QP members diverted from LAX TBIT Lounge until upgrade Complete - "Next Year"

[RooFlyer]

Re: QP Members Barred from LAX TBIT Lounge until upgrade Completed - Sometime "Next Y

Note that anecdotes indicate A/C members are indeed getting access, maybe them over QP's as perhaps not somany?

As I posted earlier, the $50 voucher seems a better option than an overcrowded lounge in any case.

Until the lounge expansion is complete I'll continue to use the T4 facilities for as long as possible (as I have done this decade) - although I'm not booked 'til early in the new year.

A very sensible approach, but I won't be able to resist a sticky beak on a return flight coming up.

 

[Wannabee]

I'm in here now at 1530. About 6 people at the moment. We have about an 8 hour layover thanks to our flight from Seattle earlier today.

My first impressions are:

Good selection of food and drinks
Plenty of power points near seats
None of the food is labelled so don't know what some of it even is
There are a selection of different chairs but few of them actually look comfortable
My girlfriend went up with her boarding pass and thought she would ask how much to pay for an upgrade for the return to Sydney. This was met with huffs and puffs and basically told it would be expensive. No offer to look up prices, take boarding pass or ring anyone.

No wonder Qantas are going broke. I wanted to give them more money and they make it hard to give it. A little less effort on programs like Epiqure, Acquire and Qantas Points and get back to the basics. Quit providing cuts disguised as 'enhancements' (which few I see as positive for the frequent flyer, and get back to providing a consistent product with exceptional customer service. The passengers will come, and stay and therefore provide profits

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

I'm in here now at 1530. About 6 people at the moment. We have about an 8 hour layover thanks to our flight from Seattle earlier today.

My first impressions are:

Good selection of food and drinks
Plenty of power points near seats
None of the food is labelled so don't know what some of it even is
There are a selection of different chairs but few of them actually look comfortable
My girlfriend went up with her boarding pass and thought she would ask how much to pay for an upgrade for the return to Sydney. This was met with huffs and puffs and basically told it would be expensive. No offer to look up prices, take boarding pass or ring anyone.

No wonder Qantas are going broke. I wanted to give them more money and they make it hard to give it. A little less effort on programs like Epiqure, Acquire and Qantas Points and get back to the basics. Quit providing cuts disguised as 'enhancements' (which few I see as positive for the frequent flyer, and get back to providing a consistent product with exceptional customer service. The passengers will come, and stay and therefore provide profits

While the response was very poor, I don't believe you could ever purchase or request an upgrade at an international lounge, this would need to be done at check in.

 

[Wannabee]

While the response was very poor, I don't believe you could ever purchase or request an upgrade at an international lounge, this would need to be done at check in.

Yes noted, however it was T-8. I would have thought that the lounge person could have possibly called ticketing or something. I wasn't looking for a points upgrade but to purchase a J fare. She just showed a total disinterest. It wasn't as though the lounge was busy for which I could understand if she didn't want to chase up.

We would have tried at check in but this was in Seattle with Alaskan (booked as one PNR on QF flight number). Was hard enough getting our luggage through. When we got to LAX the QF check in wasn't even open so couldn't try there unless we waited land side fir a few hours

 

[Wannabee]

Well the lounge is better than waiting in the terminal but we were just offered a cheese and cracker platter. We said yes but when it turned up we were told, sorry we are out of crackers. Cheese platter it is

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes noted, however it was T-8. I would have thought that the lounge person could have possibly called ticketing or something. I wasn't looking for a points upgrade but to purchase a J fare. She just showed a total disinterest. It wasn't as though the lounge was busy for which I could understand if she didn't want to chase up.

We would have tried at check in but this was in Seattle with Alaskan (booked as one PNR on QF flight number). Was hard enough getting our luggage through. When we got to LAX the QF check in wasn't even open so couldn't try there unless we waited land side fir a few hours

The current one way business class fare from LAX to SYD today is AUD9350 (business 'sale' one way) - which would be around $6000 to pay over a premium economy ticket, or $8000 more than an economy ticket. Were you willing to pay to pay this to upgrade the ticket? If yes, the attitude of the lounge staff was poor. Otherwise I can understand the agents probably get lots of these requests... people just asking to 'find out' how much it might be, and probably with few takers once they are told how much. It's probably a fair bit of work for them and 'it's going to be expensive' is a fair enough answer.

 

[Wannabee]

The current one way business class fare from LAX to SYD today is AUD9350 (business 'sale' one way) - which would be around $6000 to pay over a premium economy ticket, or $8000 more than an economy ticket. Were you willing to pay to pay this to upgrade the ticket? If yes, the attitude of the lounge staff was poor. Otherwise I can understand the agents probably get lots of these requests... people just asking to 'find out' how much it might be, and probably with few takers once they are told how much. It's probably a fair bit of work for them and 'it's going to be expensive' is a fair enough answer.

Yes fair call. I wasn't willing to pay anything but the missus was hounding me to find out.

 

[harvyk]

The current one way business class fare from LAX to SYD today is AUD9350 (business 'sale' one way) - which would be around $6000 to pay over a premium economy ticket, or $8000 more than an economy ticket. Were you willing to pay to pay this to upgrade the ticket? If yes, the attitude of the lounge staff was poor. Otherwise I can understand the agents probably get lots of these requests... people just asking to 'find out' how much it might be, and probably with few takers once they are told how much. It's probably a fair bit of work for them and 'it's going to be expensive' is a fair enough answer.

