QANTAS blots its copybook again

A customer reports on a drawn-out baggage bungle:

The day of my flight was the day after the A380 engine incident. Whist at the airport I was interviewed by Channel 7 asking me if I was at all worried about my flight. I told them I was like 'Rain Man' and only liked to fly Qantas, that I was more worried about my connecting flight with Aeromexico to Guadalajara.

I checked my bags in 3 hours before my flight as requested. When I was boarding my flight the scanner beeped after reading my ticket. I was pulled aside by a Qantas staff member and asked if I had my bags checked in. I told him that I had checked them several hours ago and also informed him that I was going to a 300 year old Hacienda in the middle of Mexico and that I needed my bags to be on board as well as I needed to get that flight because I had a conference to attend.

When I landed in LA my bags were not there. The Qantas representative who was a US citizen told me that my bags were still in Sydney and assured me they would be sent to my hotel. I informed him that I was not staying in a city luxury hotel, that my Hacienda was 2 hours away from Guadalajara airport and was not easy to find. He guaranteed me that I would have my luggage in 24 hours.

Over the next 2 days my husband had several conversations with Qantas 'Customer Service'. He was told that I could purchase some clothing and Qantas would refund me the cost of new clothing. There were no shops and there were no ATM machines anywhere near me. 4 days after I boarded the plane I received a phone call from Guadalajara airport saying I had just 1.5 hours to collect my luggage or it would be shipped back to Australia as unclaimed baggage. I had been wearing the same underwear and clothing for 4 days. I had had enough.

I got to the airport, not knowing any Spanish and had to try to find someone who could help me sort the situation out. I was led to a room where my luggage was, unfortunately on my way out of Customs for the second time I was told that I couldn't go through. I had already given the Customs officer the proper papers a few days earlier and the Customs officer said that without that paperwork I couldn't enter Mexico again.

I got back to my Hacienda and demanded that someone from Qantas call me. Finally I spoke to someone who was actually Australian who guaranteed me that Qantas would make arrangements to make my trip home better, at the very least I was offered to enter the Business Class lounge. When I checked in at LAX there was no such information on my booking. I didn't get an upgrade nor did I get to enter the Business Class lounge as promised.

After 2 weeks of dealing with Qantas and having my holiday totally ruined by their lack of customer service I have decided to revoke my membership of their frequent flyer programme. I will be contacting channel 7 to do a follow up story on their lack of customer service, and I have decided that from now on I'll be a Virgin customer.

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