Complain about a product or service

Qantas

lorraine of adelaide, Australia August 31, 2009

travelled to paris via sydeny, japan, london. on arrival our bags were missing. i have put a complaint form and have not received one word. that is the least [they] could do seeing our holiday was ruined. there has been no attempt to help in any way. Qantas is getting a really bad name for service and flights. it was horrible. long uncomfortable flights. we were jammed in like sardines.

ewa of falcon, Australia May 3, 2009

My husband has just finished talking to a quantas senior supervisor from brisbane: karla As frequent flyers and regular users of long haul flights with quantas from Perth to London as a family of four we are very unhappy with the remarks made by the supervisor and the help, or lack of it that weve received as customers with regard to the outlined problem which Bill my husband addressed to her as below.

Every august i travel from London to Perth on a yearly return ticket and my husband and two children travel to meet me leaving in early september. Because i buy my ticket in june the computer system doesnt let me put the return date in i want because its over a year away (why is this still, in this day and age?). So we put a note on my ticket that we will need to change the date to the one we want within the year ticket at a later date when the booking system can cope. We have booked direct with quantas and also via agents, we always put this note on so we dont get charged to change the date because its not our fault we are sold a yearly ticket that cant be booked at the time.

We have also had this problem when weve booked with Emirates and are members of their company scheme, but we have never been charged by them to change the ticket to the date we actually want when we rebook it.

Bill and the kids are booked to travel on june 23rd to london we booked that as an o economy the same as mine. When we asked to move my ticket to that date so we could all fly together we were told no its not an o economy anymore, there are economy seats available though. We explained to karla the situation and how we felt it wasnt our fault, she said that due to the "terms and conditions" of our ticket we could not change the ticket accept to another o class, but we explained we all booked on o class and we just want to travel together as a family the class has obviously changed since then. At this point we were looking for that special thing in a company, a bit of understanding, customer relations, trying to help us out in a difficult situation but got none of it. Karla said we could all change our tickets to the day before the 22nd june at a cost of about 800 dollars, we were obviously unhappy with this and karla said "what is it you want me to do" bill said again, to get my wife on the same flight as me and the children on the 23rd, there are economy flights left but not o class.

the supervisor said that the "terms and conditions" dont allow for this change. She stated "Why should we wave the conditions for you instead of other customers, quantas is a business and needs to make a profit" at this point Bill informed her he was writting her words down and how could he complain in writing at which she replyed " at quantas.com online".

Bill told her that he thought she should help us in this case because we were a family with young children who wanted to travel together with a note on the ticket when purchased that we needed to change the date of the ticket because the quantas computer system wouldnt let us book the correct date. As compared to say a sole traveller trying to change his date for some reason without any such note on his ticket about changes.

Bill then stated that he was very unhappy as a frequent flyer and loyal regular quantas user and wouldnt be buying this years four london perth return fares in a months time at a loss of some 8000 dollars to quantas. Karla replied "Its no good tring to blackmail me". My husband found this remark slanderous, he informed her that he is telling her that he is an unhappy customer who will not be using the company again and that it is our right of choice to use another airline and inform the supervisor that this is due to the poor service we have received. Blackmail is a serious offence and allegations of such are not to be given lightly especially by someone in her position. How is it a customer cannot state to choose to go elsewhere and state the reason without being accused of blackmail, that is truly offensive.

Despite this Bill remained calm throughout and asked(as the situation still was not resolved) how much it would be for me to travel alone on june 22nd. We were told this would be 50pounds and another 60 dollars. ( to change a ticket to the same o class even though theres a note of a requested change on my ticket that last week a quantas representative said they would honour when bill called them.) So finally with no other option we have just paid this fee, i am not travelling with my family. Bill has to drive me 2 hours up to Perth airport the day before then go back 2 hours to home with the kids, then return the next day to the flight we all wanted to be on. i arrive in London on my own and have to wait there 24 hours and take a hotel as we are all flying on to Krakow Poland our final destination. Bill has no support with two young children on perth sing london flights which the supervisor did comment on "as a mother she understood long haul flights without support are difficult". I wonder if shes made any herself on her own with two young kids to london?

Come on Quantas wheres the human side to looking after your customers. Supervisors have the ability and responsibility (or should have) to look after customers even when it may have to move out of the realm of "terms and conditions" . Yes quantas is a business and needs to make a profit but it wont do by treating us or others like this. My familys 8000 dollars for this years tickets goes to Emirates or Singapore airlines and no we are not black mailing you! we are voting with our feet to the loss of your profit and reputation for what we genuinely feel is very poor in this case, there are economy class flights still left on my husband and kids flights but I wont be travelling with them.

Bonnie of Monmouth, OR December 12, 2008

Bonnie of Monmouth OR (12/12/08)
I flew from San Francisco to Sidney to Cairns to Uluruh to Cains to Sidney to San Francisco in June/July, '08. I have only positive experiences to share as to the graciousness of Quantas staff at the airports, and on the planes. Lost luggage, not only returned, but delivered in Cairns, delayed flight upon return to San Francisco and a nearby hotel room quickly assigned for my 13 hour flight departure delay. THANK YOU QUANTAS!

The consequences included feeling more rested when I left for my trans Pacific flight from Sidney to San Francisco, getting to spend several hours exploring Sidney which I had wanted to do but been unable otherwise to fit into my full schedule, and absolute delight in the friendliness of customer service and each airline representative encountered.

