QF LH Amenity Kit Fiasco !

[radiation junkie]

Geoff was on board LAX-SYD last week. He was apparently very polite and friendly. After being handed an amenity pack, he turns to FA and says "where is the rest of it". PC FA explains we are to hand out tooth brushes and shaving gear seperately and unfortunatley was not loaded this sector, sorry.
Geoff's reply, "how long has this fiasco been going on, I will be on to this first thing tommorrow, this idea has not been properly thought through and is just not on."
Now, do you think GD had no idea this new amenity kit was introduced, or had not experienced it yet ?

[mrpaxing]

maybe he should follow the air nz ceo's lead and actually work with staff to find out all the ongoing bu**s**t.;)

[QFinsider]

Given the fact the dic@head who bought in the "improved" amenity kit probably got a bonus, it makes a mockery of Dixon. Boghetti was spruiking the new amenity kit in the Moscow flyer (Qantas News) a few months ago...

As Gordon Bethune at Continental said.

It begins and ends with him, he is the CEO he takes the bucks and he takes RESPONSIBILITY.

Our CEO can't spell responsibility, nor credibility or even integrity. The service failures are his fault. The pitiful IFE is his fault. The lack of spares, run down assets are his fault.
Unfortunately until the dirty page in Australian corpoate history turns, we are stuck with it!

[chemical alli]

they should of handed him the j class plastic blue tampon holder amenty kit instead and told him this is what he pays millions in marketing too,i am afraid that the extras in first and j are a disgrace .no wonder cc have a hard time.ife sh8t,foodsh8t,neil perrys gourmet tosted sandwich oh help me please,and no wonder gd is having kittens about emirates and etihad.

[Shlonghaul]

QFinsider :D :D :D Ohh so true!.......Tragic but ohh so true :(

[Angle of Attack]

It is a joke and I am sure it's going to come to a head, often the so called extra's are not fully supplied and everything doesnt fit in the hardened Take Away Chinese food container they call the Amnetity kit. The economy one is better! They are all strewn across business class at the end of the sector, so customers disdain for them is well shown. As for me that little container is a nice firelighter for any furnace I may wish to light!

[virgindriver]

I guess you can only cut costs so far till it turns around and bites you on the nose!

I wouldn't really class the Rat much above us anymore- at least you know what to expect when you book DJs.......

[Angle of Attack]

Virgindriver,

I would disagree!! I flew 15+ sectors on Virgin last year, and found overall they were better than QF! 3 or 4 (cant remember exactly) flights were either delayed or cancelled and each time I got a timely phone call advising me of the situation and offers to re-list either on an earlier or later flight. Im not saying QF were bad but they tend to be either good or when a shambles occur they grind to a halt!

Jet* well.. Ive flown with them twice once was fine othertime my flight was cancelled and only offered a refund, no other flight at all!

Back to these amenity kits, Ive lit 5 of the suckers and I need to attend to an out of control blaze on my Weber :}

[Buster Hyman]

Aww, give him a break. He was probably just upset that Ralph Fiennes wasn't on the flight.

[wayne_king]

Why would he be upset at ralph not being there. Fiennes only screwed 1 Qantas employee. GD's done 35000

[B A Lert]

Hello.........I always thought that staff pax were supposed to decline such offerings. :rolleyes: :uhoh: Is GD still the CEO?

[stubby jumbo]

The current "Marc Newsome" inspired J/C ammenity Kit is an abomination.

I have a mate who is a Platinum FF with QF. He refuses to accept them from the crew as he reckons they're insult !

To use his words ....." they look like a Chinese take away container that was thrown together in some sweat shop in Guongchow".

The product is crap.

BUT,,,,,,,,,,,,,,....the business model that QF follows at the moment is: well the planes are chockers...........who gives a stuff !!??:sad:

[radiation junkie]

Just found out, apart from GD and wifey#xx , "Man Friday" Gregg was also part of the troupe. They were supposed to go out on QF 12. Due to engine trouble, flight cancelled ! All pax were re-booked onto 108. Geoff, wifey and his fat mate, caused the downgrading of full fare paying First Class pax to JC, with subsequent off-loading of all staff and some economy pax. They could not find the bag of one pax to offload. Crew were asked to vote on whether to hang around for another 4 hours to find bag or let pax sit in crew rest. Although several crew were against pax in crew rest, it went ahead as they could not delay Geoff and gang any longer. I though the vote had to be unanimous ?
Wonder if he has had a chat to Borghetti yet about the ipod and tampon holders masquerading as amenity packs ?

