QC's plummetting standards

[Rae]

Why would I need a shower? Just because I'm in a t-shirt and therefore 'scruffy' does not mean I'm not clean!

Maybe I'm too old

Each to their own........ in the lounges
Just ensure you use the showers if other passengers would appreciate it.

Happy wandering

 

[maninblack]

Why would I need a shower? Just because I'm in a t-shirt and therefore 'scruffy' does not mean I'm not clean!

Damn right. Why do some people assume that perhaps because they work for a big corporation and have to wear a suit that they are legit business people and others who may be engaged in more entrepreneurial activities and don't wear suits and who in fact risk their own capital are not. Steve Jobs and yes...Richard Branson etc would have been denied QC entry!

 

[Rae]

Yes. Let's not forget where Richard Branson came from after all! Thanks for the acknowledgement. Appreciated.

 

[Commuter]

Steve Jobs and yes...Richard Branson etc would have been denied QC entry!

Woolly jumpers are probably deemed to be 'smart casual'

Anyway, I don't really mind how people dress in QC as long as they are well-behaved. Suits are often the 'no mobile phone' offenders, and I see that as worse than someone wearing thongs (but... if someone turned up in just thongs, I don't think I'd be too delighted! :mrgreen

 

[maninblack]

Woolly jumpers are probably deemed to be 'smart casual'

Anyway, I don't really mind how people dress in QC as long as they are well-behaved. Suits are often the 'no mobile phone' offenders, and I see that as worse than someone wearing thongs (but... if someone turned up in just thongs, I don't think I'd be too delighted! :mrgreen

Ah, that just depends who it is, I wouldn't mind if....

 

[simongr]

Hmm dress codes in QP... given how antsy everyone is (people in t's are scum, people in suits are scum, people with corporate discount are scum) I am not entirely sure I should step into this debate. I am lucky that mot of my flights are now Int'l and at weekends - so my biggest stress is whether its appropriate to have a beer at 9AM and to make sure I dont stand on the babies that are crawling around.

I really think though that anyone ho is coughing about some other group needs to take a steap back and realise that they are also another group - might reduce some indignation around here.

 

[jakeseven7]

QC Terms and conditions.
10.7 Smart, casual dress standards apply at all times. Individual Qantas Club lounge managers will have discretion to alter these standards if circumstances warrant.
.

I'm sure even the older of you can remember getting refused entry to clubs and bars right? Well this is the same thing, QF HAVE to have a clause in there so they can chuck people out if they feel like it (Cmon how many times have guys been told its their SHOES that won't get you into bars!!). Why would they want to enforce this religiously anyway and drive people straight to the Virgin terminal/club.

 

[NM]

Damn right. Why do some people assume that perhaps because they work for a big corporation and have to wear a suit that they are legit business people and others who may be engaged in more entrepreneurial activities and don't wear suits and who in fact risk their own capital are not. Steve Jobs and yes...Richard Branson etc would have been denied QC entry!

And I have seen some suits that are bordering on offencive when worn in public . Some remind me of the costumes used in a production of "Guys & Dolls" as worn by Sky Masterson, Nathan Detroit, Benny Southstreet or Nicely Nicely Johnson.

 

[Skyring]

Here's something I wrote a while back in my blog, about my wife and I. It seems relevant to the current discussion.

Every now and then Kerri flies to Sydney or Melbourne for a day's meeting. She hires a room at the Qantas Club at the domestic terminal and folk from all over OZ fly in, discuss stuff and then go home again.

This usually means she has to get up early and I drop her off at the airport at about seven, and she calls me when she wants to be picked up around five or six, depending on flights.

So Friday, I set the alarm for six and she gets up, gets prettified, has a quick breakfast and browse of the paper, while I make a cuppa and check my email.

Ten to seven I haul her briefcase out to the car, she gets in and we go out to the airport. I's only a couple of kilometres away, but there's half a dozen roundabouts on the way. Anyone flying in is going to think Canberra is the city of roundabouts on the way to their hotel. And they aren't too far wrong.

Anyway, I drop her off at the kerb outside Departures. The checkin desks are only ten metres away or something, Canberra isn't what you'd call a huge airport. As we kiss, a spark of static jumps between our lips, as it so often does in the car - we sort of approach nervously like teenagers instead of old marriedies - and then we jump a bit and smile at each other. She gets her briefcase, waves and goodbye.

I pull out and I've got one eye on the glimpses of runway just in case something interesting pulls in, but no, and as I get out and am negotiating the first roundabout I realise that I've still got my phone in my pocket. Yes, we share a mobile phone. It's the one she'll need to call me to be picked up. Blast. So I get to the next roundabout, do a 180 and head back. Get a good park just across from the entrance and head inside.

