Dear Qantas: It’s Not Me, It’s You (A220s, Lounges, Curry, and Other Adventures)

[token01]

Been doing the Brisbane–Melbourne shuffle about four times a week lately and I must have angered the Flying Kangaroo gods, because it’s been one long comedy of errors. Here’s my recent QF bingo card:

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1. The Great A220 Overhead Locker Myth
Apparently the A220 business cabin has “more” overhead space. Cute theory — until you’re in Row 1 (Delta Foxtrot) and realise half your bin’s taken up by crew kit. Cue the bag-shuffling tango and passive-aggressive “That’s my space” exchanges. For the record: overhead bins are not crown land above your head.

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2. Pre-Takeoff Drinks: The Mind Boggler
Sometimes you get a pre-departure water, sometimes you don’t. How is it that Virgin manages actual drinks before pushback, while Qantas — “premium full-service airline” — is playing hydration roulette? Someone explain this sorcery.

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3. The Curry That Time Forgot
Neil Perry’s “Bali-meets-South Africa-via-East-India-spice” curry is now officially the longest-running item in aviation history. The alternate? Chicken, beans, rice, and dessert roulette (sticky date muffin or carrot cake). Crew keep apologising, which is lovely, but surely we can do better than chicken-salmon-chicken-curry Groundhog Day.

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4. Wi-Fi Woes
Streaming Foxtel Go or Netflix on the A220? Good luck. You might get the buffering circle of doom. Oddly enough, I’ve had better luck on the 737s. Coincidence? Bad luck? Or just the Wi-Fi gods telling me to read a book?

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5. Premium Security: Brisbane After Hours Edition
Evenings at BNE: Qantas’ dedicated premium check-in/security is closed, so you’re in with the masses. Meanwhile, Virgin’s lane across the hall is still open. Might be an airport decision, but the effect is the same — premium pax sprinting through regular security like they’re in a low-budget Amazing Race episode.

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6. Lounges After 8pm: Salad Roulette
Arrive at the lounge post-8pm and you’ll find Spice Alley shut, hot food gone, and the “fresh” option being the same bowl of cucumbers that’s been glaring at you since lunchtime. Add a few bits of sad salad and you’ve got yourself Russian roulette, gastro edition.

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7. Brisbane Lounge DIY Drinks? Not a Thing
Want a quick drink without queueing? Too bad. No self-service option in Brisbane’s business lounge. If the bar’s understaffed (it often is), you’ll be rehearsing your drink order in line like you’re at a music festival.

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8. Brisbane Lounge Access Control: Optional
Business lounge desk often unattended. Seen plenty of people wander up the premium escalator without a boarding pass check. With construction pushing everyone through the same entrance, it’s basically “Come one, come all” right now.

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9.A220 Bathroom Chat Room
No curtain at the front of the A220 means the loo queue forms in the business cabin. Add a couple of chatty types and suddenly you’ve got a standing-room social club in your aisle. Virgin solves this with a rope. Rope. Genius.

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Recommendations from Your Over-Travelled, Possibly Entitled Poster:
• Let us pre-select meals 24 hours before departure on the “Golden Triangle” — better for waste, better for passengers, better for everyone’s sanity.
• Keep premium security open at night. Revolutionary, I know.
• Brisbane lounge: a small self-serve drink area wouldn’t kill anyone.
• Freshen up evening lounge food so it doesn’t look like it’s been auditioning for “MasterChef: Day-Old Leftovers Edition.”

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Final Thoughts
Yes, I know I sound like that premium passenger. But Im not. I assure you But when you’re in the air this much and paying QF’s premium fares, you start expecting the basics to be… well… basic. The crew are still the saving grace — genuinely fantastic most of the time. But the rest? Needs work.

Over to you, AFF brain trust — am I being too precious, or is this all hitting a little too close to home? Maybe a few flights back at Va to start appreciating Qf again.

Rant over.

