Ground Hog Day, again!

January 26, 2012 1 Comment

Three weeks back in the saddle with Qantas and it is like Ground Hog Day. Welcome to my life as Punxsutawney Phil!

I reached another milestone with Qantas, they have sent me Gold Membership card with all the trimmings.  The first time I took the “new” status out for a spin was today.  I had managed to bag an exit row and at 192 cm’s (6’4″ on the old scale) I find it rather uncomfortable on the 737’s and yes,you guessed it, they changed the plane and we got a new seating configuration.  A plane change is not necessarily a bad thing except, 11A was now forward of the exit rows. Sir, welcome to Gold!

Qantas also seem to have adopted new suppliers for the boxed food.  We got, what only can be described as pressed tomato biscuits with a yogurt dipping sauce.  In the good old days (last year) it was inedible Panini’s.  Being a past export of boarding school, I generally do not have food hang up’s as I would have passed away somewhere between my 11th and 12th birthday from malnutrition. But this is getting out of hand.

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Week ending Friday 20th January 2012

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Week ending Friday 13th January 2012 and if you are wondering, the dipping sauce is “Zucchini & Lentil”!

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I can safely say that I have managed to avoid breakfast in flight for the past 28 weeks of travel.  Under normal circumstances, you would be entitled to a refund for the unused portion of your ticket but not in this case.  I actually think I would pay a premium NOT to eat the breakfast.  Qantas have also taken the last and remaining item off the breakfast menu that was eatable – the reconstituted material formally known as a muffin.

Didn’t Tiger Airways get grounded in 2011?

Last year, Tiger Airways, the budget carrier and 4th player in the Australian aviation market was grounded for failings within it operations that CASA felt caused an “unacceptable risk” to the Australian flying public.  I have previously noted that Jetstar have it’s share of issues Jetstar botched landing at Melbourne Airport | Pilot pressure caused errors. This was one of a few reported last year. So, if you are an “Australian” operator with a large fleet, CASA will develop some sort of Stockholm Syndrome and look the other way.  I hope I am wrong but the press is not always flattering, particularly for Jetstar. I wear a “badge of honour”, never flown Jetstar (yet)!

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The Qantas 2011 swansong

January 25, 2012 1 Comment

 

Originally wrote this as my final number for 2011 but events over took me and I just found the draft so I thought I would put it up anyway.

I was going to be melancholy about my final week on Qantas this week as this is my last week of travel for the 2011 calendar year.  I was going to talk about the good things Qantas do, the massive infrastructure and the employees who in their own ways go out of their way to help hapless travellers, such as my self.  I could talk about the magnificent engineering facilities that the Sydney Qantas Club overlook but at 7:20 this morning (Dec 12, 2011), that all turned to dust.  Someone had fed the Gremlins again after midnight and after closing the door, giving us the safety demonstration we were back at the gate where we sat.  Some time after 8:00 AM we were herded back to the Qantas Club for more coffee for which I have had so much this morning, I am starting to show the early symptoms of caffeine poisoning.  We then sat in the club while the next flight for Canberra left – allegedly no seats but I could not happen to notice that Joe Hockey and Malcolm Turnbull who were on our original flight were no where to be seen on the later flight.  So much for no seating on the later flight.

What irks me more than anything else is the contemptuous way in which we get treated.  If I am 5 seconds late for a flight I have pay additional fee’s or in some cases, purchase a new ticket.  If Qantas screw up, we, as passengers still get messed around.  Their is no come back on the airline as the provider of the service.  Today is an annoyance and I will miss an important meeting with my client and this equates to a economic loss for me as I bill bill by time and sitting in airport lounges is not a productive use of my time as this equates to non-billable time.  A few weeks back Bruce, a colluge of mine in Canberra, had a booking for Qantas to Sydney the Jetstar to Maroochydore.  The Qantas flight from Canberra was cancelled, so Bruce was bumped to the next flight.  This caused him to miss his connecting Jetstar flight.  Do you think Jetstar could care.  No, he had to purchase a new ticket yet it was Qantas (who by the way own Jetstar 100%) who caused him to miss his flight.  Good one Alan!

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And on the 8th day, God created airline Baggage Services.

December 10, 2011 Leave a comment

The good lord must have been bereft of ideas by that time. What have we done as a society to have Qantas Baggage Services foisted upon us?

