Does anyone senior at Qantas read this forum?

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maninblack

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Now we all have plenty to say about QF and their competition. Many of us are long time fflyers and good QF customers as well as being experienced travellers. There are many constructive points of view discussed here. (and a few not so constructive ones:p )

Do you think anyone from QF's board or senior management reads this forum and takes any notice of what we have to say?
 
I'm sure QF senior management are aware of this forum; although I don't think they would often look at it themselves.

Maybe such a task is delegated or even someone in not-so-senior management ensures they are up to date with any issues arising on this forum that may concern them.
 
I expect that from time to time someone brings a particular thread to their attention. But I doubt someone is tasked with monitoring the forums on a daily basis.
 
NM said:
I expect that from time to time someone brings a particular thread to their attention. But I doubt someone is tasked with monitoring the forums on a daily basis.

This string of posts will make their next meeting: "hey guys, check out the forum - these people think we actually take notice of what they say" ;)
 
Bolman said:
This string of posts will make their next meeting: "hey guys, check out the forum - these people think we actually take notice of what they say" ;)

that's about it ... good post ;)
 
NM said:
I expect that from time to time someone brings a particular thread to their attention. But I doubt someone is tasked with monitoring the forums on a daily basis.
Well do you think they caught onto the fact that booking via AA avoided the fuel fine from FFT or FT?
I hope they do not monitor this too closely to see other tricks and "enhance" us.;)
On the otherhand if they saw how some people have gone over to AAdvantage they could "downgrade" their FFP and make it just as attractive as that!:D In the end I doubt the airlines care too much about whether the passenges they fly use their FFP or anothers.
 
They care. But remember AFFers (or FTers) are a tiny minority of passengers/customers.
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
They care. But remember AFFers (or FTers) are a tiny minority of passengers/customers.
Tiny in number, but not in quantity of flight made :!:
 
NM said:
Tiny in number, but not in quantity of flight made :!:

True, and a disproportionate share of higher elites too I suspect.

Reminds me a few years ago some FTers on NZ forum got together and approached NZ to see if they could meet the loyalty manager or similar. There were significant changes at the time. Even though they represented a significant % of NZ Airpoints' top tier elites they were rebuffed - amazing. I don't know if it is coincidence, but now most are now no longer elite with Airpoints.
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
True, and a disproportionate share of higher elites too I suspect.

Reminds me a few years ago some FTers on NZ forum got together and approached NZ to see if they could meet the loyalty manager or similar. There were significant changes at the time. Even though they represented a significant % of NZ Airpoints' top tier elites they were rebuffed - amazing. I don't know if it is coincidence, but now most are now no longer elite with Airpoints.
That is no surprise.
And to keep it slightly off track, I am influenced by FFP. I will choose airlines/flights based points earning. As much as I love the NZ long haul product and SQ, if I do not get points and there is another airline with similar costs but points, I will take them instead.
It is starting to look like I will be going for "Gold" next year, and NZ will not get a look in on *A but if I could only convince my finace of the benefits of a DONE4 for the honeymoon then maybe QF Platinum for me and AA Platinum for her.
 
Based on the enhancements, and frequency, to QF's FFP I don't think they care much on what anyone on AFF has to say.

On Sunday I received a call from QF and invited to attend a group session where you are paid $90 and asked to provide feedback on a number of areas. In my opinion these sessions are more important to them but I could not attend as the only choices were a Wednesday or Thursday night and they are held in the city.
 
I was invited to one of those sessions just after the May changes to the QF FF program.

I found it very frustrating as when they started the session, they said that this is not a complaints forum and they wanted to get our feedback as to how we perceive certain aspects of the QF image. Stupid things like looking at pictures of different types of people and determining who would be a QF passenger :-| .

Needless to say we all walked out rather annoyed that we weren't able to provide QF with what we thought was much needed feedback.
 
We know that a senior member of the Virgin Blue management team frequents this forum, and his involvement is greatly appreciated by many of us. And the Virgin Blue CEO even took time out to meet with and listen to some regular member's thoughts on the benefits and operation of FF programs. Well done Dave and Brett.
 
NM said:
We know that a senior member of the Virgin Blue management team frequents this forum, and his involvement is greatly appreciated by many of us. And the Virgin Blue CEO even took time out to meet with and listen to some regular member's thoughts on the benefits and operation of FF programs. Well done Dave and Brett.
Yes, and they have acted on problems posted here and then followed up to advise the outcome. I greatly appreciate it.
 
NM said:
We know that a senior member of the Virgin Blue management team frequents this forum, and his involvement is greatly appreciated by many of us. And the Virgin Blue CEO even took time out to meet with and listen to some regular member's thoughts on the benefits and operation of FF programs. Well done Dave and Brett.

