[Ikara]

Straitman,

Damn. I've been trying to buy into this discussion but couldn't find the right words.

What you said!

JB

[Mal]

In life we all do various things that others regard as petty, but we regard as right. As an example, I once got Qantas to change the spiel given when arriving at a certain airport because I felt they gave out incorrect information to customers. Others might see that as petty. I see it as ensuring that customers get the correct information upon landing.

I don't see this as being much different. Given, I wouldn't spend my time and energy battling with Qantas to get things changed, but if someone feels that it should be changed - that's their right.

[Ms Lucy]

Just my 2 cents' worth:

From what I understand, the Qantas Club and the Frequent Flyer program are two different things.

The Qantas Club is a lounge program, not a loyalty program: you simply BUY membership / access to QC lounges (under a set of conditions)... and if you happened to buy Lifetime membership while it was still available, good on you: you potentially saved money if you are travelling over a number of years. It's potentially a saving so that's your main benefit of having bought Lifetime QC. I gather that you can't buy lounge access for all airlines; with some airlines you just have to earn through flying?

It's the Frequent Flyer that is a LOYALTY program: you EARN Silver, Gold, Platinum or whatever through "loyalty" and one of the benefits (the most significant?) is QC lounge access (but you also get the oneworld access that you don't get with bought QC membership, and a few extras).

[acampbel]

Originally Posted by straitman

Andrew,

From my perspective you once again seem to be defending something that does not need to be defended. Maybe we live in parallel universes BUT as usual I don't agree with you.

I have the curse of always seeing both sides of a story and also being able to stand back and analyze the situation. Sounds good though is often a major pain in the butt

Quite frankly if QF (or anyone else) needs to make minor adjustments to wording in a letter such as this then who really cares. We all make decisions in life and sometimes we later have to look back and say Oops or why did I bother or that was a waste of money. Ultimately though we must all weigh up the effort required vs the return for that effort (financial or emotional) and go with our gut on the answer.

notsohappyhoward (and you obviously) see this as an issue however I see this as 'yes they could improve their customer service but aren't going to.' so why should I bother any further.

I then think about whether it's worth any extra effort and in this case the answer is a resounding NO

Straitman,

I am a sarcastic little bugger, but looking over this thread I see I am just a padawan!

The initial post may have been lacking in punctuation and good grammar (which Howard apologised for later), but it seemed pretty plain to me what his gripe was. The response from the forum was, in general, along the lines of "Get a life" with quite a bit of sarcasm and plain abuse.

There have been many good points made about Howard's sub-gripes about "paying for nothing", and there is definitely some sour grapes in the mix. But at the core of the problem is the inability of Qantas to accurately explain the additional benefits (to a lifetime QC member) of Gold/Platinum status, and the inaccurate form letter that they send out is exacerbated by the impersonal form letter that is subsequently sent to Howard after his feedback.

Cheers,


Andrew

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