Qantas Airways
Reviews and Complaints

I flew Qantas/LAN Chile from Santiago to New Zealand Nov. 26th. Because the Auckland airport had problems, our flight was diverted to Tahiti, and only arrived in Auckland some 30 hours late. This is not why I am complaining. Flights get delayed. Customer services in Tahiti (information, etc.) could have been better, but I recognize the difficulty in such an operation.

My complaint is relative to services once we finally reached Auckland. Business class passengers were given an envelope with connecting flight bookings. Economy passengers were told to consult a list after leaving the plane. There were less than 20 names on the list, and mine was not on it. I asked the LAN representative there what to do and his answer was "Go to the domestic terminal and fend for yourself." Totally unacceptable! I did go the the domestic terminal, where of course they knew nothing about us and wanted me to go back. I finally managed to summon the pity of a Jet Blue person who took care of my connection despite the fact he had no reason to do it.

I sent an e-mail complaining on Nov 28th (the day this happened, C/467174) to LAN and Qantas Dec. 1st. Qantas never answered. On Dec. 17th LAN answered, but the response only explained why the flight was delayed (which was never an issue), and even stated incorrectly that the connections were taken care of. Called the LAN center and was connected to the person who generated the e-mail (Hugo Schnake), who promised a new specific answer in a week. I got none until today (Dec. 28). Phoned again, and was told I either could be connected again to Hugo Schnake (which would be of no use) or file a new complaint and wait 15 business days for an answer!

How can you get an airline to own up to a mistake?

I was suspicious of qantas valet service in sydney the past couple of times I travelled. In this case I purposely left a particular amount of money in my coin compartment. On returning from my trip I discovered some of the money missing. I confronted qantas valet immediatly prior to leaving the drive way. they apoligised and promised to "look into it" for me. I then rang and spoke to the manager the next day and he said he will enquire as to who drove the car etc etc. After waiting another week I rang the manager again and he said that he cant do anything about it as I couldnt prove what was taken and that there would be no refund of the $174 I paid to have my car ransacked. The "drivers" were to be counselled for "not stealing" anything and after all that, the outcome was "too bad." BTW all qantas valet are sub contracted out to Equity valet.

I recently flew with my wife, two infants and a child from Perth to Sydney for a holiday and back (reference 3OP8OD). Being our first flight with 3 very young children, in order to help make the trip as pleasant as possible, I took the effort to ensure that we requested 2 bassinets and called to enquire about what to do if we do not get appropriate seating. I was told that we have been given priority and if we do not get appropriate seating, it will be resolved when we check in. Fortunately, the flight from Perth to Sydney happened as we were advised and I am very happy with the seating we had. In fact, during the check in procedure, I learnt from the very helpful staff on duty that, if there was any issue with the seating, they are able to call on other passengers to reallocate seat to help the situation. Unfortunately, this pleasant impression of Qantas’ service has been marred by our flight back to Perth. Only when we were checking in, did we find out that there wasn’t any bassinet available and to make matters worse, our 3 seats was not at the bulkhead, where we could at least have more room for the infants, but at the back in cramped conditions. The check in staff was reluctant to help even when we asked if she could do anything since we learnt that they are able to reallocate seats if necessary. To make matters worse, she took us for fools by suggesting that it is our own fault. I.E. when we asked how there could not be bassinets, she said that we should have known because we book the flight ourselves. But when I said that we were not advised of the situation when we made the request for bassinets, she simply replied that they would have known which plane would be used for the flight. Clearly, her two excuses are contradictory as she was not in any way interested to assist us. This was further exacerbated when I requested for a fragile tag to be put on our pram (which we were checking in as oversized baggage) because a part of it was broken on the flight from Perth to Sydney. She was reluctant and simply said that they know what it is and the fragile tag is not necessary. But I when I asked that why then was it damaged on the flight to Sydney, she simply said that it because is not a normal luggage. Her answers confound me. It seems to infer that any issue that arises is the customer’s problem. In the end all 5 of us had to contend with the cramped seating at the back which caused undue stress to my 3 children resulting in much crying (the flight from Perth to Sydney had hardly any) Needless to say, the stress was further compounded by the reaction of other passengers around us. All these could have been much alleviated if the check in staff had been willing to assist us on the seating issue instead of treating us like fools.

