Jet Star & Qantas lose big time to Virgin Blue.
 

Well Jet Star, and Qantas youses 'ave done yer asses as far as me daughter and 'er partner are concerned.
Now loosin 2 people might mean sfa to ya, only thing is the partner is the Q'ld head of a major overseas compeny thats got branches in all states in Ozzie (and the rest of the world).
The story as she told me.

They was booked with jet Star, ta fly from Bris ta Hammo Island (that place where Dicko reckuns there all snobs who oughta buy there own airline anyway), and then take a boat ta Hyman Is.
There was more than 30 in the group booked.
So approachin departure time the announcement comes across, sayin the plane thats serposed ta do the run is still in the newcastle area - bad weather I think she said - an that the flights gunna be delayed by quiet a while.
Well natcehrally everyone wonders orf to have a cold one, or a cuppa, or somethin.

The announcement is made sayin that a Qantas plane is available but that ya hafta be at the bordin gate in 5 minutes, so orfs they rushes.
Now because 'er partners the orgynizer he wants to try ta find out how many in the group is still missin, so he goes up ta the gate person, tells 'em who 'e is, an asks which ones has already checked in?
"we carn't tell ya that for sercurity reasons." 'e gets told.
"Well" sez 'e, "if I give you the list of names, can you tell me how meny still have not checked in?"
"Sorry but the Qantas computers carn't talk ta the Jet Star ones" 'e gets told. "Also the ones who get on this flight mightnt get their bags today on this flight - they might be on a later flight, or even tomorra."

Well they gets on, and the partner then has ta walk up an down the rows of seats to see how many made it. Only 20.

Me daughters flown with Virgin Blue a cuppla times now, and she sez that although evryone likes ta take the plss outta them for the games they play, at least the cabin crew gives the passengers some attention, which was a lot diffrent to the INDIFFRENCE of the Qantas cabin crew.

The flight back was with Jet Star, an they both decided ta buy the onboard "snacks" for sale.
She said she got the very last snack - a cuppla dry old beef sandwitches for $5, and her partner got a few misrable corn chips with some Cheez Wiz (or sumthin simlar) - an that only half the passengers 'ad been done at that time. "What about the others?", asks my sweet little girl. "Well weve run out, so they miss out." was the reply.

NEVER again with jet Star or Qantas, they both agreed, Virgin Blue next time.

Maybe next time you can learn to speak in english, then more people could understand your problem. But mayb thats how they all talka like that outs west.yaha

*Never knew that Jet* sold Corn Chips. Never seen them onboard unless you are refering to pringles.

Did they let your sister take her Pig shooting rifle on board?

Yawn.... :eek:

Wind up alert. And secondly, who really cares. Go have another beer 'ay cobber.

Aint no windup pal.
Check the stats from last week end.
Any of the ground staffers readin this will tell ya its all true.
Its all straight fact.
Pringles, dingles - she sayed corn chips. Whatever they woz, she also said it came like a kids playskool lunch.
The company involved is avery well nown car maker.

Solution...
 

Lease your own aircraft and buy some Maccas...oh and get out a little more.

I think your daughter is well outnumbered by JQ and QF lovers after the MEL airport (evacuation of terminal after funny smells in building) debacle a few months ago involving Virgin Blue.

What a c_ck up that was. So badly handled. And still people are carrying on about it.

Just goes to show every airline has it's bad and good days.

Lucky the Virgin plane wasnt held up--------wouldnt have had an alternative.

Funny smells in terminals aint got nothin ta do with plss poor inflight service and ground handlin..
Wasnt jus me daughter who got plissed off neither, it was 30+ other folks as well.
And a corperate account thats gunna go to VB.

Now lets not confuse Indifference with Professionalism!!

I always thought a flight attendants number 1 priority was SAFETY, they are not there to play games with the pax!!

Let me ask you this, did the daughter arrive safely? If the answer is yes, sounds like a job well done to me...

Cheers, HH.

During the c_ck up down in Tulla I saw with my very own eyes cust serv staff at DJ rolling their eyes at pax. ( Personally I don't blame them - they had a tough day ) Also saw one standing on the back of a ute with a megaphone saying 'All flights cancelled - we can't fly ya anywhere today ' The poor girl was being 'booed' by people. I dare say there were people in the crowd vowing to never fly virgin again also.

Sh_t happens Oz ocker - unfortunately it was the day your daughter chose to travel. Would she rather have waited for the JQ a/c to turn up ? or was she happy with the kind offer of the QF a/c with entertainment, full meal service( hence why the crew are sometimes too busy to face paint and sing to the pax )

Anyway what I am saying is that there is probably a equal number of complaints about each airline. I am sure you know that.

Cheers

P.S - How old is your daughter ? Is she a good looker ?

