Still choose QF

[blueflamenco]

This year 120 Qantas pilots have been seconded to Emirates for a 3 year period. In fact Emirates now have more former Qantas pilots than Qantas have current pilots. Luckily Qantas have the JetStar newbies to prop up the roster.

Yikes.. I did not want to know that!

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

I'm pretty loyal to QF and OneWorld.
30k+ status credits over the years (started in 1993), thankfully most of the travel these days is domestic AU, Japan, Singapore and USA.
Typically use points to bring the family to Oz or send the family back to USA for holidays, kids are in uni now, so planning in advance with their holidays is easy.

Wife and family are treated well, we use the Flagship Lounges in USA every year, a few visits to FLounges, its easy and right now, I don't see any need to change.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I would barely rate the CX First lounge in HK, for example

.


FTM

Sent from my GT-P7510 using AustFreqFly

you have exceptionally high standards Sir. I have always feed and watered myself well there, even relaxed and slept in a peaceful Cabana........

 

[Globetrotter]

Just returned from 4 days in Toronto. Been watching for a while, with interest, the comments for and against Qantas, staff morale drop off, other airlines better etc etc. I am a 2 million kilometer flyer, 60% of which has been on the Red Roo. Apart from BA and AA, my last non-QF international flight was with Etihad, which was pretty damn nice too. However, my 2c worth is that QF still have a great product and, all things considered, will continue to get my custom.

I totally agree. I am exceptionally happy with Qantas all round. I flew to Adelaide on the weekend and again received fantastic service. The crew were so cheerful on the flight down I thought QF were giving staff uppers! I recently made Silver status with Virgin having flown them to LA (due to obtaining a cheap J ticket) and am not far off from reaching gold. I'm not going out of my way to book DJ just for the sake of reaching Gold with them. My next six flights have been booked with QF.

 

[Canny man]

Just completed a mega trip on QF and AC. AC service was fine and friendly. Nothing to complain about in terms of the crew. QF was however outstanding on the two legs I flew. The staff were genuine in their friendly service and really made the experience one to enjoy. Both were in domestic J.
I have contacted Qantas customer care to complement the individuals involved.
As pointed out in many other threads, when QF get it right it's hard to beat

 

[simongr]

What cabin and routes? I have found the cabin crew SYD-LHR and SYD_HKG on the A380 in J to be fantastic.

 

[Canny man]

This was domestic J between Syd and BNE.
I wouldn't normally go J for a short trip but it was part of a much longer itinerary.
I also sat next to a long haul staff member and had a really good chat about how motivated she is in service delivery on the long haul routes she works.

 

[Stoopidsteve]

I'm fast approaching LTG (800 SC to go) and TBH, have pondered (once LTG secured) whether I'll pop over to the dark side and give it a whirl!

SHHHH!!!!! Don't say it out loud. The more often this sentiment is expressed, the more likely LTG will be enhanced like LTQP was.

 

[Alanslegal]

On the downside, almost all of our guests from Australia (including a QFi first officer) fly to Italy with the Middle Eastern airlines. Their flights are cheaper and generally far more efficient in terms of timing. Other than the rare times I can book the CX codeshare via HKG (but have a 12 hour layover on the return flight), we fly via LHR which adds an additional BA leg and at least another 6 hours to our trip. If we do codeshare, I lose all my potential status benefits (other than free exit row seating on CX).

12 hour layover in HKG is no sweat really. One could easily go into town, have lunch, visit a few sights or go shopping and still make it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

However most people I know of, want to fly as direct as possible, with least waiting time as possible and sadly with QF, it seems most places in Europe requires three sectors to get to; some of QF's competitors get there in two. More often than not, their competitors also have a price advantage too. (Yes we here value ff points into the cost/value equation too but to the irregular flyer, points are down the list of priorities).

My sis would never fly QF (due to poor experience in the past and even though I encourage/tell her that QF is really quite high up there in service) ..... similarly, my mother would not fly QF, even with the lure of J travel (using my FF points and 388 to SIN) but she declined. She has instead bought a revenue Y fare with SQ :shock: And my friends, well most would go for BFOD, BROD (best route of the day) than aligning their preferences to one carrier or another.

AFF is very QF-centric so I can understand why there is mostly praise/positive comments - but in my world outside AFF, (real or unreal) perception, word of mouth, past negative experiences are still highly critical against QF and this leads to people I know having a reluctance to choose QF.

 

[yohy?!]

12 hour layover in HKG is no sweat really. One could easily go into town, have lunch, visit a few sights or go shopping and still make it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

However most people I know of, want to fly as direct as possible, with least waiting time as possible and sadly with QF, it seems most places in Europe requires three sectors to get to; some of QF's competitors get there in two. More often than not, their competitors also have a price advantage too. (Yes we here value ff points into the cost/value equation too but to the irregular flyer, points are down the list of priorities).

My sis would never fly QF (due to poor experience in the past and even though I encourage/tell her that QF is really quite high up there in service) ..... similarly, my mother would not fly QF, even with the lure of J travel (using my FF points and 388 to SIN) but she declined. She has instead bought a revenue Y fare with SQ :shock: And my friends, well most would go for BFOD, BROD (best route of the day) than aligning their preferences to one carrier or another.

AFF is very QF-centric so I can understand why there is mostly praise/positive comments - but in my world outside AFF, (real or unreal) perception, word of mouth, past negative experiences are still highly critical against QF and this leads to people I know having a reluctance to choose QF.

Agree with this, I want QF to be good because when they are, they are great but more often than not the product does not meet expectations or value for money.

I find myself weighing up the difference between QF and CX on HKG-SYD and finding it harder to pick QF even with a 10-25% discount (and factoring in the shell seats!). Also the 50k return upgrades to J on CX using Asia miles are very attractive (though rare).

 

[Isochronous]

Agree with this, I want QF to be good because when they are, they are great but more often than not the product does not meet expectations or value for money.

I find myself weighing up the difference between QF and CX on HKG-SYD and finding it harder to pick QF even with a 10-25% discount (and factoring in the shell seats!). Also the 50k return upgrades to J on CX using Asia miles are very attractive (though rare).

You really prefer CX Y shell seating or the CX J to the QF A380 J?

 

[simongr]

I would definitely put the new CX J seat above the QF A380 J seat.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Just returned from 4 days in Toronto. Been watching for a while, with interest, the comments for and against Qantas, staff morale drop off, other airlines better etc etc. I am a 2 million kilometer flyer, 60% of which has been on the Red Roo. Apart from BA and AA, my last non-QF international flight was with Etihad, which was pretty damn nice too. However, my 2c worth is that QF still have a great product and, all things considered, will continue to get my custom.

We did a round the world with SYD-JHB and LAX-SYD with Qantas in F. I thought Qantas was excellent - First on the A380 is just amazing, but even the 747 was OK. I thought Qantas' food was light years better than BA (we did BA JHB-LHR and LHR-JFK - both in New First), service was equally good in both. I like flying Qantas and was relieved to find it still so good - just a pity they are getting rid of so many routes and first from so many routes. Finally after a few tough years have both the time and money (touch wood) to indulge a bit and it seems to be getting harder to fly Qantas where we want to go in the class we want!

 

[yohy?!]

You really prefer CX Y shell seating or the CX J to the QF A380 J?

Yup, the Y clincher is that I can fly day time both ways HKG-SYD which makes it moot on the seat- s QF is only night flights HKG-SYD.

QF A380 J seat is also not as comfortable as either CX old or new J seats, being lumpy and not truly 'bed flat'

EDIT: I should probably note also that the shell seating is gone from the 33Gs doing HKG-SYD anyway