[call button]

Please Note: Toothbrushes and razors are only catered to 80%. So all premium customers are kindly asked to hand them back after use to ensure that other premium customers do not miss out!

mmmmmmm.

[lowerlobe]

As someone else has mentioned Darth is the boss and is happy to take his healthy pay packet and an even healthier bonus.He has told each section in the company to cut their budgets by a certain amount.This then is an example of what a department does to cut costs.They have only done what Darth wanted them to do.

That makes him responsible for this latest fiasco but as with the little food box given out he will dodge this one as well.He comment in an interview that the box was a good idea but we have just forgotten to put food in it shows how little responsibility he takes.

This is becoming the norm in the corporate world.They all want to take the kudo's and the high life but not any responsibility.

[Dave The Snail]

I usually fly Emirates (not that I often get a choice - work travel policy) and I still reckon they give out the best amenities kits I've seen (in business class). I have a bottom drawer at work full of useful stuff that I use all the time. When I've got too much of the guy's stuff, I ask for a lady's pack and give it to the missus or mum/mother-in-law - they reckon it's full of great stuff. I get people at work asking me if I can get one for them. On the ocassion I've been upgraded to first class, EK is as you would expect - outstanding, with great amenities.

I recently did a Sydney - Johanesburg with QF and was pleasantly surprised by the onboard service in business class (once they rebooted the IFE half a dozen times) but I agree, the amenities kit was absolutely embarrassing. The cabin crew must hate giving them out. How much does it cost, really! (I'd actually be really interested to know).

[Fliegenmong]

I have a small collection of very useful plastic receptacles for the storage of various items of tiny miscellaneous hardware, (small screws etc etc) - they're very stylish 'cos they have the name 'Marc Newson' inscribed upon them. :}

You couldn't give 'em away at a garage sale :rolleyes:

Yes it must indeed be an embarrasment to CC to hand them out :(

[lowerlobe]

You are generally apologising for them at the same time as explaining that the IFE is not working and the system is being rebooted and hopefully will work again soon.

If crew had a dollar for everytime they have said 'sorry' it would be better than winning lotto.

[sydney s/h]

When i flew recently on a QF LH flight we were given the old style packs. I was expecting the plastic **** but got the old (better) packs.

Maybe running out old stock.

[gaunty]

Got me burgered,:{ J (moi) and First class pax generally travel so because they have business to do and want to travel light and fast. The amenity pack used to provide the emergency bits that you left behind and/or relieve the necessity to clutter up your carry on with said stuff for a clean up during and at the end of a flight. One of the reasons you used to pay the extra money eh.:confused:

[twiggs]

The lunch boxes were canned a few months ago and they went back to the old kits.
The last couple of flights I have done have had the revised new product which is back to a bag which contains all the items (including the tupperware), except shaving gear I think, which is on request.
That cockup, along with the j/c saucers that don't stack beyond 3 high, are an embarrassment.

[surfside6]

Clueless
Elitist
Orifice
Just about wet myself laughing.
Dixon must use Preparation H as a moisturizer
The guy has a face like an elephant's scrotum

[RedTBar]

Firstly,when you give someone a gift you are indicating what you think of them.

In a service industry when you are trying to achieve not only repeat business but also increased business by word of mouth you are shooting yourself in the foot with things like this.

With the reliability or should I say non reliability of the IFE this is the icing on the cake to our so called premium passengers.

Additionally, as Twiggs has said the new J/C crockery should never have been approved.

The cutlery as well is like something that you would find in a picnic set.The new 'improved' trays fall through to the bottom of the cart if you put any weight on them and the new non slip trays are only non slip if they are not wet.Now,if you are carrying drinks you can guess what happens.

This is not only an embarrassment but a significant act of stupidity.Who in the office signed off on these new 'improvements'

Surfside you are right about one thing and that is a certain boss has the hide of a bull elephant.

