Ok, so why does everyone continue to bag Qantas?

[obsgyn]

I am reasonably happy with qantas but the standard of service on board seems to be slipping. You would expect some recognition in business class. I used to remember when a stewardess would be at the partition after landing to allow business class passengers to disembark first but this no longer seems to be the case. I have even been threatened by sn economy class passenger pushing through on landing to get to disembark first. Where is the prvileges that are supposed to go with business class. It is still being advertised but no longer applies. I was on business class on SYD/bne recently and I got no response on the steward/stewardess call button even after 6 times turning off and then on the call button. The steward walk pass me more than 6 times but seems not to notice the call button light on. Is this the way to treat business class passengers. I have even had my luggage left behind in Brisb ane even though I checked in 2 hours before the flight. I know that there is no competition on as virgin does not have business class passengers and ould not even supply free water on the flight. I think that this is the lowest act and i resolved not to fly virgin again. I hope that Qantas administration take note to improve the business class passenger's lot.
obsgyn FF Platinum, ASia Free Miles, Kris Flyer

 

[rhjames]

Some interesting comments happening here. The trouble is that they seem to have developed more into discussing airports than Qantas.

As far as landing in Melbourne goes, it's all a matter of economics. There is huge cost in landing and taking off. I'm sure wise people who are knowers of things are constantly optimising this.

Drifting back to Qantas, I usually prefer them, but couldn't resist a $2,000 saving last week to fly to Europe on Austrian Airlines. Great meals and service, but the seats (business) were a bit hard, and I always felt like I was about to slide downwards when trying to sleep. Didn't have video on demand, which is well behind, but for $2,000 saving I wouldn't complain. I prefer Qantas, but can't always justify the additional cost. At platinum and lifetime gold, and more points than I know what to do with, I can't ignore the high cost of flying Qantas.

I was interested in the comments on Sydney airport. I find it generally user friendly, as streamlined as any (try finding your way around Charles de Gaulle). The one change I would like is a preferential customs for Busines/First - they used to have this, and I could arrive 1 hour before a flight and know I had plenty of time - not any more. The X-ray check at arrivals can be a bit long - better to buy a chocolate bar and declare it to try to shortcut the lines.

You have to fly through some of these airports regularly to do a fair comparison. eg I have found LA to be very efficient most times, but occasionally it has its share of long queues. Don't form opinions on one or two experiences. I and many others find Miami to be one of the worst. But this is getting away from Qantas.

 

[rhjames]

I know that there is no competition on as virgin does not have business class passengers and ould not even supply free water on the flight. I think that this is the lowest act and i resolved not to fly virgin again.

Surely the whole point of flying Virgin is to save money because your are prepared to do without the perks. I sometimes fly interstate and am happy to find the cheap flights and skip a meal and drinks on a 1.5 hour flight. There's plenty of water in the taps on board.

 

[ronone69]

So where to I begin

First, I am QF Platinum and SQ PPS Club. Over the past 6 months I have flown QF, SQ, TG and CX. I avoid flying Qantas as all costs.

Why ?

Simple : Their on board service in both International First and International Business is dreadful on the vast majority of flights. There is not enough crew, the crew are not interested, the food is often cold and the menu's are 14th Century. YET, Qantas change the same price for **** service as SQ of CX do for great service. (PS: I don't mind paying for service if it is good - I do not like paying for it when it is ****)

I also find it abhorrent that Qantas charge Platinum members to use tier FF points when you make a telephone booking - no one else does. And in most cases, if you want to book tickets in First or Business you can ONLY get the seats on request as they do not come up on the Internet.

There are some things they do well:

FF program is OK in terms of earning points and bonus points for travel class and status. It is EXPENSIVE however for First and Business redemptions. The status credits stuff seems to work OK too - the levels to qualify in my view are reasonable - maybe a little low even. Domestic business class service is good (compared to the US and Europe it is exceptional - because they provide no service).

Qantas bookings website is in desperate need of improvement - you cannot book Melb->Syd->Bris->Melb on a single booking because the site does not allow multiple sectors. This is silly. The telephone booking service is also OK but again I am offended they charge a fee for business class bookings.

Their customer care department has got a lot better at handling complaints. They now call you, empathise, tell you that should not happen (da) and then send you a nice hamper for your trouble. I am making a collection.

The Premium Desk also seems to handle unusual situations well. I need to cancel an points upgrade booking recently as someone could not travel for medical reasons and they refunded my points without charge - bit of stuffing around though and some stupidity from the normal booking line.

I also agree with others here their lounges are generally OK although some overseas are too small - especially HK. Also, does not compare with the CX lounges in HK, the SQ lounge in Singapore or the BA lounge in London.

