The future of flying todays Perth to Sydney

[MEL_Traveller]

Here is BA's offering. All in a box. The hot meal looks like it's disposable aluminium, but the presentation is nice: British Airways changes food on board – Business Traveller

No excuses for other airlines.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

At least in the next 6 months or so, thing should get back to "normal" for QF.
Then we will start griping that this is not good, that is not good, ... what is the normal normal.
OP got seat 1A, with not too many people flying, that seat would have been easier to snag.
I would have gone for that seat, no matter how many points, if I had it.
Noting that VAver2 might not have a J, or if you believe some, might not be flying, or might be a total LCC, so the only choice if a person wants to fly "full/premium service" is with QF.
Lets just be satisfied that QF is not in the spot/slot that VA is now in, not knowing if their VFF will be with us in the next few months.

 

[L1925]

Pics attached, i do intend to follow up with qantas formally when im back from sydney, thr lady on the helpdesk just wanted to argue so I just hung up.

essentially, pic 1 was the voucher screen, pic 2 was when I was logged in to book a flight without the voucher. Clearly price gouging.Prior to this, I have never had a complaint flying qantas in years.

 

[L1925]

At least in the next 6 months or so, thing should get back to "normal" for QF.
Then we will start griping that this is not good, that is not good, ... what is the normal normal.
OP got seat 1A, with not too many people flying, that seat would have been easier to snag.
I would have gone for that seat, no matter how many points, if I had it.
Noting that VAver2 might not have a J, or if you believe some, might not be flying, or might be a total LCC, so the only choice if a person wants to fly "full/premium service" is with QF.
Lets just be satisfied that QF is not in the spot/slot that VA is now in, not knowing if their VFF will be with us in the next few months.

FYI, 1A was where the system placed me after the upgrade was approved the day prior. I logged in and there were only 2 other seats in J taken. When I got on the plane they were all full.

not sure what you mean by not many people flying, the plane was reasonably full, however some spare seats around if you wanted to move

 

[muppet]

Here is BA's offering. All in a box. The hot meal looks like it's disposable aluminium, but the presentation is nice: British Airways changes food on board – Business Traveller

No excuses for other airlines.

I wonder how the box limits the corona compared to serving it up on a tray.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Pics attached, i do intend to follow up with qantas formally when im back from sydney, thr lady on the helpdesk just wanted to argue so I just hung up.

essentially, pic 1 was the voucher screen, pic 2 was when I was logged in to book a flight without the voucher. Clearly price gouging.Prior to this, I have never had a complaint flying qantas in years.

How much was the voucher for? I know QF has stated they will be changing the vouchers so you no longer need to buy a fare of equal or greater value (than the voucher). But I'm not sure if that's in yet?

This disparity in pricing between using a voucher - or not - has been around for years. It's one of the reasons many on AFF advocated against converting to vouchers, and to always go for a full cash refund.

 

[muppet]

Pics attached, i do intend to follow up with qantas formally when im back from sydney, thr lady on the helpdesk just wanted to argue so I just hung up.

essentially, pic 1 was the voucher screen, pic 2 was when I was logged in to book a flight without the voucher. Clearly price gouging.Prior to this, I have never had a complaint flying qantas in years.

Usually the value of the new flight has to exceed the value of the voucher so it will assign you a fare class that is greater than the voucher even if a cheaper is available.

.... however i thought they suspended those rules.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I wonder how the box limits the corona compared to serving it up on a tray.

I'm guessing *in theory* that boxes makes for easy collection and trashing? Don't need to rearrange used items on trays to get them to fit into a meal cart, etc.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

FYI, 1A was where the system placed me after the upgrade was approved the day prior. I logged in and there were only 2 other seats in J taken. When I got on the plane they were all full.

not sure what you mean by not many people flying, the plane was reasonably full, however some spare seats around if you wanted to move

Thought that less were flying.

 

[AIRwin]

essentially, pic 1 was the voucher screen, pic 2 was when I was logged in to book a flight without the voucher.

Do you have another screenshot of pic 2 showing the same departure date (11 Jun 2020) as pic 1?

 

[Virgin Bart]

Usually the value of the new flight has to exceed the value of the voucher so it will assign you a fare class that is greater than the voucher even if a cheaper is available.

.... however i thought they suspended those rules.

