QANTAS - WHERE TO NOW?

[MrWooby]

I had an interesting experience at a party last night, for the first time I met people who were returning to fly Qantas, rather than vowing to never fly Qantas again. Two couples stated that Qantas was now their preferred carrier after leaving Qantas for other carriers.

For one couple the final straw was being on a Emirates London Dubai flight in business class, an Emirati who appeared to be from the upper ruling class, ranted and raved because these people where sitting in the seats he wanted. He made verbal threats to these passengers and made verbal threats about the safety of the flight. He stated that everyone was going to die. The cabin crews reaction, NIL, they did absolutely nothing.

The other couple, they were basically sick of pretty young flight attendants who basically believe service is beneath them.

I spoken to many other people who have flown Emirates, and find Qantas better. Their complaints about Emirates being poor movie selections, tray tables not being collected prior to landing (no turbulence stopping tray collection), and especially a comment from women travelling alone, that they are treated poorly.

From my own travels, I find Qantas cabin crew very good, the service is excellent. The crew are let down by management though with respect to catering supplies. Paying for business or first class should ensure that you can get your choice of meal, however an airline cannot carry enough food that every business/first pax can get anything they want. I have been to quite a few high class restaurants where a meal choice I wanted wasn't avialable either.

One thing stands out about Qantas Cabin Crew, if something goes wrong, if there is a medical emergency, a disruptive passenger, an inflight emergency, etc you can guarantee that they have the training to handle the problem. And more so, the will to ensure that any problems will be handled safely and efficiently and not be ignored.

There is a tiny glimmer though that things are improving at Qantas, if some of the rumours around at the moment actually happen, it bodes well for Qantas. The new 737's are great aircraft, the IFE is fantastic, far better than watching the news and a david attenborough doco on a small screen half obscured by someones head. The staff are sick of talk and want to see some positive action occuring. New fitout of the A330 and better timings into Asia also positive news. Once staff can see that management are actually backing and investing in the product instead of trying to destroy it, maybe Qantas can return to where it once was.