Qantas Airways
reviews and complaints

I was due to fly from Brisbane to Shanghai, and wanted to make use of a new 144-hour visa-free transit to third country/region program that had been rolled out in Shanghai three weeks prior. I tried calling Qantas before making the booking to see if they had notice of the program (and so would allow me to board without a visa) – I was told by the customer service lady that she had no access to this information, and I could only check at the airport. After checking a number of official Chinese websites – Shanghai General Station of Immigration and the central government's Ministry of Public Security – it appeared that the program was clearly announced, and so I thought there shouldn't be too much trouble. But when I got to the airport, Qantas told me that the Timatic system which they rely upon had not been updated with infomration about the program, and so they couldn't let me board. (I had taken printoffs from those official websites to facilitate check-in; the manager on duty still wasn't prepared to take the risk.) The result of all this was that I had to make rebookings, suffering rebooking fees in doing so (though Qantas did waive the service fee), and I had to delay my itinerary to get a visa which caused loss of hotel bookings I had in Shanghai. The situation turned out quite expensive.

It should not have been too hard for Qantas to tell me – or other customers – over the phone what is on their Timatic system about visa/visa-free requirements. Because Qantas will deny boarding if a passenger doesn't comply, this information is essential to a booking and flight planning. By not allowing queries about this over the phone or otherwise before getting to the airport, Qantas is shifting all the risk to passengers. That is not reasonable, and passengers should expect better from Qantas.

QANTAS offers promotion to fly between Singapore and Brisbane. I was instantly fooled by the airlines with a search on their flight and came up an airfare quite hard to resist. Once confirmed, that was the beginning of the nightmare. Seat selection cost extra minimum of $25 EACH WAY, Carbon offsetting suddenly become customer responsibility to pay for it (it was chosen as an option without clicking on it), travel insurance cost more than the Two way travel fee! Backed out of the deal and chosen a refund, but given a voucher instead. To rebook, there is a $150 ADDITIONAL FEE online, $200 over the phone! TO CANCEL, it Was A $400 CANCELLATION FEE. Well done, Australia! That is how you get yourself out of financial crisis by charging on the customers. I have bite the bullet to recancel the booking, doesn't wanna care about my AUD1000, went to Emirates, booked another ticket, which got me free seat selection, only $75 change fee and FREE rebooking!

Qantas staff at checking counter are so unprofessional, rude not only that they lack class and decorum. I was travelling from Melbourne to Sydney and onwards to new York with American airliners, during checking at the connection counter at domestic airport the staff refuse to check my baggage to new York, according to her my ticket was not linked or part of despite the fact American airliner is part of one world and Qantas network. All my effects fail trying to explain to her that I have travel a million times with Qantas and American airliners and it was link on my frequent flyer and the airliner is part of Qantas network and she shouldn't have any problem tagging my baggage for the international leg. How she was so damn rude and unprofessional and god I couldn't believe her behavior/ demeanor, either she was new or she didn't know her job, all she did was just continuously argue with me, she just pick up the phone and was pretending to talk someone enquiring god knows what? and as if people are so stupid and they cant tell when you are exactly talking to someone in the end I just couldn't bear it all and I had to leave, upon making a formal complain with Qantas I still till to date haven't received any feedback or response on my complain, Qantas has become the worst airliner in terms of it staff attitude towards customers, I cant believe we as customers invest so much In the airliner and this is the service we get good on you Qantas keep up with this attitude and service and you will eventually run out of business..

I am flying with my 2 sons to South Africa and wanted to "Check In" online, because you have to stand in unbelievable queues at Sydney Airport. (All International flights stand in the same queue) Clicked on "Online Check-in" entered my "Booking Reference" and "Surname" On next screen selected "Check-In" Get to STep 1 of Online check in and it shows that I have already completed my check in and lo and behold, I'm "Saudi Arabian" as well. Phone Qantas - hold on for 20 minutes and get told my check in doesn't show as completed on their side and I'll have to check in at the airport. Doesn't matter how I explain that I haven't done any check in AT ALL and never mind my concern that someone has checked in ? - even have my passport no there and everything. All that matters on the 13 13 13 side is that I have not completed my "Check In" and nothing can be changed on their side and I have to check in at the airport. Now I have to write a letter of complaint and post it, because there is no Complaints email address AND I have to go stand in that queue for who knows how long, and hope that there isn't some other person who somehow has stolen my identity and I land up not being able to get on this flight tomorrow.

