This is the Qantas News website. We are a community of former
and present Qantas customers sharing our 'experiences
and present Qantas customers sharing our 'experiences
My Pregnant wife & child was escorted off Qantas flight 5 min before departure by 6 police officers
Submitted by: Lee Thomas (posted March 9, 2009)
My name is Mr. Lee Thomas, I am a Company Director from Hong Kong on holiday visiting my relatives in W.A. I would like to share with you my
recent Qantas experience. This is a bit of a long story, but I will try to keep it short. I travelled to Australia with my Wife and our TWO year old
Son, we were staying in Bunbury with my Mother. On Tuesday 24th. Feb We traveled to Albany to visit my relatives, on Wednesday 25th. Feb
my wife had pains in the stomach and was later rushed to hospital by Ambulance, where is had to under-go EMERGENCY SURGERY for an
Ectopic Pregnancy. The Hospital did a fantastic job and my Wife is now doing fine. On our return to Bunbury on Saturday 28th, I called Qantas
to inform them of the situation and to ask for help in arranging a Wheelchair and to make sure that my Wife could be made as comfortable as
possible for the journey home to Hong Kong. The lady on the phone from Qantas was very helpful and sympathetic. We arrived at Perth
International Airport at 8am on Monday 2nd March after a 3 hour drive from Bunbury, checked-in and showed the Qantas staff our Medical /
Doctors Letter, stating that my Wife, was quote -FIT TO FLY. As my Wife was in a wheelchair and I had my TWO year old Son with me, we
boarded first, while on board I showed the Doctors Letter to the Cabin Crew to make them aware of my Wife's condition. FIVE minutes before
take off, I was approach by a lady from Qantas named Jane, who was on the phone with a Qantas Doctor in Sydney. I explained many times to
her that we had a doctor's letter stating the she was "FIT TO FLY" and that I had phoned Qantas two days before and explained the
circumstances, also that I had shown the letter when we checked-in. Jane from Qantas said that we were now not allowed to fly! When I left the
plane to speak to Jane again, she had called the Police and 6 Federal Policemen where there. After My Wife and 2 year old Son were
escorted off the Plane, we were told we had to reclaim a luggage. 20 MINUTES (approx) after the plane (without US on-board) departed, Jane
said she had finally contacted ALBANY HOSPITAL and they confirmed that YES my Wife was FIT TO FLY We were led downstairs to Departure
where we were left by Jane.
The ONLY person that really took care of us while we were waiting for Jane to return with what we to do now was a FEDERAL POLICEMAN,
named Eddie who was fantastic. We were told by Jane that the next Qantas flight direct to Hong Kong was TWO days later ! We had the
choice of waiting in Perth until 1am and fly with CX or flying to Melborne and get the connecting Qantas flight. We chose Qantas. While waiting
for the Melbourne Flight, Jane generously gave us three lunch vouchers which had the Wrong date on them so could not be used. That was
just another kick in the head ! Everyone at Qantas from Perth International Airport, Federal Police, Perth Domestic Airport and Melbourne
International Airport were fully aware of what had happened and in their words, not mine, Emberassed about how we were treated.
To summarize: My Wife and I had just lost a BABY My Wife had to under-go emergency surgery We were asked to leave a Qantas flight, when
we had a letter stating FIT TO FLY We had six policemen waiting for us. Short time later it was confirmed my Wife was FIT TO FLY Altogether it
took us 27 HOURS to return home I must say that when everyone heard what had happened to us Qantas staff were wonderful, BUT this
should never of happened. I was told by both QANTAS staff and POLICE if I never showed the letter everything would of been OK. All I did was
the right thing, now Qantas must do the Right thing I am expecting a PROMPT REPLY For your reference my Wife's name is ROSABEL
CABATUAN and my Son's Curtis Daniel Thomas we were expecting to fly QF67.
Passenger: Kids starved after Qantas cancelled all food service on long flight
Submitted by: Sen8tor (posted March 7, 2009)
Booking from the UK to New Zealand we travelled on Qantas via Singapore and Sydney. Having travelled all the way to New Zealand on
Qantas we only had irritations such as the entertainment not fully working and finding our flight from Australia had been changed creating an
unnecessary 5 hour wait at Sydney. Leaving New Zealand we were persuaded to transfer our NZ dollars back to Sterling at the airport not
realising although we had confirmed our flight with Qantas we were on an early morning Jetstar flight with no breakfast not even a glass of
water and no New Zealand or Australian currency. At no stage had Qantas made us aware we would not receive scheduled airline facilities.
