QF-EK broken promises

[ajw373]

QF 1/2 and QF 9/10 aren't much use to me. We don't all live in Sydney or Melbourne.

Well you have lost nothing have you? The three flights to Europe cut originated in Sydney (-BKK-LHR, -SIN-LHR) and Melbourne (-HKG-LHR).

And no I don't live in either city.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Well you have lost nothing have you? The three flights to Europe cut originated in Sydney (-BKK-LHR, -SIN-LHR) and Melbourne (-HKG-LHR).

And no I don't live in either city.

We used to have QF flights to SIN and HKG with connections to Europe.

 

[suze2000]

I've read half of this thread and just wanted to say, before I get too far through, that I too am in the "will not fly through DXB again" camp.

Two things: 1) TWO incredibly unpleasant experiences transiting through there. I just hated the airport. Hot, dirty and crowded. And endless hot and crowded bus rides from the plane to the airport and back.
2) They did not seat us together (this was before you could pre-allocate your own seats) and when I pointed it out, did not care. We traipsed all over DXB trying to get it fixed and no-one cared. We were able to swap a seat on board, but if we were a middle eastern couple, would I have been separated from my husband? No. That most certainly would not have happened. Worse was finding that a woman was also trying to organise a swap because she had be placed 8 rows away from her THREE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER. I ask you: who wants to fly an airline with so little care? Does that extend to other aspects of their culture?

I admit I have since flown EK MEL-AKL on A380 and it was very good. But that was a single hop flight and I was travelling alone and wanted to fly a 380. Also the plane was only half-full, so most of us had an empty seat which was good too, but nothing to judge the airline quality on. The packed VA 737 home was quite a come down. But that experience still doesn't mean I am willing to fly through DXB ever again.

 

[dajop]

They have of course stopped BKK-LHR, HKG-LHR and SIN-LHR, but not handed them to EK though.

They most definitely were not handed to EK, probably worthwhile pointing out, in the context of this thread, that BKK-LHR and HKG-LHR were stopped well in advance of the EK deal.

 

[katiebell]

QF 1/2 and QF 9/10 aren't much use to me. We don't all live in Sydney or Melbourne.

But flights from BNE, ADL, PER &, I think elsewhere connected with these flights at the refuelling point (& earned mor SC than those who travelled all the way on 1/2/9/10

 

[dajop]

&, I think elsewhere connected

If you go back into some relatively recent ancient history you could connect from DRW as well. IIRC it was CNS-DRW-SIN, then ADL-DRW-SIN (there was no ADL-SIN non stop for a period of time, I even remember taking this flight ADL-DRW out of old ADL intl terminal, and upgrading - I think even using upgrade credit - to skybed MK I on the sector, which at the time were relatively new and fantastic).

Now if you really want to drag up old ancient history, SIN was quite the hub for QF, destinations from SIN included MEL, SYD, BNE, ADL, DRW, PER, DPS, CGK, HKG, BOM, LHR, CDG, FRA .... and throw in BKK at one point as well. But that was 2000, some 16 years ago now ... a different era in aviation altogether, when the footprint of QR and EK were insignificant (and EY didn't even exist) and LCCs were yet to really emerge in SW Pacific/Asia.

 

[Pushka]

Re: QF-EK broken promises
My biggest issues with the QF/EK alliance are not being able to upgrade with points and not being able to buy and/or preallocate an exit row seat on EK! (Given Qantas metal flies practically nowhere now the 'partnership' should 'at least' allow these).

Yes. Agree re the points upgrade issue. Especially Adelaide which is one of those places that has no other option. Was it ever a promise to be able to do that though? Our disappointment in not being able to upgrade our first flight on EK a couple of years ago was quickly ameliorated by Emirates free upgrade on checkin.

 

[nlagalle]

Planes years behind the competition. Fuel guzzling aircraft (747s instead of 77Ws). Sacking thousands of staff. Can't get through to the call centre. Charging for exit rows. Massive fuel surcharges on award tickets. Fewer points under simpler and fairer. Cutting chauffeur drive. Bare bones catering (toasted sandwich and inexpensive sparkling wine) on a SYD-MEL return business class fare of close to $2000 return.