Business Class Flight from Melbourne to Nice. The departure in Melbourne was delayed for 90 min because the Entertainment System wasn't working (for appl. 14 seats). As a consequence I knew I wouldn't be able to get onto my connection flight in Dubai as planned. The announcements before landing were that the connection was changed and it would be via London instead of a direct flight. At the gate upon Arrival I was told to go straight to the departure gate where the new boarding pass would be issued. Well when I arrived there no one know about the change, there was nothing in the system and no one from Qantas to be seen anyway near. The duty manager tried his best, however as he wasn't Qantas staff his means were limited. In the end it was only 15 min before departure and too late to do anything. It was left to me to find out on which flight I would actually be on, turned out that I needed to wait 24 hours before I could board the next flight. Getting accomodation was painful as again there was very limited help from Qantas.
Now this was an experience flying Business class, I wonder how much worse it could have been flying economy with one of the cheap Airlines.

Haven't visited Dubai many times visiting our daughter we were very pleased to be able to fly with Emirates for the first time on flight EK030 Heathrow to Dubai 24 May 2014. Excellent flight. Service was outstanding. Recommended to everyone. Unfortunately we were put on a Quantas flight for our return home and EK5109. 1st June 5.30 am Dubai time. The plane was packed and the seats seemed to be jammed in together. No comfort whatsoever. The toilets were inadequate for the number of people and all through the flight in one of the toilets there were no hand towel. The crew seemed to be too tired. There was also a lack of food with the crew running around searching for wraps etc. So I am afraid we have gone from most certainly booking Emirates again next time we visit Dubai to being rather concerned that we end up in a poor quality plane again. We felt this should be brought to your attention as it is giving Emirates a bad name.
Carol Hann

We paid for extra leg room seats, $900 plus, the check in person changed our seats and said we should get a refund.
That was in Jan/Feb and we haven't even had the curiosity of a response. Since I use a cane to balance a little, they decided not to have me near an exit row, which I can appreciate, but at least refund the difference in seats.

Qantas are a waste of money. On our LAST flight, the checkin staff were outright RUDE and we were herded like cattle on-board and de-planing.
Not a smile from any staff. The floor was a pigsty.
The trolley-dollies refused to break-up a party of 5 drunk boguns knocking into our seats for 40 minutes. The air was effluvia with farts.
Hot coffee spilt on my arm - the waitress didn't give a rats. "Well how did that get there" with surprise, and continued to pour coffees.
Qantas's reply to my complaint letter: "Thanks for your letter...we look forward to welcoming you aboard next time you fly with Qantas"! WTF? NEVER again. Last week they also cancelled my 195, 000 freq flyer miles because (their concealed clause) I hadn't flown with Qantas for 12 months in protest. WTF.

Dear Sarah, Australia was always a place I have dreamed of going to. I had no idea that the first few moments of landing in Australia would see me in tears. You will understand more of my experience if you read the letter below. I have had a heck of a time trying to get Qantas airline to admit to any wrong doing or give any reasonable compensation.
Everyone but Qantas airlines, realizes that the way my group was treated on our flight was unacceptable. The rent by the hour hotel that they tried to put us in was beyond my worst expectations... Yet it is like an impossible fight with Qantas because even if you get through to customer service you can't get "through to them". I just talked to customer service representative who told me they are not a hotel service and that based on where I was sitting I had the cheapest seat so they were justified in placing us at this hotel because we had the cheapest tickets at about $1850. That, in addition to a 26 hour flight delay, makes me frustrated and wondering how we can protect ourselves as consumers. New airline regulations are now in affect in my country to protect us. More protection needs to be done for people flying with this Australian carrier. Below is the first letter, the polite one, I sent them that didn't get responded to. The second angry letter did, and just further frustrated me with them because their correspondence keeps touting what a great airline they are without offering any real form of compensation. They also say that unless you are in a higher seat category, they will take 15 working days to respond to any complaints. I have never experienced such a classist company before. Shouldn't a person with a legitimate complaint feel better after dealing with customer service, not worse. Please help!
Dear Qantas,

