A love letter to Qantas from a faithful frequent flyer

Beloved for so long, Qantas has become Australia’s most complained about company. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Dear Qantas,

This is not a break-up letter. After so many tumultuous days, presumably you could do with the reassurance, although it’s not a love letter either.

Think of this as the note you’d pen to a valued old friend who has let you down, and you’re struggling to understand when and why they stopped hearing you.

As your difficult week ends, perhaps you can finally imagine what it has been like, these past few years, to be one of your loyal customers. The frustration has been immense, a sad reality that was compounded whenever others tried to call out the points at which our relationship began to sour and you mostly seemed disinterested.

“As Australia’s largest airline, and an airline that generally charges a premium to fly, consumers expect a better service. Qantas needs to do more to adequately invest in its systems, processes and people to dramatically improve its customer contact services and customer dispute resolution.”

This was the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission speaking in March, summing up the sentiments of so many who do not have the luxury of a voice in the national newspaper.

I may not be a label fan, yet Qantas, you’ve long been my brand. Your advertisements have stirred a longing for home, even when I have been at home, and invariably at the end of a tiring trip, stepping aboard one of your planes and spotting the familiar uniforms of your welcoming crew. More than your logo, the Spirit of Australia seemed to be infused within the spirit of Australia.

Which makes your recent story unfathomable. Beloved for so long, in the space of a pandemic, it seems, you have become Australia’s most complained about company. Plenty abandoned you, but for so long my loyalty remained.

When others complained about the paucity of your frequent-flyer seats, I encouraged them to book earlier or to keep looking. If they had to make an emergency dash and were seeking compassion, I insisted you were their airline. When they encountered an unhelpful or ill-informed staff member at your call centre, I suggested feigning a reason to end the conversation, then to ring back five minutes later when they were bound to be heard by someone more knowledgeable who would, I could almost guarantee, resolve their issue.

This was advice I dispensed for years because I valued your product and because it worked. Until recently.

“We are sorry we had to cancel your flight …” I have come to dread text messages from you. In the past, a ping from Qantas came with the excited flutter of a possible upgrade (even though it rarely, if ever, eventuated). Not now. Of course circumstances change and delays are inevitable. But cancelling my flight three times in a half-hour late one night in February, and only hours before a morning departure, was hardly an endorsement of your product.

In other times (“The Good Qantas Days”, as a contact this week referred to your once-envied reputation) I might have phoned you for a quick resolution. But that, too, has become a futile lesson that once seemed confined to other airlines.

Amid a string of infuriating and often fruitless interactions in recent times, I spent more than five hours, across 2½ days, waiting/hoping for you to rectify errors in a reservation. I rang maybe a dozen times. On one of those calls alone I waited on hold for nearly two hours.

At least three times I was assured someone would call back. Twice I was told a specific supervisor would ring me immediately, but they never did. Repeatedly I was informed there was a problem with the reservation, but no one did anything to rectify it.

In the end, I cancelled the flights and rebooked them. Under the circumstances it seemed the easiest solution.

So while this is not a break-up letter, I need to tell you, Qantas, that it’s you, not me. Your beleaguered staff insist that your call centre is the best point of contact. But I have come to dread phoning. I’ve been asking questions for a living for decades, but my skills are no match for the stonewalling I encountered each time I rang you this week.

In The Good Qantas Days, this would have been a simple transaction. Had it not been simple, it would have come with a simple explanation.

Instead I began this week phoning you maybe six times in one morning, and no one at any of your call centres around the world could help seat my partner and me together on an upcoming flight – even though one of the attractions of your lucrative frequent-flyer program is the ability to pick your own seat.

In the end, a contact of a contact led to a call from a lovely staff member at head office who quickly and efficiently rectified things – as it once might have been. So yes, Monday was frustrating. And then the very next day your chairman was promising improvements.

“We want to make sure our customer experience is better,” Richard Goyder told The Australian Financial Review, within hours of the hurried departure of chief executive Alan Joyce, and six months after the release of the ACCC’s report, in which you were bestowed the title of Australia’s most complained about company. “I think it’s time for humility.”

It was hard to discern if the time for humility was several hours after the chief executive’s departure, or half a year after the condemnation by the country’s peak consumer body. But at least you were finally telling us it was time.

We heard you. Maybe we believe you. If only you’d
heard us earlier.