Booked a flight for my family of 5 pax online and after putting in my credit details, it tried to verify and after a long pause, showed an error page. So I had to restart the booking and managed to complete the booking the 2nd time. The shock came when I received my credit card bill and it appeared I was billed twice for 2 bookings. I tried to call qantas to refund the duplicate booking but not only did they refused, they were rude and unhelpful. I could only get a credit voucher which can be utilized by the same names booked. My issue is, why can't qantas refund me for something which was clearly a mistake and even if they give me a credit voucher, why must it be used for the same 5 travellers? It's my first time with qantas and prob my last. And they can be sure I'll spread the word around!

Well, my story is about QF 975 Townsville to Brisbane Yesterday 15th February 2010. Just imagine...we've just boarded the flight, taken our seats, buckled in and the doors are closed and the pilot comes on the loud speaker and says something to the effect "Welcome onboard flight 975 to Brisbane, just to let you all know that one engine is not working. Therefore, we are going to start one engine here at the gate and you will all feel some shuddering, then we will push back and jump start the second engine as we have no power to it as it is broken. Other than that it will be a normal flight to Brisbane."
Well helloooooo! This is not normal...The plane is in desparate need of repairs and they have boarded approximately 100 passengers and jump started the plane to get it in the air.
Passengers stare at each other in disbelief! I am sure that many of them are thinking what I am...Do I get off! Will we make it to Brisbane? What else is not working?
Perhaps it was safe practice...certainly not normal practice...but I would like to believe that any plane I was getting in and putting my life into someone elses hands was 100% safe and opperational.
Poor form Qantas, how to instill confidence in an airline!

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.

I recently travelled from Calgary to Melbourne on Qantas and was very disappointed. My husband booked directly with the airline and informed the agent that I was pregnant and needed an aisle seat at the very least. We also requested a kosher meal with the booking. We phoned a few days prior to departure just to confirm everything and were told that neither our seat nor meal request was in the system. We requested them again.

When I arrived in LA, there was no indication of either the seat nor meal request. I was scheduled to sit in the very middle of a block of seats. Anyone whose been pregnant knows that frequent trips to the bathroom are essential, especially on a 13 hour flight. Luckily, our plane was delayed so I had the opportunity to voice my concerns - again. Miraculously, a seat appeared in the front row. A seat that hadn't been offered to me before, despite my enquiries about 'a spot with more legroom so I could at least get out when I needed to'. i suppose I should be thankful for small mercies.

On the return leg, I decided to call and make sure my seat was requested and my meal was registered. What a surprise! No sign of my requests and it was too late to order the kosher meal. Great. Oh, and the seating register was closed. I arrived early to check in, hoping I could obtain one of the front row seats again but alas, nothing was available. All bulkhead seating was taken up by parents and their babies. The best they could do was an aisle seat. Fabulous (sarcasm). I was told taht all seats with extra legroom were already assigned to those who needed it and perhaps I shouldn't be travelling if I'm this concerned about my back whilst being pregnant. Thanks for the great customer service! How rude!

On the plane, I decided to go for a walk and check out the front row seat situation. I saw 2 people with laptops and one middle aged lady. No seniors, no pregnant women and certainly no-one who obviously needed that space more than me.

All in all, my experience was horrible, made worse by the rudeness of the customer 'service' lady named Jo. I did not receive any of my special meal requests and despite every effort to ensure my preferences were recorded, they failed to be. I even had them listed in my booking online. After this, I will definitely be flying with another airline, one who cares about the special needs of its passengers. its no wonder Qantas is in trouble.