With regards to the corn chips -

Jet* serve up a truely miserable version of nachos - consisting of 1cm square corn chips, a "cheesy" spread and salsa. The kind of out-of-the-packet rubbish you get at 7-11

For approx $5, I remember.

Why do you ask Skywalker? You want to Leia?

She sounds like a good sort - jus hopin she don't speeek like er old man.

Oz Ocker.

I couldnt make heads or tails of what you wrote but finally got the gist after 3 reads or so.
Basic English will suffice next time pal.

I have flown both Jetstar as well as VB.
At least QF made the effort to get a substitute aircraft to ease Jetstars problem.

I was caught up in the Melbourne Airport Virgin Blue debacle some months ago and that was appalingly handled by all accounts by both staff who were obviously out of their depth (smiling just didnt make the problem go away) as well as confrontational pax that hated being smiled at and told to go away (but very nicely).
I not only heard boos, but also some pretty nasty abuse.

Seeing the poor VB staff break down crying only made it quite clear they lacked the training to handle this mob situation.
It made me wonder how the company would handle a real emergency with injuries??

No, I didnt like the Jetstar experience (ground handling/ticketing) but will fly them again if it suits me as they were great once we got away and seemed professional - especially the Tech Crew.

As for VB, yes I will fly them again if it suits me also as that affair was a "one of" in my book.

When it comes to the chequebook and suitable timetables the travelling public have short memories.

I dont see too much of Aus domestic travel these days, doesn't sound like I'm missing much !!

Glad to be out of the whole circus, you can have it.

Oz2

Without straying too far off topic regarding the virgin issue in melb, do any of you really think QF or JQ could have handled the situation any better? Or any airline for that matter?!

It was a very busy day for passengers - and I dont think any amount of staff training could have handled it better.

I can honestly say I wouldnt like to be in the position of ground crew in Melb that day...

Delay management is something a lot of airlines dont handle well - and its not just limited to Virgin.

Sky, going by the dialogue...

http://www.littlebritain.tv/characte...rd/img001a.jpg

"No but yeah but yeah but yeah no but yeah no but yeah... ...but no because I'm not even going on the pill... ...because Nadine reckons they stop you from getting pregnant."

Im sure shes your type :E

Moving accounts will not achieve much, no matter how big they are. The problem is that all 3 of them are pretty much the same nowadays...in regards to Customer Service.:(

Oz Ocker,

So is Steve going to tear up the deal that QF has with Nissan, based on your, and your daughters advice???

Don't you think he should consult H.O. in Melb first!!!!!

Having recently flown with all 3 airlines and having no allegiance I can speak about them candidly.

The service you get at QF is great domestically in my opinion.
When you fly with a lower-cost carrier you essentially get what you pay for.
Both VB and J* still provide a much higher level and standard of service that you get whilst flying with a premium cost carrier in the USA.

The level of service in the USA on the main carriers is crap at best (and that's being kind).

Recently we flew with AA from LAX to Dallas FortWorth and were lucky to get our "boxes".
The coffee was unidentifiable to say the least (and I'm no coffee snob either!).
I'll drink anything warm and caffeinated but this stuff tasted like it had a crayon dipped in for colour!
A main meal was out of the question and the Flt Att's moved so damned slowly like they were on Mandrax!!
Having a 55+ average age probably didnt help either.

Also flew with Delta and had a similar experience.

No wonder their system and airlines are in such disarray.

As Woomera has suggested, get out and smell the roses guys.
If you experience the level of service elsewhere you'll never complain about our Australian airlines ever again.

speeeedy mate, if ya finger aint nowhere else at least its on yer pulse. (yer a name dropper aint ya sweetie).
Last time I looked Australia was a democoracy. 30+ other peoples also got the right to decide how theyre gonna travel with there famlies next time to - and ta tell there frends.
Like dominos.
An me daughter dont "advice" to no one.
Me to.

So 1013 says he flew with crap in the US.
Is Australia tryin to do more worse?

What the f_ _ K Once upona time we usta try ta be the best.
Now were makin excuses fer bein not quiet the worst!!

Cmom Aussie, cmon.

Be seein youse round!

Oz Ocker..yer kiddin rite?
 

You got friends?!!!

I thought the car industry was going well this year
How come no charter and opting for a low cost airline.

And i bet the big boys in Japan travel with Aust. Airlines

Duelling banjo's anyone?......."folks are dumb were we come from"

"Larlene, quit messing with your brother and come on in here for dinner"

Once we used to TRY to be the BEST.
Now we (are) making excuses for being not QUITE the WORST!

