Maybe somebody who has a better understanding of how the QF/EK alliance works could explain a few things to me.
I've seen quite a few reports that the number of EK customers booking QF domestic sectors is 7 times the number that used to book through the previous alliance. According to the ACCC determination, QF now have to pay a commission to EK for each of these passengers. This would be great if they were additional passengers, compared to prior to the alliance. I would suggest that a vast majority of these would have travelled QF anyway, regardless of the tie-up. So now QF is losing revenue in the form of this commission, where as prior to the alliance they weren't.
The other side of the coin is that QF should also receive a commission from EK when a QF customer books on a non-trunk route EK flight. The problem we have now is that no one in their right mind will be booking through QF until the $600 fuel surcharge loophole is sorted (just add that one to the long list of cock ups!). Either :
1) EK put their prices up - can't see the ACCC being too happy about that.
or
2) QF reduce the surcharge - more revenue lost.
I'm desperately trying to see how this isn't a lose/lose situation for QF.