Joyce ‘retires’ early 👍
She was a big part of it all. Does she really think so we are stupid to believe this is all news to her
This is going to take time and I ask for your patience.....
Haven't the staff and customers been patient enough? As if spending 8 hours on the phone or 3 days without baggage or three years waiting to undo an illegal sacking isn't patience enough.
While it all unravels - with staff, customers and politicians wielding their pitchforks, and Hudson and the board in complete damage control - where is the man that tore the heart out of Qantas just to line his own pockets?
Still in hiding overseas?
Still in hiding overseas?
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Havent they got rid of all of them & told everybody to check in on line or deal with a self serve kiosk in the terminal.
She has supported Joyce & has publicly praised him so as you say, she needs to go.
The 2 of them are equally as bad as each other, all the words mean bit fat zero.
The employees & the customers are sick of their lies & excuses, what part of that doesnt she understand.
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^^^^^ What blubak said ^^^^^ Times a hundred!
Possible caveat is that customers seem to have only kicked up a stink very recently. She's got to turn around an entire workforce that she has spent 15 years ruining the lives of. That's a tough ask, but she is right on one thing - that will take time!
I doubt Vanessa has even started to grasp what it is she has done to the company over the last 10-15 years. I suspect she has believed the Kool-Aid the press have fed them (and it's in her interests to do so) since the post Dixon wrecking ball really built up a head of steam.
My bet - she has not got a clue and is grasping at straws.
Referring the post above about TWU having the 'whip hand'. I agree, but that to me, is a given. What will be the VERY interesting part is how the battle lines are drawn. I know how'd I'd play it in Vanessa's shoes - what I'm interested in, is how she does actually play it. I am confident she doesn't posses the knowledge to understand what it is she's done. If anyone has any information into (non confidential) but stance like positions taken by either side - I'd LOVE to know.
So far, I've seen NOTHING that gives me any confidence about Qantas 'returning' because I haven't seen anything from Vanessa that even suggests she has an inkling of what Qantas was - despite her being there since '94.
Possible caveat is that customers seem to have only kicked up a stink very recently. She's got to turn around an entire workforce that she has spent 15 years ruining the lives of. That's a tough ask, but she is right on one thing - that will take time!
I doubt Vanessa has even started to grasp what it is she has done to the company over the last 10-15 years. I suspect she has believed the Kool-Aid the press have fed them (and it's in her interests to do so) since the post Dixon wrecking ball really built up a head of steam.
My bet - she has not got a clue and is grasping at straws.
Referring the post above about TWU having the 'whip hand'. I agree, but that to me, is a given. What will be the VERY interesting part is how the battle lines are drawn. I know how'd I'd play it in Vanessa's shoes - what I'm interested in, is how she does actually play it. I am confident she doesn't posses the knowledge to understand what it is she's done. If anyone has any information into (non confidential) but stance like positions taken by either side - I'd LOVE to know.
So far, I've seen NOTHING that gives me any confidence about Qantas 'returning' because I haven't seen anything from Vanessa that even suggests she has an inkling of what Qantas was - despite her being there since '94.
Last edited by V-Jet; 22nd Sep 2023 at 08:01.
Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson says carrier has let Australians down
Ayesha de KretserSenior reporterSep 22, 2023New Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson says the airline should never feel “entitled” to customer loyalty, pledging to invest more than $150 million to restore trust and rebuild the battered reputation of Australia’s flag carrier even though bookings remain solid.
In a dramatic about-turn since she endorsed Qantas’ strategy under her predecessor, Alan Joyce, as recently as full-year results on August 24, Ms Hudson said she is now reviewing customer operations, including whether to bring call centres back to Australia from offshore.
Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson has apologised to customers for the carrier’s performance. Edwina Pickles “We should never feel entitled to [our] customer loyalty. We have to be focused on making sure that we win that loyalty on every flight in every moment and in every interaction,” Ms Hudson told reporters on Friday.Ms Hudson stressed that Qantas has not seen any slowdown in bookings or impact from the brand damage on its bottom line. But she acknowledged that spending on customers, including new aircraft, lounges and food and beverage would come at a cost to the airline’s record earnings.
The airline has already set aside $150 million for future investment in customer service, but Ms Hudson said investors were supportive of more spending being allocated as needed as Qantas builds back trust and heads off a regulatory onslaught that could hurt its dominant market position.
RELATED QUOTES
QANQantas
$5.270 -0.75%1 year1 daySep 22Mar 23Sep 234.9506.0507.150 Updated: Sep 22, 2023 – 1.04pm. Data is 20 mins delayed.View QAN related articles “I have spent time with investors, and they are very supportive of the focus that I’ve got now on regaining trust and investing in the customer,” she said.
