So far, since my first Qantas flight when I was three months old, I’ve racked up 296 flights with our de facto national carrier. I like flying with Qantas – most of the time – and most of my experiences with Qantas in the air have been great.
Like most Australians, I want the company to succeed. Qantas does a lot of things really well, and it has managed to capture the loyalty and even the pride of many Australians. But, like many Qantas frequent flyers, I’ve also experienced my fair share of things that the airline could do better.
In this article, I share the things I think Qantas does really well. I’ll follow this up with an article about areas where I think Qantas could improve.
I’ll say upfront that this is just my personal opinion. You may agree or disagree with some or all of my points, and that’s absolutely fine! I invite AFF members to share what they agree and disagree with, and what they think Qantas does and doesn’t do well, in the comments thread linked at the bottom of this article.
Let’s start with the things Qantas does well most of the time…
Contents
Friendly on-board service
There are always going to be a few exceptions on every airline. But I generally find that Qantas cabin crew deliver friendly, personable service that’s just the right mix of professional and casual. On many occasions, the on-board crew have been the difference between a good and a great Qantas flight. In my opinion, they are one of the airline’s best assets.
Safety
Pretty much every airline licensed to operate commercial flights in Australia is safe. But Qantas’ long-standing safety record in the modern era is especially impressive. When I fly with Qantas, I have full confidence that the pilots are highly trained and that the whole organisation takes safety very seriously. The skill shown by Qantas pilots in dealing with incidents like QF30, QF32 or QF72 demonstrates this.
Good airport lounges
Overall, I think Qantas has a pretty good network of airport lounges. It has domestic lounges at 24 Australian airports – more than triple the number of its closest competitor – as well as its own international lounges at international airports.
Some of these lounges are truly world-class, particularly the international First Class lounges in Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore. These lounges alone are so good, in fact, that some people spend many thousands of dollars with Qantas each year to maintain their Platinum status – just so they can gain entry. I especially like the dining in the Qantas Singapore First Lounge.
Qantas’ domestic Business Lounges are great. The spice bar in Melbourne and pizza bar in Perth are nice touches. Many of the domestic Qantas Club and lounges are very nice, too, and I appreciate that Qantas has regional lounges at smaller airports like Tamworth or Broome.
Yes, some of the lounges are in need of a refurbishment – such as the Qantas Club in Hobart or the Sydney international Business Lounge. But as an overall network, the lounges aren’t bad at all.
Wide-body planes on trans-continental flights
As a passenger, I like that Qantas offers the choice to fly on a wide-body Airbus A330 with lie-flat Business suites between Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
If you choose your flight carefully, you can even fly on a Boeing 787 departing from the international terminal between Sydney and Perth (e.g. when booking QF33). This is a much better experience than flying a Boeing 737 on the competition.
Large domestic and international network
Qantas has fairly comprehensive domestic, regional and international networks. It has the most domestic destinations of any Australian airline, including many smaller regional centres which are served by QantasLink’s trusty Dash 8s.
Qantas also flies to every inhabited continent on earth, with direct connections to far-flung destinations including Johannesburg, Santiago and London. And if Qantas doesn’t fly somewhere, you can probably get there on Emirates or a Oneworld alliance partner.
Oneworld alliance membership
Speaking of Oneworld, Qantas’ membership in this alliance is a big plus for frequent flyers. All of the other Oneworld alliance airlines recognise and reciprocate Qantas status, and they deliver the promised benefits consistently.
Thanks to Oneworld, Qantas Gold and Platinum members can use Cathay Pacific lounges when flying Finnair from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai or London – to give just an example. As another example, Qantas Platinum status allows you to choose an exit row seat for free when flying British Airways or Cathay Pacific. It’s pretty nice!
Qantas’ Oneworld membership also opens up more ways to earn points and status credits, and to redeem Qantas points.
It just makes life so much easier for Qantas frequent flyers travelling abroad. The Qantas loyalty proposition would be significantly weaker without Oneworld.
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Free, fast Wi-Fi for all on domestic flights
Qantas doesn’t just offer high-speed Wi-Fi on its domestic Boeing 737, Airbus A220 and Airbus A330-200 flights. As an added bonus, it’s free for all passengers – not just Business Class or Platinum guests.
Qantas’ on-board Wi-Fi works well, too. At least, it does while you’re flying over Australia…
Free seat selection for (almost) everyone
Qantas is a full-service airline, so it offers inclusions that budget and “value” carriers do not. One of these is complimentary seat selection on almost all tickets.
There are a couple of catches. For example, this benefit is only available on international routes when you book direct with Qantas and are a Qantas Frequent Flyer member. And Qantas still charges for seat selection on Economy Sale tickets purchased outside of Australia, unless you have Qantas status. (A family member recently learned this the hard way when buying a one-way ticket back from New Zealand.)
Free alcohol in Economy
On Qantas domestic flights, you can get beer or wine for free on most flights departing after noon. Flights lasting more than two hours get complimentary booze after 9am.
On most international flights (except trans-Tasman services departing before 9am), you can even get sparkling wine, spirits and basic cocktails (like a Bloody Mary or gin & tonic) for no additional charge. This is no longer a given on some other full-service airlines around the world.
The Qantas App
Qantas IT is a constant source of criticism and ridicule on the AFF forum, but I think the airline has done a pretty good job with its App. It works fairly well and offers some useful features including baggage tracking, inbound plane tracking and the ability to request an upgrade with points. The airline is currently investing in even more new features for the App, and it will be good to see these coming online.