Would it have really been that much of an issue to give a quoted price? For a simple thing of "let me just check that out for you sir" and 30 seconds of work the discussion can end in one of two ways.

A. The customer says "oh, I didn't realise it would be that expensive" and walks off not complaining about "bad service", even if they feel it was very expensive.
B. The customer says "oh is that all, please charge it to my credit card" and thus QF is now $8,000 better off.

Either way, the customer feels that their request was serviced, and provided there are no lines going out the door it hasn't cost the rep anything apart from 30 seconds of their time doing the job which they are paid to do.

What they instead chose to do was have the customer walk away feeling that they had both received bad service and the airline is expensive. Aka the worst of both worlds.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Would it have really been that much of an issue to give a quoted price? For a simple thing of "let me just check that out for you sir" and 30 seconds of work the discussion can end in one of two ways.

A. The customer says "oh, I didn't realise it would be that expensive" and walks off not complaining about "bad service", even if they feel it was very expensive.
B. The customer says "oh is that all, please charge it to my credit card" and thus QF is now $8,000 better off.

Either way, the customer feels that their request was serviced, and provided there are no lines going out the door it hasn't cost the rep anything apart from 30 seconds of their time doing the job which they are paid to do.

What they instead chose to do was have the customer walk away feeling that they had both received bad service and the airline is expensive. Aka the worst of both worlds.

I wonder how many of these requests they get every day? Is it as simple as just going to the current airfare screen on QF.com and seeing how much it is... or are they going to have to go into the booking, check the fare rules, check the new fare, see how much of the old fare can be applied to the new fare, check how to upgrade it?

 

[moa999]

The reality is very few airlines do cheap upgrades and those that do generally advertise it at the gate

 

[Plutonus]

I'm not sure how the amount of effort required to service the request is relevant. Like harvyk said, it's their job.

I wonder how many of these requests they get every day? Is it as simple as just going to the current airfare screen on QF.com and seeing how much it is... or are they going to have to go into the booking, check the fare rules, check the new fare, see how much of the old fare can be applied to the new fare, check how to upgrade it?

 

[harvyk]

I wonder how many of these requests they get every day? Is it as simple as just going to the current airfare screen on QF.com and seeing how much it is... or are they going to have to go into the booking, check the fare rules, check the new fare, see how much of the old fare can be applied to the new fare, check how to upgrade it?

No doubt there is a few steps they need to go through to check the actual price of the upgrade. But the question is then do they have something more important to be doing? If I was QF, I'd be just a tad annoyed if a CSR refused to spend 2 minutes on a task, when they had no more pressing tasks, when the payoff would be an extra $8,000 in the bank and an extra Y seat which can now be sold last minute.

 

[cmon0005]

No doubt there is a few steps they need to go through to check the actual price of the upgrade. But the question is then do they have something more important to be doing? If I was QF, I'd be just a tad annoyed if a CSR refused to spend 2 minutes on a task, when they had no more pressing tasks, when the payoff would be an extra $8,000 in the bank and an extra Y seat which can now be sold last minute.

Totally agree with you HarveyK, at absolute worst I would have expected at least for them to dial QF reservations and pass the phone to the pax, if it was a system/access limitation of the lounge staff member at least the pax could have got an answer on the cost to change the fare to a higher fare from someone in res.

 

[Wannabee]

As I said, I didn't think it was too much to ask given it was at 2pm, some 8 hours prior to flight and there were 2 staff at entrance and 2 at desk inside. There was around 6 passengers in the whole lounge.

For info I did check the Qantas website but it only showed the next days flight.

 

[russ]

Be careful asking them to do some work... they might decide to lose your luggage.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

Showed up at TBIT QF lounge last night around 10p.
No issue getting in, also the guy in front of me brought in a guest and no issues there at all.

Didn't check out the food, had just been to a Japanese restaurant in LA. Place looks good, I can see why its crowded.

Cheers
BF

 

[harvyk]

Showed up at TBIT QF lounge last night around 10p.
No issue getting in, also the guy in front of me brought in a guest and no issues there at all.

Didn't check out the food, had just been to a Japanese restaurant in LA. Place looks good, I can see why its crowded.

Cheers
BF

I'll give you two hints as to why you had no problems, - WP + LTG... You where getting in almost regardless.
It's the lowly QP's which are having trouble.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

I'll give you two hints as to why you had no problems, - WP + LTG... You where getting in almost regardless.
It's the lowly QP's which are having trouble.

There were empty seats, no one was being turned away. The queue to get in was 5-6 people so I paid attention...but your comments are correct

 

[Kangol]

Didn't check out the food, had just been to a Japanese restaurant in LA. Place looks good, I can see why its crowded.

Cheers
BF

It is certainly a step up from the old J lounge and one of the best (food offering-wise) for an int J lounge. Drinks on the other hand are not that different to the old one, which were never that great....

 

[Wannabee]

It is certainly a step up from the old J lounge and one of the best (food offering-wise) for an int J lounge. Drinks on the other hand are not that different to the old one, which were never that great....

I was a bit surprised that they didn't have any bottled beer. Of the three (or four) beers on tap, two were out when I went to get one.
The food was pretty good for lounge food however nothing was labelled. Even the carts which had hot dogs and tacos were just plain with a staff member behind each one.