What is Qantas playing at?

[Sprucegoose]

The apple thingy to slip into your luggage would almost sell itself, I reckpn. Not that Qantas would get it to the passenger any quicker!

Yes, I do this now (idea from this site) and learned from other 'savvy' travellers - always better to know where your assets are!

 

[Julesmac]

But I have points so I am obligated to use them. Even that procedure on line is ridiculous enough! No wonder I say bring back the olde days haha!

That toaster is looking like a viable alternative!

 

[Julesmac]

I agree. I used to be a Joyce proponent as Qantas was a business basket case and he turned it around somewhat, but now the Qantas brand has been trashed. I understand the share price and credit rating are important so that an airline can get funding for future aircraft purchases among other things, however the current state of Qantas is clearly not in the long term interests of the shareholders.

Further to the trashing* of the brand, Joyce has effectively created a culture war between customers and shareholders. This is not sustainable for the airline and if I were a shareholder I'd be seriously angry (family members of mine were shareholders in the last 12 months - not anymore).

*when there are nationally televised comedy skits lampooning the current appalling service, when forums are overflowing with bad stories, when pretty much every major news outlet (newspapers, TV, online journals) in Australia have reported serious Qantas service issues - it's making national headlines; your brand is trashed.

You wonder what previous CEOs of Qantas would make of all this - Covid aside - (how long can they trot out that excuse) every aspect of the "service" has deteriorated. And not just a little bit

 

[Mzungu]

So, with all this brazen continuation of Qantas KRAPP, I now have to ask..... Why are you all so stupid to continue patronising such an ordinary airline?? I have to ask whether these issues are because of you persevering with them, assuming they are better than the hopeless organisation that they so consumately ARE!!

Wake up!! Change airlines! They are not going to change, so move on. Please? Then we don't have to read the predictable tales of woe that you continue to spout! Fly Emirates, Singapore.... anything other than Qantas. Why stuff around in a Q???

 

[RooFlyer]

So, with all this brazen continuation of Qantas KRAPP, I now have to ask..... Why are you all so stupid to continue patronising such an ordinary airline?? I have to ask whether these issues are because of you persevering with them, assuming they are better than the hopeless organisation that they so consumately ARE!!

Wake up!! Change airlines! They are not going to change, so move on. Please? Then we don't have to read the predictable tales of woe that you continue to spout! Fly Emirates, Singapore.... anything other than Qantas. Why stuff around in a Q???

Dab thy fevered brow! A number of us have voted with our feet and wallets. QFF Plat for 15 years, Virgin/Qatar/Singapore Air are my mainstays now, with Finnair for Europe.

 

[AIRwin]

So, with all this brazen continuation of Qantas KRAPP, I now have to ask..... Why are you all so stupid to continue patronising such an ordinary airline?? I have to ask whether these issues are because of you persevering with them, assuming they are better than the hopeless organisation that they so consumately ARE!!

Wake up!! Change airlines! They are not going to change, so move on. Please? Then we don't have to read the predictable tales of woe that you continue to spout! Fly Emirates, Singapore.... anything other than Qantas. Why stuff around in a Q???

It's a Lifetime (status) sentence...

 

[Pagans]

Sounds similar to my son and his wife ,a few hours before their expected flight Perth to London got a phone call from Qantas service centre saying their flight was cancelled. While my son was trying to comprehend what was going on his wife thinking it was a scam call checked their flight itinerary and found before even asking they had already changed their flight. My son had requested a special diet for his wife he asked is that still okay assured it was. They caught their flight Singapore then onto London. The flight from hell, broken seat for my son and no entertainment for the wife plus no meal ,as the plane landed one apple and banana was provided, plus surrounded by six screaming babies. Complaining to Qantas afterwards received a robotic message saying sorry you weren't happy with the catering provided. To top it all their original flight was never cancelled it was one big lie. So dishonesty is all part of the service.

 

[Sprucegoose]

So, with all this brazen continuation of Qantas KRAPP, I now have to ask..... Why are you all so stupid to continue patronising such an ordinary airline?? I have to ask whether these issues are because of you persevering with them, assuming they are better than the hopeless organisation that they so consumately ARE!!

Wake up!! Change airlines! They are not going to change, so move on. Please? Then we don't have to read the predictable tales of woe that you continue to spout! Fly Emirates, Singapore.... anything other than Qantas. Why stuff around in a Q???

Most things work ok upon reflection. To me, they don't represent the best value, so I do vote with my feet........the fact is the two-airline policy has been around since the 1940s Under the policy, only two airlines were allowed to operate flights between state capital cities and between capitals and nominated regional centres. The Two Airlines Policy was a legal barrier to new entrants to the Australian aviation market, and market forces (deregulation 1990) now maintain an artificial yet effective barrier to further competition.

