Qantas, Alan Joyce’s personal play thing.
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FAVOURS FOR FAVOURS
ByPaul Zanetti
-
August 17, 2023
4829
BOYCOTT QANTAS
QANTAS the airline most Australians loved and trusted has become a mistrusted propaganda tool for the current PM under the current airline management, at expense to travelling Aussies.Favours for favours.
While Australians are facing eye-watering air fares, our frequent flyer PM is cutting deals with outgoing QANTAS boss to benefit his family, himself and his political causes.
Recently the Air-banese government refused Qatar Airways’ application to operate 28 new flights each week between Doha and Sydney/Melbourne.
Had the government approved Qatar’s application, air travel competition would have placed downward pressure on air fares.
The NSW and Victorian governments supported Qatar’s new flights, as did the federal opposition, travel agents and tourism and consumer bodies – but not Air-bus Air-banese.
Co-incidentally, the PM’s 23-year-old uni student son Nathan Albanese is now a card-carrying member of the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, which entitles the young man to free flight upgrades and bottomless champagne.
How does a uni student get a privileged membership to the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge?
QANTAS boss, Alan Joyce has confirmed the unhealthy cosiness with the current PM, telling a probing media, “It’s a commercial arrangement that we do. I’ve been good mates with Albo for some time.”
Joe Aston says in the Australian Financial Review: “As millions of Australians know and feel acutely, airfares today stand at record highs. Indeed, they are a key input of our rampant consumer price inflation. The national carrier, Qantas, is (happily for them) unable to sustain pre-COVID international capacity until FY25 due to a lack of available aircraft. In the meantime, it’s printing super-profit margins on its international flights (and domestic flights for that matter).
It smells, and what any mug punter understands is that you cannot accept extravagant favours from someone you regulate because that is plain as dog’s balls a conflict of interest. Indeed, the only reason Albanese kept it secret is because he knew it looked bad.
Each day, Qantas sells thousands of tickets on flights it never intends to operate. Each day when they are cancelled en masse, passengers and airports have zero redress (unlike in the European Union).
The Albanese government defunded the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s airline monitoring program in June with airfares at record highs and Qantas still the most complained about company in Australia. What possible justification could there be for such a decision?
When COVID-19 hit, Joyce convinced the Morrison government not to provide a $1.3 billion loan to Virgin, so his arch rival collapsed into administration. Joyce then set about extracting $2.7 billion of COVID-19 subsidies, none of which were repayable.
And now the Albanese government has knocked back Qatar Airways’ application to launch 28 new weekly flights between Doha and Australia. We knew how dodgy that decision was when the government tried to blame cavity searches in Qatar three years ago, but then Transport Minister Catherine King put it down to decarbonisation. Now it’s the Australian government conducting indefensible searches – they’re searching for a plausible explanation, but there isn’t one. It’s not me saying this, it’s the entire travel industry.”
QANTAS has now revealed its planes are a propaganda vehicle for Air-banese’s pet political project – a referendum to insert racism into the Australian Constitution.
When you fly QANTAS, you will know you will be locked into a flying billboard adorned with the word ‘Yes’.
If this is not a matter to be referred to the new Labor Federal Anti-Corruption Commission, then what is?
You and your family who feel strongly about a divisive national airline being used to promote racism, can vote with your wallet.
Boycott QANTAS.
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As this is partly a Rumour network, could there possibly be any truth in the the thought that Joyce, using the vast amount of money he gained through his systematic destruction of the reputation of a once great Airline known as Qantas, be the 'financial' means by which Global Airlines will be seen dominating the future of world aviation. He already has the money and being the CEO of the remains of Qantas shows he has the experience to lead from the front. What more could Global need, of course, staff might be one thing but as we all know that's a minor problem for Joyce to fix. Set up a separate company/ies to employ fully experience staff such as Pilots, Engineers, Cabin Crew, Passenger Service Staff at a much lower pay scale than they have ever worked for before in the Industry. Obviously he can instil in these "new" sub-contracted staff the same loyalty and pride in the Company that they previously displayed whilst trying to 'save' their previous Airlines. Oh wait, hasn't he done exactly that before and failed, but I'm sure he'll be able to sort that minor problem out once he has got Global's 380s up in the air. Does he actually want any staff, as they'll just be a drain on the end of year financial statements anyway and really do nothing to help an Airline gain respect and more passengers. I'm sure our James from Global would be delighted to have Joyce help to bring his dreams to reality.
