Consistent after 4.00pm Drink Service

[Aussie_flyer]

Yet they choose not to adhere to these, which is my point. Flew CBR-BNE on Monday, departed at 5pm. As per your quote, clearly i should have been offered complimentary alcohol. But no, $6 please. Why?

Crew must have made a mistake, unfortunately us passengers need to know what we are entitled to and complain if necessary

 

[Simo]

CNS was never a city flyer service.

IMHO a glass of wine to have to pay for it is not on.

Cmon QF a few bottles of wine won't break the bank.

Look what was spilt yesterday on the JQ35 run

 

[kevrosmith]

The OOL/SYD flights are catching a lot of the regular Business flyers out now too... many, who are used to a free wine on their BNE/SYD sectors, are now having to cough-up cash for a wine on their flights OOL/SYD.

As others have indicated, sometimes on my flights between CNS/BNE and OOL/SYD I'm given a free one with a wink or "change" due to status or if the crew know me or if the CSM comes and does a welcome and asks if I'd like anything, ("a wine would be nice"... sometimes from J, other times just a "free" one from the cart). When I order a wine, I do try to take the perspective not to be too disappointed when asked for the money, as technically I am getting what I paid for and as advertised, and to take it as a bonus if I do get a free one, but it'd be nice if Qantas could drop the charge altogether. It would be another positive differentiation from the competition.

It's probably also worth noting that you can tell some of the staff find it just as frustrating having to enforce the different rules. I'm sure they are just as tired having to explain when and why you pay on this flight/time/sector versus another. Though, like boris indicates, it'd be disappointing/frustrating when they get it wrong.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

The OOL/SYD flights are catching a lot of the regular Business flyers out now too... many, who are used to a free wine on their BNE/SYD sectors, are now having to cough-up cash for a wine on their flights OOL/SYD.

My preference would be to pay for the wine and fly into an airport that is geographically beneficial. Gold Coast is not a capital city, unless you are referring to other things...

Cheers
BF

 

[opusman]

Gold Coast is not a capital city, unless you are referring to other things...

The distinction between capital city/non-capital city seems incredibly arbitrary now. When they had the CityFlyer product/branding it was at least justifiable in the sense that it was a specific product with a specific set of benefits (flights every 30 minutes, free newspaper, free booze after 4pm, etc).

Now that the CityFlyer branding has been abandoned the alcohol rule doesn't really make any sense. For example, Hobart is a capital city, but it was not a CityFlyer destination and so never had free booze. It would make much more sense if they either a) treated all flights the same, or b) based it on time/distance rather than some arbitrary set of city pairs.

 

[kevrosmith]

My preference would be to pay for the wine and fly into an airport that is geographically beneficial. Gold Coast is not a capital city, unless you are referring to other things...

I guess the main gripe for me is this: why do people who happen to fly SYD/BNE/MEL (and whatever other locations, as per the previous CityFlyer branding) get to enjoy a free wine, when I spend just as much/more $$s and fly just as much/more on other Qantas routes/destinations than some passengers on the Golden Triangle, and yet I'm never (as per the rules, that is) afforded the benefit of a free wine. QFlink can offer free alcohol: why not on all routes for mainline QF? As people in WA will attest, you can get QFlink between PER-KTA and get complimentary alcohol, but catch QF and you have to pay. It seems odd.

Or to summarise: why does the complimentary alcohol on mainline QF have to be based on the route? (Of course, QF gets to make up its own rules, so of course they will. I get that. I just wish they'd reconsider.)

If the reason they provide it complimentary on SYD/BNE after 4pm is because they think Business people would like a wine/beer with their dinner after work, well Business people flying OOL/SYD, CNS/SYD or PER/KTA possibly would also like a wine/beer with their dinner after work. How come it's complimentary on one and not the other?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

kevrosmith: excellent points!! I think REDROO ought to respond to this!

 

[Fruitcake]

If the reason they provide it complimentary on SYD/BNE after 4pm is because they think Business people would like a wine/beer with their dinner after work, well Business people flying OOL/SYD, CNS/SYD or PER/KTA possibly would also like a wine/beer with their dinner after work. How come it's complimentary on one and not the other?

Cityflyer was a heavy assault to pinch Ansett's highest yielding pax. As it happened Cityflyer was barely rolling before AN folded, and the A330s which were a centrepiece of it proved completely unsuitable for the purpose. Cityflyer was then stepped up a notch ahead of Ansett II's launch to cement former AN pax to QF (not that the value proposition of AN II would have been especially compelling anyway). The golden triangle is where the fully flexible corporate account fares are, so that's where Cityflyer focused. Once AN was properly gone QF probably felt they were getting the bulk of the non-VFR traffic anyway so they didn't really need to dangle carrots.

Cityflyer was also a "cover" for a general degradation of other Qantas services as Qantas tried to cut costs to compete with DJ. The infamous "meal boxes" came in at this time.

Of course creation of JQ marked a change of strategy on that front, and I think you're correct that the "free drinks" rule should be more consistent. After all if margins on a route are that tight, in most cases QF probably isn't operating the route any more. But at the same time, the competition isn't doing it, so why the need?