Contractually that was what I understood I had paid them for. After a very hungry/thirsty flight I was horrified to find that in Sydney on a Sunday
morning there is no facility or staff to register a complaint with, and it was all my fault for not knowing that Jetstar were now running the service
and that I would have to have New Zealand or Australian currency to pay for a basic Health and Safety item such as water. I booked with
qantas on the belief I was travelling on scheduled flights with the same service throughout. Qantas had at least four occassions when I spoke
to them to correct my misunderstanding, but at no stage did any of their employees even hint that we would not receive scheduled airline
service between New Zealand and Australia or that as a family with children we needed to eat beefore getting the 6.00am flight. I'm sure others
have worse experiences but what we experienced was corporate fraud, and a wall of silence about what we were really being sold.
Passenger: I cried the whole flight after Qantas threatened me
Submitted by: Intimidated customer (Posted March, 5, 2009)
My flight QF566 from Perth to Sydney was cancelled due to engineering problems. After a couple of half started messages over the PA the
instructions were to line up at the Customer Service desk if you did not live in Perth. I lined up as I live in Sydney and after waiting a long time
was informed that the option was to take a later flight (leaving at 11.30pm) to Melbourne which would mean travelling all night and arriving in
Sydney the next morning. I explained to the attendant that I wished to book another flight the next day as flying all night was not my
preference. I did not explain to her that I had just been in Scotland for 2 weeks burying my grandmother and that my feet were still swollen
from my flight to Perth as I knew that if I did explain it to her then I would start to cry. She explained that she could not help me and to go away
for 10-20 minutes and then she may be able to help me.
She was also very agitated that there was no accommodation available to be offered as there was a golf tournament in Perth that weekend. I
explained to her that I was not leaving now I had reached the front of the queue until I had rebooked my flight for the next day as I was worried
about the flights filling up now that my flight had been cancelled. She then asked me to step to the side and speak to her supervisor. I then
stepped to the side and stood in front of her supervisor who was on the telephone. A gentleman came along and asked what I needed so I
explained to him that all I wanted was to rebook my flight for the next day. He then told me that there was no accommodation available and that
it was his job to get the accommodation. I commented again that all I wanted was to rebook my flight for the next day. The gentleman then left.
The supervisor who I was still standing in front of continued on the phone for the next 10 minutes. Answered the next phone call and kept
talking. She did eventually get off the phone but continued to ignore me standing there and talked to someone behind her and then walked
down the passage and talked to someone else and took another phone call. By nearly the hour mark, when I had now been standing in front
of where the supervisor had been for half an hour without being spoken to or acknowledged by her, and my feet were starting to hurt as well
as being bloated. A new staff member arrived and began serving a new customer.
The new customer also did not want to fly on the flight to Melbourne and so the Qantas attendant began asking him what flight he wanted to fly
on. At this point I become agitated and began asking the Qantas attendant why I had been standing there all this time and had not been able
to get my flight rebooked and this new gentleman could walk up and have his done in two seconds. The new Qantas attendant asked me to be
quiet and that he would serve me once he had finished with this gentleman and that he wasn’t offering him a flight the next day. In the next
sentence the Qantas attendant then began booking the gentleman’s flight for the next day. At this point my agitation did get greater and so I
raised my voice and yelled at the Qantas supervisor what did I have to do to get some service here? I did not swear. I did not use threatening
language. I raised my voice and asked what did I have to do to get some service. At this point the Qantas attendant threatened that if I did not
calm down that I would be escorted from the airport by security. So I went quiet.
