Two short domestic holiday season flights on Qantas were on-time and cost less than Virgin Blue, which seems to be a common experience these days.
But Qantas customer service has lost the plot when it comes to encouraging passengers to save the company money by promising them faster and easier check-in procedures if they do it on-line.
There were at least eight check in counters signposted at Qantas domestic at Melbourne Airport yesterday. Two for fuddy duddy computer illiterates, which were staffed, and six for on-line bag droppers, of which only two were staffed, despite it being one of the busier days of the year.
A somewhat embarrassed Qantas person who could have operated one of the empty bag drop counters was intercepting those holding home printed boarding passes who had expected a quick bag drop and directing them around the back to a long shuffling line of unhappy customers which began behind the counters and snaked around to the front of them. Those who did things the old, ’slow’ and supposedly more labor intensive way were walking straight into the terminal and getting through the outmoded check-in process in a fraction of the time.
Rebellion was simmering. A steady stream of annoyed digitally literate Qantas flyers were quitting the supposedly fast lane and going to the ’slow’ lines and savings themselves up to 10 minutes. Maybe half the ‘old fashioned’ check-in customers were really on-line boarding pass holders who were concerned about missing flights and thus connections in other states. And even then the old fashioned process coped easily with the numbers while productivity at processing the checked bags for on-line customers nearly ground to a halt.
There is no excuse for this. On-line check-ins have been around for years. The stuff-up shows what happens when terminal staffing is cut to levels guaranteed to keep customer service on the ground second rate compared to Virgin Blue.
This ingrained managerial contempt for the customer at the most obvious and fundamental of levels is something Alan Joyce could have eradicated in a fraction of the time he has wasted on being the dummy bidder for BA’s infatuation with Iberia.
5 Comments
I’ll likely get lynched for this comment, but QF’s poor online checkin process was one of the things which caused me to fork out for a Qantas Club membership. Yes, it seems totally counter intuitive that I would actually give more money to someone doing a bad job, but the fact is the membership and price had enough benefits for me to justify the outlay.
The online check-in process has always been terrible. For a start, if you’re a business traveller and want to use it on the road its neigh on impossible if you don’t have access to a printer. I cannot understand why you absolutely have to print it, instead of being able to indicate ‘I’ve no access to a printer, allow me to collect my pass at the airport quickcheck terminal’.
And when you do print it, as you’ve correctly noted the check-in dragons can mess it all up by getting you to take the slow lane. And half the time, don’t even try to get through the gate process quickly, as the barcodes just won’t scan most of the time even if your boarding pass was spat out using the latest, greatest and most fantastic printer ever to grace an office environment. Most of the time they’ll just manually check you in causing longer delays in getting everyone on board.
Sorry, give me the QF club any day. Use the business check-in lanes, slightly better service, and you can go and check-in at the lounge if you’re only got carry on luggage.
Couldn’t agree more with your comments. I’m intrigued by the mind set at Qantas that sees Jetstar competing with Virgin Blue when in real life such matters as the ease of on-line checking in and the distinctly inferior seat pitch I saw on the two Qantas 737s just pushes those who want service toward Virgin Blue, even though it isn’t by some other criteria a perfect alternative.
Virgin Blue are no better based on a recent flight from Canberra to Cairns and back.
In Canberra the Bag Drop Queue is combined with the regular queue so there is no benefit from using the online check-in or the kiosks.
In Cairns there was a separate queue which was much shorter but the check in person insisted on sighting all of the members of my family (”To make sure they are boarding the plane”) and then reprinted all of our boarding passes – pretty much voiding any of the benefits of online checkin.
Had a caller this morning make essentially similar point saying Virgin Blue was ‘totally loosing the customer service plot’ and using strong language to describe the unpreparedness of the staff he dealt with a Sydney last week when it came to checking in off kiosk with bag.
If Virgin Blue and Qantas want a premium over Jetstar for ’service’ they need to deliver. And when they promise faster more convenient check-ins for DIY they need to deliver. They aren’t.
Even better again (but slightly more expensive) if you are a QClub Member is to park your car at Valet. You can even get it washed, which with Stage 4 water restrictions where I live is a godsend.
There is a dedicated check in in Valet. No queues, not even the ones you get at the QClub counters. Yes you pay more to park your car than at the off airport places but for a day, overnight or even a weekend trip it’s worth the extra, especially if you can get the boss or the tax man to pay for it.
And if you think the QF version of online or kiosk check in is bad try the BA version. It’s abominable.