Building a stronger Qantas

[Toula92122]

Australian service levels are appalling, and it goes beyond Qantas. I can't believe that the Qantas customer service attitude will go well if they transfer it to the new Asian startups.

It doesn't matter how much has been taken away from them onboard, a smile and a positive attitude doesn't take up much space. Personally I am tired of being treated like I am non-existent. Qantas don't seem to have the basics right. Take the meal service, they fling the tray in front of you and leave it there for 1+ hours when you ride in the back of the bus. They make their endless trips with tea and coffee keeping passengers captive. I asked the crew once why they didn't remove the trays and the lame excuse was passengers enjoying having tea and coffee with their meal. Any sign of food has long disappeared by time tea and coffee starts.

Compare it to Hawaiian. They start serving from the front, when the last tray is out at the back of the plane they start removing the empty trays from the front which is how it should be. Means no crowds racing for the bathrooms, no passengers getting irate because they are busting for the loo or they want to change their babies diaper, but find themselves trapped. There is a reason that Hawaiian has nearly full flights out of Australia and it certainly is not because they have newer planes.

I don't think the long time Qantas employees are poorly paid, I know DH's cousin is a FA and she drives a BMW convertible.

 

[samiam]

thats a bit harsh mate??

i think you are referring to a special group of Australians, called Bogans.

I think that my expectations must be higher than yours, as I'm in agreement that customer service, in many sectors generally, is lacking.

For minimal investment in it's people, QF have an opportunity to game change.

However, perhaps the whole idea of inconsistency is operant conditioning at play, to retain loyalty.

 

[nonpop]

QF415 SYD > Mel B767 Thurs 18th Aug departing 8am.
No Apples at breakfast time.
FA just shrugged when I asked.
She then said "sorry sir, we weren't given any. Seems we are getting less and less each flight".
Another 'enhancement' I thought.
Again may be I was just unlucky as I seem to be at the moment.
I then put my headphones on and continued to listen to sound only coming from one ear/headphone. I gave the socket a wiggle and then lost all sound. Another wiggle and back to one ear. Mmmm just unlucky again I'm sure. I wonder if at anytime the audio sockets ever get checked. Mmmmm Enhancements.

 

[juddles]

Forgive me, but I haven't had time to read through all 70+ pages in this thread, but will chip in my 2 cents worth, at the risk of duplicating others.

I have only two main desires from Qantas:

1.- Regarding my own personal world, that of WP status, I just want a couple of guaranteed any-sector upgrade vouchers per year. None of this "confirmed within x-days of flight", actual confirmed upgrades at time of booking. I personally see that as a key thing to keeping WP staus valuable.

2.- Maybe I have been lucky, but in all the dealings I have had with American Airlines (have to fly them a lot too) their phone staff have been amazing. Every time I have called them (USA line) the waiting times have been miniscule, and the staff spoke English as a first language. Admittedly calling AA via their Australian numbers is a different universe, with 20+ minute waiting times followed by the connection to Pakistan. But how on earth can AA have such a brilliant phone support within USA? Can Qantas duplicate that? Travellers who only fly occassionally probably wouldnt value this so much, but if you fly a lot and inevitably have to phone their call centres, it is truly a loyalty-building experience to get swift and clear communications.

I believe that travellers can get a false sense about an airline (good or bad) due to a single or restricted experiences. And I also acknowledge that I have that Australian sense of wanting to back our own airline. And so I choose Qantas whenever I can. And I truly believe it is a great airline. All I want from Qantas is those guaranteed upgrades....

 

[JohnPhelan]

Regarding my own personal world, that of WP status, I just want a couple of guaranteed any-sector upgrade vouchers per year. None of this "confirmed within x-days of flight", actual confirmed upgrades at time of booking. I personally see that as a key thing to keeping WP staus valuable.

..

Presuming you mean international, as you can get confirmed points upgrades on domestic now.

Re international, when you refer to vouchers, do you mean using points for the upgrade or a free one?

 

[serfty]

...
Re international, when you refer to vouchers, do you mean using points for the upgrade or a free one?

I would assume "free" - a bit like the old Qantas "Upgrade Credits" that were discontinues in 2005.

​

e.g.