Now, at this point you've got to realise that while Kerri is going to a business meeting in Sydney, my part in the transaction is to roll out of bed, drive her to the airport and go back home. So I'm wearing slip on sandals, my comfy old round the house shorts (and my concession to the outside world is that I'm wearing undies as well), the polo shirt I've slept in (an old geeky thing that's covered in fluff and cat hair showing up in brilliant highlight against the black), I haven't shaved and my hair is unbrushed and unloved.

I'm hoping she's in the checkin lines, but no, the place is all but deserted. So I head to the security gates to go for the lounge upstairs. The lady at the far end takes one look at me and motions me aside for the explosives sniffer.

Upstairs she's not visible in the gate area, so she must be inside the Qantas Club. I go to the young women on the counter, smile unshavenly at them, hoping they'll ignore the trail of cinnamon-coloured cat hairs I'm leaving on their nice carpet, and ask if I can give my wife her mobile phone. They check a list and say that's OK.

Now, I'm looking like I've just rolled out of bed, and all around me are people dressed up to the nines in business suits and the like. Honestly, I'm the only person on the premises with sandals. I have to walk all the way through before I find Kerri, and my heart soars when I see her. There she is, immaculately dressed, perfectly co-ordinated, sipping from a fresh cappuccino and browsing the morning paper.

"Your phone, dear!", I say, pulling it out of my pocket.

She looks up at me and smiles, "I'm surprised they let you in!" she says.

She can read my mind!

 

[Expon]

Qantas should ban yobs, bogans and anyone looking scruffy .... (and while they're about it, they can cut out cheap corporate rates - might keep out some more of the riff raff)

Pacblue

Hmm I am a QC member, I fly reguarly for leisure. I am a professional however I don't wear a suit or dress in designer gear, in fact I guess I would qualify for a bogan in your book. It doesn't mean I shouldn't be allowed to use what I paid for.

I'm sure with the complaints about the conditions and value of the QC that if corporate rates were removed, you would lose alot of those "cherub" suits that pay for membersip themselves!


With reference to the footy yobs that were passing through, although loutish behaviour may be frowned upon, this is a once a year event that would be part of Australian culture. I'm sure their volume may be no different to misbehaving children who may be making a bit of noise (which we have visited in another thread). After all I find the suits more discomforting looking down their noses at you thinking "you don't earn $400k+/pa why are you here?!?" than the footy yobs or bogans that will say hi with a smile and a beer in there hand.

 

[simongr]

Hmm - there is an awful lot of anti-suit snobbery going on here - anyone would think that all people in suits are baby eaters! I think as much as people rage that the damn suits look down their nose at them - they should also be careful where they cast their aspertions.

I travel for business and I wear a suit - when I am in the QP its generally a quick visit on the way home from a trip away - me and tgtwwm chat about the week we have had - our enjoyment of the week or our shock at what we found whilst we were away. I make a couple of quick calls to people - generally my wife to make sure we have spoken before I get on the plane (you never what could happen) and maybe a work call. I check my last emails on my blackberry and then shut it down. Not sure what is particularly wrong with that - and why wearing a suit is now such a crime.

 

[Groundfeeder]

But seriously this is a totally subjective judgement and the manager has discretion. What is smart casual? I can look very smart in sandals, shorts and a funky T-shirt and another guy can look like garbage in a cheap suit and wrinkled shirt. Being scruffy does not exclude someone as this is not part of their dress. The issue really is about behaviour, not the clothes you wear, everyones view of fashion or "smart casual" is different.

Has anyone noticed the difference between, say, Cairns QP and Sydney QP. If some people (including femmes) insist on wearing suits in the tropics, they are suffering silently for fashion, so let them go.

 

[Rae]

Wearing a suit is no better nor worse (in my mind) than not wearing one, however the previous poster does have a point. Some (not all) suits WILL glance over their paper and look you up and down for not dressing 'smart' - be that in QC or on a train even. In saying that, some 'shabby dressed' people are loud and obnoxious also.

For me it's all down to behaviour. Bad behaviour comes from those dressed in both styles, however this thread originally made the assumption that the 'shabby' dressers were the trouble makers, hence us shabby people getting somewhat defensive.

I earn a good salary, read the paper and check my blackberry too. I just don't do it in a suit. I look at people wearing suits and ties on hot summer days while I walk around in a t-shirt and converse and consider myself quite lucky. If it means I have to put up with a couple of non-approving stares then so be it. I do get annoyed that people make assumptions based on how one dresses - it's small-minded.

In my profession, wearing a suit would be frowned upon and I would be taken LESS seriously.

 

[Skyring]

Wearing a suit is no better nor worse (in my mind) than not wearing one, however the previous poster does have a point. Some (not all) suits WILL glance over their paper and look you up and down for not dressing 'smart' - be that in QC or on a train even. In saying that, some 'shabby dressed' people are loud and obnoxious also.

One dresses according to the occasion. Court, weddings, funerals - places to wear a suit.

