We lost our international appeal
Having spent a couple of years around Europe/North America recently, I would have to say that the belief Aussie's have of being "loved everywhere" is misplaced. I stayed in more modest accomodation most of the time and ran into alot of Aussie's acting in a disgraceful manner. On questioning these people I simply got a "its ok, they love us here". Well actually they don't. The behaviour of these types has alienated alot of foreigners into avoiding us completely. The Brits call us Jafa's. This means "just another ####ing Aussie". Is that the way we want to be viewed? In the US we are almost hated for the fact that we are the "the tightest people ever and the worst tippers alive" according to the hospitality staff I spoke to from 3 West coast states. Most Europeans commented that they would love to visit but the Australians they had met already had put them off.
Want to know why our passengers numbers are down? Thats it right there. We have gone from being viewed as fun loving outdoor types to drunk and abusive lunatics.
The topic of this thread is the qantas brand so I will get to my point. With all this working against us, we have to have a top notch National Carrier to make up for a bit of a tarnished image/economic slowdown. Kangaroo Court mentioned he had a good flight recently. Thats one person. You cant just have a good flight once in a while. It has to be top notch ALL THE TIME!
I know that it's not just Qantas that have to lift the standard but remember, if the flight was good then people dont mind so much if the customs line is long. If the flight was crap then the customs hold up will almost break your patience. You cant keep on saying that were not going to improve unless they do.
I have flown on many airlines the world over. Budget and full service,govt and private owned. As I have said in similar threads, the standard at Qantas is not very good compared with the flag carriers from some other countries. BA which is a non govt flag carrier, didn't have a good rep 10 years ago. They made the changes, got it together and now are back up to a great standard "doing well against Thai, Emirates etc". So the people who say Qantas cant compete with govt backed flag carriers are talking c#ap!
My two cents worth