The dear old stumbling wombat

[Ken Gargett]

I realise that many of you will be shocked to learn that I have had a mild disagreement with our famed national carrier but yes, it is true.

I can handle missing points, crap food,delays – 4 flights last week and four delays, the shortest being 45 minutes. But when they piss about with reserved seating and dump one from the previously reserved exit seat to some sardine can-sized seat down the back for which one needs a shoehorn to get into, things get a smidge heated. And it happened again yesterday.

So I rang to advise I had now officially had a gutful and was off to Virgin (well, it wasn't going to hurt to let them think that).

I have the 'platinum' "special" numbers to get through to relevant people (allegedly) so ring and getsome polite young man. I ask for Customer Care.

"Yes sir, that is me. How can I help?" etc etc.

I explain the entire thing very politely and in detail. I take about five to ten minutes to do this.I am unfailingly polite. I even detail some of the good things the wombat has done.

His response, after listening to the entire thing? "Sir, we actually have a Customer Care department.Would you like to speak to them?"

Is it any wonder that this mob of idiots is doomed?

[NJP]

My wife always tells me not to get upset with the first idiot there will be another one shortly. Me, I like to hit more birds with heaps of stones.

Get up'm for the rent Kenny.

[Orion21]

It should be illegal to oversell a flight. I always wondered why my Dad was so flipping crazy about getting to the airport 2 hours early and then became a pilot to fly himself. This was before I got bumped for the first time a year and a half ago. Now I am there 1.5 hours early having checked in online the night before. What these companies force us to do to go from point A to B.

[Ken Gargett]

agreed but the problem here tends to be not enough people so they shift to a slightly smaller plane and then all the seats get pissed about.

[Nate31]

CS in the airline industry has gone down the drain in the last decade. While I don't fly too much anymore when I was flying often some of the stuff I saw was amazing and sad at the same time. Overbooking flights would leave 5+ people at times without a seat on the plane. One flight I got on the people two seats back had vomit on their seat from someone who got sick on the previous flight. The stewardess just handed the people sitting there a wad of paper towels and walked away.

Two weeks ago I called our clinic to get my kids scheduled for their shots, and I called the number listed on their site. Tell the lady who answered I need an appointment for shots, get transferred, tell the 2nd lady I need an appointment for shots, get transferred, and the 3rd lady transferred me back to the first person who picked up when I first called. Round and round we go! Finally got to the woman who did scheduling just to tell me they are not accepting any new patients at their location. When I was getting transferred around it was 2-3 minutes between talking to people listening to crappy music.

[CanuckSARTech]

Nope. Nada. Uh-uhh. I'm calling BS on this one.

Can't be true. This whole thing is a complete and utter fallacy.

Stop the lies, Ken. We don't need this anymore.

You can't keep doing this. Lies, lies, and more lies.

The meter is definitely pegged on this one.....

....I am unfailingly polite.

[asmith]

Have you noticed that its always you Ken when you travel?

Do you think they have tagged you in their system and know when you are flying they intentionally delay flights just to see your frustration? I think they are sitting at QANTAS HQ rolling around the floor laughing watching you on their CCTV as you stamp your feet and slowly get angry.

[Ken Gargett]

Have you noticed that its always you Ken when you travel?

Do you think they have tagged you in their system and know when you are flying they intentionally delay flights just to see your frustration? I think they are sitting at QANTAS HQ rolling around the floor laughing watching you on their CCTV as you stamp your feet and slowly get angry.

yes, i'm sure they have nothing better to do - not everyone "works" your hours. i do probably close to 100 flights a year so, even as dodgy as the wombat is, they would waste a lot of time - so just like your hours then.

[dicko]

These are some of the problems with living a luxurious jet-set lifestyle Ken

[Ken Gargett]

shoehorned into cattle class is not a luxury lifestyle. i hardly had time to compose myself in the limo in to the hotel for the veuve tasting!!

[Wil]

Will not fly Qantas again. Terrible airline.

[ChanceSchmerr]

For anyone in Canada who is following the labour saga that is Air Canada the last year and a half...........all you need to know is this.

Air Canada..is looking...to adopt.....the Qantas model (IE: create a low-cost airline, hire new pilots and staff and pay them less with less benefits, thereby marginalizing your legacy staff who don't move to the low cost carrier, move most of your domestic operations to the low-cost while gutting the mainline operations to the point where Air Canada is strictly long-haul international service, and in the end, the mainline posts a loss but the low cost posts huge profits so you don't really care how the mainline performs.)

At least, that's how a closely related AC Pilot explained it to me.....

[Duxnutz]

I realise that many of you will be shocked to learn that I have had a mild disagreement with our famed national carrier but yes, it is true.

I can handle missing points, crap food,delays – 4 flights last week and four delays, the shortest being 45 minutes. But when they piss about with reserved seating and dump one from the previously reserved exit seat to some sardine can-sized seat down the back for which one needs a shoehorn to get into, things get a smidge heated. And it happened again yesterday.

So I rang to advise I had now officially had a gutful and was off to Virgin (well, it wasn't going to hurt to let them think that).

I have the 'platinum' "special" numbers to get through to relevant people (allegedly) so ring and getsome polite young man. I ask for Customer Care.

"Yes sir, that is me. How can I help?" etc etc.

I explain the entire thing very politely and in detail. I take about five to ten minutes to do this.I am unfailingly polite. I even detail some of the good things the wombat has done.

His response, after listening to the entire thing? "Sir, we actually have a Customer Care department.Would you like to speak to them?"

Is it any wonder that this mob of idiots is doomed?

As an employee of the Virgin group I urge you to give us a chance (or a few). From the pilots through to counter people we're all really invested in making this airline something special. If that fails there's free booze on flights after 5pm!