Last month I flew business on the A380 on QF11, and I asked for an extra pillow.

Last month I flew business on the A380 on QF11, and I asked for an extra pillow. The stewardess told me that there were none left, as the plane was quite full. I wasn't too happy but she tried to be helpful and eventually found me one with a stain on it that they had put away. I said I was surprised the flight didn't have spares in case the plane was full and people wanted an extra one. She said, what you should do is next time you receive a feedback form, tell Qantas that they should stock more pillows.

Does anyone else see a problem with that statement? How is it possible that the company/management and low level employees have such poor channels of communication and unaligned interests that a stewardess can't provide that feedback straight to management?

This is not really a question but just a general discussion, interested to see if this is a lone occurrence and if I have interpreted the stewardess' comments correctly.

I hear you!

My partner and I did QF1 to LHR recently... and it goes as far as we were on upper deck in centre 2 seats... with a different level of service - from the crew operating the [business class] trolley service - down each isle.

My partner was greeted with, Hello Sir, would you like x, would you like y, crew had a smile - however the two crew serving my side (aisle)... as good as threw my meal in front of me.. with no "customer service" aspect to it.

 On the ground, what is everyones advise to me??? get a report card and report it...

PLeeease! If they can not get customer service right - then I'm not adding to a mountain of "customer feedback cards".

Since that trip, we've begun migrating all our credit cards and business/personal trips to Virgin/Velocity... and immediately get welcomed with statements like "welcome back"...

Sorry Qantas - no wonder.

Signed, Ex QANTAS Gold FF (& business owner, & global traveller)

Did you receive a Pillow?  Yes...   You wanted an "EXTRA" pillow... was one available? No....  the Cabin crew member did everything possible to see if one was availalbe, unfortunately, in this instance, the answer was no.
Airlines do not stock amenities in the hope every passenger will want an Extra.  They cater for what is neccessary.  If they catered for every person to want an extra of every item, there would be no space available on board the aircraft for anything.

The crew member can provide feedback back to management, however the comment cards have been designed to directly feed passenger feedback to the correct channels.
Cabin crew department have nothing to do with Catering services or other services on board.  If you reported it to the crew department, they would still need to forward onto the correct department, hence your feedback form is a more effecient channel of providing direct feedback, which is also then captured officially for future stats etc.

Highflyer. I agree with you that the airlines can't stock spare amenities for the whole plane, but as a Business class customer paying the prices that they do, I don't think that it is so foreign to expect to get an EXTRA pillow if you ask. If the plane is 'quite full' and there is a small supply of spare amenities, than I think a large proportion of those should be reserved for higher class customers.

David, I think you are right that customer complaints probably carry more weight, than what might be considered a gripe from staff

highflyer - I wasn't making any complaints about the stewardess, she tried her best to find me a pillow and had a good attitude. I just found her statement a bit curious.

And while not having an extra pillow when flying business is a bit of a first world problem, I don't think its unreasonable to be unhappy when paying that sort of money. In my last few trips, I've been told that because the plane was full, they'd run out of the meal I wanted, pillows, blankets. I've had that happen many times in economy, and I wouldn't complain, but I just think it shouldn't happen that often in business class.

Spinza, I would suspect the thinking behind her suggestion to you could be that management may pay more attention to a request from a passenger than crew (although it'd have been 'pro-active' of her to give you a feedback form and pen!). If a few travellers encounter this situation and and make the request it may well carry more weight than one crew suggesting it. I'm not saying this is the case with Qantas, I don't know that and I'm sure they would have 'crew-upline' feedback mechanisms, but I've been in a few work situations where the customers in the end wield more clout than staff.

Thanks David. Are these feedback forms given out randomly? I think a year ago I once had one given to me. I guess I should just keep waiting til next time.

totally agree with 'highflyer' and 'David'  ..pretty much covers the processes and reasons of said situation and can / is applied to many other similar 'stock' / amenities  levels..