Qantas is sorry (again)

[KSC]

I'm hopeful that Qantas can improve it's service and reputation with customer and employees. Currently with the repatriation flights going ahead it's a good start in mending the reputation and will overshadow lots of what is happening currently in the courtrooms.

For those who can remember Vodafone went through a Vodafail phase in 2010 when their networks and nationwide drop outs in Australia. Vodafail article for reference. I worked as a retail assistant at Vodafone during this time and it was brutal having waves of customers coming in and abusing you. It took years to repairs this and it will be the same for Qantas.

What will need to happen and is probably happening in the background is quick wins, short-term and long-term goals to repair Qantas's reputation. This will however need to be balanced with competing strains such as maximized profits.

 

[Franky]

I'm hopeful that Qantas can improve it's service and reputation with customer and employees. Currently with the repatriation flights going ahead it's a good start in mending the reputation and will overshadow lots of what is happening currently in the courtrooms.

For those who can remember Vodafone went through a Vodafail phase in 2010 when their networks and nationwide drop outs in Australia. Vodafail article for reference. I worked as a retail assistant at Vodafone during this time and it was brutal having waves of customers coming in and abusing you. It took years to repairs this and it will be the same for Qantas.

What will need to happen and is probably happening in the background is quick wins, short-term and long-term goals to repair Qantas's reputation. This will however need to be balanced with competing strains such as maximized profits.

Personally, I believe you're being a tad over-optimistic on this. It won't change my opinion of Qantas one iota.

 

[KSC]

Personally, I believe you're being a tad over-optimistic on this. It won't change my opinion of Qantas one iota.

High chance I'm wrong however for the sake of customers and employees I hope my over-optimism plays out right.

With any inside unfavorable practices getting exposed quicker by the day with the abundance of media and technology at hand. It may dawn on leadership that doing the right thing is somewhat more sustainable in the long term for profits and positive customer / public relations.

 

[JohnK]

WCMO - QF four days ago, advised me my domestic flight is leaving soon and I should prepare. I also received an offer of a bid for upgrade which I looked at and ignored. Then today at 10.39 am I received an advice that my flight tomorrow is now open for check-in. I checked-in on-line, down loaded the boarding passes (same day return) and printed them. Then I arranged my pick-up for the trip to SYD airport in the morning and advised the people in Melbourne to arrange the meeting. At 11.12 am (33 minutes after check-in was opened) I received a text that my flight to MEL has been cancelled. Soon after I received an email to the same effect. I started looking at other flights and while I am looking I received text saying I am now on an earlier flight with an allocated seat or 26C instead of my 5C on my original flight. That is how a 20+ year WP is looked after. BTW - I checked and the same flight this morning was also cancelled, so another example of QF selling seats on a flight they regularly cancel and move passengers to a flight they actually intend to How does QF make any money except from selling QFF points ?

I will requalify for WP 23/24 shortly but next year I am looking at any alternative program with an airline that actually wants passengers and provides the service expected, for the current exorbitant fares.

Sorry Qantas.

How are domestic passenger numbers and schedules the same as pre-Covid if they are constantly cancelling and reshuffling people and flights around?

I'm now at a stage where I cannot plan travel and need to book domestic flights 2-3 weeks out and I cannot justify spending $200-$300 for a one-way BNE-SYD. What I don't understand are the ridiculous airfares Qantas charge for light loaded flights as they obviously know they will cancel and merge with another flight. I think I have 10 SCs with May 2024 expiry. I'll drop to Lifetime Gold.

By the way it's not just Qantas. The cancelling of flights happens regularly in Thailand and I suspect everywhere else too.

 

[Lynda2475]

How are domestic passenger numbers and schedules the same as pre-Covid if they are constantly cancelling and reshuffling people and flights around?

This happened pre-covid a lot too. Whenever there is fog or high winds or other disruptions at SYD QF consolidate flights on SYD-MEL (and sometimes SYD-BNE) because there is a flight scheduled every 15 mins in peak (10mins on Monday mornings) so this causes least disruption to the overall network.