Forager Funds chief investment officer Steve Johnson said the brand damage already sustained was not irreversible and Qantas would be “silly not to” invest to fix things, even though its booking pipeline is strong.
“People love whinging about Qantas, but I don’t think it’s actually affected the consumer’s preference,” he said. “But there is going to come a time here when there is more supply of aircraft in the next five years and people have more choice.”
Last month, Ms Hudson said Qantas’ record $2.47 billion profit in FY23 was not as good as it gets, and in May, Qantas said it was targeting earnings before interest and tax margins of 18 per cent for its domestic operations and 10-12 per cent for international.
Ms Hudson did not confirm whether these targets would be revisited but flagged fuel costs have risen 30 per cent in the past three months.
In a video message to Qantas customers, Ms Hudson acknowledged that the airline had fallen short of its responsibility to customers.
“We want to get back to the national carrier that Australians can be proud of, that’s known for going above and beyond. We understand we need to earn your trust back. Not with what we say, but what we do and how we behave,” she said. Play Video
Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson has committed to a comprehensive review of all “outdated” customer policies after issuing an apology on behalf of the business for failing to strike the balance between managing the expectations of passengers and i...
Ms Hudson acknowledged that the airline had let Australians down. “I’ve been reading complaints and I think it is clear that we have let them down and that we’ve disappointed and frustrated many customers,” she said.
She said she has not spoken to Mr Joyce since he left the company earlier this month, eight weeks earlier than planned. She also confirmed that her own short-term incentive had been docked by 20 per cent for failure to satisfy customers.
Asked if the airline had struck the right balance between customers, staff and investors over the past two years, Ms Hudson acknowledged Qantas’ service has fallen short.
“I think it’s important to recognise that we have not delivered to our customers’ expectations and I think that that is the context of what is in my apology today,” she said.
Qantas will also need to answer the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, but she didn’t rule out negotiating a settlement, again turning away from the airline’s combative stance that saw it fight sacked workers all the way to the High Court, where it lost.
Ms Hudson said she has apologised to TWU national secretary Michael Kaine for the difficult decision that was made to sack nearly 1700 ground staff at airports.
“I have also spoken to Michael Kaine and expressed my apology in person to him and I will be attending the mediation session that we have coming up in the coming weeks,” she said. “My focus now is looking forward and making sure that we resolve the compensation as quickly and as reasonably as we can for all involved.”
As a first attempt to quell customer anger, Qantas will add 5 million Frequent Flyer seats and look at ways to empower frontline staff to more quickly answer questions, offer refunds and fix “unfair” policies around issues such as name changes on tickets.
Asked if part of the investment in customers was also designed to head off increased political scrutiny, Ms Hudson stressed it was important for Qantas to maintain strong relationships in Canberra, adding that competition helps make Qantas a better airline.
“A really important part of the debate around Qatar is that traffic rights into Australia are a matter for the government. The comments that we made around our submission at the time was in the context where we were in, that we hadn’t recovered from COVID and what we have seen is that the capacity have come has come back into Australia the way we thought,” she said.
‘What else do they have to do wrong?’: Canberra Airport chief blasts Qantas
Tom RabeWA political correspondentSep 22, 2023 –Canberra Airport’s chief executive has blasted Qantas, accusing it of mistreating its staff and customers, and breaching contract conditions as he called for heavier regulation to finally bring the national carrier “to heel”.
Canberra Airport boss Stephen Byron has criticised Qantas for mistreating its staff and customers. Kirsty Umback In his opening statement to a Senate committee on Friday, Canberra Airport CEO Stephen Byron said Qantas would further ride roughshod over consumers, competitors and suppliers until it was brought into line by stronger regulatory action.“What else does Qantas have to do wrong in addition to its unlawful sacking of staff, its appalling treatment of customers with flight credit, cancellations and sky-high airfares, and its excessive profit and its mismanagement of cancelled flights,” Mr Byron asked.
“Qantas will not change, unless they’re brought to heel by a regulator or by the highest court in the land.”
The committee, tasked with investigating the Albanese government’s decision to block Qatar Airways’ application for an additional 28 weekly flights to Australia earlier this year, was held in Perth on Friday.Sep 22Mar Airport chiefs, local farming and livestock representatives, as well as key members of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission fronted Friday’s inquiry.
More flights ‘puts downward pressure on price’
The Senate inquiry questioned ACCC representatives on Friday afternoon about whether any federal ministers or government representatives had sought advice from the commission over the controversial Qatar decision.ACCC chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the consumer watchdog had not been asked by the Albanese government to provide advice over the decision to block Qatar Airways’ flights into Australia.
Ms Cass-Gottlieb said while it had not been the usual practice of the ACCC to provide government advice on those issues, it would “certainly stand ready to provide advice on such matters”.
“We continue to not have a role,” she said.
