What takes people from Qantas ?

[mrsterryn]

I'm not doing this is a bash Qantas ,to a degree, more so wondering the differences between Qantas and other carriers that fly out of Sydney/Melbourne
Husband and I are both Platinums
We fly Qantas now pretty much only . Have in the past pre AFF flown Cathay and without points accruing ( cue shock horror gasps I know)
We are fortunate that most long trips are Business or First on occasions. Silver LT is just done and now onto LTG.
We stay with Qantas partly because :
first class lounge in SYD and LAX
Enjoy the other one world lounges
Need the extra baggage on occasions
Enjoy having good chances of point upgrades
What is more positive including costs about the other carriers?
Why do other people move to different carriers ?

 

[serfty]

Interesting question.

Better service for the price paid?

 

[ajw373]

What would take me away from Qantas is I am going somewhere I cannot fly them, they are significantly more expensive or I am on a company try where they choose the cheapest fare.

Luckily for me they generally go where I want and are often the cheapest anyway.

Good example flying CBR-LHR-BKK-CBR in November. Flying Qantas*, the cost was $4800 for 2 adults and 2 children. The only airline that came close was BA at about $5000. Singapore airlines system wouldn't give me a price for the SIN-BKK-SIN dog leg, booked separately they wanted $7000 all up, Thai were about $6000 but from SYD not CBR, Emirates was about $5500 and the Cathay website wanted something silly, about $18,000, or closer to $8000 if HKG-BKK-HKG was booked seperate.

* LHR to BKK is via DXB on EK but booked on QF codeshare. Would have been better if Qantas codeshared or could sell the direct BA LHR-BKK flight.

 

[rocketboy]

Hard product and price are the determining factors for me. Mostly travelling solo on long journeys, I really prefer the 1-2-1 layout many airlines on the kangaroo route now offer in business. Qantas has been slow to upgrade and the A380 layout has quickly become dated. That said I was very impressed with the B787 business seat from LAX to Melbourne. Price wise, Qantas is much more competitive ex Europe than it is on fares out of Australia. So when the price is right, I will buy business and use points to play upgrade roulette, ignoring the fact that those points have actually added to the cost! Otherwise there are better business deals and better seats on several other airlines plying the kangaroo route.

 

[drron]

I left QFF 12 years ago because I could do a lot better with Aadvantage-just suited our travel.
Was treated very well by AA until the US takeover.Was still flying QF in and out of Australia to Asia.
In the last 18 months have only got to OWS-I am LTP with AA and mrsdrron LTG with QFF.

However I realised with my travel I could make BA gold with our usual travel just by changing to BA out of SYD.Paying for BA F is no dearer than QF J.So not travelled QFI since.So still get SYD Flounge access and premium lounge access on OW in the same fashion as a QF WP.

Once in Asia we travel predominantly on F awards on SQ-via Amex points-or Star alliance with lifemiles.The experience easily beats our QF F experiences.

 

[OATEK]

Being able to fly out of AU at 7am, 11am 2pm, 10pm or other variation to EU is increasingly useful to me depending on the required arrival time. QF have on flight a day out of SYD, CX have 4 times as many with connections all over EU. My next flight will be a 10pm option, arriving in London in the late afternoon, and only a few hours to fill in until hitting the sack.

 

[juddles]

As in all things, it is your personal situation and tastes.

I stuck with Qantas until now for two main reasons - I trust their pilots, and in all the complications of travel, I like to deal with an airline that is Australian which overcomes simple communication/cultural problems.

