QANTAS - WHERE TO NOW?

[Olive61]

QANTAS “The Reason I Don’t Fly”

QANTAS “The Reason I Don’t Fly”

There have been a considerable number of posts here as to what is wrong with the QANTAS group, why it is in a serious state of decline, and numerous suggestions, criticisms, and comments. I have been a frequent flyer for many years. Until a few years ago QANTAS was my preferred carrier on domestic flights, and I was happy to travel with them internationally. No more. I suspect I may be a fairly typical example of the many high yield passengers who have become completely disenchanted with the QANTAS product.

I now only fly QANTAS when I have absolutely no other choice.

After observing years of general decay with the overall customer service and product delivery, here are a few points to explain why, despite my accumulated FF points, I said – ‘enough is enough – I’ll give this mob the flick’

I was travelling J class from MEL to BNE. I had an enquiry regarding travel in a weeks time which I tried to get sorted out whilst I checked in for the day’s travel. The check in was no issue ( I had done about 90% of it myself online) except the allocation of the selected and confirmed seat which had become ‘not available’. I copped the umpires decision on the seat, and then tried to sort out my enquiry for the following week. I soon came to the clear conclusion that whilst there was a reasonable number of QANTAS staff apparently available to deal with my enquiry, they had all mastered the art of reeling off a string of excuses/reasons why they could not help me. Most of these exchanges seemed to have one purpose – to convince me with a whole host of irrelevant workplace waffle that my problem was actually someone else’s problem, not theirs, and would I please go away and annoy someone else. I gave up and boarded.

The aircraft was old, run down, and in poor cosmetic appearance. Those components of the IFE that were actually working, would have been state of the art in the latter part of last century. She was definitely an old dog. The cabin staff were efficient but rude. Apparently theirs was a good job except for all these annoying passengers, who clearly were to be ignored at all cost. I was tired and shortly after take off I went to sleep. I awoke about an hour into the flight and could see that the meal service was over. No problem, as I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I was thirsty. I pressed the call button (once) and after a lengthy delay, a well proportioned female cabin attendant strode down the cabin. Her demeanour reminded me of Rod Marsh advancing down the pitch having decided it was time to take the short handle to the bowling. Having identified the offenders seat, I was greeted with .... ‘Did you press that call button ?’ I said that I had, and could I please have some water. The reply stunned me and was, quote, ‘The meal service is over’ ... that was it .... she walked off !!!
I pressed the call button (more than once) and asked to speak to the Cabin Manager. Eventually the Cabin Manager arrived. I explained the situation I had encountered in clear firm terms and the CM was sympathetic. I advised that in my opinion the entire Business Class experience had been woeful and that I would be submitting a written report and complaint to the BNE port manager when I had time. The best the CM could offer me was that his crew had had ‘a pretty rough day of it’. I made the point that I seemed to be having ‘a pretty rough day of it’ too, and that unlike his crew, I had paid a considerable amount of money for the privilege.

The written complaint was submitted shortly afterwards, and I haven’t flown QANTAS since. This was not a stand alone experience with QANTAS, but after years of declining performance, this was the final straw. By comparison with other domestic and international carriers, the QANTAS product is rubbish. As to the much reported antics of the CEO, I have some advice for Mr Joyce – keep your bags packed.

Good luck with the new advertising campaign QANTAS – IMHO it’s one of the most boring I have seen in a very long time, and projects the overall impression of a commercial enterprise which has lost it’s way, and is entirely out of touch with today’s traveller. It offers nothing to attract or retain.

Good luck with the EK alliance QANTAS. To anyone with some understanding of these matters and a wider world view than that of the local Australian press – may I say that EK stand to gain a great deal, and QANTAS nothing other than partial survival at best, but probably not more than some delay for the grim reaper.

QANTAS is a big fish in a very small pond of it’s own construction. It is a frail, ageing, fragile shadow of it’s former self. Commercial innovation and development is now suffering from terminal paralysis, and has been for some time. As other carriers develop, expand, and provide an excellent product in competition, the sustained contraction of international services over the past decade is headed for terminal collapse.

Why I don’t fly QANTAS can be summed up by stating that the overall product is now rubbish, and management appears to be in complete denial. Far, far, better quality experiences are available elsewhere.

I have joined the legions who have left.