I might be the odd one out, but I'm one Australian who doesn't have an issue with US domestic airline services. I travel on them regularly and they really are a bus service (Jetstar?), but that's all they need to be They get passengers from point A to point B mostly on time and safely and passengers deal with them as commuter transport. When there's only one or two domestic flights a day from A to B, passengers have different expectations, but when there's 50 flights on 4 or 5 airlines and the flight time is only an hour or three, US passengers don't have much expectation for inflight or terminal services. Southwest Airlines has a very simple check-in process and acceptable flight services, makes a profit and continues to set the benchmark for domestic airline operations.
International flights of several hours duration are different. Passengers have different expectations. The degradation of Qantas international service was disappointing. There were cost savings to be achieved. Dixon went way too far and tried to make Y class into a cattle truck by applying the Jetstar model across the board. He and the board dug the hole and Joyce is trying to scramble back out before the hole gets deeper. It's good to see. Dixon wasn't going to stop until he ran out of dirt (or labor). I have confidence that Joyce is at least looking to make the company sustainable again.
IMHO, the biggest advantages Qantas international held was service, reputation, reliability, codeshare and route protection. The first three were pummelled under Dixon. The last two are being whittled away fast by competitors.
Last edited by Lodown; 10th Dec 2009 at 18:56.