Ms Cass-Gottlieb also confirmed that five of seven ACCC commissioners, including herself, held a membership to the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.
Asked by committee chairwoman Nationals MP Bridget McKenzie whether adding more flights from Qatar into Australia would have resulted in cheaper airfares, Ms Cass-Gottlieb said: “In the usual course, more competition produces downward pressure on price.”
John Hassell, president of WA Farmers, at the hearing. Trevor CollensLack of air freight capacity
WA Farmers president John Hassell said a lack of air freight capacity was a key factor in local producers losing out.Mr Hassell said the WA industry was losing as much as $1.5 million a week compared with a year ago because of a convergence of less air freight capacity, dry weather and an impending live export ban on sheep.
He said Transport Minister Catherine King was hurting farmers at a time sheep producers were especially vulnerable.
“The tone deafness of this current federal government is beyond belief,” he told the inquiry.
“I cannot believe that Ms King could have made this decision without considering the much, much deeper implications of the long-term trading arrangements.”
Mr Hassell and representatives from Sheep Producers Australia and the Pastoralists and Graziers Association called on the federal government to reconsider its move to reject the additional Qatar flights.
Earlier, Mr Byron said Qantas had taken an “extreme approach” to dealing with contractors and was very active in vying with its competition and lobbying the government.
‘Everyone else gets scraps’
“They control the market and everyone else gets the scraps,” the airport chief said.“Airports have been subjected to unlawful behaviour by Qantas, they seem to act as if they are above the law, above the contracts that they sign ...what’s been extraordinary is that the behaviour of Qantas over the last number of years, and the treatment of their customers in particular, has been severely detrimental and things need to change with Qantas.”
He said a third airline needed to operate in Australia to cut the market share of Qantas, which enjoyed the vast majority of profits. Mr Byron said the airline had deliberately breached its contract with Canberra Airport during the pandemic.
Labor senator Tony Sheldon criticised the management of the Senate committee and questioned why a number of parliamentary staff had travelled to Perth for the hearing despite most people appearing via video link.
“Ironically this hearing has made Qantas quite a lot of money at the taxpayers’ expense,” Senator Sheldon said, before calling the hearing a “farce” and a “junket”.
The decision to knock back Qatar has been criticised by regulators, tourism bodies and the Queensland and West Australian governments, which say more flights would increase competition and lower ticket prices.
The Coalition and the Senate crossbench established an inquiry probing the move after ministers offered several explanations – including human rights, well-paid local jobs and protecting Qantas’ profits – while failing to answer questions about advice and ministerial consultations relating to the decision.
I like the royal "we" and "us". Like it's everyone at QF's fault, not just theirs. The only "I" is when she is throwing the rest of the staff under the bus.
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They keep apologising to the ‘customers’, I personally would like an email from her apologising to the staff for subjecting us to the Boards mismanagement and disregard to staff moral.
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Based on the Network PIA thread, nothing’s changed.
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I agree with Ollie. Many staff have put so much effort into the Qantas brand over decades that they have woven Qantas into their personal identity. It’s become a part of who they are, what their story is. And now, that part of them is being severely criticised in the media every day, the public has turned against it, their financial position is taking repeated hits, and their Executive staff have caused it all. To many staff it feels like all of these things are “happening to them”. The staff who don’t feel like that have separated themselves from the business as a method of self protection. To be left out of the sentence when apologies are being handed out, multiple times, feels very bad and no doubt severs the last threads of engagement some staff are connected to Qantas by.
If I was VH I would not only apologise to all staff for letting them down publicly and making their lives uncomfortable, but I would make some grand gesture to back it up. I’m thinking 10% of Group profit split evenly between all eligible staff for the next three years running. Something that creates another thread of connection or she’ll lose the lot. Shareholders will understand this under the current circumstances.
If I was VH I would not only apologise to all staff for letting them down publicly and making their lives uncomfortable, but I would make some grand gesture to back it up. I’m thinking 10% of Group profit split evenly between all eligible staff for the next three years running. Something that creates another thread of connection or she’ll lose the lot. Shareholders will understand this under the current circumstances.
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Jumped on to post the article below, but you're spot on Framer about a grand gesture. The problem is, I don't think 'they' have a clue about what they've actually done. I think 'they' have been so focused on making changes on spreadsheets that they've forgotten what Qantas actually is. Or was. That's why they can tell everyone that they are sorry and will fix the customer experience. The customer experience is the result of everything else (that 'they've' wrecked) not the beginning.
Anyway - I'll post the article, touches on the same point.
Anyway - I'll post the article, touches on the same point.
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On my recent trip to Europe, I’ve seen first-hand how far off the pace Qantas is
greg sheridan
What is the longest you’ve waited on hold for a call centre to rescue you from that doom-loop of aggressively cheesy muzak?