Do I actually believe anything I've said above? The answer is no, but then I never believed that Joyce could remove the 'service' part from a service based industry and the Airline still survive either, so I've already been proven wrong.
Do I actually believe anything I've said above? The answer is no, but then I never believed that Joyce could remove the 'service' part from a service based industry and the Airline still survive either, so I've already been proven wrong.
Qantas faces class action over pandemic travel credits treated as ‘$1bn in interest-free loans’
Proceedings against airline ‘on behalf of hundreds of thousands’ of customers aims to force refunds for flight credits and compensation due to lost interestElias Visontay Transport and urban affairs reporter
Mon 21 Aug 2023 10.53 AEST
Qantas is facing a class action lawsuit over its refund policy for flights cancelled due to the pandemic, with lawyers alleging the airline’s use of travel credits allowed them to treat their customers’ money as more than “$1bn in interest-free loans”.On Monday, class action firm Echo Law announced it had lodged proceedings against Qantas in the federal court “on behalf of hundreds of thousands” of pandemic-affected travellers with an aim of forcing refunds for all remaining flights credits and compensation due to lost interest on customers’ money held by Qantas. The firm accuses Qantas of engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct in the way it communicated with its customers in early 2020 about their rights for flights that could not proceed due to Covid restrictions; and of breaching its own contract with customers by failing to provide cash refunds in a timely manner.
The class action also alleges Qantas has been “unjustly enriched by holding a very significant quantum of customer funds that it ought to have refunded” and that Qantas engaged in “a system or pattern of unconscionable conduct” in contravention of Australian consumer law. Andrew Paull, partner at the recently launched Echo Law, said while the aviation industry suffered major disruption from Covid-induced cancellations, “that is no excuse for Qantas to take advantage of its own customers and effectively treat them as providers of over $1 billion in interest-free loans”.
“Qantas is currently one of the world’s most profitable airlines and [we will allege] that profit has been built, in part, on funds it unlawfully retained from its customers,” he said.
“Qantas held on to its customers’ money and pushed out travel credits with strict conditions, which we allege it was not entitled to do. It now needs to be held accountable and refund that money with interest.”
Paull said while some of its customers suffered financially during the pandemic, Qantas “enjoyed the significant financial benefits of holding billions of dollars in customer payments including interest and reduced borrowing costs”. Paull was also critical of the flight credit scheme that many customers have used as a result, noting some have been required to pay the airline “more than their original booking to use their credits on new fares and have been pressured by the airline to do that or lose the value of their flight credits” Paull said any talk from Qantas about now refunding those yet to use their credits is “both too little and too late”.
“That money ought to have been automatically returned to customers, in most cases more than three years ago, and we are seeking both refunds of all remaining credits as well as compensation for the time customers have been out of pocket,” Paull said.
The class action is being backed by class action funder CASL, and the firm has issued a call for affected customers – even those who have already used Qantas flight credits – to register to join the lawsuit. Qantas was contacted for comment. In June, Qantas said about $400m in Covid credits were yet to be spent and 80% of these customers had the option of a refund if they preferred. Covid-related credits will expire on 31 December and need to be booked for trips taken through until December 2024. About $2bn of Covid credits were issued across the Qantas group – which includes budget carrier Jetstar – throughout the pandemic.
The class action announcement came as Qantas on Monday denied it had been engaging in misleading conduct on a separate matter, related to promoting a special return fare to London on its website that was scarcely available and which its own sales staff were unable to book for customers.