QF12 09/08/2013 - VH-OQ6 (cancelled flight)
QF7012 10/08/2013 - VH-OQF (flight we actually took)

I am strongly complaining to you about my first experience with Qantas Airlines. I received literature from Qantas stating that "Qantas is committed ..." However, with Qantas, I experienced a 26 hour flight delay in the layover in Los Angeles coming from Vancouver on my way to Sydney. The initial 24 hours due to mechanical difficulty, then next two hours was caused by inefficiencies by Qantas. On the first day, after doing pre-boarding at 9:30 pm on August 9th in LA, I was kept on the plane till 4:30am of the next day, then waited an hour more for a shuttle bus that then drove an hour to a dirty flea ridden, hotel that appeared to cater to prostitutes and drug addicts, and the rooms smelled like vomit in Orange County called Santa Ana. Our group refused to stay there. I was afraid to sit anywhere in the lobby till while we waited for the bus to take us back and stood for three hours. One woman received mite bites, so I am glad I stood. Still not having slept, we had to wait till about 10am for the bus to pick us up and take us back to the airport. No dinner given on the plane the night before, nor was there any chance of getting food at the flea ridden hotel, which does not offer meals, but there eating area was so dirty, I would not want to eat there if food was offered. I heard from another gentleman on the plane that himself along with 3 busloads of others in our same flight class were taken to The Marriott in Newport Beach, Los Angeles, where they had nice beds and received nice meals.

Everyone from the plane was back to airport early that evening, and many from our group asked if we needed new tickets but were told we did not. Then when it was boarding time they decided to re-issue tickets for the entire plane, which took up an extremely huge amount of time, and when we finally did get on the plane, we were told we had to wait for another airlines, I believe it was Singapore Airlines, to unload luggage. This would not have been an issue if we boarded on time.

Other costs to me, I was late for my tour. I paid $2600 for this tour and missed two days. I incurred the following expenses to catch up to the tour. A $75 plane ticket to Tamworth, $150 for a one night hotel stay, and about $30 in charges regarding roaming, texting, and cellular data in order to connect with people from the tour and the friend in Sydney I could no longer visit who I hadn't seen in 4 years. I missed my one day in Sydney, plus an apparently amazing time at Hunter Valley and the Nundel Sheep Station. I was also informed by my tour company that if the plane arrived on time on even the second day, I would have been able to make the tour. I was stressed the whole plane ride wondering if I was going to make it or not due to the plane taking so long for the boarding process and waiting on the runway. I spent my first couple of hours in Sydney in tears, knowing I had missed the start of the tour after I spoke with the tour guide leader after we landed.

I am an e

I wish to offer you the opportunity to show you care. Please get back to me with a response on how you will reimburse me. I haven't expressed my views on social media yet, as I wish to give you the opportunity to show that you too are an airline that cares.

Yours truly,
Sandy Nina Kumar

I travelled with Qantas Holidays. I have already written a complaint through Qantas website but since no answer. Your staff are incapable to give the correct info, resulted us arriving without our luggage since Qantas staff didn't do their job and same thing with coming back which they fail to put our luggage in the flight so we had to go home again with no luggage. It is disgusting and I am ashamed of being a member of Qantas frequent flyers.

