Obie,
Well, let's face it! Anyone with airline experience in Oz NEVER flys qantas. We all fly with reliable, efficient, friendly airlines from o/seas!
And very rarely do we have a complaint!
Nice cultural cringe there, mate.
Ok, "let's face it", shall we? My most-recent Rat run was last month, 744 J-class; four days prior had been SQ A380 J-class.
Both were good, but I preferred the Rat and when I have the choice, will favour it again over SQ:
- QF had the more comfortable seat (without being so wide as to render the armrests redundant);
- QF seat had no nasty lumps when laid flat (unlike the SQ effort with a big ridge right under my hips);
- QF seat had more room for my feet when seat laid flat rather than that little pointy cubby thing on SQ; not built for us over 6';
- QF had better headphones and easier-to-use IFE;
- QF had tastier food with enough of all choices loaded (my BTC choice not having been loaded by SQ at their showpiece hub airport clearly threw the crew; they did not have a clue what to give me as it clearly wasn't covered in their procedures and they couldn't come up with something by themselves);
- QF wine selection was larger;
- QF service was from people who were actually able to hold a conversation and chat rather than looked scared when a punter actually spoke to them.
- QF departure was right on time and arrival was 2 mins late due ATC (so pretty close to 100% reliable and efficient);
- QF service was friendly but not obsequious;
- SQ has had issues with its 380s so maybe the reliability in this issue is more due to type teething troubles than the operator;
- SQ A380 was 9V-SKC and it looked like it needed more than a cursory clean since entering service 18 months ago - starting to get quite scuffed and a few of the plastic bits are starting to break. QF 744 was one of the Ugly Sisters but looked well maintained.
As to experience, I hope I can speak with a bit of experience here having travelled to well over half the UN membership, usually by air. The Rat is as good as many and far better than most.
Obie, your post is an insult to the thousands of hard-working Ratters who daily try, against their management's best efforts, to deliver good, safe, reliable air transport services.