stormbird

You may recall our disastrous 34 hour flight to Queenstown - I wrote to Qantas as soon as I got back and they responded immediately with an email and then a phone call to say that it was being looked into immediately.

I got a call last Friday to let me know what they were offering and I received in the mail today a Qantas gift voucher to the value of $1200.00. This can be used towards flights, car hire, accommodation etc.

So all in all, I am very happy with the way things were handled with my complaint. The value of the voucher is not what I asked for but definitely more than I'd hoped for so I don't think I can ask for more than that really.

Qantas were very professional in the handling of this matter and I'm happy that I'm passing on a happy ending rather than a disappointing one.

So a thumbs up to Qantas!

Now get over to my thread about our next GTG people and let me know your thoughts. Come on get moving!!

AlanJG

Well done stormbird. I wish I could say the same for United. They shafted us well and truely and offered a megre $100 vouchure which had to be used in an unrealistic time frame.

Melnq8

Wow. I'm not sure what impresses me more, the amount of the compensation or how quickly they responded.

Scudam

Stormbird, what happened with your flight? My wife and I just had an interesting experience on a Qantas flight.
My wife and I planned a 3 week trip to Australia for over 3 years to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, which we just returned from last week. On our flight from LA to Sydney, we were 3 hours from landing when the pilot announced that due to rain and fog in Sydney, we were going to have to land in New Caledonia for fuel before finishing our flight. We landed around 5 in the morning. After an hour, the pilot announced that during the preflight check, it was found that the front tire on the landing gear had blown on take-off and part of the tire had hit the fuselage. Qantas was going to have to fly out a new tire and engineers to install it and inspect the plane before we were going to resume the flight. We had to stay on the plane until after 10 o'clock before we were allowed to collect our baggage. We were bussed to a very nice hotel in Noumea to spend the night. A hotel I never would have been able to afford on my own. Qantas covered all of our meals and allowed us a couple of free international phone calls also. We took off around 12:30 PM the next day. When my wife and I got home last week, there was a letter from Qantas appologizing for the inconvenience and included a $1600 AUD voucher good for the next year.

shandy

Well done Stormbird. I was going to ask you that, if and when I need to write a letter to Qantas about poor performance/service at some future time, would you pen it for me Stormbird. However, Scudam's response would indicate it wasn't just your literary brilliance that resulted in the compensation. Between the two it almost restores my faith in some airlines.

As an aside, last week a friend of mine turned up at Launceston airport to fly to Melbourne on Tiger. Only upon arriving at the airport were they told that Tiger had decided to discontinue the Melbourne/Launceston run several weeks before they were travelling - no notification to them whatsoever.

Songdoc

Glad to hear you were compensated for that awful situation. FYI, DP was recently given 3,000 frequent flyer miles by American Airlines after problems forced him to overnight en route to his destination -- and they did pay for his accommodations. I like your compensation better ;-)

Libretto

Well done , stormbird.....I think this illustrates why I continue to fly Qantas wherever I can.

Most of the reduced price airlines just don't get it as far as customer service goes, so I'm willing to pay a bit more to keep good airlines like Qantas flying.

We had an awful experience with Hawaiian Air and complaints were literally never answered. Flying with them again soon because there is no alternative, but I'm a firm believer in keeping all service providers accountable!

stormbird

Hi Scudam,

This is the link to my thread about what happened to our flight.

http://www.fodors.com/community/aust...fm#dest-header

After reading your story and from something I learned from another traveller I think the compensation was forthcoming even without a complaint - pretty good responses really. Like you, Qantas put us up in very nice accommodation and provided dinner, lunch and breakfast.

Well, I would like to say thanks again to Qantas for a great result and as Melnq8 states, an extremely quick response. The big decision now is where to spend our voucher?

dotty

Hey, Stormbird and Scudam,
You sure had a great response. I wrote to lament their lack of communication for the first 3 hours our flight was delayed from Wellington(which ended up being 5 hours), but added our appreciation for their care in Sydney overnight due to missing our onward flight to Alice Springs. I received a prompt reply thanking me for my positive comments which they were thrilled to receive, and nothing about improving communication which was the main thrust of my letter!

Toucan2

I do remember reading your thread stormbird. What a pleasant ending to come upon!

yentakvetch

I have had much better luck with Air NZ than with Qantas. Air NZ seats in economy are a bit larger than those we are used to within the US where your knees get shoved into your chest. Also on the long haul flights they leave you blessedly alone and people do get sleep (although certainly not the quality of sleep you'd get in your bed). My issue with the European flights is they should just end all the service after dinner and simply come around with coffee before landing. Those flights are always so busy that it is impossible to sleep.