Questions and Answers

Hi peeps, need your advice on this:

The incident occurred on Dec 2nd, 2018, around 2 pm, I was at the Sydney International Business Lounge, waiting for my flight to Hong Kong CX100.

The food, as usual, tends to be quite unappetizing, the options that time were a scary oily pot of duck curry and just buckets and buckets of overly dressed salads. I went ahead and got myself a plate of the Rocket Potato Salad, and when I was about 80% finished I spotted the worm.
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Immediately, I went to the front desk/lounge check-in counter, hoping that the front desk ladies that wore Qantas uniforms, would be well trained in providing quality service to business and frequent travelers. That did not happen. There were three of them, and I spoke to the one close to the lounge door. She immediately took the plate and led me back to the kitchen, as there were other guests that were present and heard about the incident and saw the evidence. It took some time to get a hold of the Food & Beverage manager on duty to come out and speak with me. Once the manager came out, the front desk lady literally ran away and made it clear that she had no interest in helping me nor wanted to take responsibility for the incident. The F&B manager, aside from looking concerned and apologized, did nothing else as well.

None of the QF lounge staff that I connected with bothered to ask for my name, nor asked how I felt about the situation. No compensation was offered.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end. So I took it to Twitter, and tweeted to QF about the incident, and got an immediate reaction, but it was until this month (Jan 2019) did the customer service team finally responded to my emails. (1-month later..) They initially only offered Qantas Frequent Flyers points to me when I clearly told them I was a Cathay Marco Polo Gold Member. I thought it was ridiculous that after what happened to me that they would actually think that I want to sign up for their frequent flyer club when every time I see the Kangaroo tail I also see worms dancing around it…Why would I ever want QF anything, when there’s SQ/CX/BR/NH right at my doorstep? I would even pick Air NZ before I would fly QF again…

So I pushed back, and they counter offered me A$100 voucher for Australia Domestic flights only. Saying that, after reviewing the incident with their management, that was the most appropriate compensation…

I’m still bothered by it because it’s like they purposely are trying to make this compensation not customer friendly. If I am a frequent international traveler, how is a domestic only voucher be any way relevant to me, and would make me feel better about QF?

So the question is, am I being too demanding to ask for something more? Or you guys think, I’m being way too lenient with what has occurred to me? What would be an appropriate compensation?

I don’t have the intention to be difficult or be the pot stirrer, but I find QF to be the one that’s difficult…

Looking forward to your thoughts, thanks!

What do you think fair compensation would be?

Well, tbh, if I knew the answer to your question, confidently, I wouldn’t be posting this in the first place, no?

Nonetheless, to answer your question, I suppose something relevant to my travel journey would be much more appreciated. Some sort of voucher that either is relevant to lounge visits or credits that can be applied to international traveling both are much easier for me to apply.

Please don’t tell me I just answered my own question;) lol

See the responses on Lucky’s most recent post. I didn’t reply, but agree with the sentiment. There’s a 1 in a 100,000 chance there’s a worm in your salad and you were unlucky that day. A simple apology from the staff would have been been enough in my book. It’s not like they can refund your lounge pass.

Ben’s post: [URL]https://onemileatatime.com/qantas-worm/[/URL]

And I’m not sure what Qantas can/should do. As Ben points out, the catering is not done by the airline though, yes, their name is on the lounge. As a Cathay flier Qantas miles aren’t helpful and neither was the domestic voucher. I guess perhaps some additional lounge passes though I would assume their lounges are not at the top of your list right now!

Thx guys, this helps putting things into perspective, and approach it with a different angle.