AUS_MD

Found at pprune:

Qantas Entertainent System Fails Thousands Affected

David Richards - Wednesday, 24 January 2007

EXCLUSIVE: Qantas in flight staff claim that the Australian airline is about to dump it's "acclaimed" on demand entertainment system after thousands of customers are being denied access to movies and other programs because of constant technical problems with the award winning entertainment system.


Qantas onboard staff claim that thousands of customers have been affected by the entertainment system failure and that a new system could cost the airline millions. currently Qantas is subject to a buyout by Airline Partners Australia, a consortium led by Macquarie Bank, which has bid $11 billion for the carrier.


The entertainment system problem problem is so bad that in some cases customers on 20 hour flights between New York and Sydney are having to go without any form of entertainment and in some cases even a light to read because the switch for the light is built into the entertainment controller.


For Australians flying out of Australia to the USA return, the problem is compounded by the fact that they are being forced to pay up to $1,000 more than passengers who book their tickets between the USA and Australia.

Currently Qantas is offering US customers a return trip to Australia for $1,099 (A$1,391). This also includes up to 3 domestic stopovers worth at least another $1,000 in value. The discounted price to Australians on the Qantas web site for a Sydney LA return flight without 3 domestic stopovers is $2,388 going up to more than $3,000 per round trip.

On a recent flight between Los Angeles and Sydney hundreds of Qantas passengers were unable to access the Rockwell Collins developed entertainment system despite repeated attempts by onboard staff to reboot both the hardware and the software. A senior Qantas cabin crew member on the flight told SHN "The problem is that we are at the front line when the entertainment system fails and it is failing a lot so we have to cop the abuse. We have been told that Qantas is about to replace the system because of the high level of failure. This is not a one off. Thousands have been affected on the Pacific route alone." They said.

They added" One of the problems is that Qantas is running full flights across the Pacific and when 300 to 400 passengers suddenly go to switch on the entertainment system the computer system running it fails despite constant rebooting. It failed between New York and LA and it has failed again inbound to Sydney. Qantas know of the problem but have done nothing to make customers aware of the fact that they are boarding an aircraft without a proper functioning entertainment system. ".

Kannyn MacRae Marketing Director at Belkin said "On my flight to the CES show between Sydney and LA I had no entertainment. Luckily I had recorded several movies and shows to my notebook so I watched them in place of the onboard entertainment system".
My Sister who had visited from the USA for Xmas also had problems on another Qantas flight when the Qantas airlines entertainment system failed. I wrote to Qantas about the issue and all they did was write a letter of apology and said I hope we don't lose you as customer".


During my flight between LA and Sydney this week the entertainment system failed 3 times while my wife had no entertainment system at all in her seat. She also had no light to read because of the failure of the entertainment hand piece that included the light switch. When one could access the system ,movie images bitmapped and the Channel Nine News was not available at all. Qantas on board staff offered one days free parking at Sydney Airport as compensation.
Qantas selected the Rockwell Collins' Total Entertainment System 5 years ago to provide passengers with access to in-flight programming selections on their fleet of international long haul Boeing 747-400's. Rockwell Collins said at the time "The Total Entertainment System selected by Qantas offers a diverse range of entertainment options including access to intranet web sites and games, " said Neal Keating, vice president and general manager of Rockwell Collins Passenger Systems.

"These features will be on-demand for all classes and accessed through seatback video screens in economy class, and with larger individual screens for first and business class passengers."
Qantas has ordered the system with provisions for future installation of Audio/Video On Demand, which streams the audio and video directly to individual seats, allowing passengers complete control of video programming, and for installation of passenger email capabilities.
For the last 2 years Qantas has won an award for its dud in-flight entertainment system from the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA).

A Qantas spokesperson said "We are not aware of any problems with our entertainment system but we will investigate and get back to you". To-date we have not heard back from them.
In another statement Qantas said of its Entertainment system "The high priority Qantas places on this area of customer satisfaction is reflected in the fact the airline has received the award for Best Overall In-flight Entertainment in four of the last five years," said John Borghetti, executive general manager of the airline.
SHN has also learnt that Qantas is set to test "AeroMobile" a mobile phone connectivity solution that lets passengers send and receive e-mails, SMS (short message service) messages and phone calls in-flight using their GSM mobile phones or personal electronic devices such as Blackberry phones.

