Qantas bans flip-flops, shorts and vests from airport lounges

[PAXboy]

Reported in (UK newspaper) The Independent: Qantas dress code: Airline bans flip-flops, shorts and vests from airport lounges - Travel - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/qantas-dress-code-airline-bans-flipflops-shorts-and-vests-from-airport-lounges-10154503.html)

Sydney Morning Herald:Qantas suffers backlash over lounge dress code (http://www.traveller.com.au/qantas-suffers-backlash-over-lounge-dress-code-1mdmy8)
[In OZ a pair of 'Thongs' are flip-flop sandals}

[Metro man]

With the boom in the mining industry and the huge wages earn by miners, many of them commute by air all over Australia to follow their X weeks on/X weeks off type of roster. They can easily accumulate the miles required for higher status in a frequent flyer program which gives lounge access.

These are not the sort of people that the planners had in mind when FFPs were designed. Lounges were there for business men and the upper demographic of society. Flying was special and people got dressed up and behaved themselves.

These days a dump truck driver on a mine can easily be on US$80 000 a year and if living on the other side of the country can earn enough miles to qualify for a gold level FFP card. He doesn't normally travel in a suit and tie and regards a T shirt, jeans and training shoes as getting dressed up compared to his normal vest, shorts and flip flops.

Problems have been encountered with miners arriving early at the airport for their flight home and getting plastered in the bar whilst waiting. Now mining companies coordinate the drop off so that there is minimal time until boarding.

FFPs are down market compared to twenty or thirty years ago, a bit like the number of credit card holders having Platinum cards.

[Basil]

Onya, Quaintass! :ok:

[GrahamO]

It also possibly related to the Emirates - Qantas codeshare agreement and Emirates lounge already have this as a dress requirement, so bringing the domestic and long haul rules together ?

[cavortingcheetah]

From the Qantas terms and conditions effective March 31st, 2011.

10.7 Smart, casual dress standards apply at all times. Individual lounge managers will have discretion to administer these standards as they reasonably deem appropriate in the circumstances.

If Qantas wants to use thongs as an excuse to keep a female sex worker, known in my days of use and in the politest possible word available in the dictionary as a prostitute, from entering the lounges then well done to the airline. It's bad enough having the places littered with half cut public servants, politicians, diplomats and business travellers on expense accounts without the admission of pimps, whores and charlatans.

[ExXB]

Good, I support.

[ruddman]

It's thongs, not flips flops. Get it right. :ok:

[strake]

cavortingcheetah

I think you'll find a thong, in the sense it is used here, relates to a type of footwear - rather than the garment you seem to be more familiar with :E

[DaveReidUK]

I loved the quote from the Qantas spokesman:

"Qantas announced in February that we would be administering the lounge’s smart casual dress codes more closely from April 1st 2015.

We appreciate this may have caused some frustration but we’re not in a position to flip-flop on the policy."

[Stanwell]

DR,
I got a chuckle from that "flip-flop" quote myself.
Now, how will Qantas sensitively deal with our our Kiwi cousins?

Y'see, the Kiwis don't wear 'flip-flops' or 'thongs' - they wear 'jandals'.
I do hope the Legal Department is working on the issue.

[Hobo]

I thought the correct term was 'New Zealand safety sandals'.

[vctenderness]

Well done Qantas! Now think about banning fat, tattooed women wearing skin tight leggings and Lycra tops.....:E

[Crusher1]

Lots of bars in Australia seem to have a notice stating no thongs or singlets, in effect they do allow them but they can use it as an excuse to eject anyone being a nuisance. Maybe Qantas are adopting a similar stance, hope so or my wife will have to change her footware habit of a lifetime.....

[cavortingcheetah]

I'll be passing through the Sydney lounge on Monday and will try to remember to ask them whether they'd have preferred me to wear crispy clean thongs instead of my smelly old Veldtschoen.
A little idle boasting never came amiss I'll be bound.

[thing]

On the odd occasion mrs thing and I feel flush enough to travel business we make a bit of an effort. Chinos, a decent shirt and shoes for me and whatever the female equivalent is. We were boarding a SIA 380 recently and a guy turned off the boarding ramp into suites wearing cut off denim shorts, a vest (and I mean a vest, not a t-shirt) and a pair of flip flops...

I guess if you've bought the ticket then fair enough, probably I'm an old fart but doesn't anyone make an effort these days?

[coldair]

It does seem a bit 'sexist' though.

Ladies are allowed to wear thongs (flip flops) but men can't wear good quality leather thongs (flip flops)




coldair

[Hotel Tango]

I guess if you've bought the ticket then fair enough, probably I'm an old fart but doesn't anyone make an effort these days?

In the days when I travelled regularly on ID fares I had to comply with some pretty strict dress codes. It was worth it because (in those good old days) non-rev would often be upgraded to Business or First. What I found amusing is that much of the time it was pretty easy to distinguish rev from non-rev as the non-rev were often the better dressed :) Now days I pay my own tickets in Business and I enjoy dressing casually, although not in vests or flip-flops I must stress.

[RevMan2]

@ HT.
Absolutely! You got funny looks from folks who had gone straight from the surf to the airport on flights out of HNL.
"What's with the suit, dude...?"

