Is QF Uncompetitive ?

[JohnK]

Has QF tightened up, or is just that the fall of the AUD has made these less worthwhile? Tables have turned, instead of Australian originating pax doing nested returns ex-SIN, I'm now doing nested returns ex-MEL!

I think they have tightened up. Fares ex-SIN are still ~SGD650 but now exclude Australian school holidays and other important holidays. It used to be a flat line before.

 

[snabbu]

Take today for instance AirNZ have Y flights from OZ to USA for under a grand.

A month or so ago they were under $AUD800.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Though QF is better than VA in many ways, since simpler fairer or fairer simpler, when we as flyers lost so many SC earns (Jul 14) I personally feel that it is uncompetitive.
The only "saving grace" is that QF has a tie in with EK to provide wide body planes from Australia to New Zealand.
NZ does not have F, if they did, I would fly them more regularly.
Also, TT earn on NZ is 60, where as on QF its 80, SYD/MEL/BNE to AKL.
As for fares, (not taking standard of class into consideration), pure $, and have extra space, if NZ can do SYD - AKL for $899 in J, why can QF?
On the lounge side of things though, SYDi Koru being on the ground floor and SYDi QF J lounge being on 1st storey, I prefer QF on that consideration.

 

[wandering_fred]

QF also has a tie in with LAN and their 787 to NZ (at least for the moment)

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[Deleted member]

Then of course it just be that QF are squeezing the market to see what it can stand. Market dominance can be a double edged blade!

 

[legroom]

It's called CODB ... (cost of doing business)

For those that respect and want to retain: 1st class working conditions, excellent salary/super, home grown jobs, spectacular IR structure - shouldn't complain! or, shop around.

+1

My win - win solution is to request QF whenever others pay and redeem points elsewhere for my personal flights.

Enough to keep QF WP that way

 

[Buzzard]

Long, long ago.... in a faraway la-la land, I always flew QF.
Now it's much simpler and fairer to share my spend with other airlines.

 

[lwcarden]

Have found booking with other airlines often results in flying on a QANTAS flight anyway for much much less!!!

 

[Old Dynamite]

And the rest! Up to $4K higher to London in Business Class.

Safety not an issue. Qantas have been lucky. The runway overrun in Bangkok, and the engine failure on A380 were within "inches" of being major disasters. The cabin crew are arrogant, unionised into bludgers, and mostly time servers awaiting their pension or redundancy payout.

 

[gohlson]

Doing some planning / snooping around for some fares for a flight between Perth & New York, and for the sake of this discussion used the dates 1/6/15 to 8/6/15

Emirates - $8,523
CX - $9,077
QF - $10,784

I want to fly QF but why would you spend the extra $2.2K for loyalty?

Yes completely agree. I fly POM-SYD return each 3 weeks and Virgin offer a much cheaper fare by about AU$500 return and better customer service than Qantas. Additionally the Virgin lounges are great with their quality of food and drink. A no brainer. You cant just blame higher AU costs as Virgins hub is Brisbane and subject to the same cost structures as Qantas.

 

[Anthony]

Now where's Limewood? He would probably say "why on earth are you paying for a retail J class airfare when you could buy Alaska Airlines miles and redeem for CX J class airfares for maybe one third of the price?"

He may well say that unless he's checked first. Maybe it's my imagination but QF seem to have shrunk the already poor pool of redemption seats. Not much available even for 2016. Pretty hard to find any reason to remain loyal when it is such a one way sentiment.

 

[ReLoad]

And the rest! Up to $4K higher to London in Business Class.

Safety not an issue. Qantas have been lucky. The runway overrun in Bangkok, and the engine failure on A380 were within "inches" of being major disasters. The cabin crew are arrogant, unionised into bludgers, and mostly time servers awaiting their pension or redundancy payout.

Tell us what you really think.

You should seriously fly BA more often

 

[wombatpatties]

The very last time I flew Qantas, it was a QFF free flight, and I knew it.
Miserable attendants, an overweight pilot who looked very suspicious, and I Just did not enjoy
anything at all about that trip.........now my points are adding up I cant wait for my next...............trip?!?!?!?!?