I lodged a complaint Wednesday 4 July 2012 regarding a flight I missed with Qantas. Strangely enough it was because the flight actually left EARLY - appose to always late by Qantas. Flight was scheduled to leave 18:40 with an 18:20 boarding time. Arrived 18:24 at the gate to find the plane has already left. Excuse from attendant at gate: A big plane was coming in and we had to make way for it and as you were the only person not here we decided to go. This is after their flight the morning was 90 minutes delayed. I was then put on the later flight and true to form this one was late 15 minutes. Despite 4 written requests to ask for an explanation on Qantas website, I still have to heard anything. If you contact them you have to hold on for ages. Wherever I have a choice from now on, will not use Qantas and have no sympathy if the other airlines take their business as they are shocking. Loyalty counts for nothing if the service is pathetic. On top of this, a friend of ours made a group booking for 8 people online but instead of using my wife's birth name as per her passport, he used her call name as everybody knows her - birth name Sophie / call name Fiona - just the way her parents decided to do things. We wanted to do the right thing and change it but Qantas saying to this will be a $500 charge. Really! To change a name?

Booked and paid for return flights from Perth via Singapore to London only to find 48hrs before we left Qantas had cancelled ourconnecting flight Singapore-London without any notification. Tickets booked and paid for January 2012 departing April No apology, Customer Service from Qantas purported our fault and could not get us on flight as originally booked. Eventually flight that took 37hr to reach London via Sydney, Toyko, Frankfurt London. Totally unacceptable. Revised tickets were nearly $1500 less than originally paid and Qantas has kept money. Will not be flying with them again. Their standards are slipping and Customer Services need to be made accountable. Have written to Qantas and will be intersting to see how long they take to respond.

Dear Qantas

Your service to your customers has been dropping off ever since the industrial dispute. You are the most expoenisve airline in Australia, however you service has dropped to no better than the budget airline Tiger.

I am a business class traveller and you have lost my bags 3 times this week and delayed or cancelled my last 3 domestic flights. You are unreliable.

What happened to customer service and customer experience. You MD has lost focus and your politically you are no longer running Qantas to provide a quality service to your customers but rather run it into the ground for sale or partnership with some other organisation from overseas.

If i was an employee of this rag tag company, i would be extremely concerned. You are about to be fired, retrenced or as so many airlines have done to thier staff, you are going to not have a job and not even get your entitlements.

I have been a qantas customer since a small boy and been loyal for 30 years. Qantas just do not give a flying #$%^$ and really never have.

I get that qantas can treat the customers with such dis respect and well we as customers just have to deal with it. If you are employed by them then I feel ever so sorry for you. Qantas will burn you even worse than they burn thier customers.

Those long term employees out there that get the small discounted airfares becuase of your ability to put up with such a bad employer, makes sure you use it all up real quick.

Qantas is about to register for bankruptcy and they will burn the employees just as every other airline has.

I would appreciatte a response to my above e-mail

My qantas frequent flyer number is 3981836
My name is Steve Kurlin
My Address is Unit 20 / 5 Towns Place, Millers Point, NSW 2000
My Mobile is [protected].

Lets see just how well your customer service and account management is?

Your extremely unhappy and aware you are going out of business.

Steve Kurlin

My Dad fell ill and I had to rush back to Australia to try to see him before he died. I did not make it in time. In the process I changed existing bookings for my wife and three children. The telephone sales assistant told me that at the very least change fees and fare differences would be waived under the circumstances, if not some refund of the original fares. My later official requests after submitting all documentation such as death certificate etc were met with point blank refusal - no refund, no waiver of change fees or fare differences. Not one penny.
My siblings who flew home on other airlines were given refunds or had change fees / fare differences waived.

To add insult to injury, on the flight out, while I dealt with the news of my Dad's death received in LA in transit, a steward berated me because my 16 month old was crying and asked me, "where's the mother?". I was too stunned to respond.
I will never fly Qantas again if I can help it. Awful people.

I paid $160 to Qantas for "extra leg room" exit row because I have a number of leg problems and when I got on board there was no such seat. I compalined to Qantas and got no reply. I wrote to Qantas and got no reply. I sent a letter of demand to Qantas and got no reply. I took them to VCAT, which only takes a few minutes and costs $37, and they immediately folded, though they gave me back the money plus costs just as it was about to go to court.
From now on I intend to take all unresponsive big companies immediately to VCAT or other State equivalent and I suggest everyone else does the same, as force majeure is all they understand. Next on my list are Jetstar, whose dysfunctional website cost me $80 for extra luggage I didnt want, and AGL, that has been incapable of taking a meter gas reading for the whole three years I have been here and just makes up usage figures.

