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Qantas A330 Economy Review (Sydney-Singapore) is an article written by the AFF editorial team:
You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.
You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.
Three and a half stars seems... generous...
I did SIN-MEL on an A333 a few months ago, and had similar feelings about the grottiness of the cabin. The touchpoints on the fabric on my seat - originally red - were black, the recline on my seat didn't work properly and the magazine holder on the seat next to me was broken causing it to flop down. This on a plane that was refurbished only about six years ago.
Couple that with the fact they didn't get the IFE operating until we were up in the air (although it seems I was lucky to even get it!) and it was a pretty disappointing experience. At least the food and crew were decent.
An excellent article, as always, @AFF Editor - enjoyed it. A very comprehensive article.Qantas A330 Economy Review (Sydney-Singapore) is an article written by the AFF editorial team:
You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.
The reviewer noted the aircraft had been sitting in Sydney for many hours. It wouldn't take much to have someone vacuum seats and wipe down surfaces during such down time - ready for the next flight. QFs A380 toilets were encrusted in dust that had absorbed who knows what a decade ago. This is just very basic hygiene. They don't need to go down the path of dedicated cleaning staff on board (actually when Sunrise comes along they probably should) but just ignoring general filth on a daily basis goes all the way to the top of fleet presentation, and hence the CEO.In addition to the poor resilience of QFi to any sort of disruption, I think one main issue is that a lot of Qantas aircraft they fly to Asia and New Zealand just feel so dated compared to their competitors. Trans-tasman AirNZ has a320/1neos which feel much more modern than Qantas' 737s, and to most Asian destinations competitors are flying relatively new 787/A350 family aircraft, or recently refurbished 777s, whereas Qantas is flying mostly A330s.
Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with A330s (e.g. the Finnair A330s that Qantas will operate soon are pretty fresh looking inside), but Qantas really hasn't kept up with the maintenance of these aircraft interiors, both in terms of cleaning and fixing what's broken.
Ultimately I feel like Qantas simply doesn't have enough capacity now to pull aircraft off for refurbishment, and I feel like the major reason for this is just poor planning on their part, or a desire against large fleet upgrade expenditure.
Even if COVID hadn't happened, whilst Qantas would probably have more capacity and reliability right now (due to the 747-400s), those aircraft would still have very dated interiors operating. Maybe it'd have allowed them to run their A330s less hard and refurbish them by now though.
Either way, I think it's poor planning on their part that got them to this stage (and now a desire for running as many routes as they can instead of scaling back to maintain reliability), and I don't think this will improve until FY27 when the 787-10s start arriving.
Same (re. poor planning) can be said about the current state of the SYD Domestic & International Business Lounges (COVID would've been a great time to refurbish...)
Agree with your comments Mark 213.The most key items of an airline in my view are
- Getting you there in once piece - obvious really
- On time arrival - customers have plans they have made and rely on
- Providing the product that have been paid for - value for money, comparison and feeling of fairness
In this case 3.5* I think is way too generous for a flight that was meant to be an A380, and should have arrived as scheduled. Especially for connecting passengers, that this route implies most would be on, is particularly poor form.
What is most distasteful in the change of aircraft is the inevitable downgrades that follow, you just know that QF will not be interested at all in owning the issue but rely on the fact just they consider just to get you from A-B is all that is required. Then to add a 3 hour delay on top by not having a flight ready aircraft (clean and engineering checked) goes to show the contempt they have for schedules and their customers own plans and respect how customers made their commercial choice to choose QF in the first place.
Unfortunately this is the QF way now. Its fleet resilience is now so thin its happening very frequently. Especially on its international routes - and what is most surprising this happened at the main Sydney hub! Good luck for any help if you are stranded elsewhere.
Personally I actively avoid QF internationally for just this specific reason. Their ability to respond to downtime (which does happen) is not factored in to their schedules. They just run too lean. Add that with inflexible and merciless compensation policies which don't appreciate should things go wrong (which now is the norm for QF), makes QF too risky an option and hard work.
This has the ongoing impact to you personally if you rely on QF to be a premium product, expect to get what you pay for, and being able to keep to your own personal plans. QF are now a JQ airline at QF prices. Now Id rather choose others over QF any day, especially if the price is the same.
One final comment for flight reviewers who travel in Economy, and then slum it in the first class lounge. You are not getting the full experience of Economy that most travelers would be getting. I know it was noted as not being factored in the score, but if you are going to be a genuine economy traveler, then try to do a review without the status, the personal touch, the lounge, which are very personal in nature. My feeling the score here would be a 1 or 2 as their rating- because those travelers would be more annoyed with the lack of an airline simply being able to meet the basic product requirements.
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I asked for the vegetarian curry, but they had already run out of this option upon reaching the third row of Economy.
See the OP just made a simple error in the trip report. Was meant to be out of 10 stars not 5If QF Y is 3.5 stars then SQ Y should be 10 stars.
I'm sure QF would have more than compensated all the passengersDownsizing planes for "operational" (i.e. financial) reasons, downgrading multiple J passengers - QF sounding more and more like Jetstar.
Say what?! Had they even loaded any at all? I can't believe they could possibly run out of a meal option by row 3 of Y.
And the difference between QF and JQ is JQ would have just cancelled the flight completely. You'd maybe get rescheduled in the next few days