Traveller letters: Blown away by Qantas business class

Priscilla Adey, Alexandria, NSW

LETTER OF THE WEEK

Luxe Nomad (Traveller, January 16-17) brought back very vivid memories for me. In her column, Lee Tulloch mentioned the tiki bar in Melbourne in the 1960s; it was the South Seas restaurant or cafe in the basement of the famous old Manchester Unity building on the corner of Collins and Swanston streets. You went down the stairs from Collins Street into a tropical wonderland with big fish tanks and palm trees. I went there most Fridays after work in the early 1960s – I was a young school teacher and would meet my friends there and we had marvellous times. I often had the Hawaiian sandwiches. People said there were three crocodiles (live ones) but I don't remember those. Cheers and thanks so much for the memories of good times.

Mim Kocher, Healesville, Vic

HEAVY BAGGAGE

I would like to pass on my luggage encounter with Hawaiian Airlines.

After paying hefty fares online for brief inter-island flights, with no mention in the process that luggage was not included, I fronted up at the airport to be faced with a self-service machine that would not accept luggage without a credit card fee of up to $US50 per item.

I was infuriated that the website did not specify at ticketing that luggage is extra; if it isn't obvious that you forward pay via the website, then it's fair to assume luggage is part of the deal isn't it? Unfortunately, this is not the case with Hawaiian. You have to go to the fine print and click two additional buttons to find out that luggage charges apply at the airport. So with three surfboards and two bags, I had to pay an additional $US280.

Baggage charges should be spelt out clearly at the time of purchase, on the same page as the booking.

Tim Maunsell, Bronte, NSW

DOWN TO BUSINESS

I booked business class flights for my wife and me on Qantas from Sydney to Bangkok using Qantas Frequent Flyer points. Because we were using points, we flew from Sydney to Melbourne with Qantas and then transferred to a Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Bangkok. Our luggage was checked in at Sydney to Bangkok.

On arrival very late at night in Bangkok, there was no luggage. We reported this to baggage services at the airport who tried to contact Jetstar, but to no avail. Every attempt by myself and baggage services to contact the airline resulted in being redirected to the call centre in the Philippines. Calls to Jetstar's Bangkok number resulted in the same re-direction. Eventually I was given a Melbourne number by the call centre, but that too was redirected to the Philippines.

Our luggage finally turned up at our hotel, just in time for us to check out and fly out of Bangkok (still with no contact from Jetstar). I accept that human error does sometimes occur, but in their failure to communicate, Jetstar turned a fail into a massive fail.

John Nicolson, Ballina, NSW

YIN AND YANG

My husband and I travelled to Paris via Kuala Lumpur in September and returned from London early December. We flew Malaysia Airlines business class and it was fantastic. We have travelled to every continent on a variety of airlines and this was head and shoulders above the rest.

The price was very good, service outstanding, and food wonderful. The flat beds were a dream and the Malaysian business lounge at Heathrow is the best we have been in.

Maureen Brown, Armidale, NSW

WE WELCOME YOUR TRAVEL-RELATED OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES

The writer of the letter judged the best of the week will receive a Lonely Planet prize pack. See www.lonelyplanet.com.

Letters may be edited for space, legal or other reasons. Preference will be given to letters of 50-100 words or less.

Email us at travellerletters@fairfaxmedia.com.au and, importantly, include your name, address and phone number.

To read more Traveller Letters, click here.