The Qantas supervisor then in a round about way acknowledged my existence by making an announcement over the PA system asking
customers to be patient. She still did not come down to speak to me and after making this announcement disappeared from behind the
counter completely. The Qantas attendant finished serving the gentleman and then rudely served me. He did not explain if there was any
method of claiming for out of pocket expenses as I had heard being explained to other customers and did not offer me any vouchers. I then
asked about upgrades and he rudely told me that he couldn’t give out upgrades as they would then have to give them to everyone. I had also,
since I was standing there so long, heard the first attendant upgrade someone she had been serving. So I have not only lost a day, valuable
time and have now had to pay my own out of pocket expenses to take care of the delay in travel. At the end of the less than 2 minutes it took
to rebook my flight I asked for the customer service department details and his (the attendants) name. He refused to give me his name. The
original attendant gave me her name and asked if her supervisor had spoken to me. I said that no she hadn’t and that I was very unhappy with
what had just happened. At no point did any staff member apologise for any of the inconvenience caused, treat anyone I saw them serve as
an individual that had individual requirements or offer extra assistance like opening up the Qantas lounge for the next 6 hours while people
waited for their Melbourne flight.
The Qantas staff as a whole were on the defensive the whole time that there was no accommodation to offer and just kept acting defensive
about that. I then left extremely upset and went to make a complaint to Qantas customer service on the number I had been given. As it was
now after 5pm in Perth the office in Sydney was closed. The next day I was able to get through to the Qantas customer service office in Sydney
and speak to a lady there. As I was speaking to her she started to explain that they did not have accommodation in Perth. I asked her if she
was listening to me as I had not asked for accommodation in Perth. She then said that there was a note on the system saying that I had been
abusive to staff. I then explained to the woman that I was glad that they were taping our conversation as they would be able to hear that I was
using an agitated voice and that I was neither yelling or using expletives to her. I had called to let them know that I was so upset about how I
had been treated and threatened yesterday that I was going to make a complaint to the aviation authorities and anyone else I could think of.
She then asked if I was threatening her and I was quite surprised and said that no I wasn’t I was just letting them know that I was very upset
and was going to be making these complaints!
At this point she threatened me and said that maybe it wasn’t a good idea for me to be flying with Qantas today and that she had to go
because she was going to hang up now and ask the Duty Manager to come and speak with me. She then hung up and I continued to go and
board the plane not knowing until the plane took off if I was going to be pulled off the plane or not. I then boarded the plane and cried all
through take off with all the stress I had just gone through to get on the flight. The staff on the flight were very helpful and when the plane was
re-routed to Melbourne and I became even more emotional and was throwing up they were very helpful again. I am also concerned that as I
was threatened twice by their staff members with some form of extreme action (involving security, refusing my flight) that I may have had civil
liberties that have been infringed upon as well of all the undue stress I suffered.
Asian Passenger: Qantas service is rude and unfriendly
Submitted by: Sak (posted: March 1, 2009)
I have a fully flexible (date, not destination) round the world ticket and got on my flight from Alice Springs to Perth. I didn't fancy staying in Perth
and wanted to head straight to Singapore a day earlier (ie in about 3 hours). I have changed my flight a few times (via the extremely helpful NZ
call centre staff) and it didn't cost me a penny. I went up to Henry at the domestic terminal sales desk in Perth and I asked if I could change it.
The reply after he had a look at my reference number on a screen (time he looked...2 seconds) was 'I want to charge you 50 pounds'. When I
asked him to check the fare rules as I thought he had made a mistake, he said 'that's what I want to charge you, so either you pay it, or the exit
there sir'. I asked at check in and a friendly guy named Digby suggested I make my way to the international terminal to try my luck (the only
friendly staff member I talked to). On arrival there, I asked the reservations and ticket desk and they said they 'had no access to my fare rules'.
I went next door to customer services and an obnoxios Davinia asked my 'what I wanted'. I asked again and she said that it was her decision to
let me on the flight and she didn't want me to. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she said the buck stops with her. I asked for the
reservations call centre number and she said she didn't have it. I saw it written on a wall behind her and pointed it out and one of her collegues
suggested 'well call it love, don't waste our time!' Called the number and they said my date change is in fact free, but as of the day before, they
have bought in a 60 AU dollar service fee. Eh? Where's the consistency there? When I asked what it was actually for, I had 'well, do you want
to change the date or not sir...if you do, give me your credit card details.' as a response. Out of protest, I made my way into Perth town centre
and had a beer. I refuse to pay for something when I have no explanation of what it is for. To sum up, arrogant, obnoxios, inconsistent,
dismissive, rude and a few other things that I can't possibly accuse them of (I'm a backpacking British Asian).