So..Qantas are charging $30 excess baggage/flight. In a recent 2 week SYD_ADE_MEL_SYD, I have paid the $90. For this pleasure I have wasted 1hour, met @ least 5 embarrassed staff, struggled through 4 queues, and a system that doesn’t accept my National Australia Bank Visa Card..I am a Gold/Platinum Frequent Flier. Tonight one of two bags checked in the Frequent Flier centre, and for which I spent $30, queued in 2 queues for 20 minutes, and which wouldn't accept credit card payment at electronic terminal got lost. So, am I 1) happy, 2) recommending the cessation of life support for the ### at Qantas who instigated this change, or 3) feeling for the qantas frontline staff who have to handle these increasingly frustrating issues: hint - the answer is an even number.. B

I have just found out that I was billed three times for a single booking for a Qantas flight. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a Qantas representative in Australia who was unable to sort out my problem as all the credit card information for US booked flights is taken care of in New Zealand. Of course the New Zealand office was closed forcing me to wait. Meanwhile, my account is overdrawn incurring fees, my rent has bounced incurring a late fee. Will these fees be refunded by Qantas given that it's their error? I hope this isn’t how they regularly conduct business.

I booked a flight Los Angeles to Sydney via Brisbane on frequent flyer points. The itenerary says I am allowed 2 bags from LA to Brisbane and 2 bags from Brisbane to Sydney. Qantas then put me on a Jetstar codeshare flight from Brisbane to Sydney and charged me $196 for the second bag. I called Qantas to complain and was told to call Jetstar. Called Jetstar and was told it was a Qantas problem. Both refuse to do anything. Think a suit for breach of contract might be in order.

my wife and I received a $1200eu voucher for volentering to be delayed by 24hrs due to the A380 being grounded in Dec 2010 we had to get our own hotel sorted for the night, this made our stopover in singapore 3 days instead of 4 (we didnt actually receive the voucher until we left singapore. When we returned to the UK in Jan 2011 we were told we could send the voucher to the qantas branch in London who would pass it on to Sydney branch who would then return a cheque to us via the london office (we live 400 miles from london so popping into qantas London is not an option) This was in Feb 2011 and I was told 2-3 weeks before i received the cheque. I called qantas 3 weeks later and was told yes London had received my voucher and passed it on to Sydney and to wait 2-3 weeks... I called again last week (14/05/2011) and was told to E-mail customer services but it would take them 90 days to return the e-mail ? i spoke to 3 different people that day who passed me on from Sydney to New Zealand/put me on hold for 20mins/and finally said i'd better E-mail customer services. 1 of them also said that the office in London didnt exist ?

I had to change flights for my inlaws due to a medical emergency. Tried to change through qantas website, it was giving an error. I then approached the qantas technical support and they confirmed through email that it is a known issue, we can call Qantas customer care and change the tickets without paying a service charge (Qantas got a service charge for calling up and changing through their customer care, It's a nightmare to get the calls to customer care, we were put on hold for an hour atleast to get through).

Spoken to them for a very long time, explained the situation, the customer care agent was blindly saying that she doesn't have any info about this error, she kept on asking for an error number and we said there is no error number, it's a stupid java exception with a very long message, She was saying, if there is no Error number, then it's not an error. We told her about the technical support teams email confirmation and asked her whether we can forward that email to her, NOTHING was acceptable apart from paying service charge or Go to their office with the details.

We went back to the qantas web support team and the person confirmed again and he said he will send out an email to their sales team and ask them to call us back. Waited for a day, nothing came through.

We then went Qantas office in Sydney with the emails and a print out of the error messages etc. They aknoledge that there is an error, but unfortunately they can't wave off the service fees! So frustrating, it's a medical condition and we didn't have enough time, so we paid the service charge to change the ticket.

I would like to take this to proper authorities to lodge as a proper complaint. Can anyone help me, which authority I can this in Australia?

I don't want to go back to lodge a complaint in qantas as I don't see there is any use in it. Appreciate any sort help/advise. Thanks