Is QF possibly the worst airline in the world?

[straitman]

If you have QFF status at Gold or Platinum stick with your national airline!

Now there is a whole new can of worms :!: :shock:

 

[medhead]

Sure the staff smiled and were friendly as they tried once more to part you from your money.

Yep, exactly, as I've aged (not so gracefully) I've come to realise that those pretty young things in service industries are smiling and flirting with me in order to get me to spend more money.

In some ways I like that qantas staff are not doing this to me. That way we know where we stand with each other; when I'm rude and grumpy or they're rude and grumpy, we understand each other completely.

 

[ajw373]

I know that this is a topic done to death, but as a Plat FF I expect to be talked to like a person rather than a dog. Recently I was on Air Asia on a $10 fare in Malaysia... not status, no food, no nothing... but friendly smiley staff.

So why can't the Qantas Staff in the Melbourne Business Class (Domestic) Lounge manage to find a smile and speak to me politely?

How does one complain about this? I wanted to say something but was afraid I would be accused of terrorism and sent to jail...

If you bark like a dog and look like a dog then of course your gonna be treated like a dog. Air Asia were probably smiling because they were thinking about how good you would taste all cooked up. They like dogs you know. Oops sorry wrong country that would be Vietnam not Malaysia.

In seriousness though you need to get out a bit if you think Qantas are the worst airline in the world. Of the major world carriers BA (mostly intra Europe) is pretty bad, AA isn't the best, then lets not forget Sleazyjet, Ryanair etc etc etc.

 

[ajw373]

I also have noticed that upgrades (unrequested) on QF are very very rare indeed. I have been upgraded on CX numerous times and I am not even one of their own FFs.

Really? In the past 3 years I have flown LHR-CBR 4 times, all booked in economy. On the first trip I was alone outbound and was upgraded from LHR-BKK from Y to J, on the return I was with my wife and we received Y to J on the SYD-BKK leg.

The next flight my wife and I received a Y to Y+ upgrade LHR-SIN and then SYD-BKK we had my mum with us and all of us received Y to J. Mum then flew back alone and was upgraded Y to J. My old mum has no status, but I think my wife sweet talked the check-in agent. The check-in staff seeing she was old then personally escorted her from check-in to hear seat on the plane. We then flew out to LHR later that night and were upgraded by the same agent from Y to Y+

Next flight the wife and I received Y to Y+ SIN to MEL and Y to Y+ BKK to LHR and on our last flight earlier this year we got Y to Y+ LHR to BKK and Y to J BKK-LHR.

So whats the count? 16 international sectors, 4 Y to J and 4 Y to Y+, so upgrades on half the sectors.

I have been platinum for about 7 years, however as I currently live in the UK most of my flights the past 4 years have been on BA and I only just make it to platinum each year. Ie I am just the average platinum flyer. Oddly the only flights I have made with Qantas the past 4 years have been those 16 above plus the 8 domestic connections to Canberra.

One thing in my favour though is all the flights have been at busy times. Easter being one of our favorite times to return home. Just hope my next flight we get lucky as we are flying J, so would love a J to F upgrade.

 

[Dave Noble]

Qantas are without doubt one of the most consistently reliable airlines I have flown with.

If you have QFF status at Gold or Platinum stick with your national airline![/QUOTE]

Qantas is just a private company; I do have Platinum status yet now only use them for domestic travel ; internationally the seating in 1st and business is not that good , the cabin crew service ok, the food offerings poor and the fares generaly higher in my opinion.

They may be able to provide that consistently , but consistent lower quality is not what I want

 

[Air Chef]

As a retired QF Chief Steward, I too sometimes had problems with Crew members. In my 21yrs flying, I did not register one complaint from pax, however I had plenty from the Crew. At some stages of training, going back some years, the trainee Cabin Crew were instructed to observe Senior Crew Members in the course of their duties and report back to Line Management with their results, not a good way to run an airline.!!
These Junior Crew Members did not like to be told their duties, patrol the cabin or do any demeaning tasks asked of them, in short some of them were useless. In 1991 when QF in their wisdom decided to trim the F/C cabin from 32 to 16 seats, and in some cases, remove F/C altogether, a large portion of Senior Crew were offered redundancy, which we gladly took. All of those years winning awards for service exemplary ceased.
When was the last time that QF won an award for "In Cabin Service", I think it has been some time.??

 

[ReLoad]

QF is most certainly not the worst airline around, a knee jerk statement after a bad experience if you ask me.

Are they the best? certainly not, but they are way on the better side than the poor side of the ledger.

As for seating being no good in the higher classes, the A380's seats were outstanding, having flown BA's backwards J, QF's flogs it hands down. (even the QF 747's J was better than BA's J.)

I must also give props to the A380's crew Ex Melbourne, The Crew manager personally introduced himself to all pax in J and made a real effort to stand out, i saw him even help an older couple for 30 minutes whose first language wasnt english with their USA arrival documentation.

IMHO this thread is a beat up.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Answer to title - of course not! An absolutely ridiculous proposition.

After a lengthy absence (consigned to PX) I flew QF SYD-CNS. The QC lounge, and its toilets, were clean. We left more or less on time. None of the arm rests fell off. They hadn't overbooked and weren't looking for "volunteers" to get off before the flight left. The meal arrived really quickly, and when you pressed the service call button, someone actually turned up and asked you want you wanted!!

I can't recall how many FAs smiled at me. I can recall about 20 passengers from hell for every slightly narky QF staffer, and if I was dealing with those passengers from hell, I wouldn't be smiling either.

Cheers skip

 

[hollydavid69]

If i truly thought that they were the worst airline in the world, then i wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole, yet alone pay $ to fly on them :!:
Just vote with your feet & take your business to Virgin, no doubt they would like another customer.
I work in customer service, try putting your self in their shoes & somebody else said, treat them as you would like to be treated - first impressions count .

