QANTAS Treatment of Frequent Flyer Bookings

[Princess Fiona]

Isn't that why QF gets away with it though? I (wp with 2 NBs) booked 1cdf for 3pax on a mel-syd, we all ordered the same dish by coincidence. Guy in 1a was skipped on first pass through cabin, when they returned having completed rest of cabin he was told pretty much no options left. From his perspective - why not serve him in the first pass, "sorry sir, you're not worth serving ahead of other more with important pax". It's cough given the perceived and actual value of his custom. QF should be hauled over the coals for this approach to customer service. I'm sure my companions would have been skipped as well had we not shared the same name and been conversing.

QF are not alone is this approach.
Make sure you don’t fly AY with no status...

 

[Princess Fiona]

From the Qantas in-flight dining page:

Australia's finest restaurant in the sky

Perhaps on longer domestic flights they should ask for first and second preferences for both courses, and if there is strong demand you get your first choice for one, bot not necessarily both, courses?

I think that’s a totally impractical idea. If they did that it would take up inordinate amounts of time to actually sort out who’s getting what meal.

Anyway this is all getting very OT.
QF does not treat meal orders differently depending on whether you are on a reward booking or revenue fare.

The downgrade on the other hand in the original post was absolutely awful, and I hope QF get the book thrown at them for it.

 

[dajop]

From the Qantas in-flight dining page:

Australia's finest restaurant in the sky
Collaborating with Neil Perry, Creative Director of Food, Beverage and Service, since 1997 in Business we offer a range of meals, snacks and superior wines tailored to each route across our Australian network.
Enjoy an expanded menu with the addition of small bites and more choices of entrée and main. And the freedom of flexible dining, with a move away from tray-service towards menus and separately plated courses which allow you more personal space.
Our Qantas Rockpool Sommeliers are proud to present an exceptional selection of wine from boutique producers to iconic brands from across Australia and New Zealand along with a range of non-alcoholic options.
The dining experience is delivered by our professional, personable crew and enhanced by stylish tableware designed by David Caon.

Let's deconstruct that for a moment (sorry I'm in a cynical mood this evening):

Australia's finest restaurant in the sky [We serve better airline food than our economy class food, and we reckon its better than VA's]
Collaborating with Neil Perry, Creative Director of Food, Beverage and Service, since 1997 in Business [Neil reviews the the menu options we give him and suggests what flavours to add ] offer a range of meals, snacks and superior wines tailored to each route across our Australian network [we pick the cheapest sourced food for each route].
Enjoy an expanded menu with the addition of small bites and more choices of entrée and main [we've reduced the size of the meals, but offer some more choice] And the freedom of flexible dining, with a move away from tray-service towards menus and separately plated courses which allow you more personal space.[we'll give you once choice of plate and eliminate other courses, and got rid of the extras we put on the trays, so it is cheaper for us]

I'm sure it's not quite as bad as my [brackets], but it's fun to deconstruct like this anyway. @Max Samuels will also be happy to see a bit of fun being poked at QF as well.

 

[Max Samuels]

Let's deconstruct that for a moment (sorry I'm in a cynical mood this evening):

Australia's finest restaurant in the sky [We serve better airline food than our economy class food, and we reckon its better than VA's]
Collaborating with Neil Perry, Creative Director of Food, Beverage and Service, since 1997 in Business [Neil reviews the the menu options we give him and suggests what flavours to add ] offer a range of meals, snacks and superior wines tailored to each route across our Australian network [we pick the cheapest sourced food for each route].
Enjoy an expanded menu with the addition of small bites and more choices of entrée and main [we've reduced the size of the meals, but offer some more choice] And the freedom of flexible dining, with a move away from tray-service towards menus and separately plated courses which allow you more personal space.[we'll give you once choice of plate and eliminate other courses, and got rid of the extras we put on the trays, so it is cheaper for us]

I'm sure it's not quite as bad as my [brackets], but it's fun to deconstruct like this anyway. @Max Samuels will also be happy to see a bit of fun being poked at QF as well.

Love it! "Creative Director of Food" - what a bunch of tossers.
I think the marketing team at QF have been drinking their own Koolaid for so long that they can no longer be objective.