If you have experienced problems on board a Qantas flight we would like to hear from you. Send an email to

Alan in CBR

I find that very difficult to believe. Either the "Qantas spokesperson" (shame he/she wasn't named) is lying, or QF aren't dealing adequately with their customers' complaints. Either is a sad indictment on the company.

flyer121

I just flew QF108 (JFK-LAX-SYD) ON 1/07/07 and AVOD WORKED PERFECT

Returned on QF15 (MEL-AKL-LAX) on 1/23/07 and AVOD WORKED PERFECT

All flights in Business Class

ANstar

I flew QF 2 BKK-SYD on 16/1/07 - System had to be rebooted and programming started 2.5 hours into the flight. The system then had to be rebooted again after a further 2.5 hours.

chrisb

Ignoring the underlying issue, if Qantas know in advance that there's no IFE they MUST tell customers - It allows us to go and raid the newslink, charge devices, buy extra batteries or whatever.

That was one of my complaints the last time I boarded a flight with no IFE - Qantas knew about it in advance because it happened inbound and they loaded extra magazines to entertain the pax, but customers weren't informed before boarding so we could source our own entertainment options.

IFE is a key factor in choice of airline, it's advertised as part of the product so it should be taken seriously.

Chrisb.

rkdahl

I was just on 108 a few weeks back and we had several problems during flight; down for a period of time, intermittent stops, then off near landing. Definitely not a picture perfect experience.

nonce

I just did QF11/ QF150 and IFE was broken in both directions. After 6 hrs on the way over and the flight attendants refusing to answer the call button every single time I pressed it I gave up. On the way home the IFE was working and then would stop again.

og

If QF compensated passengers the way that CX have done when the IFE has been RS, the QF bottom line would be pretty sick. JW Blue from the CX duty free stock is a very nice souvenir from the flight!

Itsalongwaydown

From a reliable source (within Rockwell Collins) QF and RC are very aware and have been all along the the system is a lemon. RC supplied what QF wanted/demanded despite the protests from RC as too the systems failures and lack of integrity.

tuapekastar

Then perhaps Rockwell Collins may have made a serious error in judgment if they *knew* they were delivering a lemon, because its not exactly going to inspire other potential buyers to invest in their product (or perhaps they were just a little too smitten by the immediately available moolah from the sale).

Short term gain, long term pain?

James S

Travelling in BA WT+ from GRU-LHR (11 hours) my row of 4 middle seats had no AV or light. Full flight. I was allowed to sit in the galley to read, and was given a bottle of froggy poo as comp.

This was before AVOD - the new BA AVOD has the light separate to the AV, which is good.

chandi

I have run across this issue a number of time in the past few months. I flew QF107 (SYD-LAX-JFK) last Sunday and AVOD did not work at all on my seat on both legs. For almost 3 hours I had no seat light either. Luckyly I pack my own entertainment (including USB powered reading light) as I travel on many airlines. The lady next to me SYD-LAX got quite irate. The crew seem to be well rehearsed in solving this problem.

In LAX QF did announce they were having problems with AVOD prior to boarding but said it is now fixed. NOT!!

bensyd

Not if they told QF that the system wasn't suitable for what they were using it for. But I heard that QF knew before they took delivery that the system wouldn't work but went ahead so they could at least say they had AVOD. Seems to me that QF went for the bargain basement option and now are reaping what they sowed.

Leumas

Ultimately, the responsibility lies with QF though. Whether Rockwell warned QF the product was a lemon (and good for them to owning up to that if they did) or not, it was QF that signed it off as 'good enough' for customers.

Anyhow, from the problems I read here, it seems sufficient testing (in load) would have picked them up. I don't know the technical details behind it, so I can't really speculate too much.

I've a 100% record of AVOD working for me, but that's from a sample flight of 1. The only thing I noticed was the slow response time the system has. My seatmate had the same problem and he kept pressing the various buttons and I think that just confused the system.

Kiwi Flyer

NZ's newer system, also Rockwell Collins, seems to be much more reliable. In many flights on both QF & NZ I have had IFE problems every time on QF and not yet on NZ. The one technical issue on NZ is slow system response, to the point the FA mentions this in the spiel about the IFE. (The other issue I have with NZ's IFE is they turn it on too late, and switch it off too early, plus have a compulsory welcome video before they turn it off - unlike eg SQ where the welcome video is optional and unlike EK & SQ where the avod is on from before pushback until landing.)