AirNZ gives each Gold and Gold Elite member two "Complimentary" upgrades every year (one for Silver). These can be used for one-class upgrade Trans-Tasman, Trans-Pacific, Trans-Atlantic, NZ-Asia & Asia-Europe.

They can be doubled up to go from economy through premium economy to Business where applicable.

Gold Elite can be confirmed on request; Gold up to 3 days before and Silver up to 2 days.
​

 

[gpr49697]

Forgive me, but I haven't had time to read through all 70+ pages in this thread, but will chip in my 2 cents worth, at the risk of duplicating others.

I have only two main desires from Qantas:

1.- Regarding my own personal world, that of WP status, I just want a couple of guaranteed any-sector upgrade vouchers per year. None of this "confirmed within x-days of flight", actual confirmed upgrades at time of booking. I personally see that as a key thing to keeping WP staus valuable.

2.- Maybe I have been lucky, but in all the dealings I have had with American Airlines (have to fly them a lot too) their phone staff have been amazing. Every time I have called them (USA line) the waiting times have been miniscule, and the staff spoke English as a first language. Admittedly calling AA via their Australian numbers is a different universe, with 20+ minute waiting times followed by the connection to Pakistan. But how on earth can AA have such a brilliant phone support within USA? Can Qantas duplicate that? Travellers who only fly occassionally probably wouldnt value this so much, but if you fly a lot and inevitably have to phone their call centres, it is truly a loyalty-building experience to get swift and clear communications.

I believe that travellers can get a false sense about an airline (good or bad) due to a single or restricted experiences. And I also acknowledge that I have that Australian sense of wanting to back our own airline. And so I choose Qantas whenever I can. And I truly believe it is a great airline. All I want from Qantas is those guaranteed upgrades....

good points. agree with 1. however, i have always had great service when ringing the platinum number.

 

[Moopere]

le... as an FA that is now working for little more than McDonald's wages. I really dont know how anyone thinks people can survive in our major cities earning so little money.

Its the age old, and relevant, argument of capitalism and letting market forces rule. Honestly, if a qualified FA can earn as much as McDonalds then why not do that? Better hours, same pay, and you get to go home at night.

The market forces argument goes that eventually so many FA's now work at burger joints that the pay for burger flippers starts going down and FA pay starts going up because of scarcity. Look at the pay for some of the jobs in the remote mining industry ... insanely high, by and large its because the work is horrible, in a terrible location with pretty hard conditions (hours and whatnot). If the companies don't pay high wages then everyone stays home and gets dishwasher or burger flipping jobs.

Whilst in my mind everyone deserves a decent living wage, as soon as you move away from the market to set that rate then weird things happen. Companies, unable to compete, move offshore for instance. Its a complex area, I realise that, not one simply explained by high local wages, but nevertheless, generally speaking, a lower paid job is better than welfare if you don't have a job - at some point we need to think about that.

 

[Archphoto]

View attachment 3450

An interesting graph!

Would like to see their comparison for Intra-Asia only on comparative routes. Would be even more interesting I'm sure.

 

[Archphoto]

So when will these be announced and will QF stop being so Sydney-centric?

That would be nice - seeing as how they are only flying SYD-SIN-LHR now; could start flying direct to BKK and HKG from other cities instead and make those shorter hops sooooo much less taxing!

Would love a direct ADL-BKK, just like the ADL-SIN route we have now.

What do you say Red Roo?

 

[Archphoto]

Wouldn't really call that a surprise though? Seems pretty obvious that, that would be the case :shock:

Only a surprise if you don't need to "upgrade" your fare al la J*, and get your meals, ect included methinks.

 

[Archphoto]

Hi Nonpop,

We've looked into. Using BA as an example, at present you should be able to select window or aisle when you are making a booking. You should then be allocated a seat in accordance with yor preference and oneworld tier. Unfortunatly you cannot select the specific seat as you request during booking. It's tricky when QF and BA are using two different booking systems.

Nonetheless, your point is fair, so I'll ensure is sent to the relvant parts of QF for consideration.

Cheers,
Red Roo

And that's one of the *biggest* problems with Codesharing; the ability to choose your seats seamlessly should be a given.

