QF Platinum Denied Lounge on Arrival with Qantas Sydney Airport

[ozbeachbabe]

possibly this is part of the answer? Do they really want to be entering all those details manually for however many guests wish to use the benefit?

Irrespective of whether details are recorded by scanning a boarding pass, QR code or recording manually, they know what flight you're departing on so can pinpoint what time you were in the lounge & therefore know if you were considered a close contact should another guest positive.

If you have arrival access there's no way of knowing what time you left.

I agree with DC3 re scanning a QR codes like they do in restaurants etc however I don't think WA or VIC have proper contact tracing set up yet which may be a contributing factor.

 

[Ric]

Surely all your contact details are stored/captured with your QFF membership number?

Don't know whether this will work but scan going in and scan going out?

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Surely all your contact details are stored/captured with your QFF membership number?

Don't know whether this will work but scan going in and scan going out?

That would rely on people keeping their contact details up to date & they don't. Other times people who make the booking on behalf of someone else enter their own mobile nunber not that of the pax.

Same same for a lot of bookings made by companies for their staff & some travel agent bookings especially those not made in Amadeus such as Sabre & Galileo.

Other pax flying in J particularly from overseas may not have any freq flyer number ar all although currently not too many of that demographic travelling right now.

 

[Rugby]

Denied in Sydney today by the lounge manager, Janet. The conversation went a little like this.

Janet: Where are you travelling to?

Me: I’m not travelling anywhere. I’ve just arrived from BNE.

Janet: You’re not able to access the lounge without an onward flight.

Me: That’s not correct. As a Platinum, I have arrivals access.

Janet: Not at the moment, due to the current health situation.

Me: What situation is that?

Janet: There’s a pandemic.

Me: Is that why you have a face mask hanging from your name badge?

Janet: Sir, my situation is different.

Me: How is it different?

Janet: I don’t need to explain that to you.

Me: There is no information on your website informing members that this benefit has been withdrawn.

Janet: I’m informing you now.

I told her I’d be back and headed downstairs where I phoned QF while firing up my laptop at the same time. The lovely phone rep confirmed that the flexible award ticket policy at the moment included cancellation up to departure, even after check-in. I asked her if she would kindly stay online for a couple of minutes which she did, during which time I booked a flight to Melbourne, proceeded back to the lounge. There, I scanned in with Janet’s colleague while Janet herself kept a watchful eye on her colleague’s computer, then immediately asked the phone agent to cancel the reservation which she did without delay.

There wouldn’t have been 50 people in the entire lounge.

Absolutely pathetic, Qantas. This infuriates me.

Damn it Janet

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I’m with @muppet here.
Regardless of the previous published benefits QF staff seem to have had a directive that lounge access on arrival is being suspended during this period due to COVID restrictions etc.
Many of these staff including Janet have been furloughed for months and they are now back and just trying to do their job.
“Sticking it” to them by booking an award seat that was never intended to travel but just to circumvent their refusal of lounge access is something I would never personally do.
I can’t think of any time I’d be that insistent on proving a point.

Also perhaps worth reviewing 7.1 of the QFFF member terms and conditions: Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

 

[Gold Member]

Damn it Janet

Janet sounds like a bit of a Karen.

 

[ferntree]

Really though if a lot of people take steps to circumvent this by such activity and enough do it to stand out to QF... they'll simply remove it as a perk full stop going forward

It's understandable that in the current circumstances lounge access on arrival might need to be temporarily suspended (though it would be helpful if Qantas would respect their customers enough to explain the reasons for this on their web site and elsewhere).

That said, lounge access on arrival for platinum fliers isn't a "perk". It's something that you've earnt and (indirectly) paid for.

 

[muppet]

Janet sounds like a bit of a Karen.

Ummm no.

Unfortunately, it is our fellow member who is the Karen in this exchange.

 

[aikman]

Also perhaps worth reviewing 7.1 of the QFFF member terms and conditions: Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

Surely it goes both ways though noting clause 3.2(a)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Surely it goes both ways though noting clause 3.2(a)

I don't think 3.2 overrides 7.1.

If QF made a mistake or otherwise failed to comply with its end of the bargain, that wouldn't then allow passengers to do the things in 7.1 to 'fix' that error. You'd need to take that up elsewhere through the correct channels.

 

[Gold Member]

muppet said:
Ummm no.

Unfortunately, it is our fellow member who is the Karen in this exchange.

Dunno about that... in the earlier post which detailed the language and tone of the conversation, there’s a strong level of support from various members of the AFF community to the flyer by way of like/approve emoticons. The people have spoken?

I’m not questioning the technicalities of admittance under these circumstances, more the attitude and language that a Customer facing representative (Janet) supposedly used.

 

[offshore171]

Ummm no.

Unfortunately, it is our fellow member who is the Karen in this exchange.

That was my feeling too. When I saw that post, detailing the absurd lengths our member went to in order to stick it to the lounge staff, it felt like society had reached peak Karenism. When I realised it wasn't satire, it felt pretty unpleasant.

Many of these staff including Janet have been furloughed for months and they are now back and just trying to do their job.
“Sticking it” to them by booking an award seat that was never intended to travel but just to circumvent their refusal of lounge access is something I would never personally do.
I can’t think of any time I’d be that insistent on proving a point.