 

[samh004]

Like many others, my answer is no. I can think of quite a few other airlines that would better match "worst". Haha.

 

[JetLagged]

QF is most certainly not the worst airline around, a knee jerk statement after a bad experience if you ask me.

IMHO this thread is a beat up.

IMHO, I have to agree with you on BOTH counts!

 

[JetLagged]

When was the last time that QF won an award for "In Cabin Service", I think it has been some time.??

Alas, Air Chef, you have hit a sensitive issue on the button - and with your long experience in the field, an accurate hit as well.

Maybe pax are too ready to complain about both real and imagined hassles,problems - and not nearly enough ready to compliment crew as well.

On a LHR-SIN flight the other month, I had a fantastic FA in F, his care and demeanour was way above normal expected service. So I contacted QAN and filed a suitable commendation - and he has been recognized for an Excel awar (as he should have). Maybe if more of us did this more often, when duly earned, of course, things might improve somewhat - using the carrot instead of the stick approach.

I know I have been guility of not going to the trouble previously - but no more.

 

[mosanator]

I would humbly suggest the OP fly with BA intra Europe or International long or medium haul, or AA. I will only comment on the OW airlines.

From experience I would rather have QF on a bad day than BA any day. You get 200% better service between CBR and SYD on QF (Cityflyer or Qantaslink) on a 30 -40 min flight than you do between two of the worlds premier capitals LHR - FCO which is @1.5hr flight. Also flew BA LGW to MCO,- Lord get me off this plane before I strangle one of these idiots they have the hide to call a FA. And you know part of the reason why? The attitude and behavior of their pax (predominately pommie tourists) didn't help. Which leads me to the next part of my rant.

I have watched pax coming and going to the QP lounges and frankly maybe the post should read "Does QF also have the worst status PAX in the World".
As others have alluded to, and I will expand upon, some people are flying SG or WP with a CL attitude.
For example - how many times does a SG or WP have to fly to know that you have to show your boarding pass, or at least your WP card, at the lounge entrance? Yet how many times do you see people rifling thru their bag/jacket/purse/Tardis looking for them, and carrying on like a pork chop in the process, as well as holding up all of us that have our boarding pass in hand.

I think some people who post some comments on here need to go into the toilets (usually very clean and tidy) and have a look in those reflective objects over the hand basins, before they go out and enjoy their free grog (try that with AA) etc.

 

[anat0l]

I think it's interesting how there are a number of people here who claim that the bad attitudes of pax are a reason why QF staff may be sometimes less than pleasant, when the OP (and some others) believe that is no excuse for maintaining good customer service.

Personally, I believe all good people have the right to be treated like human beings. That is all. (Having worked in a service industry gives me some sympathy in this regard).

 

[Dave Noble]

I don't think that QF is the worst, but it has a long way to go to get near the top

 

[straitman]

I don't think that QF is the worst, but it has a long way to go to get near the top

...... and a long way to go to get near the bottom also!

 

[nlagalle]

Another week and another 2 QF Flights for me.

Both times (one morning, one evening) the crew were smiling, friendly and efficient. That's how they have been for me lately. I really can't complain about them on their domestic service. I've got a flight to SIN in a couple of weeks, so will be keen to see it then. I flew CX last year and honestly wasn't that impressed.

 

[dajop]

I would humbly suggest the OP fly with BA intra Europe or International long or medium haul, or AA. I will only comment on the OW airlines.

From experience I would rather have QF on a bad day than BA any day. You get 200% better service between CBR and SYD on QF (Cityflyer or Qantaslink) on a 30 -40 min flight than you do between two of the worlds premier capitals LHR - FCO which is @1.5hr flight.

It is actually rare to find people complaining a lot about these sort of domestic QF services, and the nature of most complaints tends to be trivial (eg reducing number of biscuits in cheese and biscuits pack, overcrowding in the QP etc) or Jetstarisation related. People are well aware of the offering of the competition. Personally, I find QF domestic outstanding, which is probably a view many share, and why DJ are struggling.

However, internationally - comparisons with BA, and AA are moot as they are not the competition (whilst BA and QF do fly two identical routes to LHR they are co-operating on these routes no really competing). The competition is CX, SQ, EK, TG, MH, EY, QR etc, and whilst QF is certainly not the worst airline in the world, it markets itself as a premium airline, and on it's day can be, yet on some days falls way short of this mark, it is this inconsistency that the most frequent flyers are used to, but leaves the less frequent ones at times a little disappointed (and at other times a lot disappointed)! As a regular traveller in Y SIN/MEL I find negligible difference between EK & QF so usually choose on the price/FF value equation.

also flew BA LGW to MCO,- Lord get me off this plane before I strangle one of these idiots they have the hide to call a FA. And you know part of the reason why? The attitude and behavior of their pax

Not a problem at all for QF, equivalent routes ex-Australia (such as MEL/SYD-DPS) have been jetstar-ised!

 

[david870mdg]

Worst airline in the World?? ? ? Simply - NO.
Everyone has the right to complain and there are legitimate reasons to do so with appropriate channels in place for such complaints.
I thought the guy from AS whinging about a points award flight took the cake on stupid unjustified airline forum complaints about QF (this was on FT forum).
But here comes some healthy competition...

 

[nlagalle]

Worst airline in the World?? ? ? Simply - NO.
Everyone has the right to complain and there are legitimate reasons to do so with appropriate channels in place for such complaints.
I thought the guy from AS whinging about a points award flight took the cake on stupid unjustified airline forum complaints about QF (this was on FT forum).
But here comes some healthy competition...

Got a link to that read. I need a good laugh!