Walk a mile in my moccasins before you criticize what I do
It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it. And, with great respect, if you are a QF flight attendant, you don't do it very well.
I will not fly with QANTAS, especially on long haul routes.
It's not because of the flight deck crew or engineering staff. It's because the standard of QF cabin service is generally way below what the competition offers.
I work for myself. I stand or fall on the quality of service I provide for my clients, most of whom are satisfied with what I do. I go out of my way to ensure client satisfaction. No clients, no income.
When I'm paying top dollar for Business Class travel to/from Europe and North America, I expect to receive in flight service that represents value for my hard earned money. Unfortunately, when compared to the likes of Cathy, Lauda (Austrian), JAL, Air Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and even BA, QANTAS doesn't get to first base.
I don't expect forelock tugging servitude from cabin staff. But I do expect basic manners, a customer focussed approach to reasonable requests and flight attendant availability throughout the flight/sector. In my experience, QANTAS fails on all three counts. Rather than getting on with the job and maintaining the revenue flow, QANTAS cabin crew are more interested in preserving the Public Service attitude of "rights", "entitlements" and "hard won" employment conditions.
Complaints to QANTAS Head Office either go unanswered or are responded to in ambiguous language that rarely answers the questions put by the complainant. So punters like me vote with their feet.
Take a moment to look at the Skytrax 2004 Worlds Best Cabin Staff
Survey Globally, for the second year running, QANTAS fails to make the top ten. Regionally, QF ranks five out of five. The supporting information says that the survey attracted more than two million (2,117,846) eligible nominations from 93 different nationalities over a 10 month period, there were detailed back-up interviews of a representative sample of respondents and, finally, data weighting was applied to provide nomination equity when evaluating airlines of different size and network. Unless that’s a load of porkpies, it’s a well run survey, with reliable results.
Sorry girls and boys, time to get real - if you are 'fair dinkum' about your jobs you need to meet the competition.