My apologies for taking so long to find this wonderful website forum and having read some of these horror stories, I do not fell so alone in my anger and frustrations against this "almighty corporate giant QANTARSE!!!" My experience goes back to July 05, when I bought tickets for return travel to the UK from Canberra for myself, ex-partner and 3 year old daughter. I bought the tickets from an online classifieds website to the value of $4500. At the time of the transaction, I logged onto the qantas website and went through my itinary from the booking number provided, which showed all the details to be correct and payment had been successful with an E-ticket number & receipt number attached. I called Qantas 2 days later to organise our seating and meals arrangment. During this conversation, the representive informed me that there had been duplicate bookings made for our flights, but not to worry as she would correct them. I told her that the booking had been made online and not directly through Qantas and she again re-asured me that everything was now in order. I was booked to fly in 2 weeks time. When we arrived at the airport check-in on the day of our flight, I was asked to produce the credit card that had been used to pay for the tickets! It turns out that I had been caught in a scam and Qantas knew about it from the moment I had first contacted them! They had chosen to let me believe that everything was in order in the hope of "catching" me at the airport as being the potential instigator of the scam instead of showing any compassion when it was apparant that I was indeed the victim! No mattter how hard I remonstrated with them at check-in, they would not allow us to fly without forking out a further $8000! We had to return home and I was left to console my little daughter to try to explain to her that she would not be meeting any of her reletives for the first time who lived in England. During the following couple of weeks, I had the mis-fortune of trying to deal with the moronic customer relations staff at Qantas who I would simply describe as "Pigs". To try to keep the details as brief as possible, I ended up fighting my case at the fair trading tribunal, where I initially had success when it was ruled that Qantas had been neglient in the duties and would be liable not for the cost of the tickets but for my loss of earnings (being self-employed), pain and suffering etc. However, on the second appearance at the tribunal where I was up against their lawyer, the lying booking clerk and one of their customer relations officers, the new registrar had decided even before the case had started that she was not going to rule against Qantas! The affidavit provided by the booking clerk was a total fabrication put together by the qantas legal team and she was there to stumble her way through it. She at one stage looked like she was going to collapse, such was the state of distress she was in, until the lawyer interrupted the procedings to give her a glass of water and time to compose herself. I asked her "why did you tell me that had fixed up the booking and we were all set to go?" She replied "I did not say that, I told you I was not sure if you were right to go"!!! I told her that if you had said that to me, do you not think that I would have been calling qantas every 5 minutes of the day until I got a positve answer from them, rather than just turn up at the airport 2 weeks down the track ready to fly?, She just shrugged her pathetic shoulders! I was then advised that my only course of action was to take the case to the supreme court which would cost upwards of $30, 000 to try to recover my $4500. Has anybody else had a similar experience to this nightmare and can anything more been done to make qantas accountable for such deception? Even though 4 years have passed since this injustice, If somebody knew of any recourse of action that could be embarked upon, I would proceed with vigour!

I travelled to Sydney on the weekend. On the way up I checked in online 20 hours prior. I only had a choice of three seats in the plane. This was ok because I was flying by myself. On the way back to Melbourne the same thing happened although myself and my fiancé had to be separated. We checked in over an hour early. When we got to the bag drop I asked if the seats could be changed. The Qantas assistant said that the plane was full and there was nothing that she could do. Ok fair enough. However I asked why the seats were already full. I was advised that Qantas platinum flyers were allowed to reserve their seating upon purchase. On this flight were families upset that they could not sit next to each other, children having to sit away from their parents.

How is this fair? How is this just? If people want special treatment they can pay extra for business class. When preferential treatment interferes with whether or not you can sit with you husband or children is unjust. It is a classed based preferential treatment even when all passengers in economy pay the same.

I do not believe that Qantas should have take away liberties that were previously given to all passengers i.e. the right to sit with your partner when checking in early time. I will stick with Virgin from now so that I am not treated like a second class citizen.

This is a copy of an email sent this morning to qantas, I doubt it was ever read.
Just writing to say thanks for loosing my baggage, A HUGE BRIGHT BLUE ONE.Looking forward today to having an eye test(if i can get in)so i can order my new glasses and contacts that will arrive in 3 weeks so i can see again.Also cant wait to line up at the chemist to get my medication that was in my HUGE BRIGHT BLUE BAG that was supposed to be on my flight from BRISBAINE TO HERVEY BAY
(50min)But the highlight will be ringing my employer to ask for all new uniforms and to ask if any of that work documentation that
was in my HUGE BRIGHT BLUE BAG was classified.Oh and my family also says thanks
too, they cant wait to spend hours loading all those unimportant photos and songs back on to my new ipod and camera( if my credit card will let me buy them after i have replaced all my clothing and toiletries)
and everything else that one needs to exist.
A BIG thanks to the claims dept who have either failed to pick up the phone or let it ring out.Thanks guys.That just means that buy the time you send out a claim form and offer me pittance for my property that was in my HUGE BRIGHT BLUE BAG i will be back at work in the simpson desert(6 weeks on 2 weeks off) and it will be left to my wife to follow up with staff who dont realy care.
All up top job Qantas cant wait to fly Greyhound buses or Queensland rail again.
Regards
Darren Moore.

I booked online a domestic flight the other day for my daughter and myself and noticed when paying that a credit card fee of $7.70 (per person) was being charged for the one transaction. I understand that they have to charge a credit card fee but a per person fee on one transaction is a bit rich. NO WONDER THEY MAKE SO MUCH PROFIT EACH FINANL YEAR. It is at the expense of the customer that has very limited choice in this country when it comes to airline carriers.