Qantas has changed considerably and granted doesn't always meet our expectations, I have learned to change my reaction when things don't go right. We are still far from our worst days.

 

[jase05]

So, with all this brazen continuation of Qantas KRAPP, I now have to ask..... Why are you all so stupid to continue patronising such an ordinary airline?? I have to ask whether these issues are because of you persevering with them, assuming they are better than the hopeless organisation that they so consumately ARE!!

Wake up!! Change airlines! They are not going to change, so move on. Please? Then we don't have to read the predictable tales of woe that you continue to spout! Fly Emirates, Singapore.... anything other than Qantas. Why stuff around in a Q???

Domestically QF still have the best network and die to my work I’m required to fly with them. For leisure it’s nearly all with VA and for International it’s pretty rare I choose QF. Really only use them on points to get to/from MNL or CGK

 

[JohnK]

So, with all this brazen continuation of Qantas KRAPP, I now have to ask..... Why are you all so stupid to continue patronising such an ordinary airline?? I have to ask whether these issues are because of you persevering with them, assuming they are better than the hopeless organisation that they so consumately ARE!!

Wake up!! Change airlines! They are not going to change, so move on. Please? Then we don't have to read the predictable tales of woe that you continue to spout! Fly Emirates, Singapore.... anything other than Qantas. Why stuff around in a Q???

Domestically Qantas is still better.

Internationally I have moved our travel to SQ but if SQ continues with the A350 economy to SE Asia I need to find an alternative quick or I'll lose my sanity.

 

[FishFood]

So, with all this brazen continuation of Qantas KRAPP, I now have to ask..... Why are you all so stupid to continue patronising such an ordinary airline?? I have to ask whether these issues are because of you persevering with them, assuming they are better than the hopeless organisation that they so consumately ARE!!

Wake up!! Change airlines! They are not going to change, so move on. Please? Then we don't have to read the predictable tales of woe that you continue to spout! Fly Emirates, Singapore.... anything other than Qantas. Why stuff around in a Q???

I have a hefty points balance that I plan to slowly burn down with reward bookings, however new points earn and cash tickets I plan to move to VA. Could be a couple of years to disentangle myself from QF

 

[tdimdad]

My son had requested a special diet for his wife he asked is that still okay assured it was. They caught their flight Singapore then onto London. The flight from hell, broken seat for my son and no entertainment for the wife plus no meal ,as the plane landed one apple and banana was provided...

I pressed QF Customer Service on the lack of special meals and got this reply. Based on it, you need to prepare to take your own sandwiches onboard, true JQ style...
Most people can ride out a 5-hour flight on an apple and banana but a 14 hours SIN-LHR usually needs something substantial (unless you are e.g. intermittently fasting and timing yourself based on the flight).

"Please accept our apologies for the fact that your special meal was not provided on your flight. We sympathise with the impact that the above-mentioned had on your in-flight experience and can assure you that your experience is not a reflection of the level of service that we strive to deliver to our customers.

While we sympathise, when making a booking, as you did, booking terms and conditions are displayed, and customers must acknowledge they have read and accept the Fare Conditions and the Conditions of Carriage in order to proceed with the booking.

As per our Conditions of Carriage, should the service of special meals be available on your selected flight, we will try to ensure that if you have requested a dietary or religious special meal when you make your reservation, it is available. However, we do not guarantee we will be able to supply your requested special meal."

 

[CaptJCool]

I have a hefty points balance that I plan to slowly burn down with reward bookings, however new points earn and cash tickets I plan to move to VA. Could be a couple of years to disentangle myself from QF

We could walk away from the points....

but it’s not a coffee club card where the loss felt is a mere $4.....

so we make the best of the situation like @Sprucegoose mentioned in his post, and keep plonking along.

ima big fan of horses for courses and no great desire to be domestically sampling across the board (QF, THE NOW new VA, JQ, Rex) - a one hour flight really doesn’t give me motivation to switch to another operator - perhaps because I did the “sit in the terminal” gig before obtaining status and then getting into the J reward (double) status credits On a Domestic leg of an international flight ($129, $159 fares (Sydney 1st lounge boozing up on Tattinger champagne, and those fairy floss desserts) as the Adelaide lounge has no great tricks to keep me interested let alone amused - securing lifetime gold opens up the door to new opportunities knowing there’s a fallback if and when needed

whats important is not the service disruptions. They are inevitable so there’s no point being precious about it, but rather the service recovery that follows points of failure - the gripes seem more to be about the disinterest of the operator to addressing the real and genuine issues that arise from a change in flying time or date, the shifting sands of which seat you score and the bumping of paying customers to accommodate staff family members on long haul flights. Oh plus the loss of “fussing over” one experiences with novice hosties or long termers who don’t choose to “bend the so-called “work to rule” rules they enact over on-board service.... thank god the Perth - Adelaide flights are now barely 2-3 hours long instead of 4-5 hours. Their onboard service “rules” were incredibly draconian.

