As a JQ flightie myself (or a "poorly trained inexperienced child attempting to manage adults in a free for all" as DEFCON4 would fondly refer to me as
) with a few years experience in airlines I'll add my two bits worth...
1. I used to work for Qantas, queues, rolling weather delays, delay handling, T&Cs, automated phone lines, call centres etc, are not markedly better or worse than those of any other airline. Having worked for three different airlines now, AN, QF & JQ, each with very different philosophies, there are just so many aspects to an airline operation that are completely generic.
2. QantasClub members flying JQ do have full access to the Lounge (and there is a QFclub at T2 in SYD to service QFlink & JQ pax).
3. Advising of a delay in advance is the responsibility of where the booking was made, be it the travel agent, airline, 3rd party etc. In this case it was the responsbility of QF.
4. At JQ we don't own the catering and therefore we're unable to offer complimentary F&B to pax. Catering is owned by third party supplier and is sold directly to the pax with JQ as the middleman. And on the point of complimentary F&B, from a check-in perspective, QF were just a stingy in giving out vouchers etc... my ability to perform complimentary service recovery was just as difficult as QF as it is at JQ. At the end of the day an airline is a business, need i say anymore
5. Yes we can adjust the temp in the 320 cabin, personally I've responded to plenty of pax requests to do so. The crew notice the warmth too, yes we are human, and personally I don't like working in a sauna.
This industry has changed so much in recent years that it is just impossible to hark back to a complimentary drink in 1979. That airline environment, which is still fresh in our memory, will never come back. Never, never, never.
And just as a little end note ...
Jetstar and Virgin have played a great role in getting more people into the skies. The destination in discussion here, CNS, once upon a time only had a non-stop service by each QF and AN on the weekends. Interesting to see only a few years down the track MEL now has up to 3 non-stop services a day from each DJ and JQ, plus a daily service by QF. When I started selling AN tickets only a few years back the discount return ticket was around $750 with a 21day adv purchase restriction. JQ's FULL FARE is $800 return, with discounts from probably half that. Passengers now have more choice than they can poke a stick at.
End of rant
