Outrage over Qantas costs

[Wirraway]

Tues "The Australian"

Outrage over Qantas costs
By John Masanauskas
April 06, 2004

QANTAS domestic passengers will be hit with a $55 fee if they want to fly with traditional paper tickets.

From July 1, Qantas will introduce electronic ticketing for all national flights to cut costs and "simplify the travelling process".

The charge will also apply to domestic flights by its leisure carrier, Australian Airlines.

Pensioners' groups condemned the move yesterday, saying the surcharge was unfair to older Australians.

Combined Pensioner and Superannuants Association spokesman David Skidmore said that people shouldn't have to pay more for a traditional airline ticket.

"It's an awful whack when you consider the pension rises somewhat more slowly," Mr Skidmore said. "A lot of people still find it convenient to get their ticket in person."

From July 1, Qantas and Australian Airlines will charge travel agents $55 for each paper ticket issued for domestic flights.

A Qantas memo to agents said full e-ticketing would simplify travel and slash the significant costs of paper tickets.

"The change is also designed to offer greater convenience and flexibility to you and your customers and eliminate paper transactions," it said.

Australian Institute of Travel and Tourism federal council president James Pegum said agents would have to pass the fee on to travellers.

"I can't understand why they are doing it; a lot of people like paper tickets," he said.

"Who wants to pay $55 extra for a ticket when a cheap fare might only cost $60?"

Qantas spokesman Melissa Thomson said more than 95 per cent of domestic bookings involved e-tickets.

"We are phasing out paper tickets, as is the trend with airlines around the world," she said. Ms Thomson said the airline's no-frills subsidiary Jetstar and competitor Virgin Blue didn't use paper tickets.

Virgin Blue spokeswoman Amanda Bolger said e-tickets had been accepted.

"It works great - it was just a matter of educating people at the start," she said.

Ms Bolger said more than 80 per cent of the airline's customers booked on the internet.

But Mr Skidmore said that dumping paper tickets was like banks trying to force customer to use the internet.

"Many older people are computer literate, but it's all going a bit fast and this is inconvenient for a lot of people," he said.

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[High Altitude]

Who the hell wants a paper ticket anyway???

Convienience of the E ticket, surley everyone has some form of id for check in?

[Icarus2001]

Apparently you cannot stop progress.:D

It makes a mockery of those very important looking triplicate, carbon copied, stamped, franked, numbered tickets. Did we really need them?

I remember once whilst in Thailand I changed a flight time over the telephone and so I could not forget the new departure time I wrote it on the flight coupon over the printed time. When a travel agent saw that a little later she turned ghostly white and said only authorised people could endorse the ticket. Strangely enough the check in staff at Don Muang airport did not care. I even read the small print and could find nothing stopping me writing on the ticket. It's a funny old world.

I could not resist this dig, sorry Amanda...
Virgin Blue spokeswoman Amanda Bolger said e-tickets had been accepted.
"It works great - it was just a matter of educating people at the start," she said.

English is clearly not her strong point. Bet she has a lovely smile:ok:

[chockchucker]

Funny thing is, when you book an e-ticket you generally receive an A4 peice of paper with all the details that a normal ticket would have on it anyway (If booked on the net then you get an email with all the details).

I'd like to know where they came up with the $55 figure?

And when will they follow some international carriers with e-tikets on international routes?

[squire]

Old codgers don't like change, give them a break:=

[High Altitude]

But alas they will not be around 4eva...

[oldhasbeen]

..............................or will we??;)

[GoNorth]

How about putting everyone else on the Qantas booking system on E tickets as well. The paper tickets are a pain in the ar$e. :mad:

[ditzyboy]

What is the difference?! The old people can still book at a ticket desk... They will walk away with a A4 reciept just the same! Maybe someone could fold it specially to look like a ticket. I mean what is this about?

You still can get the ticket in person, Mr Skidmore. Who do you work for? The Pensioner's Association or the "Holding on to useless bits of paraphenalia to clutter up the house and bore the great grandchildren with Association"!

Ridiculous :hmm:

[Whiskery]

Unbelievable !

Paper tickets - you can lose them, you have to queue up for ages at the service counter to collect them, they take up room in your travel wallet, they are a waste of paper and they don't always arrive in the post!

$55 lousy bucks won't even get you a night at a backpackers hotel in outer London.

What IS the PROBLEM !

Keep the faith :]

[squire]

AND I REPEAT FOR THE HARD OF HEARING......OLD CODGERS DON"T LIKE CHANGE .............:}

[Going Boeing]

QF has had electronic tickets on international routes for a number of years, with the exception of flights through Singapore. The island state, which has been at the forefront of the computer age, has a systems problem that prevents e-tickets being used. QF believes that the problem is about to be solved so we should soon have the benefit of e-tickets on European routes.

[halas]

How did they come to a figure of $55?

Easy, $50 for the ticket, $5 GST.

l'd suggest that they just want to rid themselves of the ticket printers and all the keyboard tapping that goes in to getting just one ticket of the thing. The software infrastructure to support this, l would guess, must be very expensive too.

E-ticket is a great idea and if the travel agent can't afford $100 Canon printer to give the old-folk a hard copy of their flight then l suggest they change travel agents.

halas

[Southern handler]

$55.00 - same as the Lost paper ticket fee that has been around for a couple of years. about time. when we needs to reissue a Etkt it takes a lot less key strokes.

[Chippie Chappie]

Not a big deal really. Now will QANTAS provide a $55 discount due to the fact that there are now no "Paper Tickets"? :ooh:

BTW, as far as the "old codgers" are concerned, let them know that the A4 steet of paper is effectively their ticket an Robert is your father's brother...

Cheers,

Chips

[itchybum]

ditzy(??)boy, HA and the others: Who the hell wants a paper ticket anyway??? I do...

E-Tickets, inclluding for sub-load, are great until the aircraft experiences a significant delay requiring a re-shuffle of the passenger manifest with other flights or the airline has "over-booked" (term describing the charming habit of selling tickets to more people than they can carry) and you need to take a different flight or you simply want to re-route on an otherwise endorseable other carrier, etc. Then I have found if you aren't carrying a stamped and legal piece of paper we used to call a "ticket" you are screwed. Hold up your trusty piece of A4 paper and the staff will enjoy laughing about it on their coffee breaks.

Ridicule the old dears but I learnt the hard way to never use E-tickets. At least not until the system is a lot more closer to "flawlessticity" or there is no alternative.

And as I see it the $55 dollar slug is yet another statement from an airline management that sees itself as having an (almost) captive audience. They do it because they can.

Now will QANTAS provide a $55 discount due to the fact that there are now no "Paper Tickets" I know you weren't serious but......... HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAHAHAAAAAHAHAAAAHAAHAAAAAAA..... !!!