I would wager that 80% of QF pax (or even more) had never heard of Mr Perry until Qantas started shoving it down their throats (no pun intended). Or even cared. Every time I hear someone rave about how good the food was on X airline, I don't ever hear them say "oh, and it was by masterchef such and such"

 

[travelnutjohn]

Compensation aside

Pay 3 to 4 times the price of economy and get the same/ worse/less food is ludicrous

This is the prime example of having your cake and eating it by qantas

 

[flyinpod]

Pumpkin soup, id have asked for two bowls and told them id be coming back on Halloween for more!! cheeky pigs

 

[QPRsludger]

Could they have rerouted you or put you on another OW partners metal?

We were picking up a cruise ship in LA the next day so we HAD to take their rude offer

 

[Ktan89]

Glad you didn't miss the cruise.

Funny thing, i just notice this on the Qantas flight selection page. Was it always there or did they recently put this up in BOLD

 

[QPRsludger]

Given the other fibs alleged to have been told by QF to OP, goodness knows who the mystery pax was. Could have been a minister on a mission, flight crew deadheading for op. reasons, or anything. I remember a friend, mr Nameshavebeenchanged, being involuntarily downgraded on QF for the latter reason. At least they were honest about why that time.

cheers skip

The woman who sat in my wife's seat was a doctor who had just given an adress in Melbourne.
There was a stuff up on her original Mel to LA flight.
Very nice lady but the whole situation turned what was a well planned flight into a joke. My wife and I had planned to swap half way but they said we had to sit in our assigned seats for take off and landing and it all got too hard.

 

[QPRsludger]

Even if you are not asking for "further compensation" the Airline Consumer Advocate should be informed. There are reasons why the EU installed the Flight Compensation Regulation 261/2004 and numerous transactions like non-voluntary downgrades might provoke the same result here. Though perhaps the potential for such regulations will be an incentive for the airlines to be more customer "friendly", which would not be a bad outcome.

Airline Customer Advocate (ACA)

Just wandering
Fred

Thanks Fred, we have just returned from our trip, it was fantastic.
All the other reward flights on the trip were Qantas FF but with partner airlines. No problems at all.
When we book our next FF trip I will try and keep away from Qantas flights, I reckon it would be harder for the airline to bump us.
Thanks for your advice, I shall contact the ACA and see what happens.

 

[Danielb56]

Thanks for your comments.
They did in fact offer compensation both monetarily and points but it was presented as a take it or leave it scenario 5 minutes before we boarded.
My point is that these bookings should be treated as being the same status as bookings made with dollars. After all they have been paid for one way or the other and as I say Qantas loves to advertise the program and makes a HUGE profit from the scheme.

It is a once in a lifetime trip for us (which we are still enjoying) We have two more FF flights left on the trip and I hope it doesn't happen again to us.

Sorry to hear your situation and totally understand how you feel. Actually when you think about it using the points costs more than actually buying the ticket. Think of how much it cost you in $ to get to the points you needed to book the tickets in the first place. I guarantee it would have been around double the actual ticket price...You should chase it up and get a full refund for the difference from Bus to Premium Economy. If not go to ACCC...see if they can do anything for you.

 

[Inlander]

Sorry to hear your situation and totally understand how you feel. Actually when you think about it using the points costs more than actually buying the ticket. Think of how much it cost you in $ to get to the points you needed to book the tickets in the first place. I guarantee it would have been around double the actual ticket price...You should chase it up and get a full refund for the difference from Bus to Premium Economy. If not go to ACCC...see if they can do anything for you.

Thats the bottom line with FF points/schemes. The get to use your data and shopping habits etc and limit availability and the majority of people end up spending more than they normally would. The discipline is in keeping to a budget and maximising your benefits.

 

[jb747]

Qantas are very keen to extol the virtues of it's Frequent flyer program and are happy to boast about the profits made by it, they are also very keen to treat the bookings made using the program as little more important than staff travel seats.

If they were treated as staff travel seats, you'd never have gotten on board at all. There's a reason my Europe trip was on Singair, even though I can buy staff travel.