Qantas hangs up on passenger - Bushfire rebooking for child $75 despite “free promise”
Submittet by: Julia Posted on Feb. 22, 2009
I tried to book my child's paid flight on the net but was unable to do so because system said she was too young to fly alone. I was told I would
not be charged fees for booking over the phone because of Qantas system short comings and I had 1 free change of flights. I then had to
change flights due to the bushfires in Victoria. A very helpful lady said she would waver the service fee and I would not be charged for
changing the flights. A change of route was quickly made so my daughter flew with me. I now discover I have been charge for qantas making
a mistake.I ve been charged for that change of route. When I inquired about the discpencies in price. I discovered that there are lots of
fees/charges/taxes that are added on but the telephone operator did not disclose these to me(even though you are being charge $75 for
"their time").To top it off, the last woman I had to deal with was so rude and unhelpful with her angry voice and short clipped sentences says
there is nothing you can do about those charges "you just have to wear it like everyone else" I got mad and part way though my exasperated
complaint she just hung up.I had been reluctant to use qantas because I had heard that they are understaffed and therefore the staff are less
than helpful and careless with luggage. So to add insult to injury I could have booked both flights with another airline for less money and less
agrivation than one childs flight. I recommend only using qantas as a last resort because it seems that qantas has become indifferent to its
customers. I used to be proud of our airline. Now I am just angry and embarrassed that they trade on being Austalian.
Passenger: Qantas made travel with a 3-year old a nightmare
Submitted by: Tara. Posted Feb. 19, 2009
On arrival to Melbourne airport with my 3 year old in tow, I proceeded to the check in counter and was issued seats 20D & 9C for the
scheduled flight to Cairns, this went unnoticed by myself until we were at the boarding gate. As always the queue began before the boarding
staff arrived and with a small child by my side I waited for most of the other passengers to go through before attempting to have my 3 year old
stand in the one place for any length of time. As I approached the boarding pass staff member I then looked at the tickets and noticed the
seating placements, as I handed them to her, before I had a chance to query the seating she immediately told me that the 2 seats were
separate and that he was too young to sit on his own! (This I already knew, but figured flying Qantas, a somewhat dearer carrier than their
competitors, their service would be somewhat superior?). The staff member then requested that we stand to one side while the whole plane
boarded and people were shuffled to accommodate us. A second boarding pass staff member told me that I really should have let them know
sooner and I simply replied, "I figured you people would have had this under control as the booking did state his age!" Once we were finally
seated together and the food trolley began it's rounds the choices were a chicken pesto sandwich and a ham salad, I thought I would attempt
the chicken pesto sandwich as not too many 3 year olds like salad and was greeted with, "this is yucky mummy", so asked one of the staff if I
could possibly get a ham salad? I was advised that the catering staff were pretty spot on with the food supplied and that I would have to wait
until the entire plane was served to see what was left over! Fortunately, there was an available ham salad, so I proceeded to pick out the ham
& tomatoes to go with the apple that I had bought from home. Had I known, I would have taken a vegimite sandwich, but had I known any of
this was going to occur, I would have used a different air carrier! I complained to webjet who immediately responded with a phone call and
assured me they would forward my complaint, I then received an auto email from Qantas to say it would be addressed within the next 30 days,
that was 28/11/08, what a surprise.....I'm still waiting! On the day of the flight, I only THOUGHT Qantas was the WORST air carrier I had ever
flown with, due to their non response, I now KNOW they are the worst I have ever flown with! As for customer service, forget it! I should have let
them seat my 3 year old in the 1st issued seat & then let them look after him for the duration of the flight, only problem is if something had
happened to him, I'd be waiting to hear about it.!
Customer: My miles expire, but Qantas won't let me use them for anything!