Yes this expresses it well. Thanks Fiona.

 

[Vic]

Seriously doubt this was worth the effort. The phone operator had time to hang around for someone to stick to someone just doing their job???

... in which case it would be helpful if they published this information on their web site. It would make life easier for both staff and fliers,

As per the link in my previous post in thread. Qantas have published on their website that there are capacity restrictions for the lounges. Stopping arrival access is a capacity restriction.

I could just imagine the whinging that'd take place if someone with an legit onwards flight was denied access due to people using arrivals access.

They can't scan JQ boarding passes. Different lounges are using different methods to capture JQ pax details for contact tracing. In SYD the gatekeepers are typing pax details into some system on their workstations to record the details. In CNS it is different - JQ pax have to scan a QR code to record the details themselves before entering.

They can scan JQ boarding passess. I've seen at least 2 qantas lounges, including brisbane, with a scanner marked Qantas, next to a scanner marked Jetstar in the last 2 months.

 

[Vic]

Surely it goes both ways though noting clause 3.2(a)

Well except there hasn't been a change to QFF. This is a temporary access restriction due to a worldwide pandemic, a restriction that has been advertised.

 

[Daver6]

Seriously doubt this was worth the effort. The phone operator had time to hang around for someone to stick to someone just doing their job???


As per the link in my previous post in thread. Qantas have published on their website that there are capacity restrictions for the lounges. Stopping arrival access is a capacity restriction.

I could just imagine the whinging that'd take place if someone with an legit onwards flight was denied access due to people using arrivals access.

Why is departure access more or less legitimate than arrival access?

 

[offshore171]

Why is departure access more or less legitimate than arrival access?

Because the departure visit has a finite end time

 

[Vic]

Why is departure access more or less legitimate than arrival access?

Really? You have to ask?

Departure access is guaranteed for ALL members of the Qantas Club. During Covid times only 1 lounge has been operating at many airports to cater for all members access. (e.g. Brisbane - business lounge only)

Picture two flyers...
The first one (a platinum) uses their access at their departure port, they then arrive and use arrival access.
the second one (potentially without arrivals access - gold, paid business class, paid Qantas club) tries to use their departure access, but can't.

The second one gets no provision of the basic access benefit at all, to allow the first one to double dip.

The more relevant question is: Why should qantas fail to provide the universal benefit of pre-flight access to cater for a small group who have arrivals access?

 

[Daver6]

Because the departure visit has a finite end time

That's a fair point. However nothing to stop someone turning up 12 hours before their flight too.

I wonder what percentage of arrivals pax with access actually make use of it? And how long they tend to stay.

I've used it three times all up. Two of the times I had written emails during the flight on my laptop and needed to get them out, so I went to the lounge for all 5 minutes to find a desk, send and have some water.

Once arriving back home in PER I was hungry so dropped into the lounge for some pizza and water. Would have been there 10 minutes max.

At the end of the day, if QF simply updated their websites we wouldn't be having this conversations. Expectations setting is paramount.

 

[Vic]

That's a fair point. However nothing to stop someone turning up 12 hours before their flight too.

I wonder what percentage of arrivals pax with access actually make use of it? And how long they tend to stay.

I've used it three times all up. Two of the times I had written emails during the flight on my laptop and needed to get them out, so I went to the lounge for all 5 minutes to find a desk, send and have some water.

Once arriving back home in PER I was hungry so dropped into the lounge for some pizza and water. Would have been there 10 minutes max.

At the end of the day, if QF simply updated their websites we wouldn't be having this conversations. Expectations setting is paramount.

Qantas have annouced that there are restrictions due to Covid. That's on the website.

What other update do you expect? Arrivals access hasn't been removed as a benefit, it's just not being provided temporarily at the moment. I'm really struggling to understand the issue, the benefit is just subject to special restriction at the moment and those have been added to the website. The same way some lounges are closed - being closed doesn't mean they're going to permanently remove the lounge

 

[Seat0B]

Denied in Sydney today by the lounge manager, Janet. The conversation went a little like this.

Janet: Where are you travelling to?

Me: I’m not travelling anywhere. I’ve just arrived from BNE.

Janet: You’re not able to access the lounge without an onward flight.

Me: That’s not correct. As a Platinum, I have arrivals access.

Janet: Not at the moment, due to the current health situation.

Me: What situation is that?

Janet: There’s a pandemic.

Me: Is that why you have a face mask hanging from your name badge?

Janet: Sir, my situation is different.

Me: How is it different?

Janet: I don’t need to explain that to you.

Me: There is no information on your website informing members that this benefit has been withdrawn.

Janet: I’m informing you now.

I told her I’d be back and headed downstairs where I phoned QF while firing up my laptop at the same time. The lovely phone rep confirmed that the flexible award ticket policy at the moment included cancellation up to departure, even after check-in. I asked her if she would kindly stay online for a couple of minutes which she did, during which time I booked a flight to Melbourne, proceeded back to the lounge. There, I scanned in with Janet’s colleague while Janet herself kept a watchful eye on her colleague’s computer, then immediately asked the phone agent to cancel the reservation which she did without delay.

There wouldn’t have been 50 people in the entire lounge.

Absolutely pathetic, Qantas. This infuriates me.

I love it. Absolutely love it. But how pathetic that you had to go through all that.