A Sydney businessman’s viral LinkedIn post has sparked a heated debate about which of Australia’s major carriers cares for its customers.
Last month, a Sydney-based businessman named Pete Murray scribbled an impromptu article on LinkedIn about why he switched from Qantas to Virgin Australia. The article has since received over 750,000 impressions and triggered a vigorous online debate about loyalty, marketing, and whether Qantas cared about its top-tier customers drifting away.
Speaking to DMARGE, Murray said he had gradually dropped from Qantas platinum to silver after a job change saw his work travel patterns shift. He is now the ANZ Managing Director of a US software company and has accrued his top-tier status organically.
“Historically, I used to travel all over the world for work,” he said. “I would fly to the US, South Africa, Japan, and Asia. I would do extensive travel within Australia. It eventually resulted in me being platinum. Unless there was a prohibitive reason why I couldn’t, I preferred Qantas for a couple of decades. But the job I’m in now has resulted in different travel patterns — I go to Asia around once a quarter, and most of my travel is within Australia and New Zealand.”
Murray has no issue dropping back to silver. He no longer meets the criteria for higher status, and he knows the rules of the frequent flyer game. But he was baffled by Qantas’s indifference.
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“If someone has gone up the (status) because of their loyalty, my issue is when I started going down the ladder, Qantas didn’t reach out and ask why. Maybe they don’t care?”
His first LinkedIn post about his experience struck a chord with readers, attracting over 900 comments. Not all agreed with Murray’s view, but a lot did. “Many businesses operate using an outdated model, focusing most of their efforts on acquiring new clients and only a tiny portion on retaining existing ones,” reads one comment. “I’m a lifetime gold with Qantas, and I stopped flying with them many years ago for the same reasons as Pete. I have never heard from them again,” reads another.
That apparent disinterest from Qantas as people slipped down the status ladder was a common theme in the comments. “Qantas doesn’t care about my loyalty,” said Murray. “It made me wonder if they ever cared at all. Therefore, I won’t fly Qantas again.”
Qantas says if frequent flyers are close to retaining status but won’t quite meet the bar, they can always phone the service centre and make their case. But Qantas won’t call you to ask why you won’t requalify and what they can do to help. With over 15 million people in its frequent flyer scheme, Qantas cannot reasonably be expected to phone everyone. But only a minority of those 15 million people hold elite status, and only some of that minority are sliding down the status ladder.
“I rang the (Qantas) “service centre” and threatened to leave because of the poor service, and the response was ‘we always hear that, but people always come back.’ Do they?” asked another comment.
Murray now flies Virgin Australia locally after taking advantage of an earlier status match offer. Because Virgin extended him complimentary status, he thought he should return the favour and give them some business. “I started flying Virgin,” he said. “It was just better. I found they were generally less impacted by delay issues, and the people looking after you were friendlier and nicer. It was generally a more pleasant flying experience and before I wrote my LinkedIn article, was preferencing Virgin.”
Not everyone will share Murray’s view on the merits of flying Virgin Australia versus Qantas. But Murray’s point is that Virgin Australia wanted his business and went after it, whereas Qantas did not.
In the wake of the LinkedIn article, Virgin Australia loyalty executives personally contacted Murray and bumped him up to platinum. That said, it’s no hard task to reach out to a customer who paints your company positively. Qantas also contacted Murray after the LinkedIn article went viral. They bumped him back to gold.
Murray says that while he appreciates the gesture, it’s too late, and it makes the airline look worse. “Now what Qantas is saying is that unless people complain, they’ll let them be demoted. It’s worse than a lack of proactivity; it sends a message that we care so little, that unless you complain, we will continue to care little.”
Murray says his work travels will soon resume their former tempo, and he’ll be flying internationally a lot more again. But those flights won’t be on Qantas anymore. “I’ll fly Star Alliance,” he said. “I imagine being Velocity platinum will give me some benefits on the Star Airlines flying to those countries I’ll be travelling most often to. So, I can take advantage of this gift Virgin has given me.”
