CEO retiring, what changes at Qantas would you like to see

[Nitro6333]

Number 1 would be onshore all call centres

 

[NSun]

One thing I forgot to mention before is bringing back the Eat on Q meal pre-order system.

Yes, you can pre-order special meals but prior to COVID, passengers in Y+ and J could pre-order their meal. Even if I didn't always use it, I'd use it to see what would be on the menu for my flight.

 

[esquire]

A realistic LTP at 45 or 50K SC would be a winner for me

 

[codash1099]

I'd like to see QF back on this site so complaints and gripes of their most educated pax (that's us) can be recognised and addressed.

 

[craney]

I'm now WP and LTG, but I started as a self funded QP memebr in 1996. Back then QP had a similar level of benefit to gold status now, including access to One World lounges when flying on those partner airlines. It would be good to see some of the various enhancements wound back.

 

[encryptededdy]

including access to One World lounges when flying on those partner airlines

I don't believe that was the case (although 1996 is before I was born!), however Qantas did have agreements with BA too to access their lounges with a QP membership, which no longer exist

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I'd like to see QF back on this site so complaints and gripes of their most educated pax (that's us) can be recognised and addressed.

That would help. But I also think having the CEO tour the airports in Australia and talking to travellers will do a lot more good than having focus groups. Ask real people in the QF lounge what they think of the airline. Head over to the customer service desks and ask travellers what they think. Step on board some flights and ask passengers what they think.

I reckon if the new CEO spends just 15 minutes talking to people at the SYD domestic, MEL INTL J and HBA domestic lounges they would have everything they need to know to improve the lounge experience.

-RooFlyer88

 

[oz_mark]

I don't believe that was the case (although 1996 is before I was born!), however Qantas did have agreements with BA too to access their lounges with a QP membership, which no longer exist

1996 is also before oneWorld was born.

 

[craney]

I don't believe that was the case (although 1996 is before I was born!), however Qantas did have agreements with BA too to access their lounges with a QP membership, which no longer exist

I went to the lounge in Hong Kong when I flew there in economy on Cathy in 2000.

 

[arrow]

That would help. But I also think having the CEO tour the airports in Australia and talking to travellers will do a lot more good than having focus groups. Ask real people in the QF lounge what they think of the airline. Head over to the customer service desks and ask travellers what they think. Step on board some flights and ask passengers what they think.

I reckon if the new CEO spends just 15 minutes talking to people at the SYD domestic, MEL INTL J and HBA domestic lounges they would have everything they need to know to improve the lounge experience.

-RooFlyer88

Sometimes the problem is most ordinary folk are starstruck with the CEO being there they don't say anything or sugar coat their views. Often private surveys with a third-party facilitator reveals the true thoughts of the business. I was invited to one a few years ago and paid (I think it was $100) and everyone gave a frank assessment of what they thought.

 

[Jean Prouvaire]

A realistic LTP at 45 or 50K SC would be a winner for me

When Qantas first announced there'd be a Lifetime Platinum tier, I expected it to kick in at around 28,000 SC. Given that...

• you qualify for annual Silver at 300, Gold at 700 and Platinum at 1400 (with lower targets to renew) - so roughly double the SCs for every tier, and that...
• Lifetime Silver kicks in at 7000 and Lifetime Gold at 14000 (double LTS)

I thought it made sense for LTP to be reached at 28,000 SCs, ie double LTG.

But setting the bar at 75,000 SCs - or even 45,000 SCs - makes it impossible for all but a handful of people to achieve. As has often been pointed out, it's arguably easier to start anew with British Airways and reach Lifetime OneWorld Emerald (equivalent to LTP) at 35,000 tier points than to continue with Qantas and accumulate another 61,000 SCs after LTG.


Anyway, on another matter, I'd like to see Qantas invest in a major overhaul and integration of their various IT systems - covering everything from flight booking, accommodation bookings, loyalty programs, billing, partner airline (and loyalty partner) data exchange protocols, etc and reaching across all the different consumer and agent-facing channels - call centre, web, mobile/app, etc.

I don't know what the current system architecture looks like (and to what extent Qantas develops and maintains systems inhouse vs outsourcing these functions), but I always get the impression Qantas IT consists of a collection of a dozen different legacy and some bespoke systems strung together and kept running with masking tape, blu tack, seven hamsters on a treadmill, and regular sacrifices to the uptime gods.

Often features (eg carbon offset) seem to be implemented so that they are only available through one channel (eg web) but not another (eg call centre). Bookings and other details on the mobile app don't always match what's on the website (and bookings sometimes disappear off the app entirely (although, granted, this seems to be happening less often lately). When Qantas has a major sale on, the reliability of the system goes down the drain (and so does the sanity of customers), suggesting that the systems have not been designed with scalability in mind - totally unacceptable for one of the biggest companies in the country with a large B2C customer base and commensurate transaction volumes. The issues with partner rewards bookings have been well documented and only seem to be able to be addressed via manual intervention. These are only some of the IT issues Qantas has.

A major system overhaul, although undoubtedly expensive and risky, could produce substantial ongoing benefits in customer service, reliability and even cost reduction.

