AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!! Confused Qantas fanboi......

Status
Not open for further replies.

juddles

Suspended
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Posts
5,283
Qantas
Platinum 1
Hi there everyone.

I have recently suffered a couple of affronts at the hands of Qantas. Perhaps most notoriously the failure of IFE on a long haul flight and the battle to get something near a semblance of compensation for such.

I have, for a long time, pondered my devotion to QF. I have often suffered less-than-good flights, less-than-good service. And so I was reaching the limit - the choice to discard QF and fly with others.

After the IFE/compo fiasco I suddenly thought I was free. Stuff QF, use best fare of day and/or run with a competitor.

But just when I finally felt free, I did QF28 SCL-SYD yesterday.

And perfect crew.

Now I do this sector almost every month, but running the numbers, it still means there are about 20 crews so no wonder I do not know them all. But the crew I got today was, to put it simply, perfect.

And I mean perfect for QF. There was not the doting cheap charm of an EK first cabin, but rather that beautiful feel of a highly skilled Aussie crew that were happy and did their job perfectly.

Apart from the "hosties", the CSM was awesome. I have never, in about 1000 flights, seen a CSM so proactive throughout the entire flight to ensure everything went well.

I did a quick email to the P1 team to highlight these staff. I think that is the best way to do it?

So now I am less sure about jumping ship...... Was it all orchestrated to make me feel this??

I don't think so.
 
Last edited:
The only thing I regret about jumping ship whilst I was still a QF P1 is that I should of jumped ship sooner...
 
Hi there everyone.

I have recently suffered a couple of affronts at the hands of Qantas. Perhaps most notoriously the failure of IFE on a long haul flight and the battle to get something near a semblance of compensation for such.

I have, for a long time, pondered my devotion to QF. I have often suffered less-than-good flights, less-than-good service. And so I was reaching the limit - the choice to discard QF and fly with others.

After the IFE/compo fiasco I suddenly thought I was free. Stuff QF, use best fare of day and/or run with a competitor.

But just when I finally felt free, I did QF28 SCL-SYD yesterday.

And perfect crew.

Now I do this sector almost every month, but running the numbers, it still means there are about 20 crews so no wonder I do not know them all. But the crew I got today was, to put it simply, perfect.

And I mean perfect for QF. There was not the doting cheap charm of an EK first cabin, but rather that beautiful feel of a highly skilled Aussie crew that were happy and did their job perfectly.

Apart from the "hosties", the CSM was awesome. I have never, in about 1000 flights, seen a CSM so proactive throughout the entire flight to ensure everything went well.

I did a quick email to the P1 team to highlight these staff. I think that is the best way to do it?

So now I am less sure about jumping ship...... Was it all orchestrated to make me feel this??

I don't think so.
I think there are good QF crews and bad ones just like in any organisation. In saying that travelled to Bali recently and the CSM was absolutely rude and condescending and the attitude was appalling. I had to ask another very nice crew member was this person the CSM as I wasn't sure due to the persona. In my opinion the CSM behaviour and comments was offensive. When the CSM served my meal it was tossed on the tray table and would of bounced off if I had not stopped it. Oh and how dare I ask for a second glass of wine on a six hour flight, I got the eyes rolling back look like its such a bother. In saying that have flown to New York and Hong Kong last year and both male and female (sorry its QF can I say that now ?????) CSMs and all the crew were absolutely fantastic. I got to meet QF QA person on the plane who was there to do an audit on the entire flight from Sydney to LA. Which was nice to know that they do actually audit crews and planes facilities. All travel was in J class.
 
Exactly - that is my infernal dilemma - was it a fluke or will it happen again?

Not P1 at the moment but I had an exceptional flight crew two weeks ago BNE-MEL and about to hit send to customer care with positive feedback on that. Previous to that I had a great experience SYD-AKL which I wrote in about (got a thank you letter back)and then about 2 months later I think got contacted again to say a crew member had picked up a service award which was lovely to hear!