Fail? You might be making money while the price of fuel is down, but how do you compete when it goes back up again? What's left of the airline?

Plane decisions were made back in the 90's. It's been discussed to death but at the time the 777 was not a viable alternative to the 747 due to ETOPS. Of course it is different now on most routes.

Sacking staff, were they all required? Or was it shedding excess staff?

Call centre yes has issues, probably the biggest complaint I see on their Facebook page

Fuel fines are bad but look at SQ.. Look at VA with EY..

Can't complain about the J food on my recent MEL-SYD flights, been sensational..

 

[TheInsider]

Sacking staff, were they all required? Or was it shedding excess staff..

Actually the majority of staff were not sacked at all, majority of them took voluntary redundancies. Most of those staff were already in their 'golden years' too.

 

[tm.smile]

This thread is basically a result of people not getting exactly what they want (despite the options of doing so elsewhere). Ultimately Qantas have made a business decision to best support their business. It has clearly worked as they are more profitable than ever. Compared to VA, they are taking a disproportionately far larger portion of the profits in the Australian market. Surely that must prove that it is working for most of their customers. Only profitable companies can reinvest and improve their products.

Can there be improvements and would it be great if they expanded and flew their own metal to more places? Sure. And that will happen once they get their 787s. For most of the promises made, I believe they have been delivered on - an extensive joint venture where many things have been smoothed out between the two airlines allowing for a consistent travel experience no matther which of the two you fly. Have there been savings made somewhere and benefits been lost? Absolutely, though in the dynamic world of aviation, you cannot dig your heels in and bleed cash.

As for seat selection, you can always fly VA and pay for the privellege . Oh and good luck working out what you're entited to as a Velocity SG or WP on their partners...

 

[nlagalle]

My list is not entirely a list of losses: I did add CD between LHR & Aus which is the better of the two airlines' offerings (even if the promise of rolling it out to the rest of the long haul destinations did not happen/persist).

IMHO & experience the the EK-QF tie-up is mostly losses and failures to deliver the best of the offerings: hence my list of my observations and what matters to me. The intention was that others, who could see gains, could add them to list. Instead of doing so many just attacked me, made false assumptions about my beliefs and attributed prejudices to me without ever having met me or bothering to ask me. These people's mind-reading skills need serious work. I have no problem with others thinking that the EK-QF tie-up is the best thing since sliced bread. I, and many others, do not.

but the issue with your statement is you are attributing it all to the EK tie up which may or may not be the case.. can't blame it all on that. There are plenty of other factors that affected change within the company.

But I'll pose another option to you, since you don't like the EK tie up - given that BA was pretty much going to walk away from the JSA who else should QF have tied up with to give them a decent foothold into Europe? where else was there a better option?

 

[TomVexille]

But I'll pose another option to you, since you don't like the EK tie up - given that BA was pretty much going to walk away from the JSA who else should QF have tied up with to give them a decent foothold into Europe? where else was there a better option?

And don't say CX since they seem to hate each other

 

[JohnK]

Qantas still has QF1/2 and QF9/10 for you to fly on to London. To Europe the only route they have stop flying and handed to EK is to Frankfurt. They have of course stopped BKK-LHR, HKG-LHR and SIN-LHR, but not handed them to EK though.

It would have been nice to have one Qantas route to Europe via SIN/HKG/BKK.

Qantas to Asia and then CX/MH to Europe in economy is not worth it if one needs to purchase a class that earns reasonable QFF points and SCs. If booking direct with airlines without a stopover the luggage is not checked through either. And the status benefits are not consistent across the alliance either. e.g. need to pay extra to carry golf clubs on BA. Every other airline in the world includes golf clubs as part of luggage allowance.

