Just to tidy up a few points.....

1) I can assure you, I left Cairns at 1730 last Saturday and the only food in Business Class during the two hour flight was three crackers. A friend redeemed points in Economy and was offered EITHER "sweet" (cookies) OR "savoury" (nuts).

2) It was at check-in that I had the stroller removed, and when I asked for delivery at the arrival gate to be arranged I received a "sorry, can't be done at Brisbane". (Funny that Air NZ seem quite capable of it at Brisbane but Qantas aren't).

3) I then asked if I could have special assistance arranged for the two infants for our arrival. I was told that it was a done deal, yet when I arrived the ground staff knew nothing about it and were totally unhelpful.

A Business Class return from Brisbane to Cairns costs $1618.27. I'm sorry, but for that outlay I expect a "the customer is always right" attitude. In particular, I expect the airline to humour me with things like meals at mealtime, lounge access and an effort to accommodate me with my small children's needs.

It's one thing to strip down Economy (and here on the Gold Coast the deployment of Jetstar means no points or status accrual). But when an airline antagonises premium class passengers it is taking things too far for its own good. Air NZ lasted less than a month on Tasman Express before they reversed the decision to lower the standard in Business Class - they understand that when Business Class customers ask an airline to jump the only sensible reply is "how high?" Qantas don't seem to feel any such need to court Business Class passengers, and the failure to provide domestic lounge access is just commercial nonsense.

Last July Air NZ inadvertently missed a "Delivery at Aircraft" label on my double stroller when I was flying from LAX to BNE via AKL and one of the groundstaff went to the carousel at AKL, picked up the stroller and delivered it to me at the gate within ten minutes - and I only needed it to make the transit easier. That is what I call service.

In contrast, Qantas hides behind self-inflicted regulations and procedures and does nothing to attract or retain my business.

I find the Qantas business model quite fascinating to observe. You would think that modern airlines have to improve their service or become leaner and fitter to prosper.

Qantas shows us that this need not be true. You can

1) Buy the opposition (Impulse Airways),

2) Get your political patrons to cripple the opposition (lobbying the NZ government to block increased Singapore Airlines investment in Air NZ and Ansett),

3) Form a cartel with your main rival to fix prices and kill competition (it worked with British Airways, but it doesn't seem to work with Air NZ).

The beauty of this model is that it wipes out competition and takes out of the equation any need to improve the product or satisfy customers. Qantas got itself 70% of the domestic market simply by ensuring that its lobbying of the NZ government to refuse increased SQ investment took Ansett out of the marketplace. I may not like Qantas' product, but I admire how they do business.