Thats good to know.

Then here is some advice to Virgin Blue. Put Business class seats (no frills required) in your aircraft or else neither myself, my family or any of my collegues are likely to ever fly with you. If you introduced a Business class product you would give QF a hiding. :D
 
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maninblack said:
Then here is some advice to Virgin Blue. Put Business class seats (no frills required) in your aircraft or else neither myself, my family or any of my collegues are likely to ever fly with you. If you introduced a Business class product you would give QF a hiding. :D
When I had the opportunity to meet Brett Godfrey a few months back I suggested that I'd like to see some business class seating on their planes - just better seating (e.g. 2+2 config with extra legroom), not a full service business class like QF offers. He mentioned that it is something they have considered and continue to think about, so there is hope.

I'm not certain QF would get a hiding if this happened because their capacity, frequency and network is superior, but it might force them to begin offering some D class fares on the main trunk routes, as happened when OzJet was briefly flying SYD-MEL.

However I wonder if the economics of such a move actually work? Consider the situation if they created a business class cabin at the front of their 737's with 4 rows of 2+2 seating. They'd probably have to take out 2 rows of Y seating to create the additional legroom so in a 2+2 config that would make a total loss of 20 seats.

On a typical SYD-MEL sector, assuming an average fare of $180, this would be a loss of income of approx $3,600. To make this up, they'd have to charge about $400 per J seat ($180 + $3,600÷16), and that's before offering anything else such as free food or access to the VLounge.

So perhaps they might charge between $420 and $450 for business class inclusive of free on-board food and beverage and free VLounge access. This is assuming they can fill the J cabin. If they cannot find 16 paying pax on every flight, they risk loss of income. Perhaps this could be overcome this by using convertible style seating (like AN used to have) but I guess that would also increase turnaround time at the airports with crew having to reconfigure the cabin.

Nonetheless, $420-$450 is a good price for SYD-MEL in J compared with QF's full Y fare of $410 and their full J fare of $610. However, I've just noticed that the QF booking engine does still offer discounted business class airfares on SYD-MEL. Have a look at tomorrow's schedule (e.g. QF437, 451, 400, 424, et al). These are not peak time flights but obviously when it gets close to the day QF is prepared to discount. The price is around $445 per seat, remarkable similar to the price I calculated above for DJ.

It's easy to see why introducing a business class cabin would be a PITA for Virgin Blue. And as soon as they did, QF would likely match them and perhaps even push it just a bit lower to introduce some pain for DJ.

The more I think about it, the more I'd be happy with something simpler, e.g. pay the $30 for Blue Zone and perhaps a bit more to ensure an empty seat in the middle. Great leg room, plenty of arm room, and to hell with the silver service. Add live2air and the already decent "a-la-cart" food served, and it's a good product.
 
Yada Yada said:
The more I think about it, the more I'd be happy with something simpler, e.g. pay the $30 for Blue Zone and perhaps a bit more to ensure an empty seat in the middle. Great leg room, plenty of arm room, and to hell with the silver service. Add live2air and the already decent "a-la-cart" food served, and it's a good product.

Using your example above @ $180 seat - making this option available at $90/seat wouldn't be bad idea (ie a middle seat shared between two).
 
Yada Yada said:
However I wonder if the economics of such a move actually work? Consider the situation if they created a business class cabin at the front of their 737's with 4 rows of 2+2 seating. They'd probably have to take out 2 rows of Y seating to create the additional legroom so in a 2+2 config that would make a total loss of 20 seats.

So perhaps they might charge between $420 and $450 for business class inclusive of free on-board food and beverage and free VLounge access. This is assuming they can fill the J cabin. If they cannot find 16 paying pax on every flight, they risk loss of income.

That is assuming that they could have sold all 20 Y seats - you cant assume that they would have had 100% utilisation of Y forcing a requirement to fill J - if they only had 60% capacity of those 20 seats then they wouldnt be losing money necessarily if they dont fill J.
 
Well, I know that one of our members knows the new QFF Program Manager rather well from a number of telephone calls. I'm sure that if the need arose, this member would advise the Program Manager's PA of certain matters that they might like to review.
 
Lindsay Wilson said:
Well, I know that one of our members knows the new QFF Program Manager rather well from a number of telephone calls. I'm sure that if the need arose, this member would advise the Program Manager's PA of certain matters that they might like to review.
I would actually like to see an OFFICIAL involvement from QF on both AFF and FT - somebody who is there to monitor concerns (we already know that they do this) as well as answer queries that may come up from time to time.

A lot of us know some of the answers, but occasionally one of our answers (garnered from personal experience) may carry more weight when it comes from the official QF rep.

Dave
 
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