Your spelling might need some polishing up, Oz Ocker, but your sentiments are PRECISELY spot on.

good one PC - reminds me of "Cletus" from The Simpsons

Guys,

Some of you are a bit slow on the uptake. I'm sure that all of OZOcker's posts are carefully written to sound like his nickname "OZOCKER" - get it? It's his schtick!

Anyway, OZ, you said that Australian airlines used to try to be the best. I remember that era too, when airlines advertised their service and their meals, their staff and their attitude to service. Now, all you get is that "we are cheap - we must be good". CHEAPNESS is now a virtue and the public is to blame.

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. If you want to pay crap, you get crap. Sadly, this is where the world's airlines are now.

Well if she's anything like her old man, she'd fit in well at Virgin. After all, they do fly the barefoot yob brigade around don't they? :yuk:

So THAT'S the reason Virgin Blue have been going out backwards from Day 1 of their operation :bored:

qfcainer Perhaps you've never heard of Yield Management. I've seen jet aircraft in Australia be configured all Y class and make money.

I agree with OZ Ocker's sentiments, and am once again amazed at how aviation people's opinions can be so blind reading the above posts.

By comparing Virgin's airport emergency situation, with Jetstar's normal operation you aren't comparing equal situations.

Comparing normal ops every day service between the two low cost carriers, I know who I wouldn't ever fly with - EVER.

Recently, a friend of mine flew on Jetstar as her travelling partner had paid for the ticket. When she checked in an hour early to please the airline, she was told that her flight had been cancelled, and that all pax had been telephoned and advised, in spite of the fact that neither she nor any of the PAX in the line around her had received a call. The travelled on the next flight, which in turn was delayed. All up it took her EIGHT HOURS to travel SYD - OOL - she would have been better off to drive
:ok: . On the aeroplane, she was amazed at the lack of professionalism displayed by the cabin crew who gossiped between each other all flight so PAX could clearly hear, at the same time ignoring the PAX.

Crap wages and poor conditions results in high staff turnover, and that impacts the quality of any business.

Australia is a very wealthy country indeed, yet our airlines are striving to reduce their service to below third world standard under the miss guided belief that cost is all that matters. It's not.

Why would you drive to an airport in a nice car, having left your nice house that is probably worth at least half a million dollars, enter the airport and get treated like crap for between two and ten hours because you flew on a low cost carrier, then arrive at your destination and go off to your five star hotel again to be treated like a king ??

The Low cost carrier is something that we will look back on in th efuture and wonder what they were thinking!!

the simple reason its like this with LCC's. is everyone wants to fly for the price of a BUS ticket!

Simply you get what you pay for!


my only gripe with LCC's is the full service flights are being replaced by these tightarse services leaving no option!

i WILLINGLY pay for Business class service! because i enjoy my flying, and the service! but that is rapidly dissapearing!

Bring on Ozjet!

I completely agree with you Ultralights, that's why my business partner and I pay for business as well. The sad thing is that it's only available with one airline in Australia, and increasingly less so.

I hear that QF are intending to increase the number of business class seats domestically though.......That's good news. Ozjet will be even better news me thinks.

Exactly Ultralights, the reason everything has gone LCC now is because everyone wants everything for nothing! If they fly QF, they complain it costs too much and on a MEL-SYD they didn't get a full international service with all the smiles in the world from the crew. Unfortunately these days everything is about saving money, airlines are operating on minimum crew these days to save a dollar, so unfortunately the crew don't have time to talk as they're too worried about trying to get the service done in the time given and while they're doing that they have a j/class wannabe in row 24 asking for the crew to hang up his jakcet for him and find somewhere to put his suitpack! Believe it or not guys, 99% of crew would love to spend time going that extra mile for the passengers and smiling all the time chatting etc, but another thing is that sometimes you might have caught the crew at the end of a 10 hour day and that's not your problem, they chose their own career, but just take some time to think about it.

People you have to realise, these days even though the crew may want to spend time talking to passengers and smiling etc, they literally don't have time to do all the little things that they would be able to if they had an extra Flight Attendant. Per CASA rules, in Australia there must be one Flight Attendant to every 36 passengers, if not, the plane doesn't take off, it's law. In New Zealand, they have to have 1 Flight Attendant to every 50 passengers, so even worse! but then again NA crew get paid next to nothing. The current government want to introduce NZ's policy into Australia, so just think if this happens, there will be no service whatsoever on any Australian airline as there won't be enough crew to do it! So please don't support the governments change to the current conditions.

At the end of the day, there are crew at every airline that should've retired or never got the job in the first place and there are crew which are fantastic! I fly with Flight Attendant's which are great at what they do and the passengers are genuinely over the moon. Cut crew a little slack and realise they are human also. Yes if they don't like working with the public, they're in the wrong job, but if you see they're not smiling every second you turn around, then that's ok. and if they don't answer your call bell within 5 seconds, it's probably because they're in the middle of stuffing their lunch down their face. yes crew do need to have a break, we're not robots.