Arguing that your systems don't match up or that you cannot access really isn't the answer. If you are insisting on splitting the sectors and want us to remain flying with you, make the *whole* flight experience as painless as possible. We already endure the longest flight times, not to mention increased security etc which does start to be a real annoyance when you fly it day-in, day-out.

Status with OW seems to mean different things to different airlines; if I can select my seats on airline A, why oh why can't I do so on airline B or Z for that matter? Same goes for excess luggage. How's that going to work? If airline A allows for 2 bags totalling 23kg and airline B only allows 1 bag of 23kg, how do we get around that? (Had this experience with QF/BA recently - BKK-SYD-ADL 1 bag only as I had to check in with BA. VV it was ok, but what if I'd been flying the other way around?)

It's great to have a OW system, but seriously, all these differences between airlines really does make the whole experience a nightmare at times.

Seamless, guys, seamless. All we ask is that is all just "works" - no mess, no fuss; no need for reams of paper printouts to show every CI desk that it can be done because your website says so. . . . . . . :mrgreen:

 

[Archphoto]

That aside - can't people just log into the BA manage my booking tool and select a seat there? Or does that not work with codeshares?

Not sure if this has been answered, I'm only on page 21 (or is that now 22?), but I recently flew BA, was assigned an aisle seat, but for the life of me couldn't change which aisle seat I wanted. No matter how I accessed their "Manage My Booking" page - it wouldn't budge. You need to call the Help Desk to do so - not really that great IMHO.

Or was it just me?

 

[nlagalle]

That would be nice - seeing as how they are only flying SYD-SIN-LHR now; could start flying direct to BKK and HKG from other cities instead and make those shorter hops sooooo much less taxing!

don't forget they will still be flying MEL-SIN-LHR

 

[Archphoto]

You may have to pay extra for them, especially CX, since the QF web site can't handle them...

Correct, I've booked CX rewards flights (no QF/BA available) and been "fined" to do so - come on!

I'd do it online if I could, but you can't, and then you have the cheek to take extra points for an assisted booking?? I'm all for the extra points deduction if you can do on-line, and choose to use the call centre instead, but if you can't, that's a blatant "money grab" so to speak. :evil:

 

[markis10]

Anyone notice the billboards popping up by the pilots union, there is one at Hendra "When you get on a QF plane you expect a QF pilot".

 

[nlagalle]

Anyone notice the billboards popping up by the pilots union, there is one at Hendra "When you get on a QF plane you expect a QF pilot".

IIRC there is one on the Tullamarine fwy going to the AP

 

[patrickk]

Good to hear a review of incompetent management practices and poor fleet purchasing decisions over the last 10 years which has largely contributed towards such challenges has been undertaken.

Sorry, couldn't help myself! :-|

People keep going on about poor fleet choices. Of course if Airbus wasn't 2 year late and Boeing 4 years late they would have been inspired choices . Lets face facts the A330s have been very good and much better than the 772s others bought. The only thing they could have done was to take 15 A80s and 10 777s with options for more of each but then hindsight is so good to have.

 

[Archphoto]

. . . . .

For example soon I am flying to Colombo. My options are fly to Singapore with Qantas or SQ then SQ to Colombo. Do the same to Bangkok with Qantas or Thai, then Thai to Colombo, or even go the long way to Hong Kong on Qantas or CX and then down with Cathay or maybe even Emirates to Dubai then back track. Now there is no hope that a direct flight could be justified from Australia, and if there was it would only be from one port, so the arguments about hubbing through Sydney or Melbourne etc would crop up, so to me if this new airline flew to Colombo out of the hub location served by Qantas then I have a one group flight, rather than being forced to change airlines mid way or fly another airline all the way.

Could also stick with OW if the schedule permits and fly CX from BKK, but I agree having to fly through SYD is a PITA every time I need to fly to BKK. If they're no longer heading on to LHR, maybe they can go an A330 direct from ADL?

 

[patrickk]

Hmmm, I'd rather connect in HKG with CX to LHR, not BA (as I just did and even my wife commented how good they were on service - much better than our QF flight SYD/HKG).

JNB to remain African gateway...I thought they may have codeshared that with SAA.

They do code share it with SAA now, with SAA stopping in Perth