Jetstarisation of CNS Routes

[dfcatch]

From a council, airport and tourism perspective - the only issue is seats/flights.

The configuration isn't a major concern.

QF will no doubt connect people on JQ to meet QF 107/11/7/43 etc.

Although the emails going out every second week to US customers advertising the Great Barrier Reef as the destination on special will now have to include an additional ^*~~+#~ which states connections will be on Deathstar.

I'd feel ripped off if I'd bought a QF ticket ex-North America and ended up on JQ. I doubt the prices will be discounted to reflect that.

But I guess NZ has been suffering the same indignity for a cpl of years now.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

From a council, airport and tourism perspective - the only issue is seats/flights.

The configuration isn't a major concern.

QF will no doubt connect people on JQ to meet QF 107/11/7/43 etc.

Although the emails going out every second week to US customers advertising the Great Barrier Reef as the destination on special will now have to include an additional ^*~~+#~ which states connections will be on Deathstar.

I'd feel ripped off if I'd bought a QF ticket ex-North America and ended up on JQ. I doubt the prices will be discounted to reflect that.

But I guess NZ has been suffering the same indignity for a cpl of years now.

When you say connect people on to QF flights I hope it's made clear to them that their bags will not be checked through to QF nor will they get their boarding passes for their next flight on QF.

There is also the issue with checked luggage in that while QF allow each pax 2 bags @ 23kg trans-Pacific, will JQ honour this allowance or charge $10 excess per kilo if bags exceed 20kg?

 

[Simo]

More and more routes going to Deathstar.

I can foresee in the 10 years QF will only fly capital to capital services and major regional hubs which have good yield all year round with a good business trade.

 

[dfcatch]

When you say connect people on to QF flights I hope it's made clear to them that their bags will not be checked through to QF nor will they get their boarding passes for their next flight on QF.

There is also the issue with checked luggage in that while QF allow each pax 2 bags @ 23kg trans-Pacific, will JQ honour this allowance or charge $10 excess per kilo if bags exceed 20kg?

Based on my previous experiences - JQ says "F... U" to your QF allowances, we will only allow our operating carrier allowance. So no, I don't believe JQ will honor the transpacific allowance.

(Unless of course QF "cough" I mean JQ change the rules).

Whilst I absolutely oppose the unions - I do truly wish that QF was forced to sell JQ and compete/engage with them on a true arms-length arrangement.

This issue has made me incredibly angry.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Based on my previous experiences - JQ says "F... U" to your QF allowances, we will only allow our operating carrier allowance. So no, I don't believe JQ will honor the transpacific allowance.

IMHO that will cause a lot of confusion for pax because if all the flights are booked thru QF pax will assume:

a) they are travelling on Qantas
b) that their luggage can be checked thru to LAX for example & get all boarding passes in CNS
c) that the same baggage allowance would apply for all flights on the same ticket

It will be the JQ checkin employees in CNS who get the rough end of the pineapple as they will be the bearer of bad tidings.

 

[Blackbird]

Wouldn't the rules for US flights within connection times apply to Deathstar with QF connections especially if booked on one ticket?
QF management keep saying there is a line drawn in the sand over not replacing QF with J*.
But what they DO is another story.

 

[dfcatch]

IMHO that will cause a lot of confusion for pax because if all the flights are booked thru QF pax will assume:

a) they are travelling on Qantas
b) that their luggage can be checked thru to LAX for example & get all boarding passes in CNS
c) that the same baggage allowance would apply for all flights on the same ticket

It will be the JQ checkin employees in CNS who get the rough end of the pineapple as they will be the bearer of bad tidings.

IME with the same situation in NZ (where, incidentally, JQ do interline baggage in AKL), you are right - pax assume on a QF ticket and QF code they will be entitled to QF allowances but both JQ and QF are very firm that this is not the case.

So, Ozbeachbabe, your concerns are incredibly valid.

I do wonder how they do it currently, as you can already book US flights with a JQ connection to them.

 

[QF WP]

Wow, I can't understand why they didn't leave the early morning and early evening flights as QF and change the "during the day" flights to JQ.

Thankfully I don't have dfcatch and turtlemichael (+ others) issues; I can see that your DJ spend for domestic is going to increase and I can see DJ loving QF for this free kick to an open goal.

Without the easy connection, baggage interlining etc for Dom to Intl transfers, QF are going to lose even more...again to DJ & it's international partners.

 

[turtlemichael]

As much as this is not a good thing, it seems those in charge think otherwise - including the Cairns airport manager and Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief.

They seem to be blinded by the extra seats and lure of getting more mums and dads up to (or in the case of international flights, down to) Cairns. Seems they are also confident that those extra seats will be filled easily (cf. if the business community all defect to VA, obviously there is going to be less seats filled on those JQ flights and a JQ revenue crisis).

