Choosethedrew
Junior Member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2016
- Posts
- 43
My, my. I do seem to have touched a nerve. Thank you to m0hamed at flyertalk for alerting me to this thread. I did rather enjoy reading all of your comments, both positive and negative. We are back home and must say that my wife and I had a simply marvelous time in Australia. Tassie was a real treat with great weather, scenery and friendly people. And what's not to like about Hamilton Island, the GBR and Qualia, where we enjoyed one of the best meals of the past year.
Apologies to all for my ignorance about the MEL/SYD lounge set up and lounge titles. As a double One World Emerald (AA and BA), my status gets me access to any One World First Class Lounge anywhere, even when I don't fly international First. Indeed, I'm a regular in the LAX QF First Lounge when I fly domestic AA. When I'm not in a familiar airport, I have no problem asking even if others think that it may be a stupid question.
As for my criticism of your national flag carrier, a little perspective if I may. I am fortunate to accumulate millions of miles each year thru my businesses, so we travel Internationally frequently and virtually always in international First using miles. Since we've experienced the best of the best, anything less is obvious. Sorry, but QF First is closer to the bottom of my international First Class rankings. No doubt, the way I tell it as I see it may come across as entitled and whiney. If you think my criticism of QF is bad, you should read my FT comments about AA, UA and BA, three generally dreadful airlines much of the time. To anyone on FT, my reference to QF "as one of the worst in the free world" was clearly hyperbole. But I guess it worked as click bait. However, my characterization came after brutal day with QF which started with a 4:30am wake up call in Hobart. Between the comical HBA lounge, inedible breakfast on HBA-SYD, dire SYD lounge, no priority boarding anywhere despite Priority boarding signage that gate agents dutifully roll out for no apparent reason, breakfast offered on a lunch flight, uncomfortable 717 J seats and no Wifi, I was probably a little cranky.
By contrast, our 717 HTI-BNE flight (Economy exit row) was pleasant and comfortable, more comfortable than the J seats IMO. And our 789 BNE-LAX flight home was quite nice with an excellent crew and good food, albeit still no Wifi. Not very impressed with BNE domestic to international transit though, with the BNE international terminal so far away that it wouldn't have surprised me if it was in a different time zone. (Hint: hyperbole).
Some thoughts on some of your comments to correct the record or just to have fun.
We were flying First Class and indeed there is no nonstop (First Class) competition on the route.
Indeed there is an escalator at MEL. But how is non-regular to know where it leads? It was in the middle of the terminal with no apparent signage that I saw. It could have led to a bus gate or the airport prison for all I know. (Hint: hyperbole on the prison thing)
I wasn't complaining about lack of free wifi. I was complaint about the lack of wifi, period. As noted by another poster, every other airline flying from the US to Australia has wifi.
"Masses" or even "unwashed masses" are tongue in cheek flyertalk terms, which is where my report was posted. Other FT terms are lounge dragons who decide on access, and gate lice which refers to pax crowding the boarding lane prior to a boarding call, something that is annoyingly typical in the US and parts of Europe. Amazingly, I saw none of that in Australia.
LOL. Good one.
Kudos to you SFO777 for coming on here and facing the wrath! Seems like Qantas will be defended to the death whatever its misgivings by many, which I'm intrigued about since I conceded my national airline BA is an appalling carrier ages ago. But then even you must agree that BA is far worse than Qantas!! Might not fit with your thread title though