Qantas flies a 13-month-old girl on a flight separate from her parents
Qantas flies a 13-month-old girl on a flight separated from her parents. Truly a bad adventure, that of the [...]
Qantas
Qantas flies a 13-month-old girl on a flight separate from her parents. Really a bad adventure, that of the Braham family, because after nearly a month of carefree vacationing around Europe this summer, he experienced moments of Panic over a glaring error by Qantas Airlines..
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Stephanie and Andrew Braham were fine until their arrival at Rome-Fiumicino International Airport. Flights booked a full nine months in advance were to connect Amsterdam from Rome, then from Amsterdam to Bangkok, Thailand. Here the family was to spend one night before returning to their home in Australia.
The Australian couple when checking in with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines-a partner of Qantas-informed them that their 13-month-old baby girl, was not included in their reservation on the flight from Amsterdam to Bangkok.
What happened
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According to information they had at the Dutch carrier's check-in counter, it appeared that the baby was scheduled for a different flight departing 40 minutes after theirs. Although they had stated that they wanted to keep their baby on their lap during the trip, KLM refused to add her because the flight was full.
And after discussing 90 minutes with the Dutch carrier, the flight left without them. Of course, the little girl's parents experienced nightmarish moments, spending about 20 hours on the phone trying to rebook, but finding themselves in endless torment.
Qantas Airlines: nightmarish assistance.
Stephanie and Andrew left the Rome airport six hours later to go to a nearby hotel. The couple spoke with Qantas at the airport, but the company reportedly said it had not made any mistakes whatsoever.
Stephanie said that she initially booked flights through Qantas with British Airways. But because she was told a couple of months later that there was a problem with connecting flights, Qantas rebooked by phone with KLM. It is probably from this change that the error arose.
Once in the room, they immediately contacted Qantas customer service via telephone. The Australian couple spent over 20 hours on the phone with Qantas support, calling them back as many as 55 times.
The two were on the phone all night trying to rebook their flight home. It was a real nightmare because customer service kept dropping the line and every time they called back, they had to explain the whole situation over and over again.
Overall, Australian tourists spent 20 hours, 47 minutes and 13 seconds with customer service Qantas. In the end, the Australian couple managed to book a flight home 12 days after their initial scheduled departure date.
New day, more problems
But the next day, the Braham family faced further problems. Qantas had promised to book an afternoon flight for that date, but once at the airport, they discovered that Qantas had not properly issued airline tickets.
After losing confidence in the Australian carrier, they turned to all the airlines at the airport to find a flight home. Unfortunately for them, every plane was full. Eventually, an employee contacted them by phone to guarantee them a flight on July 26, 12 days later than they had budgeted.
Qantas Airlines' Apology
Qantas stated that it "sincerely apologizes" to the Braham family and pledged to reimburse accommodation expenses. The Australian carrier made amends, saying it would be a "back-end administrative error."
Stephanie claimed that the Australian company would reimburse them for 200 Australian dollars per night. However, the couple claims to have spent an additional 15,000 Australian dollars for extra lodging, food, travel and additional entertainment.
They also stated that they lost income from not working, but it is unclear whether Qantas will compensate for these additional financial losses as well.
Conclusions
In short, for these Australian tourists vacationing with their baby in Europe, a fun trip had the epilogue of a nightmare and cost the couple a lot of money.
One wonders how such glaring errors can still happen in 2022. More importantly, why a customer service department forces 20 hours, 47 minutes and 13 seconds on the phone of unfortunate customers. Unfortunately, they were not the only ones to complain about the airline, which seems to be having an unhappy time under the leadership of CEO Alan Joyce.
In fact, after the Braham family, another mother also reported that Qantas would book separate flights for her and her only 3-year-old child.
The woman also reported on Reddit that she waited several hours at the airline call center. Many reported wait times of up to seven hours. Another passenger stated that she would never fly with Qantas again. This was after the airline lost her luggage and then charged her $380 in excess baggage fees on the return trip.
Joyced why?
So many passengers are now using the term "Joyced" on social media. This is because of the mismanagement of CEO Alan Joyce. In fact, his management, continues to be considered the cause of passenger inconveniences with significantly delayed or canceled flights and lost luggage.
We do not know if the unhappy condition the company is experiencing is really Alan Joyce's responsibility, but it is unfortunate considering how much the Australian carrier was one of the best in the world in the not-so-distant past.
As stated on the company's official website, Qantas, founded in Queensland in 1920, is Australia's largest domestic and international airline. A leading long-haul carrier and one of the strongest brands in Australia.
The Qantas Group also controls the Jetstar company, and over time the company has built an excellent reputation in safety, operational reliability, and customer service.
Well, let's hope that soon the Australian operator will regain its past characteristics. And no longer make such gross mistakes to their loyal customers, especially when we are talking about children who clearly cannot travel alone.