I'm now at a stage where I cannot plan travel and need to book domestic flights 2-3 weeks out and I cannot justify spending $200-$300 for a one-way BNE-SYD. What I don't understand are the ridiculous airfares Qantas charge for light loaded flights as they obviously know they will cancel and merge with another flight. I think I have 10 SCs with May 2024 expiry. I'll drop to Lifetime Gold.

I booked SYD-BNE 6 days out a couple of weeks ago and it was $155 each way if you were prepared to fly after 9:30am. But last minute domestic flights are a good use of points if there are no red-e-deals.

 

[Franky]

This happened pre-covid a lot too. Whenever there is fog or high winds or other disruptions at SYD QF consolidate flights on SYD-MEL (and sometimes SYD-BNE) because there is a flight scheduled every 15 mins in peak (10mins on Monday mornings) so this causes least disruption to the overall network.



I booked SYD-BNE 6 days out a couple of weeks ago and it was $155 each way if you were prepared to fly after 9:30am. But last minute domestic flights are a good use of points if there are no red-e-deals.

Weather factors aside, they could try what was a routine in NY in the 70s where then airline Eastern used to have the Eastern Shuttle, where they would line up a heap of aircraft and fill them to the brim, close the doors and then take off for the busy citys like Chicago, Boston and others. The cabin staff had the old click/click credit charge machines and would walk down the aisle collecting the fares in flight. There were reciprocal flights in the opposite direction as well.

 

[KSC]

Qantas Brand Reputation index by YouGov
Link provided has some interesting data points that tracks brand perception of Qantas, Virgin & Bonza. Calls out some key data points interesting read.

 

[Lynda2475]

Brand reputation doesn't always translate to bottom line.

After the data leak Optus' reputation was trashed yet and cost them millions but the end of their financial year their revenue was up almost 3%.

 

[encryptededdy]

Weather factors aside, they could try what was a routine in NY in the 70s where then airline Eastern used to have the Eastern Shuttle, where they would line up a heap of aircraft and fill them to the brim, close the doors and then take off for the busy citys like Chicago, Boston and others. The cabin staff had the old click/click credit charge machines and would walk down the aisle collecting the fares in flight. There were reciprocal flights in the opposite direction as well.

The main problem I would suspect with this approach is that you'd have to charge everyone the same price. As we know, Airlines today love making sure they charge everyone exactly how much they're willing to pay.

The pre-US airline deregulation environment was probably also needed for this to work

 

[marki]

How are domestic passenger numbers and schedules the same as pre-Covid if they are constantly cancelling and reshuffling people and flights around?

I'm now at a stage where I cannot plan travel and need to book domestic flights 2-3 weeks out and I cannot justify spending $200-$300 for a one-way BNE-SYD. What I don't understand are the ridiculous airfares Qantas charge for light loaded flights as they obviously know they will cancel and merge with another flight. I think I have 10 SCs with May 2024 expiry. I'll drop to Lifetime Gold.

By the way it's not just Qantas. The cancelling of flights happens regularly in Thailand and I suspect everywhere else too.

'Ruined me': The hidden Qantas charges crippling Aussie travellers — Yahoo Finance Australia

Passengers have revealed how the airline's "common practice" has left them unable to pay their rent or even to buy food.

apple.news

What about being charged twice!!

 

[Quickstatus]

QF consolidate flights

Pre covid I had a sneaky suspicion that consolidation occurred because of light loads not just weather

 

[elanshin]

The flight consolidation has always been a thing. Its the luck of the draw as to which flight gets merged in. Thing is this isn't unique to QF. VA most certainly does this as well.

Overall, I don't doubt that QF will up their game even if it loses them money flying because as we all found out during covid from the US airlines, that the real profits are from the loyalty and points and QF most definitely does not want to see that side shrink.

The flying is the carrot on the stick for the loyalty. So i expect to see some more directives (which we've seen a bit already) in more reward seats and making the experiences better for that.

 

[JohnK]

'Ruined me': The hidden Qantas charges crippling Aussie travellers — Yahoo Finance Australia

Passengers have revealed how the airline's "common practice" has left them unable to pay their rent or even to buy food.

apple.news

What about being charged twice!!

