Comments on: Angry Flyers Lounge-How Qantas took a full service fare off the Cotton family and gave them low cost quality

By: nick

nick — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:01:16 +0000

All the above comments except for Cam show thoughtful attention to the various points raised. Magoo especially grasped the main point by pointing out that what was required was staff courtesy, acknowledgement and attention, both at the time of the flight and subsequently when responding to the written complaint. A call from Qantas customer care this morning has gone a long way to dealing with this in the correct manner.

By: goldfishinabowl

goldfishinabowl — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:27:22 +0000

Why shouldn’t the original poster expect decent service when plenty of other airlines seem to be able to offer it.

The thing about the water bottles is that it doesn’t make sense.

I had a horrible experience with the water bottle issue recently. When leaving Sydney airport I took my empty bottles through security, no problem, filled them up from taps in the toilets and happily drank the water on the plane to Hong Kong.

On returning from Hong Kong, I went through security but didn’t have empty bottles, so I bought some new ones in the secure shopping area. I was horrified to discover that on flights to Australia they do a secret bag check right before you get on the plane – in the jetway – after handing over your boarding pass. I’d bought $10 worth of nice green tea drinks and sports drinks and had to hand them over. I still managed to get one bottle through, which was underneath a jumper in the bottom of my bag. Just goes to show the ludicrousness and (non)effectiveness of these checks.

How come you can take bottles of water from the shops at Sydney airport on the plane, but not ones from Hong Kong airport?

By: Doc

Doc — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:17:19 +0000

Hi Nick, You should get me to write your letters.
In 2006, during the Christmas period, my family and I flew Qantas to Las Vegas, on a cheap ticket. On arrival our luggage was still in Australia. The Qantas ground staff in Los Angeles told us we could have USD$200 each to buy clothes as our luggage would arrive 24 hours later. They gave us a card for the Qantas Customer Service in Australia. On ringing that number we were greeted with “We are closed over the Christmas period call back on January X”. Off we went and bought clothes, shoes, underwear, shampoos, toothbrushes etc etc, having being verbally reassured we would get a refund.
On arrival back in Australia I rang to be told we were only entitled to AUD$100 each. We had spent AUD$900, as we had gone from high 30’s to near freezing planning on putting our cool weather gear on at the airport on arrival. After my letter with receipts we received a full refund of the $900 and an apology.
My last letter of complaint to another organisation regarding a refund ended with “Try me on I will surprise you at how angry I can get”, refund arrived in the next post.
Keep writing!! Try the ACCC they handle these complaints and the airlines HATE dealing with them. I mentioned the ACCC during my complaint and was sure that helped. Good luck, I would have at least another 5 letters left in me!
As an aside, we took a cab back to Las Vegas Airport the following day. Walked in went to the luggage carousel, collected our luggage and walked out with it. No checks, and no apparent security inspection of our luggage. No questions asked.

By: Magoo

Magoo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:58:44 +0000

‘cam’ asked “Seriously – what was the expectation?”

The ‘customer’s’ expectation is very clearly laid out in their initial letter, cam. They wanted an explanation and perhaps a little recognition for their plight from the cabin crew – virtually none received, and sufficient compensation. They may as well have been travelling on AirAsia X, Air Austral, or dare I say it, Jetstar Int’l for the level of comfort and service they received, not one of the world’s premier full-service airlines.

An air fare on a full-service airline is so much more than getting from A to B these days. People choose these airlines over others because there is, a) perhaps a greater chance of getting to B, b) the schedules are often more convenient and, c) there is sufficient differentiation in the various products (i.e. comfort levels and amenities) offered by the airlines to pay the extra money.

While most Australians will usually look at Qantas because of a (misdirected?) sense of national pride, more and more are steering away because of falling standards of basic customer service and passenger comfort.

I have taken two long haul flights on Qantas recently, one in Business class and the other in Economy, and apart from enjoying the quietness and ride of the A380 on the first trip, I was generally left disappointed in the cabin products, the stability of the IFE product (on all four legs), and the general levels of customer service. Once the lights go out, the flight attendants all retreat to their galleys or crew rest areas and do not emerge again for hours.

On SQ, EK and even BA and UA this is not the case, and the service levels and I’d even suggest the cabin products across all classes even on BA and UA have long left Qantas in their dust.

By: David Klein

David Klein — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:56:10 +0000

Unfortunately intense competitive pressure has pushed most major airlines into a situation with IFE that is far from comfortable with astronomical costs and numerous customer complaints. Having full IFE in each seat for economy passengers is relatively new and was always going to be a headache for airlines for reliability with manufacturers like Rockwell Collins completely swamped with orders and trying to fulfill complex installations that most airlines wanted before yesterday. I was involved in a 2 hour test flight of an A330 delivery aircraft in Toulouse following a software upgrade to a new version IFE system and having the technicians regularly re-booting full rows of seats in economy, as the screens went down, was a good insight of the problems most airlines would face maintaining IFE in service.

By: Tas flyer

Tas flyer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:16:52 +0000

Things do go wrong on planes – we all accept that – what we don’t accept is poor service from the flight crew, rudeness, poor food choices and bloody awful seat spacing.
We have just returned from our annual trip to europe (4 pax fares of $11000) and because of several less than comfortable trips in previous years we voted with our wallets and flew with another airline.
It’s time both Qantas and Jetstar took a long hard look at their service standards.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:04:01 +0000

Cam “Liquids requirements are well known, well advertised, easy to research and quite universal. It never ceases to amaze me that people complain about them when they get to a hand baggage inspection point. Complaining about them at that stage is just sheer ignorance.”

Dude, his letter states that the water bottles were empty. Now I’ve just gone and searched Qantas’s website and after a bit of searching I find:
http://travelsecure.infrastructure.gov.au/international/lags/index.aspx

where I discover the 100ml liquid rule applies to vessels capable of carrying more liquid but completely empty. maybe.

It actually says:

“Remember:

Containers larger than 100 millilitres, even if only partially-filled, will not be allowed through the security screening point.”

Now I can’t be bothered to read the actual legislation but I would first state that that little tidbit of information is not very well known and goes against what any rational human being would expect. But more importantly does the phrase “even if only partially filled” restrict the prohibition on containers over 100ml to those with some liquid in them? If not then why even include that phrase. I question your personal attack on this man’s ignorance.

Anyway What I’d like to know is what genius decided that someone can carry a clear plastic bag onto the plane with a volume significantly in excess of 100ml but not an empty clear plastic bottle? Unfortunately it appears that in many areas air travel safety is overseen by people with barely a functional high school education. It’s no wonder people avoid flying whenever possible.

By: cam

cam — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:25:29 +0000

These Angry Flyer tales of woe are becoming incredibly tedious and reek of an over inflated sense of self-entitlement: but with this one Plane Talking is going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

No matter how good or bad an airline is, or is perceived to be, there will always IFE failures, cabin crew having a bad day, large passengers who get seated next to you, luggage that gets lost and flights delayed or cancelled. All generally outside the control of the airline or the passengers. And 90% of the time, these things aren’t happening.

Seriously – what was the expectation? That the Captain would divert the plane, land and have the IFE and cabin lighting fixed but delay the flight for hours.

Liquids requirements are well known, well advertised, easy to research and quite universal. It never ceases to amaze me that people complain about them when they get to a hand baggage inspection point. Complaining about them at that stage is just sheer ignorance.

Qantas’ response is polite and absolutely fair. Afterall, the family did actually reach their destination and return, which ultimately is the purpose of air travel.