Qantas was the most complained about company to the ACCC in 2022-23. The airline is expected to announce a multibillion dollar profit at its results on Thursday.
https://www.theguardian.com/business...est-free-loans
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JOE ASTON. AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR
Print articleRear Window
Joe AstonColumnistAug 27, 2023 – 7.30pm
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After 15 years at the controls of Qantas, having mastered the performance art of gaslighting the nation, Thursday was the final outing of Alan Joyce’s full-court press.
All of his delusions were on display as the airline revealed – and Joyce feverishly image-managed – its record $2.47 billion pre-tax profit for 2023.
Hero myth: Qantas CEO Alan Joyce presents his final set of full-year results on August 24. Dion Georgopoulos He persisted with the utter fallacy that “My intent was to [retire] before COVID but [I] extended to get the company through”. It is a matter of public record that nine months before COVID struck, the Qantas board extended Joyce’s tenure by “at least” three years. Sticking around made him another $30 million.
“We were 11 weeks from bankruptcy,” he claimed anew. This is another raging falsehood. When COVID hit in March 2020, Qantas had nearly $2 billion in cash and $5 billion in unencumbered assets it could borrow against. The capital markets were open, so Joyce could issue equity or raise debt (he did both, as well as begging money off the government). The idea that Qantas was ever facing liquidation is sheer make-believe.
This fabrication is a key pillar of Joyce’s hero myth. It is absolutely central to the fable in which he saved Qantas. Joyce is a trained mathematician – he understands the weight of numbers. He knows that if he repeats this line sufficiently often, people will adopt it as fact – as they surely have
Saying “11 weeks” also gilds it with the hint of precision, which makes the lie sound credible. If Qantas was truly 77 days from extinction, where was that warning in its market announcements of the day? Actually, Joyce told the ASX on March 10, 2020, “We’re in a good position to ride this out.”
Joyce also claimed on Thursday that allowing his archrival Qatar Airways to launch 28 new flights per week to Australia “could actually distort the market”. Which market is that? The market in which the Australian dollar is weak, global travel demand is roaring but Qantas International charges passengers 52 per cent more by flying 28 per cent less than it did before COVID? Qatar’s flights could distort the market that’s rigged in Alan’s favour and we can’t have that.
Qantas even asserted that “in inflation adjusted terms … international fares are [now] 10 per cent higher [than pre-COVID].” Inflation adjusted! Do Qantas customers get to pay the inflation-adjusted price in Alan’s magical world?
We’re surprised Joyce didn’t use Argentinian inflation for his calculation. That would square with his historical patterns of reasoning. “When you consider this in Zimbabwean dollar terms, I’m really not shafting you that badly.”
“I’m still a very large shareholder in Qantas and I more than meet the minimum … level that the CEO is expected to hold,” Joyce said next. Literally any day now, he will receive 3.1 million Qantas shares for which he paid nothing – his glorious golden handshake.
But on June 1, Joyce sold 92 per cent of the Qantas shares he owned, raising $17 million (to buy an apartment that only cost $9 million) and taking him well below his minimum shareholding requirement. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder allowed this like he’s allowed everything else.
Joyce dumping his Qantas stake before he’s even left – more than anything else – lights up the discrepancy between what he says and what he does. Joyce has more than enough other wealth with which to fund an apartment. Why would he sell his Qantas shares if he genuinely believed that “the future for Qantas has never looked better”?
But Joyce reserved his biggest deception for his portrayal of the great Qantas flight credit racket. “What we’ve now done is we’ve put a dedicated concierge line in. The call centre now, yesterday, was three minutes to get through and there’s a dedicated set of experts that can help you get your credits. We recognise that … we didn’t get it right and we needed to fix it and the important thing is, we did fix it … we’ve only got $370 million of credits left … and we’d rather have those credits at zero by the end of the year.”
Let’s just back up a second. The Qantas Group disclosed “total COVID travel credits of $800 million” at December 31 last year. All remaining unused credits will expire on December 31 this year.
On June 26, the company announced “around $400 million in COVID credits now remaining for Qantas customers in Australia.” That is, their updated balance, which appeared to have fallen, actually excluded Qantas customers outside Australia and excluded all Jetstar customers. The sneakiness – the bad faith – of this company never ceases to astonish.