 

[markis10]

QF A220s are not QF crewed or operated, I would not be expecting premium service or features from an aircraft operated by folk employed by yet another Qantas subsidiary paid less than JQ staff, you get what you pay for, which reminds me, lounge ops are Accor

 

[token01]

every qf 220 is qlink????? wow. just wow.
maybe ill start flashing my accor status card around in the lounge haha!

 

[Dmac59]

I’m confident you won’t notice any changes in the coming weeks @token01 but it’s always good to ‘get it out there’

 

[token01]

omg can i add cancellation of flights - another qf bne - mel cancelled tonight.

and yessssss im rebooked now onto another a220. they must be watching here ha !

 

[oz74]

My wife and I are off to Brisbane in October on the A220 in J, not sure I’m looking forward to it now . Interesting how crew paid less than JQ crew, explains why fares cheaper on A220 than 737.

Token, you definitely don’t sound entitled, just want a reasonable service because you’re paying a reasonable price. Hopefully QF are paying attention.

 

[markis10]

every qf 220 is qlink????? wow. just wow.
maybe ill start flashing my accor status card around in the lounge haha!

Qlink - try national jet systems, QFlink is a brand

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Over to you, AFF brain trust — am I being too precious, or is this all hitting a little too close to home? Maybe a few flights back at Va to start appreciating Qf again.

I was in the same boat last year, weekly commute on VA between Sydney and Melbourne. Exactly the same issues as you, but with VA.

People may try to label us ‘precious’, but it’s simply a factor of doing so many flights… it’s the compilation of little things that add up to make it frustrating.

Wifi not working? 10 others will tell you wifi worked ‘just fine’ on their flight. But I had a run on VA with 6 out of 8 flights in a row with no IFE or wifi. Bad crew? Most will tell you the CMs on VA are great… and they are… but maybe 1 in 10 should be working elsewhere… unfortunately when you’re doing 10 flights a month, one of your weeks is going to be frustrated by a bad CM.

I think your observations are fair, just it’s only going to impact the small number of very frequent flyers!

PS - I actually really like the NP bali style chicken curry!

 

[Harrison_133]

4. Wi-Fi Woes
Streaming Foxtel Go or Netflix on the A220? Good luck. You might get the buffering circle of doom. Oddly enough, I’ve had better luck on the 737s. Coincidence? Bad luck? Or just the Wi-Fi gods telling me to read a book?

I flew on the A220 yesterday and the Wifi barely worked at all. It took ages for my phone to connect in the first place. Then, it only worked sporadically in short bursts before the connection dropped out for quite some time. When it did work, it struggled to load anything without buffering.

I've only flown on the QF A220 a few times, but each time I remember thinking how the Wifi was noticeably worse than the 737. Yesterday's flight was particularly bad though. I think I spent more time trying to connect than actually using the Wifi.

 

[RooFlyer]

QF A220s are not QF crewed or operated, I would not be expecting premium service or features from an aircraft operated by folk employed by yet another Qantas subsidiary paid less than JQ staff, you get what you pay for, which reminds me, lounge ops are Accor

Is there a # somewhere that tells us that? That although we pay Qantas fares to fly a Qantas subsidiary, we don’t get the Qantas promises?

 

[markis10]

Is there a # somewhere that tells us that? That although we pay Qantas fares to fly a Qantas subsidiary, we don’t get the Qantas promises?

Here you go

#The guy sitting in the right hand seat in the coughpit earns a salary roughly equivalent to the guy the collects your garbage bins each week, excluding other allowances which they (the pilot) don’t get

 

[RooFlyer]

Here you go

#The guy sitting in the right hand seat in the coughpit earns a salary roughly equivalent to the guy the collects your garbage bins each week, excluding other allowances which they (the pilot) don’t get

Yeah, I get that but the explanation sounded like ‘you should know this’ whereas in fact the passenger can’t really know this.

The cough situation of the OP stands.

 

[token01]

Yeh whilst I assume some of its tongue in cheek - I had no idea when being put on the a220. Diff crew / subsidiary - does that mean Qantas doesn't have responsibility on the product / front end - sorry if I sound naive not the part of the world I specialise in.

