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 !

image

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 !

Filed under Flying, Frequent Flyer, Qantanomics Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Qantas, private equity? chaos? QRed just went nowhere!

November 28, 2011 Leave a comment

The upheaval in global aviation left Qantas boss Alan Joyce with little choice but to propose a subsidiary Asian carrier, which infuriated the unions. Now the upheaval in global markets, courtesy of Europe’s problems, has reportedly forced him to abandon those plans in favour of an alliance with Malaysia Airlines. And all the while those private equity rumours just won’t go away, such is the state of things at Qantas these days – chaotic.

The European debt crisis looks to have scuttled the controversial plans of Qantas Airways boss Alan Joyce for a separate Asian-based carrier, but it can’t squash rumours of a private equity tilt at the flying kangaroo. According to the Australian Financial Review, the turmoil in Europe has spooked Qantas management and they’re preparing to dump a planned multi-million dollar investment in a subsidiary Asian airline in favour of a less risky alliance with Malaysia Airlines. While unions might claim this as a victory, the paper says Qantas is firm in its stance on the job security claims of the unions.

The news comes after speculation re-emerged over the weekend of a private equity bidder for Qantas . According to The Weekend Australian, former Qantas boss Geoff Dixon and John Singleton considered taking a strategic stake in Qantas three months ago, but were turned off by a darkening outlook for equity markets. The theory is that someone with greater capital firepower might still be hanging around. The indicative $700 million bid by Private Equity Partners for Spotless Group has fuelled rumours of increased private equity activity in the Australian market, despite the obvious turmoil in Europe, and much of it has centred on Qantas . While Dixon wasn’t ready to ride the current market waves with his own money – the paper says investment banker Mark Carnegie, Singleton and Dixon are set to launch a $200 million pub fund instead, which could list on the ASX – in Qantas he said it would not be surprising if other players were taking a look at his former employer.

via BREAKFAST DEALS: Qantas chaos | Alexander Liddington-Cox | Wheels and Deals | Business Spectator.

Filed under News, Qantanomics Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

#QantasLuxury, the hashtag debacle from @QantasAirways.

November 24, 2011 Leave a comment

Oh dear!  What I would have given to be a fly on the wall in Neil Ross’s office (Group General Manager Marketing) on Wednesday.  The Gen Y social media guru’s would have come up with this plan as a brilliant idea as part of the “reconnect with the customer” strategy. The play would have been put in place and the campaign launch set, except! And this is where the pain started.

The online tsunami started when the Gen Y people released  the “Qantas Luxury” competition on Twitter, asking users to say what their “dream luxury inflight experience” in return for a pair of pj’s and a wash bag branded Qantas.

Within minutes, users had hijacked the #qantasluxury hashtag to vent their anger at the embattled airline, which late last month cancelled all its flights around the world in an attempt to force government intervention in its industrial negotiations.

Lets take a look at some of the better twitter feeds

@lehmo23

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@julieposetti

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@QantasAirways They really lost the plot, would the judging be the most derogatory(thousands) or pro Qantas entries (Count your fingers).

ScreenShotM031

But the best was still to come on You Tube which could be argued hijacked the show.  The Qantas downfall parity video is nothing short of brilliant. There must have an accolade that can be given for this work, Golden Globe …..

Just how did they get so wrong?  For two days the hashtag #QantasLuxury ran wild on twitter and the media did not miss the story.  How could they? The only thing that would have knocked this out was a natural disaster of biblical proportions or a screw up from a shock jock and did they have their prayers answered, Enter stage left Kyle Sandilands.  In the words of my daughter, OMG.  In the end even Qantas was ducking for cover in the Kyle Sandilands mess.  The following tweet must have appeared 40 times on the Qantas twitter feed
ScreenShotM032

Oh well,another day, another Qantas PR disaster and as an end note, the Brisbane baggage handlers did not loose my luggage on Monday despite it having to sit on a trolley in the baggage handling area for 11 hours but the Brisbane Qantas lounge, Canberra is a sea of tranquillity and harmony.

Happy travels.

Filed under Qantanomics, Travel Tagged with , , , , , ,

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….

 

Filed under Qantanomics, Travel Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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