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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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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Did I here you ask “white with one Ebola or two?”

November 19, 2011 Leave a comment

It’s Friday and the sun is setting on another week in Canberra.  The tasks left for the week are to fill the hire car with fuel, grab a boarding pass and head to the Qantas Club while I wait (usually longer than scheduled and more on that later) for my flight.  Those of you familiar with my previous posts will have been privy to the state of the Lounge in Canberra.  Last week you could have licked the floor and had less bacteria on your person after the event, this week, that all changed.  I could feel that vale of Ebola descending upon me as I walked in.  A chain saw massacre would have left less mess, not that I am saying that anyone had died, yet!  Staff no where in sight, alas no, two at the counter, two behind the bar (in the casual chatter position) and a 5th serving food.  That is record for this lounge, yet no one cleaning up.  One may think that the lounge must have been busy, no, you would not be able to check that box either.  For a premium service, aimed at frequent (high yield) travelers, the Jet Star/Easy Jet make over of Qantas obviously has it’s genesis in the Qantas Club with the new corporate goal, “dumb down the aspirations of high yield travelers and forget the rest”.

The other big news is, we are back on schedule!

And my word, are they what.  This week I got to Canberra on time and home on time. That would be first time in 6 months of grueling economy travel that the ticket timings were delivered. I have generally found in the past that the ticket time was akin to lotto numbers and every now and a gain, you may have a win!  The same could not be said for the poor soles on the flight after mine to Melbourne last Friday (11/11/2011), no winners on that fight.  By 14:30, Qantas were advising of a hour delay.  I see that disconect coming back already but time will be the judge of that.

Next week I have a Eastern Sea Board loop with a day in Brisbane before heading to Canberra.  I hope they have a schedule thing sorted as the timings are tight.  Watch this space….

 

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Qantanomics, another day another offer from @QantasAirways !

November 16, 2011 Leave a comment

Qantas are on the offensive with new offers for Frequent Flyers in the form of points based on status.  Reading some of the comments from the online sections of the newspapers, it seems to have upset a whole lot of people.  I have attached a copy of the email that I was sent from Sam, head of loyalty.  I would imagine that Sam has had a few sleepless nights over the past few weeks!

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Back to the deal from Qantas, on shorter flights, the points offered by Qantas for individual lets are quite small, so they are boosted with a minimum 1,000 Frequent Flyer points for the flight.  As you can see, I get base points of 293. Will Qantas add the 25% “Bonus Points” to the “Base points” or the “Total Points”.  Knowing how Qantas work, I am not sure which way the cards, or in this case the points will fall.

Qantas grounding | ‘Thank you’ to frequent flyers revealed.

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