[gaunty]

RedTBar not disagreeing with your sentiments for one moment but the amenity pack is/was not intended as a gift but as an, well, amenity to make your flight more pleasurable by providing the ability to shave, freshen up and relieve you of the bother of having to pack the nic nacs, which would now probably get confiscated at screening anyhow. Some airlines do it better than others, but one way or another you can bet you are someone is paying for it.

Hence it seems the Coles/Woolies version apparently trialed by QF as a cost saving effort.

I still have quite a collection of quite large bottles of Hermes shaving lotion, after shave and so on from the days when British World was king of the kids.

[Ron & Edna Johns]

Anyone else thought it kind of ironic that around the time the new LAGS (:mad:) rules were introduced - which result in most tubes of toothpaste being stolen by "security" - that QF decides to REMOVE toothpaste from the amenity kits!?!?

What a shambles :ugh:

[AEROMEDIC]

When the 747 first entered service, there was electric razors fitted at the door 5 partition of economy. You had to request the use of it if you didn't bring a shave kit.
God, how we're leapt forward!!:sad:

[Taildragger67]

Stubby,

These days mate, you're spot on. If GD thought he could get away with not giving out any kits, in any travel class, he'd do it.

Then with the $$$ saved, he could get a new Beemer every 3 months, rather than 6! :yuk:

[lowerlobe]

That is the crux of the whole subject.

What Darth thinks of the customer......

[Spaghetti Monster]

Then with the $$$ saved, he could get a new Beemer every 3 months, rather than 6!

I think you'd find that at his current rate of remuneration, he could pay cash for something nice with a blue and white badge on it about every 10 days or so, without having to dip into his savings.:rolleyes:

[YesTAM]

As long as the aircraft are full and there are no alternative carriers, Dixon can continue to provide a substandard product and there is nothing the traveling public can do about it.

[roamingwolf]

if dixon follows the same ideas that mac bank have then he will soon be charging for the amenities kits.
as redtbar said who in the office came up with the idea of the new plates and so on???? where is twix? tell us who in the office gave this rubbish the nod?
the plates are not a embarasment to the punters they are just a haemoroid of an idea for the crew who have to use them.
kmart wouldn't sell them because they wouldnt stack in a box for shipping and as soon as they were on display the average bloke wouldn't buy them either.

maybe thats it the company got them dirt cheap because no one else wanted them

[QFinsider]

lowerlobe.........

as passive resistence grows with flight crew, you will only ever hear "we apologise once", it will decrease as more guys get annoyed. Why apologise for something we are not responsible for?..

Furthermore am witnessing plenty of skippers explaining what the problem is and even who is repsonsible.........and the buck don't stop in the cabin, nor in the cockpit........:E

[Ron & Edna Johns]

I never, ever, apologise now. I "thank them for their patience", I "understand they're inconvenienced", I "thank them for their understanding". But I've taken a leave out of JWH's book, and never use the words "sorry" or "apologise" now!

[FlexibleResponse]

I wonder if they handed Geoff a customer satisfaction survey form to fill-out and to bitch to the management about the quality of the hand-out amenity items?

Perhaps he should take a look at engineering and maintenance next?

[Taildragger67]

Now this'd be interesting:

After landing, the CSM gets on the dog: "Welcome to Sydney, ladies & gentlemen. Now we haven't handed any survey forms out on this flight as the CEO has been travelling with us. He will be standing by the door as you leave the aircraft and will be happy to listen to your comments about the service you've received on today's flight and about Qantas generally."

One suspects it'd take AGES to unload that puppy as everyone would want to have their 2c worth...

The CSM would want to be looking at a new career, though!!

[lowerlobe]

QFinsider...Ron & Edna Johns...Taildragger67...

This is one area which the tech crew have an advantage over CC and in particular the CSM.You don't have to be apologetic and will not get into any real problem if you are blunt for want of a better word.

I appreciated this once when in Singapore we were delayed by an bi#@$ who decided to go shopping in the terminal.

The skipper asked me to call him when the moron was boarding the aircraft as the ground staff told me that she was found in the shops and was on her way.She had also left her young child on the aircraft during transit.

As soon as she boarded I called the skipper and he said thanks and hung up.

There followed a PA in which he said "Ladies and gentlemen the reason we have been delayed here for the last 30 minutes is the passenger sitting in (whatever seat),she has finally decided to join us and is walking to that seat now".