Air Asia charged me 3 times in April for same flight.

I received a credit for 1 booking on Virgin Money card earlier this month.

Still waiting for ANZ so need to follow up.

Sad that they are allowed to keep money for so long but where can you go?

 

[CMA222]

Air Asia charged me 3 times in April for same flight.

I received a credit for 1 booking on Virgin Money card earlier this month.

Still waiting for ANZ so need to follow up.

Sad that they are allowed to keep money for so long but where can you go?

Make a Complaint

Make a Complaint

www.afca.org.au

 

[eastwest101]

Qantas Brand Reputation index by YouGov
Link provided has some interesting data points that tracks brand perception of Qantas, Virgin & Bonza. Calls out some key data points interesting read.
View attachment 350253

They need to redo that survey now, as the time scale on the X-axis does not cover the later developments of the news cycle, and Qantas's place in it, I can think of a couple of other relevant news cycle events that would be worth seeing.




Certainly, the Qatar and Federal Government's decision was a slow burn, but the key events would seem to be the class action lawsuit about refunds, and then the ACCC action about selling flights it didn't intend to operate, then the Federal minister's dozen different reasons for denying QR extra flights proffered, and then Alan Joyce stepping down which looked a little left-field at the time but was then explained by subsequent events with the final High Court decision about ground-handlers outsourcing just adding to the freefall in public perception for the airline, and that's before the embarrassing Senate appearances and the record Qantas profit announcement with the share buybacks

But yes - as others say - public perception is irrelevant when a business is strongly embedded within the relevant Federal government and public sector, i.e. Chairman's Lounge anyone? is protected, and has regulatory moats and high barriers to entry for competitors.

The big 4 banks are another good example of this, sure you would want to own shares in the big 4 Australian banks because they have government guarantees and are "too big to fail", but you wouldn't actually want to be a customer of the big 4 would you? That's why I bank at a smaller institution but own shares in the big banks.

 

[marki]

Make a Complaint

Make a Complaint

www.afca.org.au

And there is the Airline Customer Advocate but
I escalated a complaint regarding Qantas to the Airline Customer Advocate. I contacted them multiple times via email with nil result. I tried calling their listed phone number multiple times but it was never connected.
I since found out that that are funded by the airlines so there is a conflict of interest there.
I was forced to give up on the complaint as I wasn't achieving anything & it was mentally exhausting & stressful for me.

 

[oz_mark]

And there is the Airline Customer Advocate but
I escalated a complaint regarding Qantas to the Airline Customer Advocate. I contacted them multiple times via email with nil result. I tried calling their listed phone number multiple times but it was never connected.
I since found out that that are funded by the airlines so there is a conflict of interest there.
I was forced to give up on the complaint as I wasn't achieving anything & it was mentally exhausting & stressful for me.

ACA wouldn't be able to do anything with an Air Asia issue.

 

[Lynda2475]

Pre covid I had a sneaky suspicion that consolidation occurred because of light loads not just weather

I am sure that is true too; but when its a route with a flight every 15mins its not typically that disruptive. And not unique to QF.

 

[JohnK]

Make a Complaint

Make a Complaint

www.afca.org.au

This was in Thailand.

Air Asia refused to take credit card payment on 3 different cards about 12 times or more. Obviously glitch on their end. When I finally got confirmation on website I checked email for itinerary and found they sent 3 itineraries and I was seated behind me each time in aisle seat.

I escalated complaint quickly and apparently this is a known issue and lots of people have commented on Facebook site same happened to them and they haven't got refund. Air Asia stalls hoping you'd give up.

 

[KSC]

This was in Thailand.

Air Asia refused to take credit card payment on 3 different cards about 12 times or more. Obviously glitch on their end. When I finally got confirmation on website I checked email for itinerary and found they sent 3 itineraries and I was seated behind me each time in aisle seat.

I escalated complaint quickly and apparently this is a known issue and lots of people have commented on Facebook site same happened to them and they haven't got refund. Air Asia stalls hoping you'd give up.

Have you tried getting your credit card provider to reverse the charges?