As a primarily VA patron I'd also encourage QF to reevaluate their policy because VA's response would almost certainly be to widen their own complimentary alcohol routes .

 

[JohnK]

Or to summarise: why does the complimentary alcohol on mainline QF have to be based on the route? (Of course, QF gets to make up its own rules, so of course they will. I get that. I just wish they'd reconsider.)

Could you possibly do away with current rules and make alcohol service status based, say Gold and above, and you get 1 beer/wine? Perhaps you could also include flexible airfares on the list as well.

Just a thought.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

John,

Doesn't AA do this?

Cheers
BF

Could you possibly do away with current rules and make alcohol service status based, say Gold and above, and you get 1 beer/wine? Perhaps you could also include flexible airfares on the list as well.

Just a thought.

 

[QFflyermelbourne]

It's also about other areas of catering. I was on a SYD-MEL last night that departed at 8.15pm. Now I have always been told dinner service is for flights departing 6-8 and so I had dinner at the terminal not expecting it on board. Then sure enough the full hot meal service was brought around? They were messing with their own rules on OOL services a lot too when they were first brought in to provide lunch etc when the Virgin wouldn't be doing anything but surely this just confuses people about what to expect when they fly other routes in the network?

 

[brha01]

It's also about other areas of catering. I was on a SYD-MEL last night that departed at 8.15pm. Now I have always been told dinner service is for flights departing 6-8 and so I had dinner at the terminal not expecting it on board. Then sure enough the full hot meal service was brought around? They were messing with their own rules on OOL services a lot too when they were first brought in to provide lunch etc when the Virgin wouldn't be doing anything but surely this just confuses people about what to expect when they fly other routes in the network?

For the past 6-12 months I have been noticing that it is now more common to get a hot meal on a flight for lunch or dinner than it was previously, but have never been sure whether I have been going mad of whether the prevalence of hot meals is increasing. Any ideas whether I am mad or not?

 

[Keelan]

Agree, the inconsistencies are a pain in the #### for all involved. What I find most misleading is their most recent branding that states something along the lines of "it's all included at Qantas" and shows a wine glass. This is rather misleading and quite a false claim!

 

[suze2000]

I personally am not a business person, I'm a public servant, I am not SG I'm NB, but I STILL would like a free glass of wine (or two!) to make my flight more tolerable as well. If I (theoretically) pay on the same fare structure, I don't see why I shouldn't also get a free drink. What we need here is a return to consistency, that's all.

 

[carwashhair]

I guess the main gripe for me is this: why do people who happen to fly SYD/BNE/MEL (and whatever other locations, as per the previous CityFlyer branding) get to enjoy a free wine, when I spend just as much/more $$s and fly just as much/more on other Qantas routes/destinations than some passengers on the Golden Triangle, and yet I'm never (as per the rules, that is) afforded the benefit of a free wine. QFlink can offer free alcohol: why not on all routes for mainline QF? As people in WA will attest, you can get QFlink between PER-KTA and get complimentary alcohol, but catch QF and you have to pay. It seems odd.

Or to summarise: why does the complimentary alcohol on mainline QF have to be based on the route? (Of course, QF gets to make up its own rules, so of course they will. I get that. I just wish they'd reconsider.)

If the reason they provide it complimentary on SYD/BNE after 4pm is because they think Business people would like a wine/beer with their dinner after work, well Business people flying OOL/SYD, CNS/SYD or PER/KTA possibly would also like a wine/beer with their dinner after work. How come it's complimentary on one and not the other?

It all makes clear sense to me - lube up your business flyers between capital cities, and your QFlink passengers from regional centres. The first group need it to get thru the daily grind, the second to forget the exorbitant prices paid due to general lack of competition. And everyone else flying at every other time/ from every other location is clearly on holiday, so you gotta pay Pay PAY!

 

[basso]

Caught a flight from Cairns to Sydney tonight and when the meal service came around we where asked to pay $6.00 for a drink of wine or beer, there needs to be a consistent product that operates the same on all flights,after all they seem to be spruiking to travel on Qantas and get a drink!

The consistent offering would be to go back how it used to be, when you paid for it all regardless of route. The fact that inter-capital services get it is an exception to the normal policy. Be careful what you are asking for. [Also for WA FIFO - note that there are some significant RSA issues at play on some of those sectors.]

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Had a lovely couple of free beers on Longreach to Brisbane this afternoon. Go Qantaslink

 

[mrpooky]

I caught the QF2426 and QF2427 flights (Qantaslink from BNE and NTL and back) over the last few days, for the first time since May. I was extremely pleased to discover that they are still serving the Tatachilla wines. I don't drink red, so I don't know if that's a good drop, too, but the Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is really very nice.

This route has the only QFLink flights I've caught in a couple of years, but I was wondering: is the Tatachilla the current standard wine on other QFLink flights, too?

mrpooky.

 

[simongr]

I thought it was consistent - there hasnt been any change in policy for years.