We will never know if say QF1/QF2 operated from SYD/LHR via DXB and say QF9/QF10 operated from MEL/LHR via SIN would have worked just as well as current arrangement but given people another option.

 

[TomVexille]

We will never know if say QF1/QF2 operated from SYD/LHR via DXB and say QF9/QF10 operated from MEL/LHR via SIN would have worked just as well as current arrangement but given people another option.

While that probably works for people travelling to LHR, I thought the whole idea of the DXB transit was to gain access to EK's network to create one-stop options to the rest of Europe. Personally I would prefer SIN, but I suspect a large portion of the population who are not frequent flyers would prefer the least number of stops possible.

 

[ajw373]

It would have been nice to have one Qantas route to Europe via SIN/HKG/BKK.

Agree would have been nice. But nice does not equate commercial reality. And to be honest as most of my travel is to Asia I am a lot happier with the earlier arrivals that would have otherwise been possible if those flights carried on to Europe.

 

[nlagalle]

It would have been nice to have one Qantas route to Europe via SIN/HKG/BKK.

Qantas to Asia and then CX/MH to Europe in economy is not worth it if one needs to purchase a class that earns reasonable QFF points and SCs. If booking direct with airlines without a stopover the luggage is not checked through either. And the status benefits are not consistent across the alliance either. e.g. need to pay extra to carry golf clubs on BA. Every other airline in the world includes golf clubs as part of luggage allowance.

We will never know if say QF1/QF2 operated from SYD/LHR via DXB and say QF9/QF10 operated from MEL/LHR via SIN would have worked just as well as current arrangement but given people another option.

While I will say that depending on the time of day you travel ,going over via Asia and back via DXB actually worked very well for me. So yes a route via say HKG would be good (only suggesting that as it's a OW hub). QF still have two spare slots at LHR so lets see what happens with the 787, there is talk of a PER option.

 

[ajw373]

While I will say that depending on the time of day you travel ,going over via Asia and back via DXB actually worked very well for me. So yes a route via say HKG would be good (only suggesting that as it's a OW hub). QF still have two spare slots at LHR so lets see what happens with the 787, there is talk of a PER option.

Talk yes, but I reckon the slots are more valuable to Qantas by leasing them out as the currently do. Currently they are leased to BA, but said lease ends late next year.

 

[drron]

JAL doesn't fly to LHR from HND. BA8 is well timed to connect from QF25 though.

Though from BNE QF flies to NRT.Have used this way to go to and from the USA and will use it to go to Europe.Although not really connecting it is an excuse to visit Japan again.

 

[suze2000]

I wish you could select a "no seafood" option.

Yes, I used to be quite safe flying with my seafood allergy. But nowadays for some reason idiots have put smoked salmon on everything (or worse, trout!). I often have to page the FAs and explain to them my dietary requirements so that I don't miss out on the only choice I can have.

(and before anyone says why don't you specify when booking, it's because you almost always end up with the vegetarian meal, which most veg*ns will tell you is generally horrible!)

 

[UP4014]

It would have been nice to have one Qantas route to Europe via SIN/HKG/BKK.

Qantas to Asia and then CX/MH to Europe in economy is not worth it if one needs to purchase a class that earns reasonable QFF points and SCs. If booking direct with airlines without a stopover the luggage is not checked through either. And the status benefits are not consistent across the alliance either. e.g. need to pay extra to carry golf clubs on BA. Every other airline in the world includes golf clubs as part of luggage allowance.

We will never know if say QF1/QF2 operated from SYD/LHR via DXB and say QF9/QF10 operated from MEL/LHR via SIN would have worked just as well as current arrangement but given people another option.

Yeah, seems silly to have a QF tie up with EK but still travel through themselves if they were trying to reduce routes.

Perhaps DXB should have been a dead end route for QF with everyone transferring to EK there and the QF 1 and 2 could have continued via somewhere else. But, I imagine EK has better skills at getting a deal and QF had to give something up.

Anyway, as I've said before, QF made it's choices so I made mine and don't use them or DXB on this route.

Matt