No more QF chauffeur drive to LAX and DFW

[hossein_au]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

when Qantas is calling to cancel, is anyone saying they don't accept the cancellation? And asking what compensation will be made?

Some suggestions:

• reimbursement for a taxi/town car
• a couple of QF lounge passes
• a QF First lounge pass
• 10,000 points

I wish I had thought of that; must admit I was caught off guard, as I did not expect them to call me at all.

 

[ReLoad]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

Between the wife and I We have 8 CD booked for various trips and haven't had a call about any of them yet.

Not sure what cash value you would put on them but we are talking about a few bucks over the trips.

Seriously not cool QF.

How hard is it to honour existing bookings.

Mrs reload thinks that the supplier told QF to get bent and terminated the deal.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

We have 2 x F reds booked for Sept and had CD booked - I booked flts with my pts and Cruiserette as accomp pax - Cruiserette got home tonight and Qantas called our home number and asked for Cruiserette and proceeded to break the news. Surprised I was not the one to receive the call.

I should add Cruiserette kinda happy as she wants to stay at ParkRoyal at MEL nt before dep - cancel of CD breaks some hearts / not others - go figure.

 

[Pleb Status]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

So it looks like 'rebalancing' will now join 'enhancement', 'fairer' and 'simpler' as words QF use to screw over their customers.

Although I have not used CD in the US, I always use it on the Australian end. Not honouring existing CD bookings is extremely poor.

How long will it be before CD dies at all ports? To 'harmonise', EK could stop offering CD on ex Australia bookings.....

 

[suparockin]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

How long will it be before CD dies at all ports? To 'harmonise', EK could stop offering CD on ex Australia bookings.....

Doubt it, Emirates seem to care about loyalty and value.

 

[sydstar]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

So, if few pax are using CD in LAX and DFW, the surely it isn't costing QF much. Of course, in typical QF fashion it makes more sense to simply 'enhance' be done with it. What makes DXB/LHR more 'deserving' of CD than LAX/DFW - apart from EKs influence? I guess that it's QF consistency at it's very best!

Slightly off topic....

QF must have some serious management and financial problems. All decisions of late seen to be reactionary with very poor communication.

Consider the QSA circus in February. What was AJs Plan B if the government were to say no?

Look at the simpler and fairer FF. Still no idea what an AA/BA flight will earn in just over a months time!

Then consider F removal from HKG - how poor has the implementation and management of this been?

Now the removal of CD - a competitive advantage - on one of the two flagship routes (LAX) with a months notice!

A management that seems intent on sinking funds into overseas startups, some of which haven't even taken off yet, while the 'parent' struggles to stem a flow of bleeding losses! The saddest part is that QF has so many great frontline staff that really do work their hardest. Yes, there are a few bad apples and some clearly on the gravy train, but the vast majority care about the brand and what it represents. I somehow feel the management don't and would prefer it if QF would stop getting in the way of that fantastic and profitable orange coloured airline

 

[zainman]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

Doubt it, Emirates seem to care about loyalty and value.

+1.

They've been offering it for a long time and their competitor Etihad also offers it so I would be very surprised if they axed it too.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

Mrs reload thinks that the supplier told QF to get bent and terminated the deal.

That's interesting, hadn't thought of that. Or if the supplier told QF it was increasing its prices, and QF refused?

Interesting stat in The Australian (Steve Creedy) today - the take-up rate of CD on the American services was only one quarter that of the DXB/LHR services.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

Interesting stat in The Australian (Steve Creedy) today - the take-up rate of CD on the American services was only one quarter that of the DXB/LHR services.

Pax are switching in DXB to go direct to their destination, whereas LAX is likely not the end destination for most.

I doubt the supplier terminated the agreement - QF would have gone to one of 20 other companies offering a similar service. But they axed it - which means QF don't want it.

 

[dajop]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

Interesting stat in The Australian (Steve Creedy) today - the take-up rate of CD on the American services was only one quarter that of the DXB/LHR services.

That may well be surprising at the Australian end, but then some of the pax may be AA pax who wouldn't have the same arrangement re CD (or do they?) Also at the DFW/LAX end there may be more transfers to other ports (vs LHR where I imagine a lot of pax are terminating, now that there are less BA codeshares), people taking hotel shuttles and of course AA pax as well.

 

[docjames]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

Add me to the cheesed off list.

I pulled the trigger on a paid J fare (booked through QF via a TA) late last week.

TA confirmed today - no CD. Ensuing discussion (read: me venting spleen to TA) re: QF attempting to cost cut their way to success and that any loyalty to QFi will be gone (the "premium" I used to be prepared to pay to fly QFi has shrunk almost to the point of non-existence).


And "take up rate" is a rubbish reason to cancel the availability of CD - if that's the case, then its not costing them much. I'd suggest it's also less than DXB/LHR as it's only usable at LAX/DFW not the myriad of other destinations booked onward from there.

