Is Qantas Feeling the Pinch?

[Ansett]

With all the sales and Double Status Credit offers followed by double and triple points offers it seems that Qantas may be getting desperate for forward bookings what does every one else think?

So far this year my SC earn on QF is sitting on 40 ( year commences January 1) where as normally I would be at 1400 plus SCs, its interesting today that I got a call from Corporate asking why my travel patterns have changed. I have not heard of this before and recollect many people talking about how significant changes in spend and earning appears to go unnoticed in Qantas, hence to me it seems Qantas is suffering from much lower than expected forward sales.

Looking forward to others thoughts and experiences.

 

[Franky]

With all the sales and Double Status Credit offers followed by double and triple points offers it seems that Qantas may be getting desperate for forward bookings what does every one else think?

So far this year my SC earn on QF is sitting on 40 ( year commences January 1) where as normally I would be at 1400 plus SCs, its interesting today that I got a call from Corporate asking why my travel patterns have changed. I have not heard of this before and recollect many people talking about how significant changes in spend and earning appears to go unnoticed in Qantas, hence to me it seems Qantas is suffering from much lower than expected forward sales.

Looking forward to others thoughts and experiences.

I suspect that there are airlines other than just Qantas in the same boat...

 

[Chumly123]

I work in finance and all the traders and analysts I work with all agree these emails smell of desperation and Qantas has problems.

 

[amaroo]

I think the election and potential policies projected a dark cloud and one massive dead weight.... luckily the result wasn't the other way around. Could always be worse!

 

[harvyk]

Whilst they certainly want the forward sales, a DSC offer is a pretty low risk way for them to get sales without really needing to give away anything.

This group excluded, SC's are a mystery, and points are easily traded in for over priced toasters. Award someone extra SC's (especially with a list of exclusions a mile long) and the there is every chance it will make nada difference to that persons status, therefore no cost to QF.

Award extra points? How often did we hear of large point balances expiring after 18 months? It's pretty frequent.

 

[sinophile888]

I just made a points booking 2 x J MEL to PER for a flight in the week before Christmas. I was astonished as there were even three flights on my preferred day from which to choose.

 

[Nerdnotgeek]

This group excluded, SC's are a mystery, and points are easily traded in for over priced toasters. Award someone extra SC's (especially with a list of exclusions a mile long) and the there is every chance it will make nada difference to that persons status, therefore no cost to QF.

So agree with this , for regular 2 or 3 domestics a yeasr type people Scs havee no impact at all

 

[pauly7]

They unfortunately don’t seem to be slashing fare prices that’s for sure. Just remember the date as well, it’s EOFY so management bonuses are on the line for this year it *may* be a little more about closing the year than forward bookings who knows...

 

[Andz]

Economy is in trouble, if you don't have 6 months salary savings, you are in trouble if you lose your job.

 

[harvyk]

Economy is in trouble, if you don't have 6 months salary savings, you are in trouble if you lose your job.

You can't make blanket statements like this, it's very dependent on what your role is, your skill level and importantly if companies are currently looking for those skills.
Even during the great depression, there was people becoming self made millionaires.

I would say a far better approach is to keep tabs on relevant industries, keep your skills current with what employers (or customers) want (aka, don't be a dinosaur), and make sure you have enough savings to cover a rainy day, but that's (IMHO) good advice regardless of what markets are doing.

 

[levelnine]

As the government has run the economy into the ground, expect things to get a lot worse for airlines, including Qantas. Corporate and personal spending on travel will, on the whole, go down as the recession starts to bite hard.

 

[Franky]

As the government has run the economy into the ground, expect things to get a lot worse for airlines, including Qantas. Corporate and personal spending on travel will, on the whole, go down as the recession starts to bite hard.

Most would expect a headline like that from The Guardian. The rest of the world’s economies are as flat or in most cases, worse than ours. Most would like to have low inflation, low interest rates, 5% unemployment. Australia is one of the few countries not to have suffered a recession since 1990. Obviously we would all like a better economy, but there are few with a better one than us.

 

[amaroo]

Most would expect a headline like that from The Guardian. The rest of the world’s economies are as flat or in most cases, worse than ours. Most would like to have low inflation, low interest rates, 5% unemployment. Australia is one of the few countries not to have suffered a recession since 1990. Obviously we would all like a better economy, but there are few with a better one than us.

That rag makes the SMH look like a far right publication

 

[Christoo]

How do DSC hurt Qantas at all?
If the flight is sold you cannot redeem the points.
If you use them to upgrade it is to a seat that was otherwise empty allowing them to sell the Y seat.
If you do actually manage to redeem the points, the taxes are payable so QF isn't out of pocket.

I see that most points redeemed for seats are for flights that would have gone t other carriers anyway.
Plenty of regular flyers travel for work in J but take their families on holidays with Jet Asia.