So: They do some stuff well and other stuff not so well. But the thing that really matters is SERVICE on board and they consistently do this poorly. So no matter how good they are elsewhere, I deliberately avoid flying with Qantas as the most important thing to me is how I am treated in the air - not on the ground.

 

[serfty]

Good Posts, I agree with much of it, just a few corrections/observations ...

...There is not enough crew, the crew are not interested

I believe this is self explaining. There are enough crew, 'tis just that more often than not they seem to be not interested enough to provide more service than absolutely necessary. Contrast this with CX service where uninterested is the exception, definately not the rule. Funnily enough one of the best flights I have had this year was on a 333 from PER to SIN; great Qantas FA's and exceptional service. The CSM and staff were referred to QF in despatches.

... Qantas bookings website is in desperate need of improvement - you cannot book Melb->Syd->Bris->Melb on a single booking because the site does not allow multiple sectors. This is silly....

Wrong; for at least the last 4 months Qantas have had the "> Multi-City" option available in several places including their home page.

... I also agree with others here their lounges are generally OK although some overseas are too small - especially HK. Also, does not compare with the CX lounges in HK, the SQ lounge in Singapore or the BA lounge in London.

No need for a large lounge on HKG; most J/F PAX would have SG/WP/CL status and I guess would generally know about the availability of the Wing/Pier. In fact it seems that J/F travel status gains access to the appropriate CX lounge anyway, even if travelling on Qantas. What I am implying here it that Qantas are deining not to compete with CX in HKG.

 

[oz_mark]

I am reasonably happy with qantas but the standard of service on board seems to be slipping. You would expect some recognition in business class. I used to remember when a stewardess would be at the partition after landing to allow business class passengers to disembark first but this no longer seems to be the case.

It was certainly the case on my flights in October. Being in the first couple of rows of economy, I notice

 

[JohnK]

I am reasonably happy with qantas but the standard of service on board seems to be slipping. You would expect some recognition in business class. I used to remember when a stewardess would be at the partition after landing to allow business class passengers to disembark first but this no longer seems to be the case.

I agree with oz_mark. On international flights I am normally in the first few rows of economy and cannot remember a time when business class passengers have not disembarked before economy class passengers. With no carry-on I have been at the front of the economy queue waiting to disembark many times and do not need prompting from the FA to wait for business class passengers.

The exception is the people in business class who choose to remain in their seats until the majority of passengers have disembarked. Surely economy class passengers do not have to wait for them as well.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Wrong; for at least the last 4 months Qantas have had the "> Multi-City" option available in several places including their home page.

Again, only available for Australia domestic

 

[ronone69]

Thanks for that serfty. Will use it next time. Must be new as it was not there when I last booked multi city domestic in June

 

[Fijiflyer]

I have flown Qantas, BA, Cathay, AA over the past few months to Europe, Asia and USA/Mexico and generally have had no problems with any flights. It was nice to be upgraded by Cathay from Hong Kong - Singapore and by Qantas Singapore - Sydney..I guess platinum helps. The only real issue I have is the choice of food in the lounges but then again they are not restaurants. The Cathay 1st class lounge in Hong Kong is wonderful!!

 

[mainly tailfirst]

Wrong; for at least the last 4 months Qantas have had the "> Multi-City" option available in several places including their home page.

Again, only available for Australia domestic

One thing to be aware of is that multi-city bookings cannot be changed online. You have to ring QF for that. I got caught by this in September.

mt

 

[theopalminer]

After seeing the nutter Qantas pilot's website I think I will travel by car.
Qantas, illegally, irresponsibly and immorally cleared a suicidal 747 pilot to fly. Did they put your life at risk? Read the book "Qantas Jet Star" Not jetstar

 

[Tooner]

As a newbie who has watched this thread for a while I would probably have to agree with everyone here (although I'm not sure about the pilot with suicidal thoughts ).

I've travelled mostly domestically, but enough to keep me Platinum, and my most recent offshore trip was account personal in discount economy with the family - upgrades not an issue. The lounge network is good (especially for the family, except LHR), and T2 lounge is small but good for DJ & Jetstar flights.

T3 QC is crowded, but there are good spots. The G & Ts are always good.

Onboard I have rarely had problems (depsite requring a special meal). In over 4 years there have only been 2 mistakes and each time handled really well.

In short, I think we should expect a lot from QF - they bill themselves as a full service airline - and complain when it doesn't get there, remembering that they will only do enough to ensure we are momderately happy (or at least not unhappy enough to toast our points and status credits to fly DJ).

And hello to everyone too. (I'm off my soapbox now!) .