Why isn't anyone from the Cairns business community saying anything about this (or all the media outlets decided not to publish anything which comes from them)? Or, even the mayor of Cairns or the local council? The latter's hide rests on the power of business and thus communications and connections. dfcatch can't be the only Cairns local who cares about this.

I detect a note of resignation in the TTNQ and Airport Manager comments. They are of course glad of the extra seats but I don't see any grand endorsement. Although the city and region have been through depressing times before, this is the worst in my 20 years here. The tourism industry is in dire straits as are those, such as retailers, who feed off it. We have amongst the highest unemployment in Australia and you only need to walk around town to see the number of "For Lease" signs. Same applies in Port Douglas and Palm Cove to a greater or lesser degree. When the dollar falls the numbers of visitors will increase but by them they won't have the choice of flying Qantas then. The sort of people coming to the region will continue to change. I'm sure there is a marketing term for it but all I can think of at the moment is "further boganisation".

There is no mention of the Qantas part of the issue that I can see in the on line version of Cairns No News. I refuse to pay for a hard copy. I have no understanding of the silence of the new mayor other than he has been notable by his silence on all issues so far.

All up very sad and it will take major changes for the situation to improve. It is still a great place to live though when we do walk around now we look a bit more through squinting eyes to avoid seeing the things we don't like.

 

[nonpop]

QF932 - Sydney to Cairns 19:35pm Depart

What a bunch of Monkeys for changing this to a J* flight.
This is a perfect QF flight. People finish their working day and then connect to CNS.

I have CNS flights booked post Sept 2012 and they are all still showing as QF and I can select my J seats on the B737.

When these do swap out to J*, I'll then look to cancel all our forward bookings to CNS.

QF may be raking in the money via their QFF program today. But I can see that as people migrate away from QFi/d, then they also migrate away from the QFF program itself.
They seem to want the program but not the airline. If people can't exchange points for flights, then you can only have so many toasters before you realise you've been shafted.

 

[eastwest101]

My sympathies for the CNS based members, I hope they all got status matched to VA/DJ anyway. This is why it pays to keep a foot in both camps as you never know when your home port will be Jetstarized. Just ask the loyal bunch of OOL based VA flyers, all loyal customers delivered to Virgin on a platter.

Next cab off the rank for Jetstarization could be TSV or possibly DRW.

 

[amaroo]

IMO just another reason to ensure you burn points, rather than build up a huge stack. You, just never know what the next management decision will do to your view on loyalty, reward & flying future!

 

[medhead]

ADL is getting extra JQ flights to SYD apparently. Note that DJ seem to have added a return flight a day to the route -6:30am ADL-SYD, 20:10 SYD-ADL. If JQ is the answer I think someone misunderstood the question.


Sent from the Throne

 

[Isochronous]

I detect a note of resignation in the TTNQ and Airport Manager comments. They are of course glad of the extra seats but I don't see any grand endorsement. Although the city and region have been through depressing times before, this is the worst in my 20 years here. The tourism industry is in dire straits as are those, such as retailers, who feed off it. We have amongst the highest unemployment in Australia and you only need to walk around town to see the number of "For Lease" signs. Same applies in Port Douglas and Palm Cove to a greater or lesser degree. When the dollar falls the numbers of visitors will increase but by them they won't have the choice of flying Qantas then. The sort of people coming to the region will continue to change. I'm sure there is a marketing term for it but all I can think of at the moment is "further boganisation".

There is no mention of the Qantas part of the issue that I can see in the on line version of Cairns No News. I refuse to pay for a hard copy. I have no understanding of the silence of the new mayor other than he has been notable by his silence on all issues so far.

All up very sad and it will take major changes for the situation to improve. It is still a great place to live though when we do walk around now we look a bit more through squinting eyes to avoid seeing the things we don't like.

"boganisation" - a very apt term, turtlemichael! I shall use it myself in future.

 

[SeatBackForward]

If JQ is the answer I think someone misunderstood the question.

Good one.

 

[markis10]

My sympathies for the CNS based members, I hope they all got status matched to VA/DJ anyway. This is why it pays to keep a foot in both camps as you never know when your home port will be Jetstarized. Just ask the loyal bunch of OOL based VA flyers, all loyal customers delivered to Virgin on a platter.

Next cab off the rank for Jetstarization could be TSV or possibly DRW.

TSV and DRW have a lot of defence traffic, doubt it.

 

[Limewood]

Seems there are a few of us Cairns ite's here, yes we understand what is happening, and I for one next year might just jump ship to VA, only do two/three domestic and 2 international flights a year now, but if I'm forced to use JQ and no real J and for convenience flying times on them its goodbye.

 

[nonpop]

If JQ is the answer I think someone misunderstood the question

Now that sir is the truth across the board.

 

[QF WP]

medhead, I've never laughed so hard at one of your comments. Thank you

 

[whatmeworry]

Every time QF removes a route, God kills a Kitten.