Thanks QANTAS its been fun, but Im in love with someone else.

[kamchatsky]

I am a bit surprised by the reaction in this thread to QQF's good experience on VA and his decision to fly them in the future. Also the overreaction to Dave's statements. I, for one, find Dave's questioning of the QF love-in opinions refreshing.

Hasn't the world just seen and experienced enough as the result of 'group think' in the last 10 years? Much better to bring in the alternative opinion that identifies that the emperor has no clothes.

In regard to groupthink, it is a good possibility here, given that most AFFers have QF Gold/Plat status. But of course, it does not mean they are wrong :mrgreen:.

It would happen less in larger forums such as FT, where there are so many members around the world.

 

[serfty]

There are some quite reasoned comments from many experienced travellers in this thread.

I say, do like the ice-dancing judges and discard the relatively extreme comments and concentrate on the core.

I have had great transpacific flight on both Qantas and Air NZ, although the ratio over about 30 actual flights is about 8 to 1.

This is as both a Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum and an Air New Zealand Gold Elite.

The service on some QF flights have been extraordinarily good, on a few others it's been poor. My AirNZ flights have had generally good service all around. I am still not going to state that transpacific AirNZ is "better" than "Qantas".

I look to AirNZ transpacific these days as the upgrade facility (for me) is not a lottery. I could even upgrade from award bookings.

 

[MelUser]

I love the thrill of winning the Qantas international upgrade lottery!!

 

[yohy?!]

From my perspective as a self funded traveller with no status and thus no loyalty to any particular airline I can understand the OPs point of view.

Try removing your WP status from the equation and see how different things look if you are purely comparing 'apples for apples' ie service and product received for $ spent.

IMO It should then seem a little more difficult to justify QF's premium charged over other carriers.

 

[dajop]

IMO It should then seem a little more difficult to justify QF's premium charged over other carriers.

But that's the whole point of loyalty programs, to extract a premium from your biggest and most frequent customers. As long (premium extracted) > (cost of loyalty program) then airline is ahead (and in this instance by loyalty program I don't mean the FF program that is a cash generator from frequent spenders, I mean the whole status based infrastructure - lounges, upgrades, priority handling etc).

 

[JohnK]

Try removing your WP status from the equation and see how different things look if you are purely comparing 'apples for apples' ie service and product received for $ spent.

But it is still possible to be a Platinum and travel a premium airline on cheap airfares. And this also works for somene not loyal to any airline or alliance.

I am looking at purchasing my next return from SE Asia and I have been weighing up all options. Seriously QF comes out miles in front when considering airfare and benefits. For SGD1106 I get SIN(A380)-MEL-SYD-PER-SIN departing October and returning to SE Asia in March plus I also get a SYD-BNE flight thrown in for free. For SGD1211 I could have also gotten a BNE-SYD flight on Christmas Eve but the available options stop with the 12:15pm flight and I want something a little later.

The reason I am going via PER (and not on the A380 from SYD-SIN) on the return is I want to get to SIN at ~5:00 and make the ~8:00pm Air Asia flight to BKK otherwise I lose another day.

And I will also earn ~18,700 QFF points for my troubles, have meals and beverages on board and lounge access before all flights. Can someone see a better option? It would have to be a considerable saving to even consider another airline.

At the moment SQ airfare for the same dates is ~SGD1350, MH is ~SGD1100, Etihad is ~SGD1600 etc etc.

 

[dajop]

But it is still possible to be a Platinum and travel a premium airline on cheap airfares. And this also works for somene not loyal to any airline or alliance.

I am looking at purchasing my next return from SE Asia and I have been weighing up all options. Seriously QF comes out miles in front when considering airfare and benefits.

QF works well for me planning travel from SE Asia to Australia a long time in advance, and therefore works well around major holidays like Xmas and Easter. And I can understand fully how it would work for you in the situation described above.

Due to various factors (mainly work related) my personal travel tends to be more spontaneous/last minute, and QF are not so good for that. It's the way their model works. Emirates on the other hand tends to be hopeless for travel (from SE Asia to Australia) planned well in advance because their model favours restricting availability on the Asia-Aus legs in favour of people travelling all the way to DXB and connecting onwards. However about a month out, thats when EK prices really drop (and QF goes up) and its difficult to justify paying an extra 30-40% to travel QF despite the extra miles, and WP treatment (noting that on EK I get 38kg as an EK silver and as a WP can use the QF J lounge anyway).

