juddles
Suspended
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2011
- Posts
- 5,283
- Qantas
- Platinum 1
Hi all,
Just pondering some things. Which I am sharing as I value all perspectives.
I am a frequent flyer in that for personal reasons I travel continuously between Australia and South America at the moment. I am self-funded (for those that care about this), and I am overly tall, and thus always seeking to minimize the pain of travel.
I love Qantas, as a concept, and also due to many many good experiences over the years. But I am also not a fan boy who blindly follows and forgives them.
There is endless discussion in this forum about QF versus the rest of the airlines out there. I think I have a fairly balanced view, and thus I hear what some people value in other airlines. But I still have this thing about Qantas.
I feel that airlines in general suffer from being in an almost unique position where it is essentially sheer survival. I know I will be attacked for this, but I truly believe that Alan Joyce is very good at his job. He is keeping afloat an airline in an international market where all the basics would suggest that QF is meant to lose. It is a market where pax buy on price above all else, but he (QF) have some some similar cost bases, but in staff they are at a disadvantage. So he has to make it work despite this handicap.
What I most want to discuss and get opinions here is about that higher cost (not just dollars) that is staff. And also how Aussie traditions or realities make this harder.
Again I say, feel free to throw stones. I have an extremely thick skin, and at the end of the day I want to hear people’s points of view.
So to start this discussion I want to share my reality, as a frequent pax on QF. I have done the trans-pacific haul between Australia and Chile too many times to remember. This has been sometimes a bitter experience.
My take on the whole thing is that my enjoyment of these flights is hampered by staff. Not by the aircraft, the hard product. Not by the booking system or tech issues. But by the simple experiences of interaction with staff.
I can only express what I feel, my experiences. And what I, in my ignorance, feels to be the case. But I want to express those in a positive way, not to mindlessly attack Qantas, but rather to shed light on why one frequent pax is jaded.
I used to always fly J on this route. The hard product better than the competition. But for almost a year now I have only ever booked in PE. I started this for economy (saving money), but it broached a thing that I suspect is a much higher problem for QF. I have actually enjoyed my PE flights more than the J ones.
How on earth can this be?? I am flying in a much reduced hard-product, but I like the trips more??????
I am not against older staff. A good crew member who has years of experience is a wonderful thing. But what I have experienced (and not on a single trip) is that QF seem to have a huge body of staff that due to seniority get the favourable routes, and they really have lost that capacity to focus on the pax experience.
Essentially what I have found, in my experiences, is that the more junior crew who do PE have been better, again generally, than the crew I get in J. I understand this ( I think) in the sense that in QF, in Australia, that we protect senior staff. That we have unions etc that protect the interests of workers.
But I really am feeling that this is an area that keeps Qantas behind. I have had many interactions with staff that if I was the employer I would have sacked them on the spot due to the harm they were causing. But I have also discovered that if I drop down a notch, and fly PE, I get a much more reliable good service from staff.
How can Qantas be a first rate airline when the very essence of that, the requirement for pax to feel loved, is undermined by a system where staff are secure and do not have to provide this??
Just pondering some things. Which I am sharing as I value all perspectives.
I am a frequent flyer in that for personal reasons I travel continuously between Australia and South America at the moment. I am self-funded (for those that care about this), and I am overly tall, and thus always seeking to minimize the pain of travel.
I love Qantas, as a concept, and also due to many many good experiences over the years. But I am also not a fan boy who blindly follows and forgives them.
There is endless discussion in this forum about QF versus the rest of the airlines out there. I think I have a fairly balanced view, and thus I hear what some people value in other airlines. But I still have this thing about Qantas.
I feel that airlines in general suffer from being in an almost unique position where it is essentially sheer survival. I know I will be attacked for this, but I truly believe that Alan Joyce is very good at his job. He is keeping afloat an airline in an international market where all the basics would suggest that QF is meant to lose. It is a market where pax buy on price above all else, but he (QF) have some some similar cost bases, but in staff they are at a disadvantage. So he has to make it work despite this handicap.
What I most want to discuss and get opinions here is about that higher cost (not just dollars) that is staff. And also how Aussie traditions or realities make this harder.
Again I say, feel free to throw stones. I have an extremely thick skin, and at the end of the day I want to hear people’s points of view.
So to start this discussion I want to share my reality, as a frequent pax on QF. I have done the trans-pacific haul between Australia and Chile too many times to remember. This has been sometimes a bitter experience.
My take on the whole thing is that my enjoyment of these flights is hampered by staff. Not by the aircraft, the hard product. Not by the booking system or tech issues. But by the simple experiences of interaction with staff.
I can only express what I feel, my experiences. And what I, in my ignorance, feels to be the case. But I want to express those in a positive way, not to mindlessly attack Qantas, but rather to shed light on why one frequent pax is jaded.
I used to always fly J on this route. The hard product better than the competition. But for almost a year now I have only ever booked in PE. I started this for economy (saving money), but it broached a thing that I suspect is a much higher problem for QF. I have actually enjoyed my PE flights more than the J ones.
How on earth can this be?? I am flying in a much reduced hard-product, but I like the trips more??????
I am not against older staff. A good crew member who has years of experience is a wonderful thing. But what I have experienced (and not on a single trip) is that QF seem to have a huge body of staff that due to seniority get the favourable routes, and they really have lost that capacity to focus on the pax experience.
Essentially what I have found, in my experiences, is that the more junior crew who do PE have been better, again generally, than the crew I get in J. I understand this ( I think) in the sense that in QF, in Australia, that we protect senior staff. That we have unions etc that protect the interests of workers.
But I really am feeling that this is an area that keeps Qantas behind. I have had many interactions with staff that if I was the employer I would have sacked them on the spot due to the harm they were causing. But I have also discovered that if I drop down a notch, and fly PE, I get a much more reliable good service from staff.
How can Qantas be a first rate airline when the very essence of that, the requirement for pax to feel loved, is undermined by a system where staff are secure and do not have to provide this??