I don’t think anyone is confusing the Senior Leadership Team and the rest of the staff. I think we all have a lot of time and respect for the non-SLT staff at Qantas.
The point is that if everyone agrees that Qantas Management is evil and should be treated with the same level of disdain and contempt that they show us, then why reward their behaviour by spending more money with them? I realise that it’s not that simple though. For some, their status, travel habits and Oneworld engagement “prevents” them, and others may not have a choice for many different reasons. But for the rest of us, choosing not to spend with Qantas is one way of protesting against Management’s appalling behaviour. If enough of us change our spending habits with Qantas it might just force a change. In fact, as a result of recent customer backlash and changed spending habits, we’ve already seen some very small changes from VH to unwind a couple of AJ’s enhancements.
It’s also interesting to note that we have some members who are highly vocal about other Airlines’ poor treatment of passengers. As a matter of principle, many of those people have now boycotted those Airlines. If these same people with a moral compass believe we shouldn’t support Airlines that treat their customers poorly, then the same logic should apply to Qantas and the way they treat their costumers. But that doesn’t seem to be the case for some. It all seems a bit too hypocritical and biased.
Ultimately, Airlines are no different to any other company whose highest priority is financial performance. That’s just a matter of fact for the Capitalist world we live in. But this is a question of ethics; what is right, and what is wrong behaviour for a company. If you can objectively make that determination without bias, then you’re in a position to choose whether you reward or punish this behaviour with your wallet. Many of us already have.