I flew Royal Brunei last year and that was $1300 return to Lon/Mel. It was a lovely experience.

 

[mannej]

an overweight pilot who looked very suspicious, and I Just did not enjoy
anything at all about that trip.........

I am sorry but that is very shallow.

 

[howiesue]

The uncompetitive pricing issue reared its head for me wehn recently pricing a return economy flight BNE-LHR. Emirates $1600; QF $2200 FOR A FLIGHT ON THE SAME AIRCRAFT AT THE SAME TIMES (and presumably staffed by Emirates employees). With QF using Emirates aircraft with their partnership, how can this sort of price difference be justified? 35% more?? I don't think so. A call to QF generated the reply that with a $2 Billion deficit, QF have to charge higher fares!! That's marketing for you - drive your loyal customers away and increase your deficit! I have been a "loyal" QF flyer for 25 years but this is hammering nails in coffins faster than a nail gun.

 

[ReLoad]

The uncompetitive pricing issue reared its head for me wehn recently pricing a return economy flight BNE-LHR. Emirates $1600; QF $2200 FOR A FLIGHT ON THE SAME AIRCRAFT AT THE SAME TIMES (and presumably staffed by Emirates employees). With QF using Emirates aircraft with their partnership, how can this sort of price difference be justified? 35% more?? I don't think so. A call to QF generated the reply that with a $2 Billion deficit, QF have to charge higher fares!! That's marketing for you - drive your loyal customers away and increase your deficit! I have been a "loyal" QF flyer for 25 years but this is hammering nails in coffins faster than a nail gun.

What's to say QF haven't sold their allocation of cheaper seats?

What's to say that one of the many QF sales didn't fill up the plane? There is way too many variables.

Fact remains at one point or another in comparison every airline will be "uncompetitive"

If the fare difference is enough to bother you, don't fly them or buy a ticket through them, if enough people do that then yes fares will drop, and you can book away!

We all know as savvy travellers how and when to get the best deals on the carriers we want to.

 

[mannej]

The uncompetitive pricing issue reared its head for me wehn recently pricing a return economy flight BNE-LHR. Emirates $1600; QF $2200 FOR A FLIGHT ON THE SAME AIRCRAFT AT THE SAME TIMES (and presumably staffed by Emirates employees). With QF using Emirates aircraft with their partnership, how can this sort of price difference be justified? 35% more?? I don't think so. A call to QF generated the reply that with a $2 Billion deficit, QF have to charge higher fares!! That's marketing for you - drive your loyal customers away and increase your deficit! I have been a "loyal" QF flyer for 25 years but this is hammering nails in coffins faster than a nail gun.

Their latest financial figures would suggest that the nail gun is no where near the coffin at the moment.

FWIW codeshares are an interesting proposition, as the pricing depends on the agreement in place. It isn't necessarily a case of Airline 1 price = airline 2 price, loyalty has nothing to do with the pricing.

Whilst the reason of the deficit is off, this isn't just limited to the codeshare you have mentioned.

 

[maxwelljames]

QF - Australia has the highest wages in the world. Superior staff conditions. The only airline fully Australian owned. The safest airline in the world. How much do you think that Qantas competitors pay for their fuel? Emirates, Etihad, Qatar etc. ???? Next to nothing.

 

[Skiski]

Yes completely agree. I fly POM-SYD return each 3 weeks and Virgin offer a much cheaper fare by about AU$500 return and better customer service than Qantas. Additionally the Virgin lounges are great with their quality of food and drink. A no brainer. You cant just blame higher AU costs as Virgins hub is Brisbane and subject to the same cost structures as Qantas.

Just as an aside Qantas have not flown the BNE POM route for many years this is a code share operated by PX. As far as fares go $500 difference I don't think so. A quick check shows cheapest difference is less than $100 for Economy and around $170 for Business - but cheapest option in both instances is PX

 

[tofidog]

"Arrogant, unionised into bludgers..."? I have come across presumably non-unionised crews on, Asian and Middle Eastern airlines that have their fair share of arrogant and "bludger" elements within their crews. So a bit of an unfair statement really. As for QANTAS being lucky in avoiding a couple of incidents that could have been disasterous, particularly in recent times...yep can't argue with that.