My colleague, Fiona Harari, wrote a love letter, perhaps a falling-out-of-love letter, to Qantas a few weeks back in which she complained of the habit of Qantas promising to call back at a certain time and the call never *happening.
Wow! Talk about your Dostoevsky moments – we read to find that we’re not alone. Although the promised Qantas call back that never comes has happened to me seemingly a trillion times (that is to say, four or five times), for some reason I thought it must have been a one-off, or a series of one-offs.
Gosh, could this have been happening to lots of people?
Of course, I get it that dickering with Qantas is quintessentially a First World problem. *Neither Fiona nor I was trying to get the last plane off the doomed island before the volcano erupted.
But still, we spend our hard-earned on Qantas and expect them to more or less measure up.
The other thing to say is that all the Qantas staff I’ve ever met have been as helpful as their system allows, or their training provides. It’s not their fault.After hours of waiting online, the most frustrating answer, when you finally get through, is to be told they have to transfer you to another department – even though the request and the necessary action may be utterly footling – and you have to begin your long night of the soul, accompanied by that sinister muzak, all over again.
Is this the music that will play in purgatory?
Like all big companies, Qantas wants us all to do our business with them online. The problem is every now and again it’s essential to do some business with a human being – redeeming a flight credit, responding to a text message that your flight has been cancelled, and so on.Not so long ago, I was scheduled to come home to Melbourne from Canberra early afternoon to be in plenty of time for my wife’s birthday dinner. One flight after another was cancelled from Canberra and the one flight left was over full.
After a lot of back and forth, I flew from Canberra to Sydney to get to Melbourne, but cancellations in Sydney meant I didn’t get to Melbourne until just before midnight anyway.
I saw in central Europe recently just how far off the service pace Qantas is.
We’d booked online the cheapest flights we could get from London to Dubrovnik – Polish Airlines with a short stopover in Warsaw. The tickets didn’t include checked baggage and I wanted to pay for it in advance. I rang Polish Airlines, expecting a marathon wait and sundry language difficulties, and in a couple of minutes was answered by an actual human being, a Pole, in Poland, who worked for the airline, spoke perfect English and arranged everything in a tick.
Later we had a connection from Dubrovnik through Vienna to Prague on Austrian Airlines. I rang Austrian because the connection seemed too tight. Phone answered in minutes, intelligent, helpful response in flawless English. The flight was delayed and we missed our connection in Vienna. Just as we got to the service desk to see what we could do, a woman from Austrian Airlines approached the desk with our boarding passes all printed out for the next Prague flight a few hours later.
I almost fainted.
It’s a long time since the Spirit of Australia performed like that.
Greg Sheridan
--------------------------As of this morning - there are 195 comments on the article. Most are along the lines of what readers here think - with a few snide remarks about that inane 'Welcome to Country' thrown in.
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NY Times...
A string of scandals has left Qantas Airways, which calls itself “the spirit of Australia,” near the bottom of public opinion at home.
https://archive.ph/9ydoZ
A string of scandals has left Qantas Airways, which calls itself “the spirit of Australia,” near the bottom of public opinion at home.
https://archive.ph/9ydoZ
Already seeing a change in VH's narrative. First staff video was thanking Alan and saying the focus is totally on customers, most staff were unimpressed by the performance. Two weeks later, the town hall was a grovelling apology to staff for how badly they have been let down by management. Perhaps she's finally seeing the light, a bit?
Already seeing a change in VH's narrative. First staff video was thanking Alan and saying the focus is totally on customers, most staff were unimpressed by the performance. Two weeks later, the town hall was a grovelling apology to staff for how badly they have been let down by management. Perhaps she's finally seeing the light, a bit?
Either Vanessa is totally incompetent or totally complicit. There is no other choice and neither of them are acceptable. Blatant theft should be met with summary dismissal.
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If she's genuinely seeing the light (after spending 20 years turning it off) she's doing it kicking and screaming but she has millions a year and an ego riding on it. In the end, how an improvement is achieved matters very little, it's whether it's actually achieved. It's still an absolute disgrace, let's just think about all the engagement surveys that proved what a great job management was doing! They knew, they thought they could keep trashing the place forever.
Either Vanessa is totally incompetent or totally complicit. There is no other choice and neither of them are acceptable. Blatant theft should be met with summary dismissal.
Either Vanessa is totally incompetent or totally complicit. There is no other choice and neither of them are acceptable. Blatant theft should be met with summary dismissal.
Either shes been on the gravy train with her accomplice of the last 15 years OR she has had & has still got no idea of what she has supported.
Dont keep coming out with this crap of how the staff engagement level is at record high, blah, blah, blah.
As a work colleague once said to me
'We love our job but we despise who we work for'!
No further explanation needed.