Navdeep of Rockhampton Queensland, OTHER December 5, 2008

Navdeep of Rockhampton Queensland OTHER (12/05/08)
I booked my mothers ticket on 17 july for 8dec2008. they told to deposit 75 as they couldn't find a connecting flight with air india. ON 17 nov 2008 when contacted again they told that my mothers ticket expired and now you have to new ticket. i tol them if my mothers ticket expired in aug they should have not booked the ticket for dec and even the booking was in their system database till 21 nov 2008 and i called them again on 28 nov 2008. when asked again about confirming the ticket they deleted my mothers booking from their database and said there is no booking on this name

well it was there till 21 nov 2008 then how come it was no there on 28 nov. and they disconnected my phone too. my question is if they knew everything then why didn't they told me on the spot.

i really suffered economic loss as as on the last moment i have to buy my mother a new ticket which costed me 900 (aud). i was so much depressed as my mothers visa was expiring on 10 dec 2008 after which she could have been illegal. im a casual worker who just gets only 20 hrs/pw and it was really hard for me to arrange money at once. it was some custmor care person's mistake and i had to pay for her mistake.

Nathan of Thangool, OTHER September 3, 2008

Nathan of Thangool OTHER (09/03/08)
i travelled from brisbane to ho chi minh yesterday, 28/08/08. there was a connecting flight to sydney operated by qantas. i went to check in at the qantas terminal and the lady told me that she could not send my bags to Ho Chi Minh because i don't have a return ticket. I told her that this was wrong, i have done it before, only 5 months ago. She told me that my bag will go as far as Sydney, and will not be transferred to the Jetstar flight. then i would have to take it up with Jetstar.i said ok, i will.

i was proceeding to the gate for my departure, when my name was called over the PA to contact Qantas services (or something like that- it is on the second floor after the screening process) They basically just told me the same thing - that i would have to collect my bag from Sydney and check in again at Jetstar. I knew that she was wrong with what she said, so i called the Vietnamese consulate in Sydney and they could not understand why she said that - they said if there are any problems they would talk to them.

i was on the phone to them and said to the Qantas staff that they would let them know that this is wrong. But the Qantas staff would not talk to them. I didn't realise that Qantas Check in staff were qualified in the field of Vietnamese immigration. Are Qantas check in staff members of the Vietnamese consulate? do they know something about Vietnamese immigration that the consulate does not know????? i don't think so.

i got to Sydney, the plane was 20 minutes late. this, along with the fact that i would have to check in again, meant that i had little time to work with. i waited and waited for my bag to come through, but it never did. i went to the Qantas baggage service desk and was trying to tell them my situation, but the VERY RUDE Man of African decent would not even let me explain why i was seeing them. he kept saying i have to go to Jetstar and threatened to call security on me. so with time running out i waited for the train to the international terminal which wasted another ten minutes. once i got there, i told Jetstar my situation and they told me that she shouldn't have done that. They did not have a problem at all with putting my luggage on the plane, they said your visa is fine, that is all we need.

She then contacted Qantas to see if my bag was there, and it wasn't. She said that if they don't have it then it will be on the plane to Ho Chi Minh. i just wanted to know my bag was safe, and i asked why they couldn't locate it by the bar code, she said that because it was a connecting flight, it did not get scanned, it automatically goes on the connecting flight. She assured me that everything would be okay, but i was stilled very worried the whole trip.

once i got to Vietnam, my fears were confirmed - my bag did not make it to Vietnam. so i was in Saigon with the clothes on my back and some money. I could not sleep that night as i was worried about my bag and its contents worth upwards of 1000. I spent a rediculous amount of money on phonecalls and taxis trying to sort this out. Not to mention the extra clothes, toiletries etc T The Jetsatr lady i called (shirley) said, don't worry, these things happen all the time with Qantas! That's nice to know from a company who prides itself on customer service i was supposed to travel to Nha Trang City the night as i was getting married there a week after this. This all nearly fell apart with the arguments the whole situation caused - everything i needed for the wedding was in that suitcase.

I eventually got a phone call from the Staff at Ho Chi Minh airport some 30 hours after i arrived to say that they had my bag. Qantas could not call me themselves, maybe they were too busy. I asked what happened and the gentleman just said, your bag was left in Sydney. This is all he could tell me. I am yet to receive an apology or explanation from Qantas, and don't expect one until i get back to Australia in two months time. They have no excuses for not calling me, i left my phone number with almost every Qantas department. I had to call almost every department because nobody knew anything about my bag or how to locate it.

NEARLY BROKE UP MY RELATIONSHIP, STRESS, COST OF HOTEL FOR TWO NIGHTS IN HO CHI MINH, COST OF BUYING CLOTHES and TOILETRIES, COST OF TAXI TO and FROM AIRPORT (three times), COST OF NUMEROUS PHONECALLS TO QANTAS IN AUSTRALIA and also FRIENDS IN AUSTRALIA (to get them to try to solve my problem from Australia)

Miklos of Sydney, OTHER August 18, 2008

Miklos of Sydney OTHER (08/18/08)
I am a small boutique hotel manager and a guest had some lost luggage delivered by a very rude person. He literally dumped the large bags right at reception desk so that no guests could approach it, gave me the ticket to sign, which I courteously did, and then I said, Thank you they can go inside to the court yard which incidentally is all on the ground floor. He then instead of doing that said Mate my backs worse than yours, you can do it yourself I said No I'm sorry you need to deliver it properly and he said too bad you signed the ticket and he walked out.

Unimpressed customers and I was unable to move the bags quickly myself as I was busy. If a person is delivering something don't you think they should deliver it. Soon they will be dropping everything down the road and saying close enough mate. What a joke.

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