[kwalden]

The trip went off without a hitch. Our tour guide was wonderful, but you MUST know about our experience with Qanta's in Auckland New Zealand, we were booked on flight 25 on October 24, departing at 655pm. My mother and I both requested aisle seats. The tour guide tried to get seat assignments prior to our arrival to the airport only to be told that they didn't handle requests until check in for seat requests. Upon arrival to Queenstown we made our requests. Keep in mind these reservations were made MONTHS ago. We did not receive the seat requests we asked for and were not treated very nicely in Queenstown when asking for the seat requests we needed. They said check when you get to Auckland, and we were sent to middle and window seats for the Queenstown to Auckland leg of the return flight. My mother had knee replacement surgery in July, so we are already off to a bad start, but thought what the heck its just a few hours over to Auckland, we can handle that and we'll get the ailes for the trip back to the states. Ok, let me start by saying that we arrived for our next connection 4 hours early. We immediately went to the customer service desk to talk to them about the seat assignments. We were met with a very curt and disagreeable response that all the aisle seats were taken and there would be NO CHANGES.... The flight was full.... Really? Four hours before check in and you DON'T TAKE SEAT ASSIGNMENTS? How can that be? No if you come back later maybe someone can help you if there is a no-show passenger etc. She promptly threw a sign up for our flight that said Qantas flight 25 for October 24 at 635 is full, no seat changes. This lady was in her 50's, heavy makeup, hair pulled up with a pony tail in the back, unfortunately I did not get her name. We were promptly dismissed by her.
After awhile I did go back and try again. I explained to her that i'm not a high maintenance person, but I have clausterphobia, and my mother has a pretty new knee replacement and I would appreciate a helping hand. Even if she could help mother I would sedate myself and endure. Again I was curtly dismissed by her and sent packing. About that time I saw 400 people come in from a cruise ship to start checking in. Funny how that works. If you don't take seat assignments then wouldn't there have been an aisle seat if 400 people had not checked in yet to return to the states? She explained to me that you Qantas has new software and they can't make any changes. REALLY? So then our flight was delayed from a 655 departure to after 8, then it was 9, we are invted by Qantas to come and get a meal voucher ( thank you ! ) while at the voucher desk, I again explain my case to a very nice lady who says they are full and can't make any changes, but yet someone in front of me had just gotten a switch to an aisle seat. HMMMM. do you think they have ganged up on us at this point? I do. After the 400 people check in, I go to the ticket agent to see if she can do anything, again, we are full, can't help you. So I call the 1800 reservation number in New Zealand. The guy on the phone says he can't do anything else for me after I explain the events of the day. By this time he has called the airport ( at my suggestion ) and they tell him basically its out of his hands and they aren't going to help me. Then his supervisor says he sees a couple of seats available and can move us to the back of the plane if that's ok. I said that will be fine, just get us a couple of aisle seats. He gives me the number and says go back to the counter to get the seats I need. Super, so I go back down to the ticket counter to get reprints, THERE ARE NO REPRINTS and the seats he said he assigned me were someone elses. He clearly just wanted to end the call so he continued to get his call time in. So, by this time the plane has been delayed again till after 11pm. Keep in mind we have been there a long time. ( a delayed plane is not an issue, I'm happy to wait for a safe plane.... that is appreciated) When we get town to the gate - finally, we are with a group of very irate Holland America cruise passengers because they are concerned about connecting flights etc. There is a very nice lady at the counter who I have not encountered up to this point, I explain my situation to her, and guess what??????????? Ahh yes, she has SEVERAL aisle seats and was happy to make the change for me. Then the terrors from the customer service desk ( joke ) upstairs come down to help and get everyone loaded on the plane. As I get ready to go through the turn stile one of the agents from upstairs says well I see you finally got your aisle seats, I said yeah finally thank goodness, she said well it is a very full flight there was no where to move you..... REALLY?????? guess what folks, upon arrival to the plane, there were a absolute minimum of atleast 25 aisle seats VACANT. The flight probably was 75%-80% full. Qantas AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND you are pathetic at customer service and you better get yourselves into some training classes to have a better understanding of empathy, compassion, and a how to better convey a can do spirit.