Not yet. Mid June we're told. And I understand it's more a cessation than a suspension.

 

[Melburnian1]

Thought that less were flying.

Many fewer are flying. QF has been down to as little as one (or more often two) flights a day SYD - MEL or v.v. with one typically via CBR. This has increased a little and will do so (gradually) further, but still all that QFd is suggesting is by end of July 2020, '40 per cent' of (domestic) flights (by capacity) will be back.

That's a huge drop compared to a year ago. With the vast majority of international flights cancelled (and even if NZ - Oz is 'approved' for resumption, that'll still be the case), QF will continue to bleed cash.

 

[mstgrv]

Pics attached, i do intend to follow up with qantas formally when im back from sydney, thr lady on the helpdesk just wanted to argue so I just hung up.

essentially, pic 1 was the voucher screen, pic 2 was when I was logged in to book a flight without the voucher. Clearly price gouging.Prior to this, I have never had a complaint flying qantas in years.

FWIW I've always noticed this with Qantas, redeeming vouchers has always amount to being gouged

 

[RichardMEL]

At least in the next 6 months or so, thing should get back to "normal" for QF.

Where do you get six months from? Sorry Pooch but there's no way to know when anything will truly get back to any sort of normal, let alone QF meals, at this point in time. Way too many variables in play.

I reckon, more or less as you said, that these are such crazy times that to expect the most basic "service" or less for the time being. All airlines are doing it to one degree or another. It may or may not "help" in the age of Covid (and there's the aspect of minimal crew interactions which one presume is why no wine etc offered)...

Companies are being so very over cautious, and I reckon all of us understand why... given everything that is going on and I think this will be the norm for... a lot longer than people think.

The worst part is remembering the usual J offering on a QF transcon let alone a short/medium haul domestic flight is not the best as it is. We could but dream when things get back to some sort of normal the quality would improve... and yeah I'll win the lottery

 

[RichardMEL]

Pics attached, i do intend to follow up with qantas formally when im back from sydney, thr lady on the helpdesk just wanted to argue so I just hung up.

essentially, pic 1 was the voucher screen, pic 2 was when I was logged in to book a flight without the voucher. Clearly price gouging.Prior to this, I have never had a complaint flying qantas in years.

What sort of voucher exactly was it? A newly purchased gift voucher? A credit voucher?

A gift voucher has different terms to a credit voucher. Credit vouchers still have the original fare class and conditions attached and they often require an equal or higher fare be purchased, or even an higher fare *class* if that was a condition of he original booking conditions...

I'm not saying there's no gouging going on.. but it does help to be aware of any conditions attached to a particular voucher.

OTOH if it was a gift voucher, there should be no difference and then I would have called QF to get it done manually (I understand you had to book quickly to get to SYD for a funeral - and I am sorry for the loss you've experienced incidently - so calling and waiting around probably a step too far to bother with, but still).

I have noticed sometimes the online booking engine with gift couchers can sometimes force a higher, or flex, fare class for reasons that I have never worked out. When that has happened I've called....

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Note the inverted commas, not in the normal sense of normal.
In 6 months, we should know for sure what VAversion2 will be like, etc.
Yes, speculating is not an ideal.

 

[eminere]

Companies are being so very over cautious, and I reckon all of us understand why... given everything that is going on and I think this will be the norm for... a lot longer than people think.

I think many of these "cautious" measures will be retained for the longer term as really just cost-cutting masquerading under the guise of security and hygiene theatre.

 

[RichardMEL]

I think many of these "cautious" measures will be retained for the longer term as really just cost-cutting masquerading under the guise of security and hygiene theatre.

A cynic view but I don't disagree fully.

If VAversion2 emeerges as a LCC then it's likely moot to compare with QF offerings, specially in J. And even if they come back as "full service" it's likely they won't be splurging any sooner than QF would. imo

 

[eminere]

A cynic view but I don't disagree fully.

Part of my cynicism comes from the fact that history has already provided an example for us in fuel surcharges - a change that was instituted ostensibly in response to external factors at the time, but which has hung around to this day without any semblance to the contemporaneous reality of fuel prices.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Companies are being so very over cautious, and I reckon all of us understand why...

Actually no... I don't QF CEO tells us flying is so safe there is no need to keep the middle seat free. But also so unsafe the crew can't turn an oven on. Or hand out a mini bottle of wine.