As for QF and their money problems, it is a fundamentally broken business model and it is not their fault, Australians are greedy and selfish idiots.
What we make noise about and what we actually do are completely different.
We demand Qantas keep jobs and service their planes in Australia but we fly on EK who have their planes serviced by low paid workers...
We lament the attitudes of some of the QF crew, but get up in arms about penalty rates and tenure.
QF is about what we deserve as a Naitonal Carrier because we are a nation of idiots.

Same as all the people decrying the government for defunding the auto industry while driving imported cars.
Or the people driving their SUV's with the Stop Adani stickers on the back.
Shedding crocodile tears for dairy farmers while buying milk for $1 a liter.
Criticizing Chinese labour conditions and owning an iPhone.
Want to preserve penalty rates but won't pay a 15% loading at a cafe on Sunday

We are collectively stupid and hypocritical.
[/Rant Off]

 

[pauly7]

How do DSC hurt Qantas at all?
If the flight is sold you cannot redeem the points.
If you use them to upgrade it is to a seat that was otherwise empty allowing them to sell the Y seat.
If you do actually manage to redeem the points, the taxes are payable so QF isn't out of pocket.

I see that most points redeemed for seats are for flights that would have gone t other carriers anyway.
Plenty of regular flyers travel for work in J but take their families on holidays with Jet Asia.

As for QF and their money problems, it is a fundamentally broken business model and it is not their fault, Australians are greedy and selfish idiots.
What we make noise about and what we actually do are completely different.
We demand Qantas keep jobs and service their planes in Australia but we fly on EK who have their planes serviced by low paid workers...
We lament the attitudes of some of the QF crew, but get up in arms about penalty rates and tenure.
QF is about what we deserve as a Naitonal Carrier because we are a nation of idiots.

Same as all the people decrying the government for defunding the auto industry while driving imported cars.
Or the people driving their SUV's with the Stop Adani stickers on the back.
Shedding crocodile tears for dairy farmers while buying milk for $1 a liter.
Criticizing Chinese labour conditions and owning an iPhone.
Want to preserve penalty rates but won't pay a 15% loading at a cafe on Sunday

We are collectively stupid and hypocritical.
[/Rant Off]

But can you tell us how you really feel?

The self proclaimed ‘rant’ aside I think you make some great points! And yes some of them do apply to QF.

Personally I think all companies will need to adapt to a new norm of low growth, low inflation unless something sparks back up in Asia again to help drive us along...

Anyway it’s all hypothetical as we are only hypothesising the offers = soft forward bookings. Once I start seeing sharper % off sales or commentary from the company directly I’ll be more convinced, they will have to fess up soon if it is material, like VA had to.

 

[levelnine]

Most would expect a headline like that from The Guardian. The rest of the world’s economies are as flat or in most cases, worse than ours. Most would like to have low inflation, low interest rates, 5% unemployment. Australia is one of the few countries not to have suffered a recession since 1990. Obviously we would all like a better economy, but there are few with a better one than us.

Don't let the facts get in the way of your argument.

Australia’s annual GDP growth over the year to March 2019 is down to 1.8 per cent, the lowest level since 2009, at the depths of the worst recession in eighty years. Australia now ranks 17th in the OECD.

Data Dumped: it's all bad news for the Australian economy - Michael West

If Prime Minister Scott Morrison went to the election in May to beat potentially bad economic news, it was an extremely well-judged decision. Alan Austin reports.

www.michaelwest.com.au

 

[cove]

May was a very tough month for many businesses and it was mostly due to the election. Business has picked up in June for many.

 

[Franky]

Don't let the facts get in the way of your argument.

Data Dumped: it's all bad news for the Australian economy - Michael West

If Prime Minister Scott Morrison went to the election in May to beat potentially bad economic news, it was an extremely well-judged decision. Alan Austin reports.

www.michaelwest.com.au

Doubt that I've ever seen anything factual come out of The Guardian...

 

[levelnine]

Doubt that I've ever seen anything factual come out of The Guardian...

LOL.

1. That source is not The Guardian. Can you read?

2. You allege that some of the facts are wrong. Which ones are wrong? Please do share even just one error. Just one.

3. The growth figure, which shows you are wrong, comes directly from the OECD. You can check the identical source data here: Quarterly National Accounts : Quarterly Growth Rates of real GDP, change over previous quarter

LOL.

 

[33kft]

Where are all these DSCs that people are seeing? 25% (or 0% for a lot of FFs) are not DSC and the only general DSC offer for this year was Feb. There were 3 last year, and those were in Feb, Aug and Oct which means this year is probably going to be the same or similar. There's always mickey mouse offers thrown around to entice forward bookings, just like the 50% offers last year, but I fail to see the apparent desperation or even the deviation from 2018 outside of some minor experimentation with offers?