An Awful Qantas Experience That Must Be Shared.

[Pushka]

Thanks to all the positive response to my post and to those looking past the obvious exaggeration of the number of seats on QF 747 business class sharing two toilets (or as a friend recently called them "outhouses").

We eventually received a reply from Qantas via their facebook page. They committed to getting back to us within 15 days but that has now come and gone.

I noticed this article just popping up in my news feed today.

‘Sweating an aircraft fleet can prove devastating in the long-run’

In my opinion, it makes some really valid points.

Just returned from Europe ion Qatar. What an absolute pleasure from start to end on all four legs. And when I had feedback to give I felt like it was really being taken to heart and summarily dismissed.

On Qatar or Qantas? I'm looking forward to Qatar in a few weeks time.

 

[Riaan De Jager]

On Qatar or Qantas? I'm looking forward to Qatar in a few weeks time.

Qatar via Doha. Very pleasant. Hope you enjoy.

 

[Chalkie]

I've come to this thread late too but I agree with the OP's criticisms of QF's business class food offerings on international longhaul. It is just so not up to scratch for a full service international business class. The small plate / large plate thing is absurd. Call it a starter/entree/appetiser/first course. The same for "large plate" (main course/second course). And the niggardly practice of cheese OR dessert is appalling. Neither Cathay nor Air NZ (whose J classes I've flown recently; in the case of Cathay specifically to avoid having to fly QF J class) don't do it - you are encouraged to have cheese AND dessert (and fruit as well on Cathay).

I also actively avoid flying on the QF 747s in any class.

I don't actively avoid flying F on QF though. I really like the QF F service and in particular the F seat. So QF still gets most of my international F flying (Cathay gets a little bit and BA and AA get the occasional bit when there's not really any other (oneworld) choice.

 

[darktiger]

Yikes, and here I was thinking Qantas was a good option.

 

[PJF]

Th

There are 12-14 Rows of J in the 747, which is essentially a third of what you claim. That includes the upper deck.

If you are going to complain to QF about the experience, fluff such as this detracts from the complaint. You will get further by being clear and concise.

It is clear you aren't happy with the experience, why not vote with your wallet and look at options such as VA/SA via PER if you don't want to detour via Asia/ME.[/QUOTE
You wont get much of a reply just drawn out silence and empty promises. The best way is to go to Qantas Facebook page and deal with them there for the world to see. Have a look it is an eye opener with all the comments there

 

[Quickstatus]

I have to say it: I hate Qantas – Qantas does not care about the client only about profits. Neil Perry I dare you to eat the food on Business class – don’t want to think about the economy class experience

Re the points you make:
1)I’ve never heard of an airline that does airline food that ALL its passengers admire

2)Re dessert - I’ve always been able to get more than one selection. Yes ice cream is always rock hard agree with you there

3)Staff to passenger ratio is at a certain level not enormous if you speak with the cabin crews. I reckon time slows down a lot when you are not happy so I don’t know how long it actually took to clear your table. Certainly they do take longer because each dish is served separately.

4)The seats are problematic and some have the dreaded droop which can be awful

5)You understand that seating requests are just that - requests and are never guaranteed

6) Not 35 rows of J but yes you corrected it. No hand soap? -just tell the cabin crew?

7Rude disinterested crew - depends on point of view. But yes sometimes crew can be rude and disinterested. The 747 crew are usually from the old legacy, unlike to newer 380 and now 787 crew.

7)Taking off J sweat covers and stowing in overhead compartment - actually yes it’s a requirement that they be stowed. There is limited space to store anything on an aircraft. Moving your carry on to make some room? You are unhappy with that?

8) Hate Qantas and you find the others’ service level surpassing. Great!!

9)QF monopolising the AUS-JNB route?. Well no other airline wants to fly it nonstop. If that the airline’s fault? VA tried but gave up. SA only does PER. Why don’t they do a JNB-SYD? .Pricey? Yes it often is. If there was money to be made in that route maybe VA and SA would be in it but they aren’t. That route requires a 4 engine currently and VA does not have that.

10) Noisy cabin? You are in a confined space called an airplane with 400 other passengers with 4 jet engines burning maybe 10-12 tons of fuel per hour. Cabin crew have chores they have to do. The 787 said to be quieter but that only enhances the noise from other passengers and crew

11)You can Always vote with your wallet. I and most other passengers have experienced worse on Qantas and the other airlines you mention. I hope the grass is always greener on the other side for you because if that makes you hate an airline you will be hating all airlines pretty quickly.