Submitted by: Jill, Posted Feb. 17, 2009
I rang Qantas Freq Flyer number, and after waiting for 20 minutes, I finally got an operator. Not good customer service!! I asked the operator
how I would use my Freq Flyer points to rent a car, as per my letter today from Mr Richard Switzky, telling me that I was about to lose my
points accumulated over many years prior to my retirement, and she said to look it up on the Qantas website under "Using Points". Sadly,
there are no instructions on how to use Freq Flyer points for car rental. More poor customer service?? I then tried to top up my points so I
could get a return flight to Brisbane. It would not let me. What is going on? So much for meeting customer needs! I then tried to get a quote to
join Qantas Lounge membership. The qoute page would only show Error 404! Great customer service. What customer service do Qantas
offer?
Qantas Blackmail customers: $265 to cancel a flight (not change or refund)
Submitted by: Carley, Posted Feb. 12, 2009
I booked a NY-Sydney-Canberra flight with Qantas, and then found I needed to stopover for a night in Sydney. Knowing of the $200US cost to
change a flight, I thought I would cancel my Syd-Canberra flight, knowing that Virgin or the like would have <$50 options. Casually calling
Qantas to cancel, in the knowledge I would never get a refund, I was shocked to hear that the wanted $265US to cancel. I.e not only was I
forfeiting my fare, that they could resell, they then wanted double the price of that fare as a 're-issuance fee'. So effectively they have made
four times the market price of that seat; what sort of pricing scheme is that. They were also cluey enough to predict my resulting behaviour (a
'no show'), with the blackmail threat that should I fail to make my Sydney to Canberra flight, they would cancel my future return flight back to
New York! Anti-competitive behaviour???
Passenger: 30 hours travel from South Africa: all I got was cold pasta salad
By Perthflier (more at: www.flyertalk.com) Posted Feb. 7, 2009
I flew QF769 MEL-PER in J yesterday, and was quite surprised at the patchy meal service. We were seated in 5J and 5K. The FA on our side
was first to row 5, with the other aisle's FA still serving row 4. She put the tablecloth on our tables then walked around to the other side to talk
to the left aisle's FA, who was now serving row 5. She then came back to our aisle and started serving 5F! We already had our tablecloths
placed down and from the other 3 flights we took on QF J, when your tablecloth is down, the FA is going to serve you your food + drink. The
choices on that flight were Chicken or Salmon. We both wanted the chicken, but there was only one left due to the FA taking another chicken
to the left side of the cabin. We asked why she took a chicken from her side to the other side in order for a passenger to have that meal there
for the FA to reply "Sorry, but she is emerald". This is my main question: Does Qantas give priority to passengers with status when there are
not many meals left? I found it quite rude to be 'forgotten' (20 minutes elapsed between the time our tablecloth was laid down and the time
when we were finally served) just so a status passenger is given priority.I had to have a cold pasta salad (which was only said as a meal choice
after the chicken was given) as I don't eat fish. All I wanted was a hot meal as when I got home I went straight to sleep after 30+ hours of travel
from South America.
Frequent flier: Qantas stranded me in Moscow - have not contacted me in 6 weeks
Submitted by Zac, Posted Jan. 24, 2009
I bought around the world ticked from Qantas. This became very expensive because of the various airport taxes involved but I stuck with it
because of the flexibility it offered. Qantas issued me eTickets. About half way through my trip I arrived at Domodedovo airport in Moscow to
fly to Hungary on Malev Hungarian airlines (a member of the one world alliance) only to discover that Qantas had failed to book me on this
flight - despite selling me a ticket, taking my money and printing me an eTicket. I was stuck in Moscow and had to pay to buy a British Airways
ticket back to the UK to try and sort thingsout. My holiday was trashed. Qantas customer feedback, which sent me an automated reply saying
that as a silver qantas frequent flyer my complaint would be responded to in two working, still hasn't gotten back to me six weeks later. Well
done Qantas. This is one customer that will be cashing in his frequent flyer points & using another airline in future.
Passenger: I wish Qantas a not so merry Christmas & a worst New Year
By: MelbCity (more at: melbournecitycouncil.blogspot.com) Posted Jan. 19, 2009
Thanks for stealing my FF Points... I gave you loyalty, that was misplaced. I saved and saved and saved some more and was only a few points
off my dream holiday when they took away my 100,000 points. The service sucked and they sucked me in. I will never fly Qantas Again.