I was flying with Qantas from Germany with my 85 year old mother-in-law so that she could spend 3 months with us over the Christmas period in Sydney Australia. Her family had done everything that they could to make certain that Qantas had strict instructions that she was to receive 'meet and assist' help throughout her journey and they were guaranteed that she would. On her boarding passes it states very clearly : 'MEET ASSIST REQUIRED' so I have to assume that these instructions got through. However, from Frankfurt to London to Singapore to Sydney (almost 30 hours in total) she did not receive any 'meet and assistance' at all! Not once! In fact, we had so much luggage with us that I had to go searching for someone from Qantas to help us in London. This meant leaving her alone in a busy airport for almost one hour while I waited in a queue! My mother-in-law speaks some english but certainly not enough to understand the many different accents over a loud speaker, of which even I have difficulty understanding. Given this, I am left to wonder what on earth would have happened to her had I not been with her! To top this off the food was worse than appalling and she was harassed, searched and made to wait at customs because a dog had smelt fruit in her hand-luggage, which we eventually discovered was due to the SMELL of a banana that all the passengers were given shortly before landing (what airline gives out a fruit that is bound to smell just before landing, especially without warning people to wash their hands afterward?!).
My mother-in-law can not afford to pay for someone else to fly back to Germany with her on her return home in 3 months time. Yet, we are wondering if we can afford to send her back with Qantas?! How is any 85 year old woman with limited english meant to find their way through busy international airports and connecting flights without some help? And how are we meant to trust Qantas's promises and guarantees with 'meet and assist'?
She will never ever book an airline ticket with Qantas again and nor will I. I also want to warn anyone else requiring assistance not to rely on Qantas. Shame on you Qantas!

I am a regular flier, - 4-5 times a year globally and numerous national flights - mostly on non-qantas flights, which seems to work very well, with the odd hiccup taken care of in stress-free manners.

Approximately once every few years i decide to use qantas. The result is always the same – one big head ache / one big mistake.

This (Guaranteed last) time, as a handicapped person (I have a broken leg) i will have to ‘hop’ around germany to find a train station (Not airport) which qantas has been include in my itinerary – but cannot tell me where i should go to catch the train (I. E. Where it leaves from), and they have not even booked a seat on the train. So the chances are extremely good that i will have to stand with a broken leg on a 4hr train ride because deutsche bahn lets nearly double as many passengers on their trains as there are available seats.

And to hammer the point home, qantas are too incompetent to book the luggage through to the final destination, instead the handicapped should drag it around europe instead. Incidentally, one qantas supervisors seemed to find the whole suggestion extremely humorous.

And possibly the best illustration of qantas is when you consider how a handicapped person is treated to their interpretation of “the spirit of australia” (Nice spirit, why not kick me as well while i am down).

Furthermore qantas does not explain as you book your ticket – you might have to stand up during part of the travel and you must drag your baggage around by yourself. This is a nearly $3000 flight.

Finally, discussing it with highly untrained, unprofessional, loud-mouth staff who know it all, and do not even have the courtesy to hold their tongue long enough for the customer to have a say – really captures the spirit of australia – well done qantas.