The remaining $370 million Joyce cited on Thursday still excludes Jetstar customers and Qantas customers outside Australia (we asked Qantas for the full number, but the company refused to provide it). This means two things: firstly, that the total balance of credits is likely greater than $500 million; and secondly, that only around $30 million of credits have been redeemed in the two months since Qantas declared they’re now so easy to claim back.
What a performance by Joyce. “Ring us and in three minutes flat, you’ll have your money.” If that were really true, why isn’t the balance budging? Joyce must be issuing the refunds in Argentinian pesos.
These credits are now the subject of a class action, as they should be.
Whenever there’s a civil disturbance, people go out and start looting. Corporations do it too and that’s clearly what Qantas did during COVID. They backed up their truck, drove it through the plate glass window of the Australian public and loaded up on our money. These are not trivial amounts for people. Thirty-eight per cent of the credits are over $500.
Joyce and Vanessa Hudson understand behavioural psychology – they understand that customers give up if Qantas makes it hard enough and they can dehumanise their theft by calling it “breakage”. They’ve charged their customers without providing a service and are now on the brink of confiscating their money. How is this any different to the fees for no service scandal over which AMP and National Australia Bank paid tens of millions in fines only after being excoriated by a royal commission?
In 126 days, Qantas is going to legally steal approximately half a billion dollars from its customers. It is staggering. Joyce will be retired in Antarctica but that massive haul will drop straight into Hudson’s first half-year result as pure profit. That’s what Joyce really meant when he said the future has never looked better! What a ball-tearing result for him to sell the rest of his shares into.
Will the ACCC do nothing? Will Minister for Qantas Catherine Kingand Prime Minister Anthony Albanese do nothing? You bet they will.
Joyce ended his press conference on Thursday more than 20 minutes early with a queue of reporters still waiting to ask their questions. He is clearly rattled. He’s endured intense scrutiny before but always sailed through and won the argument of the day. His lines aren’t landing anymore, he’s lost the mob, and that’s because nowadays, he punches down at Qantas customers and he punches down at Australian taxpayers.
That’s why the facade is cracking. Alan still sings Hero in the shower. He still pulls his made-to-measure suit over his Superman costume each morning. But deep down he knows the Australian public no longer believes him.
Herein lies the danger of letting power intoxicate you, of spending years unchallenged by views that don’t reinforce your own. When you inevitably emerge from your fever dream, reality’s no picnic.
Print articleRear Window
Alan Joyce’s lines aren’t landing any more
In 126 days, Qantas is set to legally steal approximately half a billion dollars from its customers.Joe AstonColumnistAug 27, 2023 – 7.30pm
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After 15 years at the controls of Qantas, having mastered the performance art of gaslighting the nation, Thursday was the final outing of Alan Joyce’s full-court press.
All of his delusions were on display as the airline revealed – and Joyce feverishly image-managed – its record $2.47 billion pre-tax profit for 2023.
Hero myth: Qantas CEO Alan Joyce presents his final set of full-year results on August 24. Dion Georgopoulos He persisted with the utter fallacy that “My intent was to [retire] before COVID but [I] extended to get the company through”. It is a matter of public record that nine months before COVID struck, the Qantas board extended Joyce’s tenure by “at least” three years. Sticking around made him another $30 million.“We were 11 weeks from bankruptcy,” he claimed anew. This is another raging falsehood. When COVID hit in March 2020, Qantas had nearly $2 billion in cash and $5 billion in unencumbered assets it could borrow against. The capital markets were open, so Joyce could issue equity or raise debt (he did both, as well as begging money off the government). The idea that Qantas was ever facing liquidation is sheer make-believe.
This fabrication is a key pillar of Joyce’s hero myth. It is absolutely central to the fable in which he saved Qantas. Joyce is a trained mathematician – he understands the weight of numbers. He knows that if he repeats this line sufficiently often, people will adopt it as fact – as they surely have
Saying “11 weeks” also gilds it with the hint of precision, which makes the lie sound credible. If Qantas was truly 77 days from extinction, where was that warning in its market announcements of the day? Actually, Joyce told the ASX on March 10, 2020, “We’re in a good position to ride this out.”