I am shying away from QF at the moment as have LTG and thus there is no SC benefit anymore, but that again is a personal situation thing. I think many jump ship in a blazing and outspoken way when they get peeved at something, but I suspect many drift back quietly once they realize all airlines have imperfections (yes, I do not like the Qantas website, but it is stellar compared to many)

Also I think it depends on the class you usually travel. IMHO Qantas is excellent at Y and PE, but most who travel in premium cabins enjoy the experience more that other airlines offer which are from countries with a more pandering manner in dealing with premium customers ( I did not mean pandering in a negative way - I mean that many cultures are far more customer-focussed than aussie culture)

 

[PineappleSkip]

I generally go for the best fare for the trip that will help me requal, with some consideration of the product and the total travel time. Work trips are to DXB en route to somewhere wierd, and these days the choices are CX or EK. UL is too circuitous to be a sensible option and middle east politics has rendered QR impossible. QF are fine, EK are fine, CX are fine, AY are fine, each has their good points and their foibles.

For my money CX hard product consistently the best in both the A330 and A350, EK is great in the A380, ordinary in the 777, AY very good in the A350, QF great in the A330, ordinary in the A380 and 747. For F lounges I'd rank from top to bottom CX the pier, EK Dubai A and B concourses, QF SYD and MEL, CX the wing, QF others, AY, BA, EK Dubai C concourse.

Cheers skip

 

[OZDUCK]

Of course in Perth Qantas (International) went away from me - completely for a while at least. Now they mostly run the 737 to Singapore from here and I am not flying International on that. The LHR flight is here but the price is not competitive, to me at least, with other airlines. e.g on random dates in October/November QR is nearly $3,000 cheaper for a return flight in J - I can put up with one stopover for that price difference.

 

[RooFlyer]

International:
When I joined this forum I was a 'Roo flyer', nearly always happy to choose Qantas to go TransPac (mainly), even when the client, who was paying for the flights, allowed me to choose the airline and route.

I started deliberately taking the business elsewhere about 4-5 years ago, in response to constant degradation of the FF program. Then there was their 'clever' move of hiding the fuel levy into the base fare when fuel prices fell. The J hard product was falling further behind their regional competition and I still remember the notorious 'Café breakfast'.

They pump the points out like there's no tomorrow via 'partners' and have a small Award seat inventory on popular routes, so 'frequent flyers' can't get the benefits promised.

I love the airline's safety record but they price their products as if they are ultra-premium. They simply aren't.

I like their lounges but can use them when flying CX, JL, AA or QR.

QR is by far my international airline of choice.

Domestic
Nearly always Virgin for quite a few years - very similar product and consistently cheaper. Much better aircraft and schedule into Hobart. For years Qantas put their coughpy B717 on Hobart flights and these were always late in the second half of the day.

 

[tobefree]

I'm more interested in the destination.. Flying buses serves their purpose with getting you from A to B. Simple as that.
Crew interest can be hit or miss. I've seen crew's façade just crumble with multiple 'first world' problems. But don't blame the other passengers onboard for wrecking your job.

 

[jgm]

I now only use QF for domestic flights WHEN they are cheaper than VA. The constant erosion of QF FF benefits and the downgrade of the airline itself means that the majority of my international travel is on *A. For me the ONLY top level 1W airlines that fly to Australia are QR & CX (the remainder are just glorified LCCs), while I have the opportunity of SQ, NH, NZ or TH.

 

[whughes3]

I switched a lot of my international flying away from QF a few years ago mostly in reaction to the relative decline of the hard product, in particular to the increasing use of the "domestic" 332 aircraft on international routes (this is now being slowly rectified now of course). I still fly QF just enough to retain Platinum (into my 15th straight year of this now, 16th coming up!) The majority of my international travel is now on SQ; while I am less than totally enamoured with them, they do have definite advantages in many situations.

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

Rationale for me depends on why and where i am flying. All my flying is done in Y:

Domestic Leisure
- Price
- Departure time

Usually will be a choice between Qantas and Virgin

Domestic Business
- Work has lowest fare of the day

International
- Availability of an alternative airline which has a day flight into Australia.
- Price

The day flight is huge and i will normally do a status run inter-Asia to reclaim gold status. It is just too hard to do flying solely domestically.