[cavortingcheetah]

Qantas business lounge in Terminal 1 Sydney is as threadbare and mouldy as any Servisair lounge I've ever seen. First Class lounge is in a true class of its own and unspoilt by the rabble who infest the other, more egalitarian, lounges.
The story with the things, jandals or whatever, is that, apparently, you can wear them in international departure lounges but not in domestic departure lounges. The rule has been enforced specifically to stop miners and suchlike from ruining the decor even further than it already has been by the outside shirt and crumpled jeans brigade. These are the words as used by the charming young lady at the control zone desk. They have, of course, nothing to do with mine.

[reynoldsno1]

Estelle Lucas, a sex worker who was travelling from Melbourne to Perth, where a science-fiction convention is on,
I'm trying to make the connection here ...

[spiney]

I'd ban them from the cabin as well... I frequently fly long-haul with Middle East carriers; Emirates, Eithad, Qatar etc. Seeing passengers effectively travelling as if they took the wrong turn on the way to the beach, exposing acres of hairy tatto'd flesh is offensive to the airlines islamic customers and none too considerate for the rest of us either... Perhaps they think they look... 'cool'...?:=

[PAXboy]

I think they don't think AT ALL ... they certainly haven't thought about what happens if the flight is delayed and they are in those shorts, t-shirt and sandals for 36 hours. This might include a night in a very cold terminal lounge, or having to be anywhere at no notice.

The airlines don't like to tell Pax, "Your flight might be delayed by technical difficulties, bad weather, or circumstances beyond our control. Therefore, dress appropriately and have a jacket or other light weight garment. Don't forget to have all your medication in your handcase as you might never see your suitcase again. Oh and don't forget to have a list of important phone numbers if things go wrong because, once your cell phone battery is flat, you won't be able to look up the numbers to be able to call them from another phone. That's because you did leave your cell charger in your suitcase didn't you? And all the luggage is trapped on the plane until destination"

But then, I'm just a boring old f@rt whose been paxing too long ... :zzz:

[mgahan]

Page two and no mention that these are (mainly) air-side lounges. So, why are folk in them? My guess is that they are waiting to fly in an aircraft. Admittedly, some may be in them to visit a meeting room. These are not social clubs, footy clubs or RSL's - most of which have stringent dress standards for social reasons.

In either case, those folk in the lounges, either domestic or international, should be appropriately attired. That means long trousers etc. and decent footwear. Dress standards for safety reasons.

Guess I'm one of those old farts with standards.

[cavortingcheetah]

Estelle Lucas has delightful form, lives in Melbourne and can be interfaced with on the internet.

http://www.estellelucas.com/

She would appear to have a problem with affording the correct footwear in which to enter business class lounges.

You can see what she thinks of the whole thing here. Would it be true to say she's on her uppers?


https://instagram.com/p/0697YhwO6n/

[thing]

Crikey, $4,000 for overnight.

[cavortingcheetah]

That'll be Australian dollars of course and the GST there is only 10%.

[Stanwell]

GST, in this case, I imagine stands for Good Servicing Tax, eh?

[thing]

Still around £2000 though. So lets say 5 nights a week and 6 weeks hol a year, that's 460K a year. Not bad.

[TWT]

Everyone has to exploit their natural talents and assets to make a living.In that sense high class escorts are no different to the rest of us. ;)

[thing]

I wonder if there's a market for a 59 year old bloke, own hair and teeth, dry wit and reasonable conversation. There must be some weirdos out there surely.

[Herod]

In my previous incarnation, I worked for an airline that did quite a number of flights to "holiday" destinations. The number of pax (male in this case) who would board the return flight in vest (singlet to our colonial cousins) and shorts, plonking his bod down next to some more civilised passenger. I made the suggestion that at least a short-sleeved T shirt would be mandatory, and suggested that the company had a supply available. My idea was to have the slogan "I am an idiot" front and back. It was never adopted, but I still think it's a good idea.

[tdracer]

Years ago, three of my co-workers were flying back to Seattle BA Business class after some meetings at Rolls. Pre-flight, one of them (a bit of a hippy type) showed up at the Business class lounge wearing cutoffs and a t-shirt, and BA refused him entrance. He objected that two of his co-workers were already in the lounge and he wanted to join them. BA responded by escorting the two co-workers out of the lounge :eek:.

It took years for him to live that down...:=

[etimegev]

All it needs is for the crew to turn down the cabin temperature to a level that gets the teeth chattering after an hour for those skimpily dressed....they'd soon get the message. Although that does nothing to address those trying to board in hi-viz and dusty boots.

[vctenderness]

Flying back from Bodrum on Thomas Cook a steward said to Mrs VC and I "I bet you own a home in Turkey don't you?".

I replied yes. He said " I can tell by the way you are dressed you don't look like the usual passengers on this route".

We were not over dressed but looking around at most of our fellow travellers I understood his point:eek:

[L'aviateur]

The Qantas Domestic QC lounges (and to some extent the Domestic Business) lounges are very different to UK/European domestic. They are large and very busy lounges, the Perth lounge in a morning is full to the brim of Hi Vis wearing Fly In/Fly Out workers in boots, and this is still accepted because they bring in a lot of money for Qantas (<2 hour flights with AU$1000+ each way tickets). These guys are required to join on site in uniform.
The Qantas Club elsewhere is probably where the improperly dressed issue has arisen, because QC can be bought or is provided as a perk from employers and perhaps where the dressing down occurs. A colleague of mine arrived at Perth QC in thongs last week and was given a pair of a rubber shoes to wear.