My flight QF566 from Perth to Sydney was cancelled due to engineering problems. After a couple of half started messages over the PA the instructions were to line up at the Customer Service desk if you did not live in Perth. I lined up as I live in Sydney and after waiting a long time was informed that the option was to take a later flight (leaving at 11.30pm) to Melbourne which would mean travelling all night and arriving in Sydney the next morning.

I explained to the attendant that I wished to book another flight the next day as flying all night was not my preference. I did not explain to her that I had just been in Scotland for 2 weeks burying my grandmother and that my feet were still swollen from my flight to Perth as I knew that if I did explain it to her then I would start to cry.

She explained that she could not help me and to go away for 10-20 minutes and then she may be able to help me. She was also very agitated that there was no accommodation available to be offered as there was a golf tournament in Perth that weekend. I explained to her that I was not leaving now I had reached the front of the queue until I had rebooked my flight for the next day as I was worried about the flights filling up now that my flight had been cancelled. She then asked me to step to the side and speak to her supervisor. I then stepped to the side and stood in front of her supervisor who was on the telephone. A gentleman came along and asked what I needed so I explained to him that all I wanted was to rebook my flight for the next day. He then told me that there was no accommodation available and that it was his job to get the accommodation. I commented again that all I wanted was to rebook my flight for the next day. The gentleman then left.

The supervisor who I was still standing in front of continued on the phone for the next 10 minutes. Answered the next phone call and kept talking. She did eventually get off the phone but continued to ignore me standing there and talked to someone behind her and then walked down the passage and talked to someone else and took another phone call. By nearly the hour mark, when I had now been standing in front of where the supervisor had been for half an hour without being spoken to or acknowledged by her, and my feet were starting to hurt as well as being bloated. A new staff member arrived and began serving a new customer.

The new customer also did not want to fly on the flight to Melbourne and so the Qantas attendant began asking him what flight he wanted to fly on. At this point I become agitated and began asking the Qantas attendant why I had been standing there all this time and had not been able to get my flight rebooked and this new gentleman could walk up and have his done in two seconds. The new Qantas attendant asked me to be quiet and that he would serve me once he had finished with this gentleman and that he wasn’t offering him a flight the next day. In the next sentence the Qantas attendant then began booking the gentleman’s flight for the next day.

At this point my agitation did get greater and so I raised my voice and yelled at the Qantas supervisor what did I have to do to get some service here? I did not swear. I did not use threatening language. I raised my voice and asked what did I have to do to get some service. At this point the Qantas attendant threatened that if I did not calm down that I would be escorted from the airport by security. So I went quiet. The Qantas supervisor then in a round about way acknowledged my existence by making an announcement over the PA system asking customers to be patient. She still did not come down to speak to me and after making this announcement disappeared from behind the counter completely.

The Qantas attendant finished serving the gentleman and then rudely served me. He did not explain if there was any method of claiming for out of pocket expenses as I had heard being explained to other customers and did not offer me any vouchers. I then asked about upgrades and he rudely told me that he couldn’t give out upgrades as they would then have to give them to everyone. I had also, since I was standing there so long, heard the first attendant upgrade someone she had been serving. So I have not only lost a day, valuable time and have now had to pay my own out of pocket expenses to take care of the delay in travel.

At the end of the less than 2 minutes it took to rebook my flight I asked for the customer service department details and his (the attendants) name. He refused to give me his name. The original attendant gave me her name and asked if her supervisor had spoken to me. I said that no she hadn’t and that I was very unhappy with what had just happened.

At no point did any staff member apologise for any of the inconvenience caused, treat anyone I saw them serve as an individual that had individual requirements or offer extra assistance like opening up the Qantas lounge for the next 6 hours while people waited for their Melbourne flight. The Qantas staff as a whole were on the defensive the whole time that there was no accommodation to offer and just kept acting defensive about that.

I then left extremely upset and went to make a complaint to Qantas customer service on the number I had been given. As it was now after 5pm in Perth the office in Sydney was closed.

The next day I was able to get through to the Qantas customer service office in Sydney and speak to a lady there. As I was speaking to her she started to explain that they did not have accommodation in Perth. I asked her if she was listening to me as I had not asked for accommodation in Perth. She then said that there was a note on the system saying that I had been abusive to staff. I then explained to the woman that I was glad that they were taping our conversation as they would be able to hear that I was using an agitated voice and that I was neither yelling or using expletives to her. I had called to let them know that I was so upset about how I had been treated and threatened yesterday that I was going to make a complaint to the aviation authorities and anyone else I could think of. She then asked if I was threatening her and I was quite surprised and said that no I wasn’t I was just letting them know that I was very upset and was going to be making these complaints. At this point she threatened me and said that maybe it wasn’t a good idea for me to be flying with Qantas today and that she had to go because she was going to hang up now and ask the Duty Manager to come and speak with me. She then hung up and I continued to go and board the plane not knowing until the plane took off if I was going to be pulled off the plane or not.

I then boarded the plane and cried all through take off with all the stress I had just gone through to get on the flight. The staff on the flight were very helpful and when the plane was re-routed to Melbourne and I became even more emotional and was throwing up they were very helpful again.

I am also concerned that as I was threatened twice by their staff members with some form of extreme action (involving security, refusing my flight) that I may have had civil liberties that have been infringed upon as well of all the undue stress I suffered.