Qantas, We Have A Problem

I have just been on and off the phone for about two hours and my stress levels are through the roof. It seems Qantas have decided not to fly at midday from London to Singapore anymore, which is just what we were meant to be doing in August, on the start of our long journey back to Karratha following a visit to the UK. It’s not that they have cancelled our particular flight, they are not operating that flight at all anymore. How can an airline just decide to scrap a flight that runs every day and presumably, over the course of the year or even years (it’s possible to book at least a couple of years in advance these days) has hundreds, if not thousands of passengers booked onto it? I booked this flight about a mere month ago – they must have known then that they were thinking of getting rid of it so why let me book it?!


The major issue with this happening on one leg of a multi-stop flight is that changing that single part mucks up all the others. The flights from London to Singapore and Singapore to Perth that they had bumped me onto got me into Perth too late to catch the connecting flight to Karratha. So, taking deep breaths, I dialled the number issued to me, pressed a number of different keys pertaining to a multitude of options and then waited. And waited. And waited. All this while Aboriginal music crackled in the background and a woman told me about how wonderful Qantas was. I had to sit and listen to her for over ten minutes, all the while wanting to scream at her, “no, you’re bloody not!” The consultant that finally took my call might as well not have bothered. She was completely unapologetic and her tone and manner implied that this was quite a common thing to happen. The only alternative she offered me was to fly the day before and, rather than go straight to Perth from Singapore, fly to Melbourne or Sydney, wait all day in one of those airports and then fly to Perth and eventually onto Karratha. So, rather than a hellish twenty four hour journey, we would be making an ‘I’m so tired I’ve even forgotten my own name and by the way which city are we in now?’ forty eight hour journey. Some alternative that would be. The only other thing she could offer was to refund the flight but she couldn’t just refund that leg, she’d have to refund the entire round trip journey, forcing us to search for and book other (probably more expensive at this late stage) flights with another airline. I was fuming but was very English about it and politely said I needed to discuss it with my husband and get back to her. Cue phone call to The Husband that started with anger and ended with tears. Luckily, he managed to get an extra day off work, meaning we could take the flights they had originally offered to us, stay the night in Perth, and fly onto Karratha the next day. Not ideal but better than being stuck in a jet lag nightmare.

So I phoned Qantas again, pushed the keys, listened to the didgeridoo, the small Aboriginal child singing and the chirpy woman assuring me that I couldn’t be flying with a better airline, and was eventually put through to a different consultant. Well, she was different in every way possible. She gave me a number of options, none of which involved sleeping in an airport or doing a tour of Australia. It soon became clear that Qantas hadn’t cancelled every single midday flight from London to Singapore, only those at the weekend so we could keep our original flight times, just fly a day later. I could have cried. Again. What a difference a consultant makes. She put me on hold while she made the booking for us and I was on cloud nine, humming to myself and grinning from ear to ear. And then the call cut out on me. The humming stopped, the smile vanished and I quickly dialled the number again. More key-pushing, didgeridoo, annoying woman, a further ten minutes, and then yet another consultant who told me I should wait an hour or so to see if the other consultant makes the booking before calling back for her to do it. Oh God, not another call to Qantas. I said a silent prayer to the Gods to make sure the booking was made. I couldn’t face more buttons, music and false promises from the Qantas woman. Half an hour later and I get a call from the wonderful consultant that I had been cut off from to tell me it’s all been sorted. I was so happy I almost promised her my firstborn. Now I just hope Qantas doesn’t casually decided to lay off any other flights. I couldn’t go through that again.