Is Qantas the best? Not by a long shot
Are other airlines better ? Yes and No
Is Qantas value for money? That’s difficult because one’s perception of value is very different to another
Can another airline guarantee that your experience is always going to be what you expect. Never.

Sorry you had a bad experience but usually in my experience sometimes when someone is aggrieved with one particular aspect of service delivery they are quickly also aggrieved with everything else. Maybe not you and maybe you really had a bad one.

Airline hype raises expectations and when expectations is greater than the reality.... QF does the marketing hyperbole really well. Important to discard the rose coloured glasses.
Lots of hype with the QF787. Be ready for some reality checks.

Hope that your expectation are met next time you travel

My worst QF experience:
Lost luggage
Droopy J seat
Non functioning IFE
Spilt coffee on me
Delays and cancellations

 

[clifford]

Wow, that's a very interesting dissertation. I'm QF Plat and have never flown QF business class internationally, and none of what I've read above will likely change that.

 

[Quickstatus]

Wow, that's a very interesting dissertation. I'm QF Plat and have never flown QF business class internationally, and none of what I've read above will likely change that.

you are a true frequent flyer to get to 1200 flying domestic only!!

 

[TomVexille]

you are a true frequent flyer to get to 1200 flying domestic only!!

Quite easy to get your 1200 flying OW airlines internationally though

 

[Forg]

Quite easy to get your 1200 flying OW airlines internationally though

Agreed, my better-half doesn’t travel as often as a lot of my workmates, her tickets are all bought overseas & just on whatever airline is the cheapest at the time; and yet she did get her first-time Platinum (1400 is it the first time?) last year. She rarely flew Qantas; they’re usually a lot more expensive for international business-class.

 

[eddie 73]

Have to agree with much of the OP points. Being sucked in to QF SCs to maintain intl lounge access, i will maintain QF travel, always with a healthy dose of reluctance.

I used to fly Cathay J for 10 years in a past life, which set the bar particulaly high, when it comes to food and service.

QF J food offerings are certainly not of a standard one expects for the class, or money spent on tickets. The wine is always good though.

The lack of XL pyjamas is a joke. I had to complain to an attendant because they ran out of XL. I am 6’3 and 110kg, and refused to accept anything less than what i paid for... Richard on QF95 thank you for pleading with a lady to swap for me.

The service is hit and miss, and often patronising and contrived. Out with the old and in with the new. Retire the sour old unionised grumpy middle aged ladies for vibey happy younger people.

I could go on.

 

[Pushka]

Have to agree with much of the OP points. Being sucked in to QF SCs to maintain intl lounge access, i will maintain QF travel, always with a healthy dose of reluctance.

I used to fly Cathay J for 10 years in a past life, which set the bar particulaly high, when it comes to food and service.

QF J food offerings are certainly not of a standard one expects for the class, or money spent on tickets. The wine is always good though.

The lack of XL pyjamas is a joke. I had to complain to an attendant because they ran out of XL. I am 6’3 and 110kg, and refused to accept anything less than what i paid for... Richard on QF95 thank you for pleading with a lady to swap for me.

The service is hit and miss, and often patronising and contrived. Out with the old and in with the new. Retire the sour old unionised grumpy middle aged ladies for vibey happy younger people.

I could go on.

Ok, I’ll bite at the middle aged ladies thing. Can’t assume that any age group knows how to create a good customer experience.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Ok, I’ll bite at the middle aged ladies thing. Can’t assume that any age group knows how to create a good customer experience.

I agree! Bad/good crew can be from any rank. Some of the best flights ever are on US carriers with very senior FAs.

 

[TheInsider]

Retire the sour old unionised grumpy middle aged ladies for vibey happy younger people.

I could go on.

You do know there are a lot of the younger people who are a part of the union, especially with ground staff and cabin crew. Just because you belong to a union doesn't mean you are grumpy and old. I think you need to pull your head in a bit and have a bit of respect for other people.

