NYCtraveler

The More I fly Qantas over the last three years, the less and less I enjoy my flights. I find their J product to be weak and outdated, tiny video screens, limited choices, 1/2 of the A/V is usually not working an the seats are hard, even with the cushion they now place on them.

The crews are hit and miss though when they are Good....They are Excellent...and when they are bad, they are just plain bad. My recently flight from DFW-BNE-SYD was terrible with a crew that disappeared and told me to get my own water at the "buffet" When I asked. Lovely. The 747 was ok, the A/V went on and of a few times.

Yesterdays flight was from SYD-BKK and the airbus was OLD.... seats creaking, AV didn't work in economy and worked only part time in Business. This plane seemed lucky to be flying and these old pods are just awful. That said, the crew was friendly and efficient an always around, really a good group.

Overall, Qantas is lucky they own the market out of AU because otherwise, given other choices and options for my routes, I would opt out of flying them. My next trip down I am taking Singapore air and routing with an extra stop just to avoid the "lottery" that Qantas runs.

Just my two cents.

Safe travels to All! NYC

vbroucek

While I am Australian and hence surprisingly anti-QF, I wish you good luck with SQ... Being Star Alliance devotee who does Europe regularly and needs Star Alliance feeder from AU I have been disappointed with SQ so many times... As an example - no amenity kit in business, hit and miss crew, old/regional business class seats ex MEL... I am not big fan of TG either, but they are quickly becoming my preferred feeder for my EU flights...

m0hamed

IFE failures happen, but QF's compensation (often provided by the CSM's note and not requiring the pax to complain) is more than adequate. Who doesn't travel with an iPad or other device?

Dave Noble

I expect that a lot of people do not

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

For the purposes of IFE? I don't. And leaving from countries such as China I don't have the access or the data availability to download hours of programming.

bensyd

Me neither. I have a laptop with zero in the way of movies etc and books. Old skool.

Singapore_Air

I don't. I would expect to use whatever airline's IFE system (if present / operational).

serfty

A good summary of the Qantas product these days ... sadly ...

DownUnderFlyer

Indeed. And this in times where competition on all routes is more intense than ever before.

Blackcloud

"Own the market out of AU" hardly true at all, otherwise QF would be in a much healthier position. Sadly QF standards, and dare I say it seems to be the same across all the airlines I have flown over the last 5 years, has decreased rather than increased.

vbroucek

I'll support this claim having regularly flown business class on LH, LX, SQ, TG, UA, QF in the past 10 years...

TPJ

True - VA goes from strength to strength - I was recently told no more AU domestic travel on QF - we have to use VA (and we have C-class travel policy on AU domestics apart from the SYD-BNE-SYD flights, where it is Y), I guess it is a significant revenue loss for QF.

QF is still a good airline, but for example it is annoying me, when there is no pre-arrival snack in C on AU-SIN/BKK/HKG flights. After arriving from AU, I would like to take a cab to the hotel and just go to bed, instead of thinking how to organize something to eat...

bensyd

You'd have to assume they're selling what people want to buy.

DH188

Don't know how recently you might have flown these routes, but earlier this year (March / April?) they started doing just that; noodles and such served in a cardboard box. Nothing to write home about though.

NYCtraveler

The USA Airlines went bare bones years ago, no duvets, limited deserts, no shrimp cocktails etc. Now the US airlines are Adding that to try and bring back the customers they are losing to competition.

Qantas is in a bad place, They have some of the highest paid flight attendants in the world and Other airlines are pulling staff from Thailand and the Phillipines for $20,000 USD per year....How to compete with this? Tough call.

As I said....It appears that Qantas has cut back on the hard product. Their Business class seats are about 6 years behind that of BA or Singapore or even the new AA metal....But as many have pointed out many airlines flying this region have done the same.

I will try Singapore out and see.

What surprises me is the inability to fill the First class cabins on the long haul routes into AU? There is so much money there and why airlines such as Cathay Pacific and JAL and Qantas cannot fill a First class cabin from Asia is beyond me. I look at the LHR-JFK route where First always has people waiting to get in and its only 6.5 hours?

Safe travels to all! NYC