There's a certain language and grammar to wearing a suit. French cuffs, tight gyves, cuff-buttonholes that work, the way the stripes slope. I'll regard someone wearing a "loser" tie a bit differently to someone wearing a "winner" tie. Of course that only applies to the language of suits, and there are whole other worlds of attire of which I know nothing.

But for the purposes of the QC, I've found that it doesn't matter. They let me in regardless of what I wear, and I dress for comfort nowadays.

So long as you don't make a nuisance of yourself to other passengers, dress isn't overly important. Some loud galoot in a suit yakking away on his mobile is going to irritate me more than the shorts and t-shirt guy quietly reading the paper.

 

[oz_mark]

One dresses according to the occasion. Court, weddings, funerals - places to wear a suit.

There's a certain language and grammar to wearing a suit. French cuffs, tight gyves, cuff-buttonholes that work, the way the stripes slope. I'll regard someone wearing a "loser" tie a bit differently to someone wearing a "winner" tie. Of course that only applies to the language of suits, and there are whole other worlds of attire of which I know nothing.

But for the purposes of the QC, I've found that it doesn't matter. They let me in regardless of what I wear, and I dress for comfort nowadays.

So long as you don't make a nuisance of yourself to other passengers, dress isn't overly important. Some loud galoot in a suit yakking away on his mobile is going to irritate me more than the shorts and t-shirt guy quietly reading the paper.

I'm in the fortunate position that my companies dress code is "business casual", meaning suits and ties are not required. Of course, for some client visits, throwing on a suit and tie is required. So mostly I will appear in a QC sans suit and ties, but occasionally I will wear one.

I have never noticed any difference in the way I am treated, looked at or whatever (mind you I don't generally travel in tshirts and shorts).

At the end of the day, I agree that is all about the behaviour of people, and generally I have had more issues with the suit brigade than more casually dressed people. THe suits seem to need to puff out their chests and make sure everyone around them knows just hw important they are. Do I particulalry care that someones multi-million dollar deal is going down the toilet? No, not really - take the conversation elsewhere, or talk more quietly.

 

[JohnK]

I have never noticed any difference in the way I am treated, looked at or whatever (mind you I don't generally travel in tshirts and shorts).

It appears I am in the minority but when it comes to dress standards I am very conservative. I want to look the best I possibly could at all times when in public. Never sure who you are going to meet. I feel that scruffy attire is more appropriate in the backyard but ymmv.

I will have a chuckle to myself and shake my head if I feel that someone is not dressed properly. I am not looking down on them in any way but just find it amusing. Some of the t-shirts that people wear these days are very questionable, ripped designer jeans (someone please explain this to me as I have totally missed the point), grey tracksuit pants (should never be worn in public under any circumstance), long shorts, short longs, thongs, no socks, etc....

 

[Rae]

And I guess I have a bit of a chuckle when I see people in suits and it's really hot outside and I know that their job requires/expects it and mine doesn't. I guess that makes me the lucky one as I see it, so please, chuckle all you want. I really don't mind... and I'm used to it anyway

 

[oz_mark]

It appears I am in the minority but when it comes to dress standards I am very conservative. I want to look the best I possibly could at all times when in public. Never sure who you are going to meet. I feel that scruffy attire is more appropriate in the backyard but ymmv.

I will have a chuckle to myself and shake my head if I feel that someone is not dressed properly. I am not looking down on them in any way but just find it amusing. Some of the t-shirts that people wear these days are very questionable, ripped designer jeans (someone please explain this to me as I have totally missed the point), grey tracksuit pants (should never be worn in public under any circumstance), long shorts, short longs, thongs, no socks, etc....

The whole ripped designer jeans thing mystfied me as well. You are unlikely to see me in them, but then, I don't actually own a pair of jeans, ripped designer or otherwise. While I don't generally travel in a suit, I would hardly say that I dress like a slob either

Generally, unless someone was wearing something way out, I would not particulalry notice what people were wearing in the QC. I do notice their behaviour.

 

[Travel Guru]

I definately dont support being judgemental based on ones appearance, but definately agree yobs and bogons should be kept from the club.

Isn't it about time Qantas hiked up the club membership over $500 a year to get rid of alot of casual members who overcrowd the club....perhaps then they could afford to serve some decent food.....there's only so many pastizzi's a guy can eat!!

Travel Guru

p.s. Fellow Vegetarian here Rae...you go girl!

 

[JohnK]

While I don't generally travel in a suit, I would hardly say that I dress like a slob either

I hardly ever wear a suit. I normally wear a pair of slacks, a business/casual long sleeve shirt and jacket. For me this is still comfortable and each of the pockets come in handy as well.

Generally, unless someone was wearing something way out, I would not particulalry notice what people were wearing in the QC. I do notice their behaviour.

I feel some people are noisy, especially with mobile phones, because they are attention seekers.