Those of you who regularly read this, you know who you are, are quite au fait with my feelings on most things Qantas and the general state trashiness that “the spirit of Australia” has become. Well, have I got news for you, The mess of Qantas in the club lounges and cabin is nothing compared to the mess with Baggage Services. These people know how destroy self esteem. This all started when the automatic bag tags were not recognised by the auto check-in luggage machines – bad start as it was going to involve human interaction. We stood in line at the Qantas Club and Status traveler counter for what seemed like an entirety. The baggage woman then looks up ans walks off leaving 6 or 7 people just standing in the line. Nice. Finally we get to the counter and the second person with a minimum of fuss checks our bags. This was the opening to the total failings at Sydney airport.

Sydney baggage hall. At first I thought I must be standing at the wrong luggage carousel. All the priority luggage came out, then all the rest came out. I thought I was standing at the wrong carousel. No I could see people from the flight near by. When the bags finally arrived, 4th from the end, I said to my daughter, so much fro the priority tags and the guy standing next to me, who I have never seen in my life before, joined in complete agreement. I kid you not, the clowns in baggage services have no idea. Thank you Qantas for being treated so well. It’s the final parting shot as you leave the airport. A two fingered salute to say thank you for flying.

In hindsight, at least they didn’t loose the bags!

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Another meltdown at @QantasAirways and @nab struggle with Frequent Flyer Points.

November 30, 2011 Leave a comment

If the immortal words were ever so true, this morning was the morning, “Mascot, we have a problem!”  And what a problem it was.  It seems that the gremlins from Virgin had been watered after midnight and escaped to Qantas.  Now in the “olden days”, this would not have been an issue as when you entered the departures hall you were greeted with a wall of check-in counters and accommodating staff.  These days you get a hand full of staff showing you how to press buttons on a screen and when the gremlins broke into the datacentre, the screens were not co-operating and thus you get monumental delays and my word, Qantas are good at those.

My usual Canberra run would have been a very long and protracted affair today had I not already been in Canberra.  The 7:20 did not depart till 8:57.  I bet Qantas made the poor bastards sit on the plane !

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In summer Channel Nine have classic catch’s and Qantas have classic boarding passes but no car to be won!

Twitter image of a hand-written boarding pass presented to a passenger in Brisbane this morning.

The pen and paper is a nice touch, next tablet and chisel?

The other big news, NAB – more take, less give, I think that is how it goes…..

Qantas mediocrity is legendary, they do it so well, so I was surprised at the ease NAB had got in on the act with the allocation of Frequent Flyer points from cards that are earn points.  This sorry affair started in September 2011 when I noticed that I was missing a couple thousand points on my Frequent Flyer statement.  I phoned 1300 number on the back of my card and that is when the fun started.

After spending an hour explaining that there was an error, that it was a bank issue (remembering that at the NAB customer charter indicates that our faeces does not stink) and asked what were they going to do to fix it, I got no where.  Eventually, I was told, some one would ring me back.  Too their credit, they did get back to me and guess what – still my fault.  The rocket scientists in the NAB loyalty department do not consider customer loyalty to be a high priority on their to do lists.  Faeces, smell, ring a bell!  The more give, less take was wearing thin.  After a false start with the NAB Resolve team (another sorry story) I finally got some where and guess what – “Docklands, we have a problem”.  It would appear that a flood of complaints came in after mine and the rocket scientists finally joined the dots (they only had configure 1 to 2!).  What happened next,  the bank has still not issued, and I have looked, any acknowledgement of the problem.  Furthermore they still have not apologised for the error and after 5 follow up emails and a few more phone calls we are getting the points in January 2012 currently as of email 5 today. I did get a letter a month ago from the NAB Resolve team saying the problem had been resolved.

Moral of the story

  • “More give, Less take” only works when nothing goes wrong!
  • when dealing with third parties about Qantas Frequent Flyer points, large quantities of pseudoephedrine may be required.  At one point, a dose of the green dream was looking appealing.
  • All ways check your Frequent Flyer points – you have paid for them physically and mentally!
  • The words “benefit of the doubt” and “bank” do not sit well in one sentence,think oil and water.

Next time, I have done some research and Ferdinand Magellan was wrong.  In Mascot the world is FLAT !

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