 

[yohy?!]

But it is still possible to be a Platinum and travel a premium airline on cheap airfares. And this also works for somene not loyal to any airline or alliance.

I am looking at purchasing my next return from SE Asia and I have been weighing up all options. Seriously QF comes out miles in front when considering airfare and benefits. For SGD1106 I get SIN(A380)-MEL-SYD-PER-SIN departing October and returning to SE Asia in March plus I also get a SYD-BNE flight thrown in for free. For SGD1211 I could have also gotten a BNE-SYD flight on Christmas Eve but the available options stop with the 12:15pm flight and I want something a little later.

The reason I am going via PER (and not on the A380 from SYD-SIN) on the return is I want to get to SIN at ~5:00 and make the ~8:00pm Air Asia flight to BKK otherwise I lose another day.

And I will also earn ~18,700 QFF points for my troubles, have meals and beverages on board and lounge access before all flights. Can someone see a better option? It would have to be a considerable saving to even consider another airline.

At the moment SQ airfare for the same dates is ~SGD1350, MH is ~SGD1100, Etihad is ~SGD1600 etc etc.

Again agreed, I was just putting out there that points/status may be of no concern to the OP...understandable if they are happy to self-fund J travel.

Personally I always consider QF as I would like to try and have some OW status for when I am based in Asia next year - of my last 12 trips taken only 1 was on QF (and that was a last minute trip) purely because the price differential was too great to justify the status credits.

Try removing the points and status benefits though and the main benefit in your situation from QF is the timetable, A380 is ok but not really a selling point for me (given how often they have tech issues) and if the service and food is going to be patchy at best.

 

[harvyk]

From my perspective as a self funded traveller with no status and thus no loyalty to any particular airline I can understand the OPs point of view.
(snip)

(snip) of my last 12 trips taken only 1 was on QF (and that was a last minute trip) purely because the price differential was too great to justify the status credits.
(snip)

yohy, don't take this post as a dig against yourself, it's more than I am curious.

In your profile, you have said you are a member of both QF as a NB and VS as a Red. You have also posted up that QF can't rely on your loyalty, as your recent track record indicates you'll use them very infrequently, and only when forced.

So my question is, why bother signing up for multiple FF programs when your sitting in the bottom tier for both, especially as you indiciated achieving SC's are not a priority?

Could the bit extra for airfares now which is sometimes the cost of loyalty be considered an investment in future access to privledges such as better lounge access, priority boarding \ baggage, etc? All which have an actual cash value assigned to them.

 

[JohnK]

Try removing the points and status benefits though and the main benefit in your situation from QF is the timetable, A380 is ok but not really a selling point for me (given how often they have tech issues) and if the service and food is going to be ptchy at best.

I understand what you are saying. And yes there is no one size fits all.

If points or status were not important to me then I would look at other things like aircraft used (I love 767's for SYD-BNE flights but do not want to be on one for more than 3-4 hours), schedules (don't want to be on an airline that flies the route 3 times a week), connections, baggage allowances (taking into consideration golf clubs), through checked baggage, reputation etc.

And again repeating what dajop has said one can find EK flights very cheap ~1 month from travel. Personally I would not want to wait that long to book flights just in case. So for my situation QF works perfectly (well almost perfectly, I wish they had better schedules into SE Asia without the emphasis on LHR or FRA and not JQ is not even an option) and their airfares are very reasonable even taking points and benefits out of the equation.

Another thing that helps is to do a lot of research before booking flights....

 

[yohy?!]

yohy, don't take this post as a dig against yourself, it's more than I am curious.

In your profile, you have said you are a member of both QF as a NB and VS as a Red. You have also posted up that QF can't rely on your loyalty, as your recent track record indicates you'll use them very infrequently, and only when forced.

So my question is, why bother signing up for multiple FF programs when your sitting in the bottom tier for both, especially as you indiciated achieving SC's are not a priority?

Could the bit extra for airfares now which is sometimes the cost of loyalty be considered an investment in future access to privledges such as better lounge access, priority boarding \ baggage, etc? All which have an actual cash value assigned to them.

