Move over Sid, @QantasAirways has a new kid in town, Megan!

May 25, 2012 1 Comment

Those of you who are familiar with my ramblings have found the saga of my mate Sid, former Head of Loyalty Operations rather amusing,  The feedback for some quarters has been down right flattering!  Well I got a new email today, personally signed by Megan Whitlocke-Jones with the whole enchilada marketing signature.  Qantas have replaced my mate Sid (figuratively speaking) and to top this off, Sid has updated his Linked In profile.  It would appear that Sid did work at Qantas, he just got some what confused between 2010 and 2012.  I have a created a new medical condition for this.  It is called Temporal Displacement Syndrome or TDS for short.  This is where individuals get confused about what they were doing and when.  This is not to be confused with Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, who got disoriented about the Degree he obtained or not as the case may be.  Check out Sid’s new and improved Linked in page.

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But since Sid has moved on, so should we, sorry Sid.  So onto my newest mate, Megan.  My other mate Bruce (I do not have many!) is rather annoyed that he did not get the double status points offer.  Two months later he is still dirty and I have not let him forget it either.  I would phone you (Megan) personally to plead Bruce’s case but I feel that you would not take my call and who can blame you and that would be a bit pathetic.  And anyway, I would not want me to call me so accordingly Bruce can fight his own fights.

Back to Megan’s signature.  Now for those of you how like the full enchilada marketing signature, here it is in it’s full glory complete with flourish’s:

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So until next week or the week after depending on how eventful my travel is, voyages heureux.

Filed under Frequent Flyer, Travel Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Forget missing luggage, @QantasAirways and the mystery of the missing man, @sgokani

April 23, 2012 1 Comment

Now I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person and Qantas have come up with a humdinger this time.

Every month I get emails from Qantas with my points balance and status credits along with a mountain of offers and marketing guff. Nothing new or unique here.  A quick scan of the gmail found 5 emails where the Head of Loyalty Operations, Sid Gokani has signed the email.  That’s nice, the Head of Loyalty Operations no less is sending me personalised email.  I feel special along with 8 million other people!  Nothing special here either.

I was winding up one of my colleagues a few weeks back about Sam’s “super offer” of double status credits.

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Bruce not to be outdone and a little pissed that he had not received the same offer, rang Qantas customer service and asked why he had not received the email.  After a few days he rang back and the answer was “Sid Gokani no longer works at Qantas and has not worked at Qantas since last year”.  Hang on.  I have received two emails in 2012 alone from Sid and a quick check of his Linked in profile confirms he left last year.  I smell identity theft!  Sam check you credit card statements!

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I am unsure if my mate Sid (figuratively speaking)  is aware of this oversight or even if the Qantas marketing staff realise that Sid has left the building.  Sid even has a twitter account (at time of writing), @sgokani, but he is not what you may call a prolific tweeter, so Sid, if you are reading this, ask for job back.  To all intensive purposes, it would appear that you have not left the building and by the way, I am not stalking you!

And Sid, gook luck in the job market and if you need a reference you could link with Alan on LinkedIn if you have done so already!

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

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)!

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