Week 4 - Wednesday 13 April 2022 - Reasonably Covid Normal

The election race is up and running with Albo a short half head in front of ScoMo, heaven help us if Albo and his merry bunch of lefties win this election.  They will make the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years look like responsible and effective government.

As some of you would know I am the executor of a deceased estate of a friend of mine.  I am sure that you will have seen or heard in the media of the horror stories from people trying to deal with Qantas, well, I have my own tale of woe to tell. Currently the estate has an amount of $664 being held by Qantas as either a flight credit or in a thing called a flight pass.  It is my duty as executor this estate to recover the funds for the benefit of the beneficiaries and as you all know I take duties such as this very seriously indeed.

Rather than try and explain the events surrounding my phone call to Qantas except to say that I initiated the call at 11.15am in the morning and the call was terminated by the Qantas representative at 4.07pm in the afternoon.  I hasten to add that the call was not terminated by the operator due to any rudeness or aggressiveness on my part.

Below is an extract of an e-mail I sent to Qantas after the call was terminated which I think is pretty self explanatory;

"I refer to the above email and note that although a few days have passed, nobody has got back to me in respect to this matter.

 I have rung Qantas on the number given in the email below, 131113, and following is a brief chronology of the outcome of that phone call;

 11/04/2022         11.15am Phone call to 131113

                            11.20 Phone answered and after explaining my situation I was advised that 131113 could not help and I was transferred to the “Service Team” (a misnomer if ever I have heard one”).

                                03.18pm Phone answered – by a person who was entirely unable to deal with my problem. 

• I patiently explained to your representative that I am the executor of a deceased estate and that I am trying to recover the amount of $664.07 of a Qantas flight credit that has been transferred to a Qantas Pass.
• The person I spoke to initially told me that he couldn’t deal with me and could only deal with the person the flight credit belonged to – I explained that that person is dead – and once again I advised that I am the executor of the deceased estate.
• At various times in this conversation I was put on hold whilst your representative tried to work out what he was going to do.
• The representative requested I provide documentation, I advised that I had already provided a death certificate, in December, which is all that I have been asked for.  Once again I was placed on hold whilst your representative checked further.
• Your representative then confirmed that they had received the death certificate but Qantas would now need an “Affidavit” although he was unable to explain what was required in the affidavit or where I would send it to.  I suggested that I provide a copy of the Grant of Probate which names me as executor of the estate but once again your representative had no idea what I was talking about.

03.45 Approximately, I asked if I could speak to a supervisor or somebody senior, the Qantas representative agreed to do this and put me on hold, I thought to transfer the call.

04.07 Call disconnected!

This is an absolute disgrace, waiting from 11.15am to be hung up on at 4.07pm.

 Can you imagine the distress caused when your representative asked to speak to the deceased person who happens to have been a close personal friend of mine.

 This matter has been going on since 24 November 2021 and I am no closer to recovering the outstanding funds than I was at that date.  I wish to wind up the administration of the deceased estate and this is one of the few matters still outstanding that is delaying me and my lawyers from doing so.

 I personally have been a loyal and regular customer of Qantas and have been a Qantas Frequent Flyer for many years and I can’t put into words how disappointed I am at this treatment. (I forgot to mention that I am also a shareholder)

 Please arrange for somebody to contact me on 0419 398 841 to assist me in recovering these funds.

 Although I received the standard response that Qantas is very busy and somebody would get back to me in a "few" days no response has been received.

On the following day I sent the same e-mail with a bit of a covering letter to the office of the Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce, and this instance I haven't even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement of my correspondence.

A busy week last week with Legacy Day at the Shrine plus a couple of extra shifts and a Military History and Heritage Vic two day conference over the weekend.  

We had about 2,500 school children of all ages at the Shrine for Legacy Day and after the service on the forecourt a lot of them came through the Shrine to view the various exhibits in the galleries and go to the sanctuary and the balconies etc.  That many big and little kiddies in the galleries at the same time makes for some very nervous curators and some not so nervous volunteers.  Anyway the day went off very well with only two or three of the cadet honour guard fainting and no damage as far as I know to any of the exhibits in the galleries.

Of course the F1 Grand Prix was on last weekend after having been cancelled the last two years and by all accounts was very successful with record crowds, although disappointingly the Australian F1 driver didn't win. Melbourne turned on a few days of our glorious autumn weather for the event and the city sparkled for the world wide telecast.

Whilst talking about sporting events, the one day classics bicycle races are on in France, Belgium and the Netherlands at the moment in the lead up to the "big one" the Tour De France" which I daresay we are all keenly looking forward to.

I recently discussed 4th covid vaccination with my doctor and he suggested that I get it as soon as I am eligible, which is 18th of April.  He also advised me that there was no problem with getting my flu shot at the same time.

Things are pretty much "same ol, same ol", in the world of covid.  Victoria is still reporting daily new infections in the 10,000 range with 61,000 current active infections.  There is certainly a lot of it around with lots of people I know or know of being crook with it, although most that get it aren't any sicker than that experienced with a bad cold or flu.  However, there are some folk experiencing what the medicos refer to as 'long covid' which apparently is pretty nasty.  So best to avoid any form of covid if at all possible.

Victorian hospital numbers are up from 305 last week to 391 this week, ICU numbers are pretty constant at 19 and there are 2 Victorians on ventilators with covid down from three last week.

Victoria reported 14 covid related deaths in the last 24 hours and 39 covid deaths were reported nationally in the same 24 hour period.  Given the range of numbers of reported daily deaths it is hard to determine any pattern apart from being able to say that sadly people are still dying with and of covid.

        Corona Virus Weekly Stats – From 22 March 2022 – Week 4 Reasonably Covid Normal

D	Aus Infected	Aus Increase Daily	Aus 1st Dose Vacc	Vic Infected	Vic Increase Daily	NSW Increase Daily	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Aus 2nd Dose Vacc
22/03	3,975,559	32,379	96.7%	1,195,239	9,594	9,594	387,622	211,527	52,983	94.9%
30/03	4,436,572	50,082	96.8%	1,271,494	11,749	25,235	479,116	258,112	58,488	95.1%
04/04	4,715,763	35,015	96.8%	1,320,678	10,011	15,572	500,914	266,110	63,545	95.2%
13/04	5,207,650	54,185	96.9%	1,410,828	10,907	18,265	443,901	234,081	60,756	95.3%
20/04

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – From 22 March 2022 – Week 4 Reasonably Covid Normal
Date	Aus New Infection Daily	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection Daily	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
22/03	32,379	2,090	93	21	9,594	256	24	5	26	7
30/03	50,082	2,446	100	21	11,749	280	18	5	28	7
04/04	35,015	2,645	108	21	10,011	305	17	3	7	1
13/04	54,185	3,147	126	29	10,907	391	19	2	39	14
20/04