I like the fact that I can pay for my interview, then pay for my own cadet scheme and can pay for my own type rating and can fly a fancy new Airbus within 18 months of leaving high school!

I like it how I can call myself a Qantas pilot and I get paid $1.75 an hour!

I like the uniform, I wear it even when I'm not at work. It suits me when I mop the floor at McDonalds so I can save up to buy my first car!

I like going to work 6 days a week and not spending much time at home.

I like the fact those pretend Qantas pilots fly Boeings think I am so awesome and they wish they had the job I do!

Ken Borough would you mind telling me what the entity that is 'Qantas' means to you?
You seem to believe here, and on the Crikey blog, that to save 'Qantas' that it must be taken offshore crewed by 'cheaper' foreign pilots and FAs and the fleet maintained by third party contractors.
By doing this you think we will have then saved Qantas.
Am I missing something here?

What is this cheaper Asian mentality anyway?

If you compare CX to QF then:-

They pay their Pilots roughly the same
They pay the same Fuel prices
They pay this same Air Nav charges
They pay the same Landing fees
They probably pay similar insurance fees
Their leasing costs would be similar
They pay the same for Catering worldwide
They pay their Australian and Hong Kong ground staff the same.
They get revenue in the same basket of currencies

Ok, so maybe the Engineering costs are a little cheaper in HK

So CX is expanding, 95 new aircraft on order and we make a nice profit nearly every year. You don't see CX managers bleeting on about "the end of the world is coming......."

If you did employ cheap slave labour for Pilots and Cabin crew you mean to tell me that would make the difference and save QF from going down the toilet?? I very much doubt that it would make much difference to the bottom line.

I suggest you outsource your management, we at Cathay Pacific would love to run QF, I'm sure it would do quite nicely.:ok:

As to the first quote, I've nver posted any such thing. You have totally misrepresented my views. My Solicitors' letter is on its way!

As for the second, the answer is simply 'Yes'.

Ha ! Another one of Ken's deluded fantasies. Better get your solicitor to chase me as well Ken, you complete nimrod.

I like Qantas' never ending generosity…….

Whaaaa?


Well, they are about to give lots and lots of highly trained professionals a nice big financial bonus and the opportunity to develop a whole new career at Virgin Australia…………….

…...The NEW Spirit Of Australia…………

…see, aren't they nice……...

Not even close I am afraid, baggage handlers, transit engineers, check-in staff are on vastly different incomes.

Next time your on transit in HKG ask them how much they get paid a month then ask an Australian baggage handler how much he gets paid. Better still, ask the driver of the tug how much he is paid, then ask the QF tug driver not the Menzies tug driver!

Years of industrial demarcation has created vastly inflated payscales for jobs that don't warrant it.

What I like is that most of you guys spent years doing the hard yards in the bush flying rubber dog**** and miners around godforsaken parts of the country, working your way up the career ladder and finally after many many years of low wages, long hours, and crappy jobs you finally make it to the big one....You land a flying gig at Qantas!!!

Now you are there all you can do is convince yourselves and anyone else who will listen what a horrible company it is and how terrible it is working there.

Newsflash*************It aint going to get any better than what you have!!!! Why not start concentrating on the positives and stop lapping up the BS that comes from the likes of Sunfish and others.

Cafe Sua Da anyone?

Because brainstrust it's all about to get taken away from us. That's the point.

What I love about working for Qantas:

The pilots/fa's I work with,and the fun we still have.
The pride I get out of providing a fanatstic 'Aussie' service,and the fun we have with the pax doing it.
The great pilots who say things along the line of "we know you have been inconvenienced,but it is not the cabin crews fault,so please dont take it out on them"
The many,many,pax who say "It's so great to finally hear an Aussie accent" when they get on the plane in an overseas port.
Managing to sneak to the briefing without having to talk to/see any of the Cabin Crew 'Management Team':mad:
Having a great CSM/CSS who is so interested in how happy the pax are, and also how happy the crew are.
Seeing the middle management 'rot' shake in their boots every time there is a talk of making them redundant. :ok:

Boy he gets around then. This morning he was in Australia and tonight he's in Singapore. Wonder if he'll follow me to London:O

Things I like about working at Qantas ...............

99% of the staff on the "same rung of the corporate ladder" as myself are great people to work with.

That's 99% of pilots, hosties, engineers, bag-chuckers, caterers, terminal staff................

Pity about the management !

ST

Doing a good job .......despite the a%*hole management...not because of them.

I really look forward to coming to work at QF lately, flying with great people and laughing at the lack of resources/staff to get people where they're going. But then again, i've only got a couple of months until I resign. Light at the end of the tunnel and all that... :}

I love the way QF every four years almost to the day, fires anyone who any good. Then they replace them with people who have not a clue. They (QF) are almost like lemmings, in this practice. Unfortunately it never involves the people at the top. But I can be grateful for the time spent at QF as the oldest S/O ever I am sure, the good blokes I met and have remained friends with still, the QF pilots acceptance of a 89er, (not a S$#b) the enjoyable flying, and the job allowing myself and my family to at last, come home. For that reason I will fight against the people who are trying to destroy this great airline, and so will thousands of others. We will NOT be defeated.:D

I love turning up to work and hearing more stories of management's and various department's bunglings and stuff-ups :ugh::rolleyes:. It never ceases to amaze me.

If it's a fight you want , I'll bring out the big guns. I'll get Dennis De Nuto.

Seriously Ken, what does the entity that is Qantas embody to you?

It's the vibe.

There is not one of us here who would not gladly suffer death to rid this country of the Romans once and for all. Uhh. Well, one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's one, but otherwise, we're solid.

Actually I'd be quite interested to know that too. I'm often flabbergasted at some of his comments and assertions.

I work for a far smaller company in another country but have in the past flown Qantas (never in my life have I ever or will ever pay my own money to fly JetStar). I have completely given up on Qantas because I am so disappointed in what the airline is becoming and the reality of the offering doesn't live up to the message of the brand that they are pushing.

From a passenger perspective and someone who is willing to pay for good service it is sad to see what Qantas is becoming. And I know that I am certainly not the only customer who feels like that. I represent a section of Qantas' market that they are wantonly throwing away.

I will never buy into the ridiculous justifications for the current and future state of affairs under their current management.

I truly hope things change for the better as both self-loading freight and a pilot.