Getting to airport now at bne. Premium security closed. Here we goooo

 

[Harrison_133]

Yeh whilst I assume some of its tongue in cheek - I had no idea when being put on the a220. Diff crew / subsidiary - does that mean Qantas doesn't have responsibility on the product / front end

National Jet Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Qantas Group, so they absolutely do have control over the product.

 

[RooFlyer]

sorry if I sound naive not the part of the world I specialise in.

You are simply just another one of the Qantas mug punters who gets screwed over by Qantas by them charging high prices and promising everything and then oh sorry it’s a subsidiary and you don’t get that.

It was a favourite technique of Alan Joyce to create new subsidies for everything including new classes of aircraft. That way the mainline traditional pay structures didn’t apply and he could screw the pilots too as markis10 noted above.

So basically, everyone on board gets screwed more or less equally..

 

[TeaKozy]

I've only flown on the QF A220 a few times, but each time I remember thinking how the Wifi was noticeably worse than the 737. Yesterday's flight was particularly bad though. I think I spent more time trying to connect than actually using the Wifi.

I've done a handful of sectors on the A220 and not experienced anything markedly worse than the 737 in terms of Wi-Fi performance - to me, it's all a bit of a coughshoot. I've given up streaming on a full flight/busier sectors regardless of type.

I'd rather they didn't encourage every man and his dog to hammer a 10-20mbit Foxtel/Netflix stream, or at least deprioritise it when I'm trying to load a website/Salesforce, however eliminating IFE will push people towards the familiar...

Getting to airport now at bne. Premium security closed. Here we goooo

Regarding premium security in BNE, had it reopened? I thought the airport refurbishment works had closed that entire precinct and relocated it to the adjoining shed.

 

[kpro]

Some interesting points. Some I'm indifferent to, but my thoughts on these ones.

2. Pre-Takeoff Drinks: The Mind Boggler

They should really bring this back. I think the random water bottle that's sometimes given out is up to crew discretion.

3. The Curry That Time Forgot

I find VA J food much better presented, but sometimes not better in taste/quality.

5. Premium Security: Brisbane After Hours Edition

This has caught me out once, and then I didn't realise the regular security still had the old x-ray machines. Got called out for leaving my laptop in my bag which I wasn't amused by.

8. Brisbane Lounge Access Control: Optional

I find a lounge attendant from across the hall generally eyes me and I flash my BP on my phone. Doubt anyone would stop me if I just went in though.

Virgin solves this with a rope. Rope. Genius.

Virgin is removing said rope with the 737 refurbs. I had a flight full of school kids on VA the other week who all came up to use the J bathroom. The one who went in before me didn't even know how to drain the sink.

 

[dajop]

QF A220s are not QF crewed or operated, I would not be expecting premium service or features from an aircraft operated by folk employed by yet another Qantas subsidiary paid less than JQ staff, you get what you pay for, which reminds me, lounge ops are Accor

I’m puzzled by the relevance of your comment here in relation to the original post. The comment was the crew were fantastic and the saving grace. Most of what OP mentioned was in the control of QF and not the crew or the subsidiary operating the aircraft.

 

[token01]

I'll reply in full later to the above so far. Very informative thank you.
I'm sure the shareholder loves some of these boardroom financial moves but that's terrible.
I use today as an example. Original j ticket was on 737 moved to an a220 due to cancellation and now I get the lite product. And my poor pilot gets paid peanuts. Crew as well ? Def not the old EBA.

live updates
1. Premium entry closed at 520pm
2. Lounge dragon absent from the desk in front of business.
3. 2 hosts present on the cl desk
4. Lounge very busy. Bar slow but omg live station opened for tacos and a Caesar salad named pumpkin and vegetarian haha.
5. On board. A great csm I have had many times so on board will be great. However bag issues everywhere with passengers jsut leaving them in the aisle leaving it to the crew to sort.

So a cancelled flight. No premium security. But tacos. And no bag space. Q link. / lite.

 

[markis10]

Pre departure drinks, managing cabin baggage and lines for the loo….its not a criticism of the crew, just a pointed reminder they are getting paid peanuts to do the same job where results might not meet the expectations set by past mainline crew