Disappointing, Qantas

[Rebekkap]

Flew to Perth this week, on the way I went Virgin in J, flew back Qantas in J.

Virgin experience was pretty good. Nice new plane (A330), comfortable lie-flat seats, nice big TV screens, and importantly for me, a choice of entrees, mains and desserts. Plus different sorts of tea.

Qantas last night - not so much. Also an A330, with lie-flat seats, but that's where it began and ended as far as I was concerned.

It took them about an hour and a half to start service. Pretty poor to start with. Wasn't bumpy or anything, just didn't seem to be bothering.

Once they finally started, when they got to us, my colleague seated next to me was given a little pack of nuts, I wasn't and had to ask.

Then when they FINALLY got to food, they didn't have a choice of entrees, only mushroom soup. I didn't fancy it, so thought oh well, I'll wait for mains.

When they brought round mains, they'd only got one choice - a fish pie, which frankly looked revolting (my colleague commented that it looked like it had already been eaten and regurgitated).

I told the flight attendent I don't eat fish. They said "Oh, we had a salad, but we've run out." No kidding, I thought, looking at the pie.

I asked for some bread. They'd run out.

Eventually, they brought me some bland chicken and rice, and said "This is a crew meal - someone's gone without so you can eat" - a comment I felt was truly inappropriate.

No choice of different flavours of tea or anything, and the dessert was either cheese or a small tub of Maggie Beer ice-cream - fine, but not exactly the standard you expect in J.

And no choice of tea - just bog standard too strong airline tea.

No-one at any point offered to hang my jacket for me. The service was largely pretty surly.

I was pretty disappointed.

 

[medhead]

Did you offer the crew member your fish pie? Or better yet ask: "the fish pie not good enough for the crew?"


Sent from the Throne

 

[Must...Fly!]

Please fill in the feedback form on the QF website. I know some will say why should I bother going out of my way, but if QF don't know what's broken they can't fix it. Clearly this J crew need some re-training at the very least. List everything that was not up to your expectation.

Catering sounds mediocre.

 

[simongr]

Please fill in the feedback form on the QF website. I know some will say why should I bother going out of my way, but if QF don't know what's broken they can't fix it. Clearly this J crew need some re-training at the very least. List everything that was not up to your expectation.

Catering sounds mediocre.

Please do this! Be specific and clear about the issues. Even if you wont fly them again due to this - it might help the rest of us who will fly them.

S

 

[Rebekkap]

Did you offer the crew member your fish pie? Or better yet ask: "the fish pie not good enough for the crew?"

God I wish I'd thought of that!

I am going to give Qantas feedback. I'm just waiting til I no longer feel the need to be quite so sarcastic.

 

[brett-au]

I have heard similar tales and often thought that its crazy that people are paying (I assume) more for better service and not having enough meals for everyone to have their first choice.

Its incredibly simple. Increase the number of meals in business class and decrease the number in economy. I was on a singapore airlines flight in economy, and the flight attendant was very upset that they ran out of the meal I wanted. Not more than 10 minutes later I was given an awesome seafood & noodle dish from J. So instead of upseting the premium flyers just appologise to those in the back of the plane and offer them a business class meal (of regurgitated fish) instead.

 

[Rebekkap]

I have heard similar tales and often thought that its crazy that people are paying (I assume) more for better service and not having enough meals for everyone to have their first choice.

Its incredibly simple. Increase the number of meals in business class and decrease the number in economy. I was on a singapore airlines flight in economy, and the flight attendant was very upset that they ran out of the meal I wanted. Not more than 10 minutes later I was given an awesome seafood & noodle dish from J. So instead of upseting the premium flyers just appologise to those in the back of the plane and offer them a business class meal (of regurgitated fish) instead.

Paying considerably more, I'd have thought! I don't know exactly how much, as it was booked with regional flights in the same booking, and I only have the total price.

But there are a lot of people who don't eat fish - surely a good reason to carry more of the other meal, if you're only going to have two choices (and I note there were three main meal options on Virgin in J)

 

[here2go]

If the Queen doesn't eat seafood while travelling, why should any airline thrust it upon its customers? (although it does resolve issues of keeping those with religious restrictions who didn't order a special meal a meat based dish)

One does not eat salad and shellfish while one is away - timesofmalta.com

To be honest, I can't disagree with HRH's logic. I was on the inaugural PX POM-SIN A300 flight in 1984 as a kid (I still remember the TAA logo on the trolleys). Those who ate fish, regurgitated it too! Likewise, I've had visitors come to visit DRW get food poisoning from the barramundi at two different and highly popular restaurants.

For this reason, I prefer vegetarian when flying long distance.