 

[bosox76]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

+1 to the cheesed off crowd. Mrs B and I had CD all booked for our trip to the LOTFAP at the end of the year. I anticipate that I'll be getting a phone call at some stage. Will definitely tell them how i feel. The irony is that I was just singing the praises of CD to the parents earlier yesterday and now it's all moot

 

[vetrade]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

I'm guessing that QF has decided that there's no money to be made as a premium airline and they might as well give up on that aspiration. After about 10 years of making decisions that haven't paid off maybe they are out of ideas to make the "premium airline" strategy work and now think they might as well try to emulate a profitable carrier like AA which has 75% market share despite its in-flight service / seating etc being ordinary and dom. F class that is barely better than QF's existing PE. The loss of CD could be just part of QF's re-positioning strategy, with more to come.

Maybe QF thinks the "customer loyalty" concept is destined to go the way of the dinosaurs - sure they will expect to take a short term hit by losing the patronage of FFs but maybe their 5 -10 year projections suggest they can make that up by focusing on the Y and PE end of the market with a F/J product somewhat below the present J.

Of course it's all just speculation on my part.

 

[mikejr]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

Yes I had a proactive call from Qantas yesterday, first time I can recall except for flight cancellations, informing me that my booked CD for July was going to be cancelled and I should expect to see it drop off the booking. You could tell that the CS was not enjoying the calls but still trying to be pleasant, I simply said I was disappointed as there is no point in shooting the messenger.

If they really need to cut costs, ok maybe from J but to delete from the F offering considering the $$ or points paid for this journey is pretty obscene. e.g. SYD-LAX currently advertising a return in F at $15K - cost of 4 CD trips at trade price $250 = really???

Like a lot of guys have said before it is sad that companies used to try to distinguish themselves through service offering, and now it appears all the QF service offerings are disappearing and taking that 'special' feeling away from F or J travel.

I love Qantas and jumping on that 380 to come home already feels like you are there, but the differences in offering are not that great for the price difference any more. I have just tried CX into HKG and China and was pretty impressed at their J service and product (except food) - so now looking for Europe in a few months and QF is coming out over $9k while CX is around $7k - I do not believe it is worth the premium any more, because the premium touches have disappeared.

 

[legroom]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

Yes I had a proactive call from Qantas yesterday, first time I can recall except for flight cancellations, informing me that my booked CD for July was going to be cancelled and I should expect to see it drop off the booking. You could tell that the CS was not enjoying the calls but still trying to be pleasant, I simply said I was disappointed as there is no point in shooting the messenger.

If they really need to cut costs, ok maybe from J but to delete from the F offering considering the $$ or points paid for this journey is pretty obscene. e.g. SYD-LAX currently advertising a return in F at $15K - cost of 4 CD trips at trade price $250 = really???

Like a lot of guys have said before it is sad that companies used to try to distinguish themselves through service offering, and now it appears all the QF service offerings are disappearing and taking that 'special' feeling away from F or J travel.

I love Qantas and jumping on that 380 to come home already feels like you are there, but the differences in offering are not that great for the price difference any more. I have just tried CX into HKG and China and was pretty impressed at their J service and product (except food) - so now looking for Europe in a few months and QF is coming out over $9k while CX is around $7k - I do not believe it is worth the premium any more, because the premium touches have disappeared.

Terms like vicious cycle / downward spiral / self inflicted slow death come to my mind.

We all like to support QF and its marvelous pilots..... but when there are worthy competitors out there, it is harder to keep justifying to yourself to keep paying premium pricing for less-than-premium products.

Like you, my next EU trip is in SQ followed by CX.

SCs are not important anymore.

 

[zainman]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

We all like to support QF and its marvelous pilots.....

Let's all support CX's Aussies pilots! Did I read somewhere they have more Aussie pilots than QF?

 

[SQ421]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

But not for reward tickets.

No, and on some of those tickets the transfer would cost more than the actual ticket

But, VA offers it (albeit to a subset of J pax as of now) while QF has gone ahead and cancelled it entirely for North American flights.

If JB wanted to be particularly cheeky he'd extend Chauffeur Drive to all J bookings across the pacific.

 

[serfty]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

No, and on some of those tickets the transfer would cost more than the actual ticket

But, VA offers it (albeit to a subset of J pax as of now) while QF has gone ahead and cancelled it entirely for North American flights.

If JB wanted to be particularly cheeky he'd extend Chauffeur Drive to all J bookings across the pacific.

Of course, VA charging several hundered dollars in +++ less than QF for a transpacific award more than makes up for it.

 

[TomVexille]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

I do think it's a little ridiculous that they can't/won't honour the existing bookings.

 

[legroom]

Re: No more QF chauffer drive to LAX and DFW

I do think it's a little ridiculous that they can't/won't honour the existing bookings.

Mate, stop griping !

Do something about it.

I did.