No worries, I guess was trying more to emphasise with the OP rather than my own position.

Previously I would just collect points and burn them based on whatever airline I chose (I also have SQ and EK too), my travel was mostly leisure and self funded so I never expected to need status (and didnt really understand it). All my travel would also be scheduled around the absolute rock-bottom fares I could access (ahhh the freedom of youth )- I can access substantially discounted QP and DJ Lounge memberships through work if I need too also.

I joined QF for free through Woolworths to collect points that way, have only really used it for one upgrade thus far. VS and SQ I transfer my Amex points to as needed.

 

[markis10]

I wonder how long the affair will last, I suppose that is up to QF?

 

[Foreigner]

For SGD1106 I get SIN(A380)-MEL-SYD-PER-SIN departing October and returning to SE Asia in March plus I also get a SYD-BNE flight thrown in for free.

At the moment SQ airfare for the same dates is ~SGD1350, MH is ~SGD1100, Etihad is ~SGD1600 etc etc.

Curious how did you manage this booking...online? multi-city? It never bothers me to do extended trips to go A to B if it's cost effective, time permits and for extra points and SCs, in case of QF.

 

[JohnK]

Curious how did you manage this booking...online? multi-city? It never bothers me to do extended trips to go A to B if it's cost effective, time permits and for extra points and SCs, in case of QF.

Multi-city using the QF SIN website.

I have found an even better one for around the same price (or was it less?) but I am hesitant in booking it. It is SIN-PER-SYD-BNE-SYD-PER-SIN and yields 110 SCs. There are others available at the moment for ~SGD930 which yield 90-100 SC's.

I don't really need the extra SCs right now but is it worth spending the extra time in the air and in-transit for the few extra SC's? I just can't quite press the booking button on the direct SIN-BNE flight.

 

[ozstamps]

In recent weeks a lot of folks are in love with someone else except QF I suspect.

 

[Justchecking]

Gidday QFF

Considering QF fly their most modern fleet, A380 on this route, I am surprised VA older AC have won you over.

minitalP

wow. I've never heard of a 3yr old aircraft being labelled as 'old' before. Someone please tell me, how old are the A380s?

 

[markis10]

wow. I've never heard of a 3yr old aircraft being labelled as 'old' before. Someone please tell me, how old are the A380s?

The average age is 2.4 years for the A380 fleet with the oldest pair about to turn 3, with the 777 VA fleet 2.3 years average age.

 

[serfty]

The average age is 2.4 years for the A380 fleet with the oldest pair about to turn 3, with the 777 VA fleet 2.3 years average age.

Actually, the average age of the nine operational QF 388 fleet is 595 days or 1.63 years.

V Australia's fleet of 5 773ER has an average age of 813 days or 2.23 years.

Rego	Name	Delivery Date	Age (Days)
VH-OQB	Hudson Fysh	17/12/2008	1052
VH-OQC	Paul McGinness	27/12/2008	1042
VH-OQD	Fergus McMaster	22/08/2009	804
VH-OQE	Lawrence Hargrave	19/12/2009	685
VH-OQF	Charles Kingsford Smith	9/01/2010	664
VH-OQG	Charles Ulm	16/12/2010	323
VH-OQH	Reginald Ansett	1/02/2011	276
VH-OQI	David Warren	14/01/2011	294
VH-OQJ	Bert Hinkler	9/04/2011	209
		Average Age (Days)	595

Rego	Delivery Date	Age (Days)
VH-VOZ	9/02/2009	998
VH-VPD	20/02/2009	987
VH-VPE	27/02/2009	980
VH-VPF	10/10/2009	755
VH-VPH	18/11/2010	351
	Average Age (Days)	814

Adding Nancy Bird (OQA) changes the QF figure to 650 days or 1.78 years.

 

[PineappleSkip]

VH-OQH Reginald Ansett

I could fall in love with an airline that has the chutzpah to name a plane after a competitor

Looking forward to seeing a QP named Golden Wing

Cheers skip

 

[777]

I could fall in love with an airline that has the chutzpah to name a plane after a competitor

I'm looking forward to seeing the QF A380 "John Borghetti". I'd pay a premium to fly on that.