole other issue.
It was suggested to me a while ago by the QF Staff, to have the Q tag up near the end as suggested, but also flip the tag over so the barcode was visible to the scanner. I've rarely had an issue with it reading the tag since.
Same here, Canberra is the only place I've had 'issues'.Once while checking in MrsK's bag, it read the tag, started on its way down the belt to the main luggage belt, but stopped, reversed it back out and declared that it had been rejected. That had even the QF Staff laughing.
At least the bag reversed! What is more annoying when the bag gets sent yet the auto bag drop tells you that the bag has been removed when it's gone sailing off into the sunset and the Qtag hasn't been activated.
Usually different calendar dates. Now I think about it, I generally encountered this problem when I have called up our travel agent and changed a QF flight for an earlier QF flight (in a mixed booking). All good - as long as they continue to have a staff member at that point of the process for these types of problems.
Another abnormality, QF airport staff always request that I call our travel agent to change my flexible fare to an earlier flight, whereas VA airport staff just transfer me to my requested earlier flight. This is sometimes done using 'fly ahead' with my platinum status or at other times by finding a fare in the same (flexible) bucket for the flight I want to get on.
I have no status with QF so, at face value, it appears QF has coached me into a process that doesn't allow me to check in to my changed flight without talking to a staff member. I don't see this being much of a problem going forward as more of my travel moves to QF only simply due to frequency and connection times. I understand 'the process' is not QFs.
However I digress...shutting airport service desks it going to be most inconvenient for people who do not have a travel agent they can rely on to get them on their way and for passengers with no status who rely on the QF call centre and long wait times. Hopefully the technology will be up to scratch and user friendly so neither will be required.
Quite a few people have issues when the TA has booked both QF & VA flights in a single pnr. Issues being that pax on QF can't check in due to the VA segment in the booking & VA pax can't checkin with QF segs in the pnr. It does something weird in Altea and looks like the previous VA flights haven't been travelled when those flights should be in history with only the QF you're about to travel on should appear. Maybe the work experience kids can work on it so they also get the opportunity to break something else that is working fine.
Don't know why staff would ask you to call a TA to change a flexible fare. Pax should only be referred back to the TA if the ticket hasn't been issued or needs to be reissued if a flight was changed to a new fare. Flexi bookings should be able to be changed on the kiosk or by airport staff. Is it a particular city that does this?
so maybe it's something to do with the scanners here.