As someone who through circumstance has to sit on both sides of the fence, I can assure you the grass is definitely not greener, find out the hard way though if you wish :)
 
I stick to QF as I rarely have a problem and been many years since an ife failed to work.

They're the home team so I support them, jumping to another may just give me a different set of failures.

If you don't like QF change and if you do you don't like them change again.

Ife is straight forward it either works or it doesn't but crew attentiviness is subjective.
 
QF service has always been inconsistent, I got used to it.

You fly often to South America so it's either QF or US airlines. Given these options I would stick to QF.

If you want something better then go for airlines with established service culture and no strong unions like some of the Asian airlines.
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

Goes to show how important staff are when they are the face of the company. They can win hearts and loyalty or crush it.
 
Last edited:
Can only mention what I did when I was in the same situation, about 7 years ago now, when I was flying regularly between Australia and Canada in J.

Formerly devoted QF flyer (hence my AFF name!!) but got fed up with inconsistent experiences on QF, I decided to split ALL my flying between Qantas/OneWorld and Air Canada/Star Alliance. I got to WP equivalent on Air Canada and retained WP on Qantas, and it was the best of times; timetable options were really good. To further minimise my QF exposure, I also started using the 'Circle Pacific' fares, so would come back via HKG on CX on the way home, with a night in HKG.

Flying J, working my way up the AC status ladder wasn't that painful either.
 
This thread has a bit of that “you’re only as good as your last flight” ... not the best basis to continue a relationship.

If I was in a similar situation to you - I’d be long gone. Have you signed up with some Int / US credit cards? Being based OS is a great incentive to leave QF.
 
Exactly - that is my infernal dilemma - was it a fluke or will it happen again?

You already know the answer to this! Your original post says you have had good and bad flights in the past. Do you somehow think 100% of all flights are going to be outstanding from now on? what’s changed?

Whether you continue to fly qantas depends on your circumstances... schedule, safety, points earning. Personally i have a fairly low boredom threshold. Flying the same airline time and time again, especially one that rarely, if ever, innovates is not appealing to me. Flying can then become routine, which there’s really no need for it to be.

I have no shackles of status though, so that helps. Would i fly premium economy on qantas if it was more expensive than full business class on another airline for almost the same flight duration? no, unless it was one of the airlines on my ‘no fly’ list.

If you continue to fly qantas to the exclusion of all others you will be disappointed again at some time.
 
....

If you continue to fly qantas to the exclusion of all others you will be disappointed again at some time.

Just to clarify something here, QF is actually still my third most frequent airline (after Avianca and Latam). But I avoid Latam on the trans-pac flights as their J 787 hard product is so bloody short!!!

I really wish there was some other alternative. I hear Emirates is starting a service to Mexico towards the end of this year. If that is true, would be happy to fly a bit further and enjoy them some more.

Until, of course, the day their IFE breaks down too :O
 
Last edited:
And for the record, today I did two sectors with QF - from BNE to SYD, then across to AKL in J in an A330.

This is the start of a rare family holiday, so I was hoping that we would get a good crew. The crew from BNE to SYD were really, really good. The crew SYD to AKL were not good. They were absolutely fantastic!!

Happy staff, very friendly, engaging. One staff member in particular made my girls feel like princesses, whilst also making them laugh almost the whole trip.

We continue onwards with Air New Zealand in a couple of days, so will be interesting to see how they go.
 
No one actually chooses QF J/F for the quality of their service do they?

I assume most select QF for some other (unknown) reason. No other credible alternative maybe...
 
No one actually chooses QF J/F for the quality of their service do they?

I assume most select QF for some other (unknown) reason. No other credible alternative maybe...

I can think of one scenario where I would select QF over all other carriers for "the quality of their service" - long-haul F if my principal desire was to rest - for me that bed is amazing.
 
I can think of one scenario where I would select QF over all other carriers for "the quality of their service" - long-haul F if my principal desire was to rest - for me that bed is amazing.

The QF 380 F seat is a 'middle of the road' product in 2018. The QF F service is at the lower end in my experience.

If my company was paying, I would not even consider it as there are better F options...
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top