The reason I used to apologise is that I genuinely felt sorry for the poor sods who should be getting better or at least what they paid for.

There was no misunderstanding as I was not apologising for myself or any of the crew but for the woefull treatment by the company.

By the way as someone has asked TWIGGS who in the office gave approval for the excuse that is supposed to be the new crockery and cutlery .

[Counter-rotation]

You can still "apologise", you can still say "I'm sorry about..." and I have always said that to a client / customer who has been put out by poor this or that, which has resulted from some management pin-head's bad descision.
The trick is, you prefix your apology with - "On behalf of management / operations / etc. "
I think that gives the punter the apology they (rightly) expect, but also reminds them exactly who is responsible for the situation.
CR.

[lowerlobe]

The amenity pack used to provide the emergency bits that you left behind and/or relieve the necessity to clutter up your carry on with said stuff for a clean up during and at the end of a flight.

One of the reasons you used to pay the extra money eh.....

Holy Crap that's an expensive amenity pack!...

Actually the cost of the amenities kit is only $1.80 the rest goes in bonus's to those who decided to cut back on it's contents.

[stubby jumbo]

Dear Qantas:
Ideas from a "fed-up" Qantas Platinum traveller on Crikey.com.au

To the esteemed leaders of our national carrier: some ideas from a regular,
weary (and fed up) platinum traveller...

Stop calling yourself "Australia's business airline" until you can get
business people to their meetings on time. As a weekly (minimum) flyer my
experience has been poor at best and utterly miserable most of the time.

Of my past ten Qantas flights in 2007, only one has left at the scheduled
time, two have been cancelled and three have been more than 90 minutes
late. It has reached a point where ground staff appear unsurprised by
delays, they are par for the course, almost fully expected.

I now approach the airport in the same way I might approach the casino……

Will I get lucky today?

Will the flight leave on time?

Will I get home before my son is in bed?

Or will I emerge with my head in my hands, bitter, poorer for the
experience, vowing never to return?

Stop spending money on peripheral "fluffiness" and start investing in
quality assets that deliver your core service better.

We don't care about fancy lounges and new logos……….we want efficiency,
reliability and courteous service.

Last month when my flight was delayed more than 90 minutes because all
aircraft in Melbourne had ice on their wings, I was told to be appreciative
that Melbourne had its single "de-icing machine" and that this problem was
rare?

RARE?..........it is called winter, it comes around every year and chances
are that ice on wings will re-occur – do not be surprised by this.

This should be part of your planning and scheduling. MORE DE-ICING MACHINES
PLEASE!

Repay our loyalty by assuming some accountability.

Just as the public transport carriers are penalized in a manner directly
proportionate to their failure to meet schedules or customer satisfaction,
so too should Qantas be held to the same standard.

I propose a system where Qantas refunds 10% of the ticket price for every
15 minutes a flight is delayed... I will send you my bill for $8,457
shortly.

Stop calling them reward points until I can reward myself by booking the
flight I want to the destination I want, at the time of my choice.

You may as well call them crap shoot points, where customers roll up with
their frequent flyer points and see what holiday they can take in
2011…………..!!!

Please refrain from advertising "Flights to Sydney every 30 minutes" until
the flight leaving in 30 minutes was the flight actually scheduled to leave
at that time.

I'm sure aircraft are leaving for Sydney at 8:00, 8:30 and 9:00am; however
the passengers were likely scheduled on the 6:00, 6:30 and 7:00 flights.

Introduce a "Qantas Business Inefficiency Index". This new business tool
can measure the number of hours and financial costs caused by Qantas which
has negatively affected Australian business efficiency by flight delays,
rescheduled meetings, hampered commercial activity, etc.

This index can sit next to its sister index, the "Qantas Family
Inefficiency Index" where we can measure the number of minutes and hours
that Australian travellers are away from their families longer than
scheduled due to your delays...

In any event, our time has come to an end... I must now sell my Qantas
shares, sell my frequent flyer points and get used to parking at the other
end of the terminal………….

[lowerlobe]

I'd like to see Managers Perspective's response to this letter.

As MP tell's us that he is a manager and can obviously appreciate efficiency and service and does not work for QF then he can give us an objective response.