 

[stm1sydney]

Fundamentally, the reason people move away from Qantas is that they have the option to do so. Better product, service and price elsewhere. Some frequent flyers stick with QF, even knowing the above, because of the golden handcuffs of chasing LTG. But of course once you have secured LTG you very quickly move on, like RooFlyer.

 

[RichardMEL]

People will switch airlines for any number of reasons IMO.

As pointed out above by various posters:

- Price (BFOD)
- Schedule/Frequency
- Product offerings (both hard and soft)
- FF benefits/use
- Experiences (eg: XX treated me poorly one too many times I'm done with them)
- Longer term goals (eg: lifetime status)
- to see/try new things (eg: new SQ F suites)

For myself, I tend to mix and match for various reasons.. Sometimes the airline or alliance I might prefer doesn't fly directly to where I want to go, or connections/partner options are not as good, OR for example my other goals are met (for example, earlier this year I flew to ATL on UA because I'd already retained P1 with QF, but it suited my other goals to fly UA (yes, seriously lol). I do QF intra-aus exclusively.. I've never joined VA and have not flown it since it had the DJ code. That's just me. I had been thinking of throwing some love VA's way, but while I could easily make VA Plat, and the idea of redeeming points for SQ and EY appeal, the lack of lifetime status makes me feel it perhaps isn't worth it to me personally with where I am at. Be different for everyone though.

I like to have the flexibility to have options on multiple alliances - both for status and awards, but also for the wide spread of destinations. In recent years, for example, I've flown to PRG on Star making use of the LH MUC hub, and to YYG on UA and AC. These all suited for schedule, award avail and so on, and I was able to benefit in return FF wise.

QF's product decline is actually a factor. I'd certainly prefer a SQ or CX to Asia. I do think QF has a lot of reliance on "brand loyalty" to the flag carrier, the "I will only ever fly QF" brigade etc. Me? I'm happy to try other carriers, product and service. QF is very good in a number of areas, and poor in others. I recognise this and am not a complete fan boy. However the program, specially with P1, has given me a fair amount in return and the ability for F award release, upgrades etc to make it worth while to still keep business with them. However this year I've flown more miles on carriers other than QF and haven't minded it.

Also note for every pax who "leaves" QF, there's prob one leaving VA or NZ or whoever.

Each to their own.

 

[bsb]

Perhaps to try something different? I know everyone has an opinion, but both QF and (gasp) VA are pretty good and flying in Australia is a very pleasant experience compared to anywhere else in the world domestically that I’m aware of. I know there are better international products like QR but being based in AU with credit card points and lounges, I can’t see why you would leave .

 

[mviy]

but being based in AU with credit card points and lounges, I can’t see why you would leave .

That's where LTG (for those that reach it) comes in. In some ports there are no domestic J lounges but even where there are is it worth doing the spend to get Platinum if you have Gold for Life? Again with the international lounges Gold gets you into the Business Lounge regardless of which cabin you've booked on QF/JQ/OW or EK (on routes QF partners with them on) and if you want to go into the FLounges there can be cheaper ways to get the occasional visit than maintaining Platinum status. Gold has good access to point seats too so you don't need to keep flying QF revenue fares to get good access to classic reward seats.

If one has LTG and no longer desires to chase status then if one can afford to fly Business there's not much reason to fly QF if one can get a much cheaper price on a competitor that one is happy to fly.

However as I'm not yet even at LTS that point is a long way off for me so I'll most likely fly QF as much as possible for the foreseeable future.

 

[PineappleSkip]

If you can afford to (or need to) fly in business, there's little advantage in gold status, as you're probably going to get into a lounge on a J fare whether you are gold or Jack Africa from Yackandandah. WP/OWE has extra value in getting you into nicer lounges. And when it all goes pear shaped and flights get cancelled, WP/OWE is worth its weight in gold in getting you to the top of the rebooking pile. Cheers skip

 

[mviy]

Of course my comment was about flying J internationally but Y domestically like others have also mentioned earlier in the thread.

Yes WP is still better but only worth chasing if you still fly a lot if you have reached LTG.