Qantas service has significantly declined under the current management. It's Safety record no longer merits a Rain Man quotation and soon
the Federal Government will remove the 51% barrier. I am in two minds on this issue. One side says that Qantas should remain Australian and
not go the way Vegemite has. The other says sell it. After 13 years of loyalty I now think Qantas sucks and it is not worth saving. They can stick
their red Kangaroo where its fits and I hope that the FF staff find themselves redundant because I could not give a rats about Qantas
anymore. I have a good mind to take them to the Consumer Affairs and complain about the poor quality of service and the fact that they have
not delivered on past promises and service undertakings. So I guess I will vote against which ever way the Qantas Board recommends. They
are no longer the Compassionate Australian.
Angry customer: $56 ticket had $350 in booking fees & charges
Submitted by: Muthu (Posted Jan. 13, 2009)
I have had the most appalling experience, dealing with QANTAS, with regards to my above booking. All I wanted to do was to change the return
flight and bring it forward by a couple of days, happy to pay any fees and charges. However I have had to endure poor customer service from
your telephone customer service officers, absolutely shocking website that really needs a lot of improvement and monetary loss in terms of
penalties! To add insult to injury, I just received a flippant email from one of your esteemed customer service officers which I have attached. I
was originally booked from Alice Springs to Singapore return via Perth on 11th January 2009 and returning via Sydney on 1st Feb 2009. I tried
to do the change on the web, which showed plenty of seats available on 29th and 30th January from Singapore. However, when it came to the
Confirmation screen, it would say that the change was unsuccessful and to try again later. So I called your customer service on 131313 who
said she would book it for me. She did not mention the tight transit period in Brisbane – 95mins. She also did not mention that the difference in
fare was only $56.00 but I had to pay $75.00 in charges for having to change it over the telephone! I found out later that Brisbane International
Airport and Domestic Airports are 3 km apart. All of your customer service officers I spoke to today (about 3 of them) seem to keep repeating
that it’s only a 2 min train ride. Did anyone realize that the train only runs every half hour on a Saturday morning? Has anyone seen the taxi
queues outside major airports? Has any one of you actually been through Brisbane Airport when there are multiple flights and truly say that
one can get past immigration and customs etc in less than an hour? I was really taken back when I read, Nick, your customer service officer
who emailed me in reply to my feedback “thousands of people do it every day”. When I raised these concerns with Brisbane Airport, they told
me that it could take up to 3 hours depending on the number of flights that arrive at the same time. Well in my case there would be 4 flights,
two from Singapore one from Japan and one from New Zealand all landing at around the same time. Naturally I got worried and tried to talk to
someone at QANTAS. Again, I got the same replies. “It shouldn’t be a problem as long you don’t spend any time at the Duty Free shop”. Well
that is QANTAS customer service for you. All your officers were adamant that there were no alternative flights via any of the capital cities. I
even said I was happy to pay the difference. Surprise, surprise when I cancelled my booking I had no problems getting a seat on the 11th and
29th of January 2009. I can only surmise that the officers were not interested in helping. I certainly think the website booking and managing of
flights by customers is made technically difficult on purpose such that the customers will have no choice but do it over the phone and thus pay
for telephone assistance. In addition to the $75.00 phone booking fee, I lost another $250.00 for canceling the first booking and using a
voucher to rebook. I lost another $25.00 because I reserved seats on another flight that was selling out fast. I did this because there were no
clear instructions that you needed to get the voucher first before you booked the subsequent flight. I thought I could use the voucher to pay for
it when it came through. To my dismay I found that I had to go through the booking process again in order to use the voucher! I have another
booking that is on hold which will lapse on 10th January. There was no way on the website to cancel it! There just was no cancel option. This is
another indication that QANTAS has its eye on the money not customer care or confidence. Even if its $25.00 it would just be too ethical for
QANTAS to refund the money if they decided to cancel it in good time! I really have no idea what is going on with your company and am
extremely disenchanted. I have heard people gripe about your customer service or rather the extreme lack of it both on the ground and on the
air. I now realize what they are talking about. I will now strongly campaign for alternative carriers. QANTAS is blatantly disinterested in providing
quality service mainly because of the lack of competition and thus monopolizing the market. This is very sad especially for a company that
keeps repeating their tag line “Spirit of Australia” when its actions are totally un-Australian to the core!
Your Qantas Experience
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