PS as well, we underestimate the impact on staffing - many left and didn’t come back which has caused novices to be running trolleys down aisles .... plus of course extensive absences meaning less flight capacity so more seats on the smaller number of flights which otherwise we not sold are now bought at more expensive prices. Best normal example is the flight prices for major sports events (Eg A-league soccer finals (but not now they’ll all be preordained held in Sydney similar to preordained AFL grand final) but with late bookings bloating on price

 

[Sprucegoose]

PS as well, we underestimate the impact on staffing - many left and didn’t come back which has caused novices to be running trolleys down aisles ..

Indeed, my observations are experienced managers are leading new, green, inexperienced staff. This is quite noticeable, and while this may work, it certainly doesn't represent the more experienced and supportive work environment that was in play prior to covid.

 

[Lynda2475]

Except on board, I don't think I've seen a flight attendant aged under 50 on any QF domestic flight I've taken this year.

 

[boko56]

I wouldn't bother with the Airline Customer Advocate (ACA), a toothless tiger!

I have written to them to sort out a reward flight ticketing issue, spelt out on previous thread here where it's been issued with my name mispelt. Sent in October, response date was 30th November, 3 phone calls and 2 e-mails since not heard anything from them. What was your experience?

 

[boko56]

I have a hefty points balance that I plan to slowly burn down with reward bookings, however new points earn and cash tickets I plan to move to VA. Could be a couple of years to disentangle myself from QF

My plan exactly, but not simple to do. Booked some reward seats with Qantas flying with West Jet from the UK to Canada. Booked and got the itinerary. 24 hours later went on to book seats and saw they were cancelled? Called Cape Town who got me one leg back but was cut off after 20 minutes (is this the longest they are allowed to stay on a call?) Called back got another agent who told me the booking could not be re booked and I should book another. Which I did with some changes as reward availability had changed. Paid my fees for all of the flights though.
Over the last 24 hours all of the tickets for all of the flights , even those shown previously as cancelled have now come through. Now have 2 trips for 2 people on the same flight out and 2 trips with slightly different routing for 2 people on the way back

Really looking forward to sorting this out

 

[Guvner]

So, with all this brazen continuation of Qantas KRAPP, I now have to ask..... Why are you all so stupid to continue patronising such an ordinary airline?? I have to ask whether these issues are because of you persevering with them, assuming they are better than the hopeless organisation that they so consumately ARE!!

Wake up!! Change airlines! They are not going to change, so move on. Please? Then we don't have to read the predictable tales of woe that you continue to spout! Fly Emirates, Singapore.... anything other than Qantas. Why stuff around in a Q???

Not sure labelling people as stupid is in line with AFF standards, but if that’s how you roll then good for you. Like others I am trying to burn down points accumulated over many years. If you don’t want to read “predictable tales of woe” and have “moved on” then why do you even frequent the Qantas threads?

 

[antycbr]

My plan exactly, but not simple to do. Booked some reward seats with Qantas flying with West Jet from the UK to Canada. Booked and got the itinerary. 24 hours later went on to book seats and saw they were cancelled? Called Cape Town who got me one leg back but was cut off after 20 minutes (is this the longest they are allowed to stay on a call?) Called back got another agent who told me the booking could not be re booked and I should book another. Which I did with some changes as reward availability had changed. Paid my fees for all of the flights though.
Over the last 24 hours all of the tickets for all of the flights , even those shown previously as cancelled have now come through. Now have 2 trips for 2 people on the same flight out and 2 trips with slightly different routing for 2 people on the way back

Really looking forward to sorting this out

WS is one of many QF partners where unticketed reservations are auto-cancelled after 24 hours (in some cases less than 24 hours!) I’ve had the exact same experience as you…

The fault is on QF because they would know about ticketing timeline requirements, but don’t resource their ticketing department appropriately to adhere to partner requirements.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Except on board, I don't think I've seen a flight attendant under aged 50 on any QF domestic flight I've taken this year.

I was referencing VA, flying QF in a few weeks, Ill gather a list of ID's !