On Monday morning I was supposed to fly to LA. I'm still in Melbourne, and this is my story.
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Dear Qantas,
How are you? I'm not great. In fact, I feel like I've been abandoned by you. Left alone in some sort of grey area with nothing to do but bide my time and wait for you to get in contact.
My flight was cancelled on Monday and now that you've resumed services on select flights to LA you're so busy making sure that no one else is disrupted that I've been left in limbo.
It's been almost 96 hours and I'm still here. I'm still calling. I'm still being told to 'check the website' or even worse, 'call back later' (because there's nothing better than killing time between cancelled flights than waiting on hold!) and it doesn't feel great.
I completely understand that the weather is not something you can control. Sure, that's Mother Nature's bag, I get that. But I do believe that flying is an emotional thing, and the more you can teach your staff about empathy the better.
Over the past few days I have received one incorrect text message from you, experienced two rude customer service representatives, had three flight cancellations, waited more than 120 minutes on hold AND I've been hung up on. When I posed the question, "But do you understand how difficult this is?" I was interrupted with, "Okay, bye. *dial tone*" which is most certainly not okay.
I realise that there are people starving in Africa, or fighting a war in Afghanistan, and that there's real suffering out there but this is still my annual leave and my money is not that disposable so I'd still rather be on holidays than sitting here posting this blog - so it's frustrating when you just won't help. I also understand that safety is paramount, and I'm certainly not suggesting you fly into any danger, but clearly something extra is required here, not least of all in the service department.
To rub salt in the wound, my friend who was originally booked on the same cancelled flight on Monday was seated on a new flight out yesterday. But I'm still here.
And then today I discovered that there actually were/are flights out today and tomorrow (and possibly other days earlier, too) that had/have seats available… in Business Class. But I'm still here.
And this is where is gets excruciating.
Why not use some common sense and FILL THOSE SEATS, Qantas? Why not upgrade a cattle-class passenger that has been loyal to you, or someone who is pretty if it works that way, or someone who HAS BEEN WAITING SINCE MONDAY?!
Or just get some more planes. Get John Travolta's plane!
And then get some better customer service, because all this waiting wouldn't have been nearly as bad had I not experienced everything I've experienced from your call centre. (Related: I called V Australia to see what flights they had available and was put through to a real person with feelings, in less than a quarter of the time, and offered a variety of seats and solutions. My insurance won't help me cover it so I can't go ahead, but that's a letter for another day.)
If you could be so kind as to get in touch with me at your earliest convenience with some good news, it would be greatly appreciated.
Best,
Ariel Katz
@arielesther
Image via Flickr