I work for Qantas, but i have also travelled Virgin Blue once or twice and hated it! I don't find them professional (being hit by a flying toilet roll) and definately not safety focused after getting a passenger to do the safety demo. Could you imagine as a business traveller who might fly 2 or 3 legs a day and hearing the same jokes over and over on each sector! I would much rather Qantas. Also i would rather fly Qantas for the experienced crew aswell, Virgin have 19 year old Cabin Managers who have only been flying for a year! Do you feel safe now?

Oz Ocker, your daughter and son in law sound like the type who want everything for nothing, Virgin can have them, they're more trouble than they're worth, trust me i know the type! an airline is an airline, unexpected things happen that you have to allow for and if you can't realise this then you definately should drive, that way you have no one else to blame but yourself if something goes wrong.

ps- Pullock, i haven't heard anything about Qantas increasing it's number of j/class seats at all? I know what it's like, j/class fills up in a second, especially with Qantas Club members who use their points in the QF Club on the day to upgrade. This is why it is so hard to use F/F points to upgrade as there is usually every other frequent flyer trying to do the same thing.

Also, i really hope that OZjet works out, especially for the people that have recently been employed to work for them and also because competition is healthy. From what i hear some of the people recently hired as Flight Attendants are a bit worried as the airline founder doesn't have a good reputation with airlines, they seem to disappear while under his direction. Hopefully though it works out for all concerned.

Happy landings!

Oz

It wont work out.
 

Like lemmings they follow. :}

My dear Ozcabincrew, you almost had my sympathetic ear until you let loose with that tirade against VB. You, like the rest of us, are paid decent wage to do the job for the time that you are on duty. Do you think that doctors ( except maybe imports with sub-continent ancestry residing in Oregan ) can use the excuse " we maybe at the end of a ten hour shift" or for that matter tech crew who have had five sectors up and down in the wet season at the end of ten hour shift saying" stuff it I'll only do half my job now". You're paid to do a job.Do it or get out!:{

Exactly oldhasbeen. I would rather a keen fresh 19 year old getting me out of the plane than an old, burnt out, fat, arrogant mama with an attitude from Quaintass.

Ozcabincrew

Please dont tell me that VB cabin crew actually have a laugh and joke with the passengers and enjoy their day out. How disgusting. How on earth was this allowed to happen in aviation. !!!!!

My dear oldhasbeen,

i wasn't whinging about a ten hour day at all, infact it doesn't bother me. I probably didn't word it the best. The point i was trying to get across is that crew are human, not robots. Sometimes we do have long days and i totally agree, if you can't handle it and get into bad moods and still can't do your job properly at the end of the day, then leave! I agree completely.

ratpoison,

To be honest, i wouldn't care who was getting me out of the aircraft in an emergency, as long as i get out. You obviously have a preference in this situation, i and i'm sure most people certainly don't. I would like to see how the 18/19 year old Virgin Blue Cabin Manager handles this situation compared to the 55 year old Qantas CSM who's been flying for 25 or 30 years. Yes, Qantas does seem to have this reputation/stereotype for being hard, cold, old, too serious and too professional, which is the case with some people, but certainly not the majority. People are always quick to bring up the negatives and very rarely the positives and people just love to jump on the bandwagon.

I do admit, at Qantas there are a few people which should no longer be there. They're miserable to passengers and believe it or not, they're also miserable to work with. Hopefully though you will start to see a change as there are a lot of younger, enthusiastic crew now online, but also still a lot of fresh and enthusiastic older crew who have been with the company for a while. There's bad apples in every business. At least i take satisfaction in knowing that i go up there and put in 200% every time i go to work and i can say the same for a lot of my colleagues.

Oz

Oz,

Point taken and well said. Let's all hope that there is new blood coming up through the ranks. Yourself and stated brotherhood are becoming a thing of the past. I travelled recently from the SYD international terminal to BNE as a pax on a 767 and the cabin crew were a bloody disgrace. It reminded me why I got out of the Company years ago. However, keep up the good work and possibly the tide will turn, eh !!!

Rat

Two posts caught my eye. The one about QF not making any money from economy pax and focussing instead on Business class.

The one about VB pax being "Barefoot Yobs".

I respectfully suggest that if QF really believes this then its days are numbered.

It is very, very, unwise in a business to cross subsidise different products. What happens when the price differential between Business and economy gets too great and Business pax switch?

If I was ever working again for an airline and heard staff calling pax "Self Loading Frieght" or "barefoot yobs". They would be fired on the spot.

The SLF and barefoot yobs pay your miserable salaries and don't forget it.