Qantas feeds its staff first?

[purplegez]

The following is from today's online edition of CRIKEY newspaper.

"Qantas feeds its staff first. I went from Sydney to Brisbane last week in business class on a 17.30 Qantas flight as the 18.00 was cancelled. In that class were six Qantas cabin crew paxing in full uniform. Next to me were two full-fare paying passengers, also from the 17.30 flight. We were all told that catering was not assured -- yet the passenger crew were given food before the fare-paying passengers were offered any"

Any comments anyone........?

 

[bam71]

The following is from today's online edition of CRIKEY newspaper.

"Qantas feeds its staff first. I went from Sydney to Brisbane last week in business class on a 17.30 Qantas flight as the 18.00 was cancelled. In that class were six Qantas cabin crew paxing in full uniform. Next to me were two full-fare paying passengers, also from the 17.30 flight. We were all told that catering was not assured -- yet the passenger crew were given food before the fare-paying passengers were offered any"

Any comments anyone........?

Thats not normal.

As a staff member, I always get offered choice last unless there is plenty of everything, personally if i was offered a meal first i would forgo it until commercial pax had been served.

 

[simongr]

Do QF actually serve a meal on the 17:30 flight? I thought hot food only came out after 18:00?

 

[under the radar]

The following is from today's online edition of CRIKEY newspaper.

"Qantas feeds its staff first. I went from Sydney to Brisbane last week in business class on a 17.30 Qantas flight as the 18.00 was cancelled. In that class were six Qantas cabin crew paxing in full uniform. Next to me were two full-fare paying passengers, also from the 17.30 flight. We were all told that catering was not assured -- yet the passenger crew were given food before the fare-paying passengers were offered any"

Any comments anyone........?

you fail to mention if you were fed or not!! were you fed???? if so..did you get your choice...if so...get over it!!

 

[Ewing]

Do QF actually serve a meal on the 17:30 flight? I thought hot food only came out after 18:00?

In J it's something on every flight regardless of the time (in my experience). Outside normal meal times it's usually a light refreshment such as a salad (eg: smoked salmon salad).

I've never seen a catering shortage though even when "catering not assured" (which I occasionally get when changing to a flight at the last minute). There always seems to be enough left over for the crew to help themselves in the galley once the service run is complete so unless there was an actual shortage then I really don't see what the problem is.

 

[purplegez]

you fail to mention if you were fed or not!! were you fed???? if so..did you get your choice...if so...get over it!!

if under the radar reads my OP he/she will see that I am quoting a newspaper comment. I am not the passenger. I think your post is a little bit impolite. I was simply inviting comment on the reported situation.

 

[Travel Guru]

you fail to mention if you were fed or not!! were you fed???? if so..did you get your choice...if so...get over it!!

Bit harsh...

TG

 

[aoz48x]

You and the article that you quote fail to indicate if the paxing crew were already booked and confirmed on the flight before the other flight was cancelled. If this was so then they would have been included in the meal required count when QF were catering the flight. If any additional customers were booked on the flight after this time when obviously they would endeavour to get addtional meals but no gtee. This makes sense.

If the crew were booked on the flight then they would be entitled to have a meal before anyone who was not gtee'd a meal.

I also don't see what your point of raising this article is....

 

[thewinchester]

Staff are people too, and if they had enough meals on board then does it really matter that deadheading staff who were likely at the front of the cabin in question were fed first?

Yawn. I'd expect this cough from NoNews, not crikey.

 

[simongr]

I think if this was a catering not assured situation from an OpUp or a points up it would be different. QF cancelled a flight that had catering assured and then have been perceived to have fed staff before paying pax.

 

[russ]

Given that they were travelling in uniform, I think it sends the message that QF staff are more important than their customers.

If I missed out on a meal, I would have asked for one of their meals. If they failed to provide it, I would have made a note of the seats they were travelling in and tell them that I will do the best I can to get them fired. Then start emailing [email protected] that night.

 

[jb747]

If the passenger had moved to a later flight, then catering would have been loaded, and there would have been no issue. Going earlier will cause issues.

As for the crew, they would have been confirmed duty travel (not staff travel). The meal on that flight would also have been accounted for in the rostering of the day, so if they don't get a meal then, they may not get one at all. A meal will not be loaded for them on a subsequent flight, as they will be assumed to have already had one.

 

[simongr]

If I missed out on a meal, I would have asked for one of their meals. If they failed to provide it, I would have made a note of the seats they were travelling in and tell them that I will do the best I can to get them fired. Then start emailing [email protected] that night.

You have eaten on QF domestic flights? They might actually be doing you a favour...

@jb747 - I appreciate the mechanics - I just think that it sends something of a message to paying pax. I actually don't know whether in fact it is a good message "Qantas ensures it looks after its people and abides by its contractual obligations to its people sometimes at the expense of customers"

 

[jb747]

I expect it's problematic no matter how you do it. Don't give the crew a meal then, and they may need to sort it out prior to the next departure. And given that most transits are in the order of 40 minutes, there won't be time for that...so the downstream effect could well be a delay to another flight. We don't know what work they had already done, and what was yet to come....

But, I've been given boarding passes many times over the years with the comment 'catering not assured'. I can knock it back if I feel like it, and catch a later flight for which there will be catering...though I pretty well always take the seat. I've then seen many another crew member have a meal, whilst I didn't simply because they were on the aircraft they were booked on, whilst I wasn't. So, the same rules are applied to us too. I've also given up meals so that passengers can have a choice, though I doubt that I would if somebody demanded it and threatened me with my job otherwise.

 

[Homer]

I think it looks bad but in reality it’s not. If the crew were in plain clothes or revenue pax already booked on that flight then there wouldn’t be an issue here. Isn’t the real problem that QF cancelled the 6pm flight and moved the pax to a 5:30pm flight and then marked his BP “catering not assured”? If I was in that situation myself and noticed it (which I believe I would) then I would have a conversation with the QF lounge/check-in agent who handed me the new BP to understand their position.

 

[purplegez]

Thank you to the people who have posted helpful and knowledgeable comments to my OP.

Some comments were neither helpful or knowledgeable of course but I suppose you get that on any type of forum.

 

[Mal]

<nothing against the OP!>

The Crikey article is very strange. No conclusion to it. Did the "affected pax" get a meal? If so ... then, their complaint is pretty much invalid. They've taken the "CNA" notation on their BP and decided that there was no chance they would be served, whereas the staff could have known how many meals were loaded and decided that there was no issue.

If fewer meals than J pax were loaded, then the onboard staff may have made different decisions - and the uniformed staff may have also made different decisions.

Just seems like a strange Crikey "article".

 

[BadgerBoi]

Thank you to the people who have posted helpful and knowledgeable comments to my OP.

Some comments were neither helpful or knowledgeable of course but I suppose you get that on any type of forum.

Yes, and you can often pick who they will be and what they will say before they even post

 

[simongr]

That's very true badgerboi...