a little bit of advice
Hi V8Trolley
I know exactly what your going through.
Working in groundstaff would be great. It would also be great experience to have before working in Cabin Crew but a million other people also know this, it's very competitive and applying internally for cabin crew from groundstaff will take forever and ever! Just think about all the other groundstaff who would like to make the same transition as you! If you really want to work in groundstaff I suggest you plan on staying in that field.
You mentioned working for another airline in groundstaff then applying to QF cabin crew. My opinion is to try and stay with the same airline. The reason is that big airlines like QF have big Egos and they dont want to employ someone who is tainted by another airline. For example I know many ex Ansett staff having difficulty trying to get back into the industry by applying to QF. Many do not mention they worked for Ansett.
Big airlines like QF like to think they have found perfect material to mould you into what they want. However you do hear of people working from one airline and then transferring to another so please dont think it's the end because on the same note Airline jobs are few and far between and you could be waiting forever if you dont just apply to any/all airlines. Many people on pprune have said they do their job because they love it but they dont necessarily love the company they work for!
I suggest that if you REALLY want to work for Qantas you apply to the Qantas group for cabin crew positions with cabincrewstaffcv.com - Also dont forget that between now and then that dont put your career on hold, you just never know when or if you'll ever get in. So like I said try applying for a customer service position (outside the airline industry) that allows you to move up ranks into supervisor/management roles. (you already have great experience and skills) This is probably the best way to use this "waiting time" most effectively. When it comes to airline interviews they will see perfect material to recruit and mould for themselves.
Please feel free to ask myself or any other ppruney for advice about this WACKY industry!
I almost forgot to mention...
Sometimes working in a different dept of a company can work against you because of its' reputation with another dept of the company. For example just say you were groundstaff at XYZ port and turned up at a cabin crew interview it's quite possible that XYZ port had a bad reputation with cabin crew. You yourself may have been excellent at your job and service but it's your dept that brings you down. This is an example of how it CAN work against you...trust me!