My apologies for taking so long to find this wonderful website forum and having read some of these horror stories, I do not fell so alone in my anger and frustrations against this "almighty corporate giant QANTARSE!" My experience goes back to July 05, when I bought tickets for return travel to the UK from Canberra for myself, ex-partner and 3 year old daughter. I bought the tickets from an online classifieds website to the value of $4500. At the time of the transaction, I logged onto the qantas website and went through my itinary from the booking number provided, which showed all the details to be correct and payment had been successful with an E-ticket number & receipt number attached. I called Qantas 2 days later to organise our seating and meals arrangment. During this conversation, the representive informed me that there had been duplicate bookings made for our flights, but not to worry as she would correct them. I told her that the booking had been made online and not directly through Qantas and she again re-asured me that everything was now in order. I was booked to fly in 2 weeks time. When we arrived at the airport check-in on the day of our flight, I was asked to produce the credit card that had been used to pay for the tickets! It turns out that I had been caught in a scam and Qantas knew about it from the moment I had first contacted them! They had chosen to let me believe that everything was in order in the hope of "catching" me at the airport as being the potential instigator of the scam instead of showing any compassion when it was apparant that I was indeed the victim! No mattter how hard I remonstrated with them at check-in, they would not allow us to fly without forking out a further $8000! We had to return home and I was left to console my little daughter to try to explain to her that she would not be meeting any of her reletives for the first time who lived in England. During the following couple of weeks, I had the mis-fortune of trying to deal with the ###ic customer relations staff at Qantas who I would simply describe as "Pigs". To try to keep the details as brief as possible, I ended up fighting my case at the fair trading tribunal, where I initially had success when it was ruled that Qantas had been neglient in the duties and would be liable not for the cost of the tickets but for my loss of earnings (being self-employed), pain and suffering etc. However, on the second appearance at the tribunal where I was up against their lawyer, the lying booking clerk and one of their customer relations officers, the new registrar had decided even before the case had started that she was not going to rule against Qantas! The affidavit provided by the booking clerk was a total fabrication put together by the qantas legal team and she was there to stumble her way through it. She at one stage looked like she was going to collapse, such was the state of distress she was in, until the lawyer interrupted the procedings to give her a glass of water and time to compose herself. I asked her "why did you tell me that had fixed up the booking and we were all set to go?" She replied "I did not say that, I told you I was not sure if you were right to go"! I told her that if you had said that to me, do you not think that I would have been calling qantas every 5 minutes of the day until I got a positve answer from them, rather than just turn up at the airport 2 weeks down the track ready to fly?, She just shrugged her pathetic shoulders! I was then advised that my only course of action was to take the case to the supreme court which would cost upwards of $30, 000 to try to recover my $4500. Has anybody else had a similar experience to this nightmare and can anything more been done to make qantas accountable for such deception? Even though 4 years have passed since this injustice, If somebody knew of any recourse of action that could be embarked upon, I would proceed with vigour!

To whom it may concern,

I departed Heathrow on 10 October 2009, 12:15pm flight QF 32, was denied check-through luggage and passenger all the way to KLIA. I was advised by the check-in counter to get a boarding pass from Singapore, Changi to re-tag and re-route my luggage in order to board my flight for KLIA and I only have 1 hour until my next flight. Given that 1 hour, I have insufficient time to move from terminal to terminal and my Qantas flight was late from Heathrow.

The reason given was no contract with MAS because my connecting flight from Singapore to KLIA was MH604, 11 Oct, 9:20am. I was very disappointed with the way I was treated even after clarifying with my agent on the phone in Kuala Lumpur, whereby she mentioned that there is no such occurence. Furthermore, the check-in lady was not helpful and said there is a long queue while I am so upset. Not much help afterall and ignorant.

I want a full background explanation for such a disaster that could happen and coming from a well-known and international airline.

This is my contact:

Name: Chew Soo San
Email: [protected]@hotmail.com
H/P: +[protected]

I travelled to Sydney on the weekend. On the way up I checked in online 20 hours prior. I only had a choice of three seats in the plane. This was ok because I was flying by myself. On the way back to Melbourne the same thing happened although myself and my fiancé had to be separated. We checked in over an hour early. When we got to the bag drop I asked if the seats could be changed. The Qantas assistant said that the plane was full and there was nothing that she could do. Ok fair enough. However I asked why the seats were already full. I was advised that Qantas platinum flyers were allowed to reserve their seating upon purchase. On this flight were families upset that they could not sit next to each other, children having to sit away from their parents.

How is this fair? How is this just? If people want special treatment they can pay extra for business class. When preferential treatment interferes with whether or not you can sit with you husband or children is unjust. It is a classed based preferential treatment even when all passengers in economy pay the same.

I do not believe that Qantas should have take away liberties that were previously given to all passengers i.e. the right to sit with your partner when checking in early time. I will stick with Virgin from now so that I am not treated like a second class citizen.

Travel with Qantas on 29 May - 9 Jul 09. Have written a complaint thru Qantas website but since no answer. Your staff are incapable to give the correct info, resulted us arriving without our luggage since qantas staff didn't do their job and same thing with coming back which they fail to put our luggages in the flight so we had to go home again with no luggages. It is disgusting and I am ashame of being a member of Qantas frequent flyers. To top it they forgot my vegetarian meals which I specifically rang few weeks before and confirmed it beforehand. What kind of airline is this who can't give proper service and there is no compensation in anyway. I am so disgusted by this airline!