Customer service via Facebook
Over the past years, it hasn’t always been easy to access skilled and timely customer service from Qantas. The call centres – at least, the ones that most people who aren’t a Platinum One or Chairmans Lounge member have to deal with – have been a huge source of complaints.
But I’ve recently rediscovered Qantas’ social media accounts, and have been pleased with the customer service I’ve received by simply messaging Qantas on Facebook. You probably need to wait several hours for a reply, but the social media accounts are managed by Qantas staff in the Auckland contact centre, and they’re usually on the ball. I trust them not to screw up my bookings!
Lifetime Gold status
Qantas Frequent Flyer offers three lifetime status tiers: Silver, Gold and Platinum. There aren’t that many benefits with lifetime Silver, and the target to attain lifetime Platinum is totally unrealistic for most people. But lifetime Gold is a great “sweet spot”.
Qantas’ lifetime status tiers are a great incentive for people to continue flying Qantas each year, even after they’ve already earned enough status credits to renew their tier for another year. The lifetime Gold level is an attractive and attainable enough target to keep many people loyal to Qantas who would have otherwise considered switching airlines.
Platinum One status
Qantas’ decision to launch a Platinum One status tier in 2011 was really clever. Requiring around triple the number of status credits compared to Platinum status – with most of them from Qantas-marketed flights – Platinum One is hard to earn. Yet, the lure of Platinum One is just enough of an incentive for small handful of people to spend way more with Qantas than they would have otherwise considered.
Most people who have Platinum One status say that it’s nice to have. Some will admit that the tangible benefits probably don’t justify the amount of money they had to spend to get it. Nonetheless, Qantas does tend to look after its Platinum One members well. Direct access to the VIP Service Team, surprise upgrades, invitations to visit the Chairmans Lounge and event invitations (including to Taylor Swift last year) are especially nice perks.
Points Club
One of the reasons Qantas Frequent Flyer is so successful is that there are so many parts to the program that attract different types of people. The Points Club program, which launched in 2020, is particularly interesting as it’s specifically designed to reward people who earn lots of points from non-flying activities.
I really like Points Club because of the ability to earn status credits on Classic Reward flights, helping me to maintain my Qantas status. Because I value this benefit, I make an extra effort to earn at least 150,000 points each year. This incentive is enough to influence which credit cards I choose to apply for, and encourages me to buy wine from Qantas instead of other retailers.
I’d say Points Club is a win-win for both members and Qantas!
Pyjamas on most long-haul Business and First Class flights
Qantas is one of just a handful of airlines that provides pyjamas in Business and First Class on long-haul flights. In 2024, the airline even expanded this to cover most daytime flights from Australia to Asia.
It’s probably a gimmick, but I do find the Qantas pyjamas really comfortable. And it’s nice to be able to change out of your clothes during a long-haul flight, as it keeps them fresh for when you arrive at your destination.
Celebrating passengers’ birthdays
If you fly on your birthday, most airlines are unlikely to even know, let alone acknowledge this.
Numerous people have told me how surprised and delighted they were that Qantas cabin crew not only wished them a happy birthday on their special day, but even gave them a small gift. I’ve heard of people getting cakes, baseball caps, extra drinks and most recently, an AFF member even received a bottle of wine as they left the plane.
This happens frequently enough that I think the company must make it easy for its cabin crew to see if anyone on board is celebrating a birthday. It’s great that the crew also then take the initiative to do something special for those people. These are small things that cost very little, but that people will appreciate and remember.
Making money
Qantas may have had its share of financial problems over the years, but in recent times it’s been highly profitable.
Some might argue that some of those shareholder returns have come at the expense of service reductions, exorbitant COVID-era airfares and delayed capital expenditure, and Qantas has had to increase spending over the past year to compensate for some of the cost-cutting of the Joyce era. But on the whole, Qantas’ consistent profits and strong share price speak for themselves.
Influencing politicians and the media
This might be a controversial take, but I think Qantas does a very effective job of lobbying for its interests in Canberra and getting free publicity.
Time and time again, Qantas has been able to successfully lobby the Australian government for outcomes that it wants. Some examples include blocking Qatar Airways from increasing its flights to Australia, and ensuring the Aviation White Paper didn’t recommend a European-style compensation scheme for flight delays and cancellations. Arguably, both of those things would have been in the national interest but not in Qantas’ interest.
Some have argued that Qantas has too much soft power in Canberra, and that bribing gifting politicians with Chairmans Lounge membership is a conflict of interest. Either way, you have to give Qantas credit for using the tools at its disposal to legally, effectively and successfully advocate for its own interests.
The airline similarly does an excellent job of generating free publicity for itself. It has a strong PR team that knows many journalists will blindly report anything the airline announces as fact, and will give glowing coverage in exchange for a free trip.
To give just one example: Qantas hasn’t even launched its Project Sunrise flights yet. At this stage, the first passenger flight won’t take off until 2027. Yet, Qantas has already made headlines around the world countless times for these flights by running test flights and drip-feeding details about the choice of aircraft, cabin features, research studies and more. It’s seriously clever PR that takes full advantage of a gullible media. And yes, I understand the irony of me writing this. 😉
What do you think?
So, those are the things I think Qantas does especially well. You can read about the things I think Qantas doesn’t do so well here.
You can share your own thoughts on the things you think Qantas does and doesn’t do well on the AFF forum:
