The last significant change Q made was introducing premium economy. Personally, as a turn-left PAX this causes me some grief, because its good enough to meet *some* of the key drivers my finance people like, so I am being increasingly targetted there, but in not having lie-flat or even 5% slippery slope, its not good enough to leave me feeling slept and happy on arrival after a 15-25h flight plan.
The announced Dallas Hub is going to be the same: it looks great on paper, and will be greeted with cheers by some travel planners, because it increases hopoff options. But although I hate LAX, I doubt Dallas is going to put me into better routing choices facing my travel. Its a fine airport, but its not good timewise for the northern routes.
Dropping SF, dropping Vanouver, Dropping Paris, Dropping Rome, were stunningly bad moves if you want to explore routing options avoiding LHR or FRA. Barjas is a fantastic airport, I suspect the stuffed up Spanish share deal with BA prevented that one working which saddens me.
So, if Q wants to maintain loyalty, its caught on the horns of a dilemma: any improvement in Econ rebounds, because business moves down, and they loose revenue which does not offset the improved feeling from somebody who was always in economy. keeping open non-financial endpoints in europe and america(s) likewise doesn't make enough to offset the opex consequences.
I think its time national-pride got out of the way, and Q was joined to a rational partner in East Asia. the BA tie in has reached end of life for me, oneworld is good enough. I dont see Q benefiting from a one-on-one comparison with world traveller or the BA lieflat in business. Mind you, the BA service is shocking. I might give a wry smile to service outside of business class, but by comparison with the sour faces on the Brits, its a dream run (I also find Singapore a complete mismatch. I have no idea why everyone raves. Its fawning, and its not that great.)
Shame JAL is down the tubes. I like the Narita routing. Maybe a Korean or the more likely Chinese tie-in with a Shanghai hub is going to make it work.
Domestically, its all downhill. the self-service checkin is just de-staffing pure and simple. Its not an improvement for me. On-times, flight times, the 30 min minimum checkin, international-domestic tie in is just crap.
(after a 2 hr wait to be given my mandated overnight accomm in sydney from a BA/Q reroute, I am less than impressed with staff empowerment. a decision which was a one-minute call took 5 people 2 hours to complete)
-G