Joyce also claimed on Thursday that allowing his archrival Qatar Airways to launch 28 new flights per week to Australia “could actually distort the market”. Which market is that? The market in which the Australian dollar is weak, global travel demand is roaring but Qantas International charges passengers 52 per cent more by flying 28 per cent less than it did before COVID? Qatar’s flights could distort the market that’s rigged in Alan’s favour and we can’t have that.
Qantas even asserted that “in inflation adjusted terms … international fares are [now] 10 per cent higher [than pre-COVID].” Inflation adjusted! Do Qantas customers get to pay the inflation-adjusted price in Alan’s magical world?
Unverifiable figures
Qantas international fares (or revenue per kilometre flown) over the last six months are up 52 per cent versus 2019, yet in the same period, Australia’s cumulative inflation was 16 per cent. That’s a 36 per cent increase in inflation-adjusted terms, so how does Qantas get 10 per cent? By using unreleased, unverifiable figures limited to the fourth quarter, it turns out.We’re surprised Joyce didn’t use Argentinian inflation for his calculation. That would square with his historical patterns of reasoning. “When you consider this in Zimbabwean dollar terms, I’m really not shafting you that badly.”
“I’m still a very large shareholder in Qantas and I more than meet the minimum … level that the CEO is expected to hold,” Joyce said next. Literally any day now, he will receive 3.1 million Qantas shares for which he paid nothing – his glorious golden handshake.
But on June 1, Joyce sold 92 per cent of the Qantas shares he owned, raising $17 million (to buy an apartment that only cost $9 million) and taking him well below his minimum shareholding requirement. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder allowed this like he’s allowed everything else.
Joyce dumping his Qantas stake before he’s even left – more than anything else – lights up the discrepancy between what he says and what he does. Joyce has more than enough other wealth with which to fund an apartment. Why would he sell his Qantas shares if he genuinely believed that “the future for Qantas has never looked better”?
But Joyce reserved his biggest deception for his portrayal of the great Qantas flight credit racket. “What we’ve now done is we’ve put a dedicated concierge line in. The call centre now, yesterday, was three minutes to get through and there’s a dedicated set of experts that can help you get your credits. We recognise that … we didn’t get it right and we needed to fix it and the important thing is, we did fix it … we’ve only got $370 million of credits left … and we’d rather have those credits at zero by the end of the year.”
Let’s just back up a second. The Qantas Group disclosed “total COVID travel credits of $800 million” at December 31 last year. All remaining unused credits will expire on December 31 this year.
On June 26, the company announced “around $400 million in COVID credits now remaining for Qantas customers in Australia.” That is, their updated balance, which appeared to have fallen, actually excluded Qantas customers outside Australia and excluded all Jetstar customers. The sneakiness – the bad faith – of this company never ceases to astonish.
The remaining $370 million Joyce cited on Thursday still excludes Jetstar customers and Qantas customers outside Australia (we asked Qantas for the full number, but the company refused to provide it). This means two things: firstly, that the total balance of credits is likely greater than $500 million; and secondly, that only around $30 million of credits have been redeemed in the two months since Qantas declared they’re now so easy to claim back.
What a performance by Joyce. “Ring us and in three minutes flat, you’ll have your money.” If that were really true, why isn’t the balance budging? Joyce must be issuing the refunds in Argentinian pesos.
Class action
Why hasn’t Qantas automatically refunded the balance owing to any customer’s credit card that is yet to expire? Or why can’t Qantas post a bank cheque to every customer it has a mailing address for (given most are members of its Frequent Flyer program)? If the cheque is returned, so be it. Why can’t Qantas transfer the money into the lost super system administered by the Australian Taxation Office? The answer: because any of that might actually work.These credits are now the subject of a class action, as they should be.
Whenever there’s a civil disturbance, people go out and start looting. Corporations do it too and that’s clearly what Qantas did during COVID. They backed up their truck, drove it through the plate glass window of the Australian public and loaded up on our money. These are not trivial amounts for people. Thirty-eight per cent of the credits are over $500.