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 wasnt offering him a flight the next day. In the next sentence the Qantas attendant then began booking the gentlemans 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 couldnt 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 hadnt 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 wasnt 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 wasnt 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.

This is a copy of an email sent this morning to qantas, i doubt it was ever read.
Just writing to say thanks for loosing my baggage, a huge bright blue one. Looking forward today to having an eye test (If i can get in) so i can order my new glasses and contacts that will arrive in 3 weeks so i can see again. Also cant wait to line up at the chemist to get my medication that was in my huge bright blue bag that was supposed to be on my flight from brisbaine to hervey bay
(50min) but the highlight will be ringing my employer to ask for all new uniforms and to ask if any of that work documentation that
Was in my huge bright blue bag was classified. Oh and my family also says thanks
Too, they cant wait to spend hours loading all those unimportant photos and songs back on to my new ipod and camera (if my credit card will let me buy them after i have replaced all my clothing and toiletries)
And everything else that one needs to exist.
A big thanks to the claims dept who have either failed to pick up the phone or let it ring out. Thanks guys. That just means that buy the time you send out a claim form and offer me pittance for my property that was in my huge bright blue bag i will be back at work in the simpson desert (6 weeks on 2 weeks off) and it will be left to my wife to follow up with staff who dont realy care.
All up top job qantas cant wait to fly greyhound buses or queensland rail again.
Regards
Darren moore.

Dear Sir / Madam
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 SIX FEDERAL POLICEMEN where there.
After My Wife and TWO 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 FIT”
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, EMBARRASED about how we were treated.
So again to fully 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 POLICE 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 Sons’ is CURTIS DANIEL THOMAS we were expecting to fly QF67.

Lee Thomas
Operations Director
[protected]@hotmail.com

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.

Qantas is ripping off travelers - heavy delays in refunds on canceled tickets

In September 2008 I bought a full fare coach class ticket from New York, Melbourne, Australia for $4, 000. The ticket was a fully refundable fare, as Ineeded it to be. Before I was due to fly, I had to change my plans so I canceled my ticket.

I was told I would be charged $100 cancellation fee, as had been disclosed to me at the time of purchase. However, i was then told that it would take 4 months to get a refund onto my credit card.

Four months? it took all of 14 seconds to put the charge onto my credit card, now it takes four months to reverse it? The telephone operator explained that there is a single person dedicated to refund processing, hence the delay.

It smells of consumer abuse. Qantas charges you for the privilege of a cancellation ticket ($4, 000 vs discount and non-cancellable tickets at well under $2, 000), they levy a $100 fee on the cancellation. What is the $100 paying for? What is the premium fare paying for? For them to sit on my cash as free working capital for four months. Unbelievable.

This is addressed to Mr Geoff Dixon, CEO Qantas.

My wife and I went on a trip around the world and travelled on Cathay Pacific, British Airways, American Airlines and finally boarded Qantas Flight QF94 at Los Angeles airport on August 21, 2008. Our flight from Las Vegas arrived in LA on 21 August at about 10.30 am (We had booked our four bags through to Melbourne from Las Vegas on flight AA1419) We were assured by QANTAS staff at LA that the bags would be loaded on the same flight QF94 and the QANTAS staff also arranged for wheel chair assistance which had been requested throughout the trip on all Airlines. At Melbourne we were unable to get any sort of assistance and were greatly inconvenienced by non receipt of our bags. Three were delivered to our home on the day after arrival and one more on the day after that. None of your staff at Melbourne Airport could /would arrange for a wheel chair causing much distress particularly to mywife.
Some other passengers with similar problems had words with your staff at Tullamarine, but I feel that they should not be held responsible for this sort of occurence. You, Sir, are the CEO and I feel should be able to look into these matters.
From the manner in which the non loading of my luggage was accepted as a matter of common occurence by your Tullamarine
staff, I believe that nobody cared, although there was a time period of more than 12 hours at LA Airport on 21 August, to have the bags loaded on Flight 94