 

[encryptededdy]

Number 1 would be onshore all call centres

I agree with this. Whilst I don't necessarily think one needs to have on-shore call centres to have good service (but of course Qantas has repeatedly proven to use that they cannot train/equip their off-shore call centres properly), this would definitely work as a PR win for the incoming CEO. They wouldn't be the first to do this, Telstra did it back in 2021 Answering your customer support calls in our own backyard - Telstra Exchange

Also please fix the ticket system that handles emails to e.g. [email protected]. I don't know what system they have there but I bet it's some in-house thing written 15 years ago and never updated. Just use a proper ticketing system like any other company with email support.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I don't believe that was the case (although 1996 is before I was born!), however Qantas did have agreements with BA too to access their lounges with a QP membership, which no longer exist

Airline lounge memberships having benefits at partner lounges is a thing. In particular I point you to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Global Membership and the United Club membership which effectively gives you Star Gold status for the purpose of lounge membership. Looking specifically at OneWorld, well AA does provide partner lounge access with its lounge membership. It's not the full OneWorld Sapphire treatment (i.e. just over 100 AA or partner operated lounges) but it does include QF in the South Pacific and SIN, JAL in TYO, QR in DOH along with AA and AS lounges in the US.

Speaking more broadly, I would argue that if you don't mind much the airline but do care about pricing and routing your best option is almost always to get a credit card that includes lounge access like the AmEx Platinum which provides access to airline lounges from Virgin Australia, Delta Airlines, Lufthansa (when travelling on their flights), Centurion lounge access, Priority Pass lounge access and Plaza Premium lounge access.

Sometimes the problem is most ordinary folk are starstruck with the CEO being there they don't say anything or sugar coat their views. Often private surveys with a third-party facilitator reveals the true thoughts of the business. I was invited to one a few years ago and paid (I think it was $100) and everyone gave a frank assessment of what they thought.

Fair point. Again they can have market researchers in the lounge doing this.

 

[TheInsider]

• Introducing Basic Economy fares (perhaps even rebranding Red e-deal as Basic Economy) so that you earn no status
• Increasing the number of points required for a classic award or even scrapping the scheme in favour of dynamic pricing

Just a friendly reminder that not all change is good.

-RooFlyer88

New CEO could say it's theirs, but ultimately if something were to be brought out in the next 6 months. It would've already had about a year of design and talk and approvals.
I can see the first happening, the second I assume would be a variation, maybe a new level of awards above classic and based on commercial fare availability. Can't see the classic version getting removed or 'enhanced'.

Post automatically merged: Sep 5, 2023

Also please fix the ticket system that handles emails to e.g. [email protected]. I don't know what system they have there but I bet it's some in-house thing written 15 years ago and never updated. Just use a proper ticketing system like any other company with email support.

They do now with salesforce CRM, just feedback has to be sent through the feedback form instead of the direct email.
I have no idea if sending emails direct would create a file.

 

[Daver6]

The main change I would like to see is treating all customers with respect, including respect for their time.

If you call Qantas because you need something that can't be done or found online, you should be able to get through to someone - quickly - who knows what they're doing and gives correct information the first time. I don't think that's too much to ask, but has not been the norm for the past several years.

This! One of the company values should be to treat customers with respect. All decisions they make around changes should ultimately come back to this value. Use it as a guiding principle.

 

[craney]

1996 is also before oneWorld was born.

I went to the lounge in Hong Kong when I flew there in economy on Cathy in 2000.

Yeah I think I'm rememberingg the BA tie-up pre One World. OW lounge access was definitely a thing though. Will dig out my 1996 membership pack tonight to see.

 

[encryptededdy]

Airline lounge memberships having benefits at partner lounges is a thing. In particular I point you to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Global Membership and the United Club membership which effectively gives you Star Gold status for the purpose of lounge membership. Looking specifically at OneWorld, well AA does provide partner lounge access with its lounge membership. It's not the full OneWorld Sapphire treatment (i.e. just over 100 AA or partner operated lounges) but it does include QF in the South Pacific and SIN, JAL in TYO, QR in DOH along with AA and AS lounges in the US.

That's basically what I said though. On the oneworld side there's never* been a paid equivalent to OWS option, only individual contracts between various members, like I had already mentioned e.g. between QF and BA/AA.

To my knowledge the only relationships were between QF and BA, AA, and US Airways. Maybe @craney was departing on a QF or BA flight number, thus allowing access to the CX lounge in HKG?

*to the best of my knowledge

 

[aus_flyer]

CL for P1 members at a certain SC level... Maybe 7k, maybe 10k...

Also, just realised that the new CEO's initials match the (Aussie) regos. VH. Does Joyce Drive in Sydney get renamed?

 

[arrow]

CL for P1 members at a certain SC level... Maybe 7k, maybe 10k...

Also, just realised that the new CEO's initials match the (Aussie) regos. VH. Does Joyce Drive in Sydney get renamed?

I’m for this even it’s set high at say 15k. It’s annoying that someone like Albo’s kid can bump a loyal P1 from their seat.

 

[Artnits23]

An updated app that includes bag tracking (e.g like AA and UA)