 

[eddie 73]

Yea

Ok, I’ll bite at the middle aged ladies thing. Can’t assume that any age group knows how to create a good customer experience.

h Pushka, i thought twice about putting it like that, but i don’t normally find the males of any age grumpy and disgruntled, or the younger ones of any gender. I have had some wonderful service experiences from middle aged females, but the weighting of unfriendly service definitely lands in the court of the aforementioned group.

 

[Quickstatus]

Have to agree with much of the OP points. Being sucked in to QF SCs to maintain intl lounge access, i will maintain QF travel, always with a healthy dose of reluctance.

Most go into the Status thing eye wide open. You could just fly J or F to get whatever lounge you want. Status gives you lounge access without having to pay for J or F - so it’s a quid pro quo when you are required to fly often

I used to fly Cathay J for 10 years in a past life, which set the bar particulaly high, when it comes to food and service.

QF J food offerings are certainly not of a standard one expects for the class, or money spent on tickets. The wine is always good though.

That’s the problem - Expectations. It’s very difficult for an airline to meet the expectations of all their passengers. A lot of airlines run at a loss because they can as they are underwritten by an entity with sovereign credit and so can afford to provide unsustainable levels of service. CX are now in the midst of restructuring because of competition from mainland Chinese airlines. If CX was so good one would think that they will have sticky passengers.

The lack of XL pyjamas is a joke. I had to complain to an attendant because they ran out of XL. I am 6’3 and 110kg, and refused to accept anything less than what i paid for... Richard on QF95 thank you for pleading with a lady to swap for me.

Actually they are L/XL. I’ve never understood what that actually means. I wish they had XXL because the arms are never long enough so I walk around with the arms pulled up. But then they would too baggy.
I think there are just 2 sizes: S/M and L/XL. Sometimes I BYO trackie dackies. I don’t get why an eBay $10 piece of amenity cause such angst.

I do like to wear airline Jammies when flying they competitors.

As for the amenity bag - I ask for the Girls one, toss out to contents keep the Colgate and use the bag

The service is hit and miss, and often patronising and contrived. Out with the old and in with the new.

Service is always hit and miss. To expect a diverse team to provide exactly the same service would be impossible And if it were it would certainly be contrived.

Yes it is contrived but isn’t any “Service with a Smile”?.

Retire the sour old unionised grumpy middle aged ladies for vibey happy younger people.

Interesting reading the ATSB reports and other accounts into the 2 dire QF emergencies, QF30 and QF32. The cabin crew, when it really mattered, by all accounts were superlative.

I actually prefer the more senior crew because the tincture of time gives life experience. A young 20 whatever year old may or may not have significant life experience to deal with emergencies and a diverse customer group but who tend to be a lot older at QF.

I can’t see how a 40kg MH/SQ softly spoken girl can be of much use in an emergency especially in that dress they wear. But who knows maybe they are all 8th Dan Black belt.

And Miranda Kerr can stick with modelling.

There are a lot of men in the QF Cabin Crew. The CSM for QF32 SIN-SIN had a CV longer and more significant than most and can speak 5 languages. I’d rather have him than a vibey and younger cabin crew on CV alone but also for his management of the cabin in a crisis

Sorry the large font is unintentional. I’ll correct it when I get home

 

[drron]

Customer service on an airline is really totally dependent on the personalities involved-FA and pax.
We used to Fly AA F NRT-DFW-NRT regularly before Aadvantage was enhanced.We nearly always had a male purser,Danno,who we got to know and to us he was brilliant.Then after about 5 flights with Danno we had an older woman as purser and when you say older with AA you really mean older.One of the FAs told us she was known as a real b*tch-the FA's word.However mrsdrron got talking to the purser and after the meal the purser came and sat across the aisle from her whilst mrsdrron showed her how to knit.So she wasn't ab*tch but had probably had to look after too many American males.
Then in December last year we flew BA F SYD-SIN.Serving me was a very young woman.She was brilliant.
So in our experience both older and younger women can be very good at their jobs.

 

[durbrain]

I think there are just 2 sizes: S/M and L/XL.

This. They only have two sizes. ‘Overweight’ and ‘obese’. How hard is it stock an appropriate range of sizes?? Any unused sizes can be used for future flights!

 

[Quickstatus]

XXS, XS,S,M,L,XL,XXL,xx_L?

And what about those whose arms are longer than usual?

 

[durbrain]

XXS, XS,S,M,L,XL,XXL,xx_L?

That would be acceptable.