Cheers

 

[waltervp]

Obviously Qantas pays lots of attention to their very frequent fliers. People like me who flew a lot in the past but not any more still *expect* the same 'bending over backwards' service because we have that little gold card. But because we no longer fly nearly as much we get treated like *the rest* again. The gold card only gives you the standard (gold card) benefits, but not the extra nice, extra polite, extra accommodating service we were getting when we were flying lots.

This includes no more upgrades, no more 'we'll put you on the next flight' despite your ticket conditions not allowing for it, no more *flexible* luggage allowances and I even feel they put you back in the rear end of the plane again!! Anytime you ask the staff something they suddenly appear rude compared to how they used to be... Then you get slugged by the huge charges and fees which are even more apparent because you now earn less points and money as I did before when I had to fly regularly. Before I may not even have noticed or cared about a few hundred dollars or few thousand points here and there... but now I do. Maybe I am flying on much cheaper tickets since I now pay for them personally!

So it is natural to complain, trying to hold on to what we had... and screaming louder when we are let down. When I fly other carriers I notice they are worse, and so I keep on coming back to Qantas all the time!

But the fees and charges to redeem flights, not to mention the restrictions, drives me nuts and I often consider dropping the whole ff point system, and redeem my remaining 100K points for a coffee maker.... and just pay for my flights.

Walter----

 

[rhjames]

To WalterVP - very interesting. I have been Platinum for a number of years and used to the service you describe. I will soon retire which means dropping back to lifetime gold, and therefore just another number. I have countless FF points, but try to find a business class seat overseas to use them is quite a challenge. I lose many of my upgrade credits because seats aren't available (even though I can see empty seats). If I drank coffee, I might consider like you, cashing in FF on a coffee machine.

On the other hand, I have managed some Business class flights to Europe on FF, so it does work.

Wouldn't it be nice of they introduced lifetime platinum!!! How about lifetime gold converting to lifetime platinum at 60 years of age. I'd prefer something like this rather than a partner gold card. This isn't much use as whenever my wife flies, I am with her so the PT card gets us both in the lounge anyway.

 

[straitman]

The biggest problem I've encountered with Qantas is that they are Oztralian, hence we ALL expect perfect service yet most people don't fit into the mould of understanding that service or the attitude that goes with it. With a little patience and perseverence I've found that things mostly work well with Qantas. (and a lot better than some other large companies I deal with)

In the last few days I've booked an ATW trip for my wife in business. This is not 6, 9 or 12 months ahead but in February. We needed to be a little flexible however it all worked smoothly enough. The only problem was LAX - MEL where she was waitlisted and then confirmed within 24hrs. Pretty good I think.

 

[dajop]

Ok, so I am going to continue to bag Qantas. Again it's the little things no the big things - like this evening, you would think that they would have some hot food here in the FIRST CLASS lounge at MEL, and not just cold meat and salad - an hour and half before departure. But no, nothing, I suppose it is 20 past 10 so maybe that's why. But it would be nice to have a few snacks, after all it is the FCL. I guess I can always go upstairs and buy some food, or have it on the plane (instead of sleeping ...).

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I had the same complaint about NZ's international lounge at AKL. About 9 or 9:30pm they would remove the hot food, leaving those flying on the late flights (LAX/LHR, HKG/LHR, PVG, SIN, islands) with only cold food.

In response to complaints they now have some hot food out much longer - not sure when until, was still around when I left the lounge after 10pm.

 

[serfty]

In my experience, hot food is available in MEL int F lounge until around 5 - 6 PM; this may be leftovers from the QF9 departure. Certainly no hot food is normally catered for QF29.

And, IMHO, this is not good. (There was Hot food available earlier this year but it has dried up).

It will be interesting to see what the Sofitel catering is like once the new First lounge upstairs opens.

 

[rhjames]

Suddenly a flow of positive comments fro Qantas. Generally I fly Qantas, and overall have had few problems. I'd like more flexibility in being able to use FF points, and upgrade credits which normally expire before I can use them (can't really complain as I get my share if 1st class upgrades).

I wonder if many of those complaining are realy flying enough with a variety of airlines to form a realistic opinion. We can all find one off incidents to complain about (eg lost luggage), but I suggest that unless you are platinum with international flights for a number of years, do you really fly enough to have a fair data base? Unless you achieved gold with domestic, and fly domestic airlines regularly in other countries (Asia, Europe, America), I doubt you can make a fair comparison on domestics.

I know they were slow with Video on demand. Once the sky beds were sampled, it was disappointing to be on a flight without them. I have always found the international meals on business and first class to be excellent (I remember I'm in an aircraft, not a restaurant). I've had no problems with the staff (who I treat as people, not servants). I've said this here before - when I get on the Qantas plane to come home, I feel like I'm almost there. Perhaps it's psychological, but it works for me.