Joyce and Vanessa Hudson understand behavioural psychology – they understand that customers give up if Qantas makes it hard enough and they can dehumanise their theft by calling it “breakage”. They’ve charged their customers without providing a service and are now on the brink of confiscating their money. How is this any different to the fees for no service scandal over which AMP and National Australia Bank paid tens of millions in fines only after being excoriated by a royal commission?
In 126 days, Qantas is going to legally steal approximately half a billion dollars from its customers. It is staggering. Joyce will be retired in Antarctica but that massive haul will drop straight into Hudson’s first half-year result as pure profit. That’s what Joyce really meant when he said the future has never looked better! What a ball-tearing result for him to sell the rest of his shares into.
Will the ACCC do nothing? Will Minister for Qantas Catherine Kingand Prime Minister Anthony Albanese do nothing? You bet they will.
Joyce ended his press conference on Thursday more than 20 minutes early with a queue of reporters still waiting to ask their questions. He is clearly rattled. He’s endured intense scrutiny before but always sailed through and won the argument of the day. His lines aren’t landing anymore, he’s lost the mob, and that’s because nowadays, he punches down at Qantas customers and he punches down at Australian taxpayers.
That’s why the facade is cracking. Alan still sings Hero in the shower. He still pulls his made-to-measure suit over his Superman costume each morning. But deep down he knows the Australian public no longer believes him.
Herein lies the danger of letting power intoxicate you, of spending years unchallenged by views that don’t reinforce your own. When you inevitably emerge from your fever dream, reality’s no picnic.
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Some of these Senators sound like they work for Sky News. Who is that idiot that is asking these Qatar European questions? She has no idea whatsoever.
Sheldon certainly getting stuck into him.
Sheldon certainly getting stuck into him.
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Is there a problem with Sky news?
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The destruction of the livelihoods of 1700 hard working Aussies along with their families during COVID particularly galls me. Qantas was found guilty in the Fair Work Commission of unfairly dismissing these people, and what did the Commision do?
Issued a token fine to QF and threw these people to the wolves!
Issued a token fine to QF and threw these people to the wolves!
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Why does it make me feel kindy queasy when each Senator declares their Chairman’s lounge membership then immediately feigns moral outrage at Joyce?
Is it possible that none of the Senators see the conflict?
Is it possible that none of the Senators see the conflict?
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As for Nine, I can't say I have knowingly consumed any of their media content in years.
It seems like the Senators may have read the Joe Aston article before the hearing, given the line of questioning regarding the missing Jetstar and international credits. It was great watching him squirm.
The disgusting little Irishman makes me shudder every time he opens his mouth. Hudson certainly has her work cut out for her gaining back the previous QF reputation amongst both the travelling public and employees. It’s going to be a tough ask though.
The disgusting little Irishman makes me shudder every time he opens his mouth. Hudson certainly has her work cut out for her gaining back the previous QF reputation amongst both the travelling public and employees. It’s going to be a tough ask though.
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I watched that slippy snake being questioned in the Senate yesterday and NOT answering the questions. He was constantly asked a direct question and asked to give a Yes/No answer but wriggled out. If I was the chair, I would have hoofed him out for not answering a direct question. I think the board has its hands over its ears and eyes and not responding to this !diot. The faster this f00l is out, the better.
No wonder anything happens when every MP and Senator is a member of the Chairmans Lounge therefor in the Slippery Snakes back pocket
No wonder anything happens when every MP and Senator is a member of the Chairmans Lounge therefor in the Slippery Snakes back pocket
The 'grilling' was a whipping with wet lettuce. You wouldn't know it - because there's bi-partisan fear of how each 'side' could use it against the other - but the Parliament has power to summons people, lock them up for contempt if they don't front, to demand that people provide information, documents and answers to questions, and to lock them up for contempt if the information, documents or answers are not provided. But it's deteriorated to mere rhetorical fist waving and Joyce behaved accordingly, having condescended to make himself available to pretend to answer questions.
Last edited by Lead Balloon; 29th Aug 2023 at 07:32.