 

[Rebekkap]

If the Queen doesn't eat seafood while travelling, why should any airline thrust it upon its customers? (although it does resolve issues of keeping those with religious restrictions who didn't order a special meal a meat based dish)

One does not eat salad and shellfish while one is away - timesofmalta.com

To be honest, I can't disagree with HRH's logic. I was on the inaugural PX POM-SIN A300 flight in 1984 as a kid (I still remember the TAA logo on the trolleys). Those who ate fish, regurgitated it too! Likewise, I've had visitors come to visit DRW get food poisoning from the barramundi at two different and highly popular restaurants.

For this reason, I prefer vegetarian when flying long distance.

I've never had food poisoning, but I would think offering a vegetarian option would solve several potential issues (and I ate the very tasty vegetarian pasta option on Virgin on Monday).

 

[Rebekkap]

Just to give you all an update, I have now complained, in detail, to Qantas.

 

[dk4]

Rebekkap, you didn't miss much, here's QF's idea of a domestic business class "main course salad"! (Only fractionally more than what Virgin serves as a "side salad", to complement its transcon business main courses.)

From PDB to "jackets returned in a coat bag", IME Virgin is simply a notch higher across all aspects of its service (soft and hard) when comparing coast to coast domestic configured wide-body flights.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Rebekkap - 2 things on QF;
1) QF can be hit and miss. Crew make all the difference. Ask anyone on AFF, they will more than likely say the same. When is your next QF J flight? Would you be able to give us some feedback on it?

2)Can l ask, how old are you, or an age bracket?
I'm in the 25-35 bracket and feel that because l'm younger than the average in J flyer and wear casual clothing, get treated differently in J. Not saying this as a DYKWIA, but the older suits get more attention and what-not. I have had drink orders never turn up, slow food delivery, etc etc...but when l look around the cabin, others are getting it dished out and looked after. Makes you wonder.

Haven't tried transcon VA J yet, so can't comment on them, but l've only heard good things about their A330 J product.

 

[Canny man]

Got to say this looks like an increasingly rare blip. I do the Perth-BNE at least twice a month and have noticed a sustained improvement. I even started a thread commenting on the improvement in the qaulity and choice of catering. Not to say that things can't and won't go wrong.
Equally, my one experienceon DJ was pretty good too.

 

[munitalP]

I know this will sound like a pro QANTAS post, but one of the best airline meals I have had was a PER SYD on a 747 in J. Thewinchester will endorse my enthusiasm over that meal as when he snuck upstairs for a chat, all I could do was praise the fare...

 

[Rebekkap]

Rebekkap - 2 things on QF;
1) QF can be hit and miss. Crew make all the difference. Ask anyone on AFF, they will more than likely say the same. When is your next QF J flight? Would you be able to give us some feedback on it?

Probably in about two weeks - I have some Y flying inbetween which I'm about to book on Virgin.

2)Can l ask, how old are you, or an age bracket?
I'm in the 25-35 bracket and feel that because l'm younger than the average in J flyer and wear casual clothing, get treated differently in J. Not saying this as a DYKWIA, but the older suits get more attention and what-not. I have had drink orders never turn up, slow food delivery, etc etc...but when l look around the cabin, others are getting it dished out and looked after. Makes you wonder.

Haven't tried transcon VA J yet, so can't comment on them, but l've only heard good things about their A330 J product.

I'm in the next age bracket up from you, and was wearing a suit last night, as I generally am.

The VA 330 J was indeed very nice. I will do it again when I have the chance, rather than flying Qantas on that route again.

I fly enough that I can maintain platinum on both airlines, so Virgin are going to be getting a bit of love from me over the next few weeks.

 

[Limewood]

I'm the opposite, just did CNS/BNE/LAX/DFW/BNE/CNS in J could not fault service or food was all brilliant.

 

[Ewing]

The fish pie is actually awesome, I had it a month or so ago. Of course that's not much help to you if you don't eat fish

 

[Jousams]

Just a question to the seasoned QF flyers, if negative feedback was given with regard to J service (eg. Service listed by op)
How do they generally respond?

Just curious as I have had instance where one of my DJ J flights did not reach my expectations, I left feedback and got rebated 40% of my fare paid.


Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly app

 

[pauly7]

Just a question to the seasoned QF flyers, if negative feedback was given with regard to J service (eg. Service listed by op)
How do they generally respond?

Just curious as I have had instance where one of my DJ J flights did not reach my expectations, I left feedback and got rebated 40% of my fare paid.


Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly app

They are usually very good if your complaint is actually of worth. Couple of complaints I have made over the years both Y and J have resulted in very generous compensation and once even I received proactive compensation for something I hadn't even complained about.

I've always had the choice of QF vouchers, dinners out on QF and fine wine. I have chosen vouchers that once were more than twice what I actually paid for the flight. Even better, my employer had actually paid not me Hahahha!

 

[yo yo ma]

If the new Q.eat service (trial) is a success, problems like this will be reduced.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ram/qantas-introduces-select-q-eat-43005.html