Blackcloud

EK in Economy. Tried that once in a 10 across 777 and never again
EK Business I heard was on par with QF Mainline, but I mostly travel LAN or QF Jetconnect 737 so EK could be better than those 2 options.
Once again wuold only consider after I requalify WP and *G.

anat0l

I think your post doesn't clearly emphasise what you view as the biggest problems with QF more than it exemplifies your problems as a human being.

This has to rank as one of the most gratuitous and inept arguments I have seen on Flyertalk yet.

By the way, have you actually cut up your WP card yet and given up your QFF membership? If not then you are a hypocrite (said in the nicest possible way).


On another note I'm not sure what all this announcement is really all about (sometimes it feels like an announcement for announcement's sake), but I wait with a healthy level of skepticism.

AndDee

Yep I would love to hear that as well

I think a private jet would fit the bill for him, but he probably couldn't afford to pay the bill

nonce

Firstly, I am well under 70 but I won't touch a shared computer, be it a Mac or otherwise. To me they are both the same anyway, as you can boot into Windows or OSX so what difference does it make?

I liked the old mini pizzas and party pies, even the bigger gourmet pies I prefer to what is now on offer. So far it seems to be gruel 3 ways with a lot of rice. The gourmet pizzas are a bit too soggy and gourmet for me. Personal preference I guess?

Lounges. Interesting that I find the Sydney lounge much more busy now than it was when smaller. I personally have never had an issue with the lounge staff and it seems the bigger the lounge, the more relaxed the staff are in bending the rules for access. That's not an enhancement either as far as I am concerned.

As for flying in the US, I am very familair with this thanks. Just got back yesterday actually. A quick tally of stamps in the passport tells me I have been to the US 34 times in the past 10 years, I am familair with UA, AS, AA and US. Nothing like being number 27 on the standby list when ticketed in A class and a 1P on United. Or number 53 on the upgrade list. There is however a bit of a price difference between what one pays for domestic F in the US and what one pays for domestic J on QF. One would therefore expect the QF product to be a little better?

I am not complaining about the enhancements, I am just saying that I haven't noticed them, either in Y or J.

RichardMEL

Erm minor nitpick, but if you were *ticketed* in A class (discounted F on UA) then why would the upgrade list be relevant to anything? More to the point, if you were *ticketed* in A class then surely you'd have had a confirmed seat and wouldn't need to standby, unless you were standing by for an earlier flight. Irregardless of that 1P on UA is equivalent to QF Gold (well, sort of). If you were trying to fly on a hub to hub route, or out of a UA hub, I can understand being right down the pecking order behind the 1K's and GS customers.

RichardMEL

Incidently I do agree with the QF Sydney centric view of the universe. It's been that way for years. They're like the aussie cricket selectors in that regard.....

birder

EK business on the A380 is amazing. I actually prefer it to the Air NZ business product, if I get a window seat. It's like my own cubby, plus an open bar just a few steps away. I've been in 4 EK lounges (Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Dubai), and they were all fantastic - far better than Air NZ's Auckland Intl lounge. Of course, I think Air NZ's Auckland Intl lounge is pretty good, so that's saying a lot.

nonce

2 seperate flights. one in ticketed A class, the second in S class. First flight SFO-SEA delayed by 8 hours due to mechanical, followed by another mechanical, followed by FO running out of hours and a new one needing to be found. Total compensation, 10,000 miles, no meal vouchers or anything actually useful at the time. Second was IAD-SFO in S class.

number_6

I've only flown EK F on A380 and was disappointed with the product (the F suite is garish and not very functional, all style over substance), also found the EK F lounge to be much worse than the non-EK F lounge that I've used at DXB when flying BA (but now realize that it wasn't the usual BA lounge, so an unfair comparison). Interesting how expectations and frame of reference can so greatly affect reviews, I'd rate EK F being not so good while you rave about EK J being superb.

birder

I've had a peek in the A380 suites and they actually didn't look great to me. It seemed a bit claustraphobic! I actually didn't love the Dubai business lounge because it was so huge and busy, but it had great offerings, so I couldn't complain. Most of all, I agree that it's all about expectations. I've never flown first internationally, and usually just fly premium economy or economy. Nevertheless, I did prefer the Emirates A380 business to Air NZ business.

number_6

Bringing this thread back to the original topic (QF improvements to intl service), my impression is that QF J and F are fully competitive on all the A380 routes (and the 744s will be refitted to A380 J standard "soon", so only the A330/767 routes will be left with an inferior premium service. No improvement is really needed beyond what is already announced, though we all gripe about the lounges, food, wine and QFF plan. Where QF suffers is with poor schedule, routing, frequency and as the past few months have shown, lack of dependability with residual capacity when things go wrong. This makes me uneasy to book QF when I really truly need to be there on that flight, that day, that time. The lack of reliability is a big change in QF and will hurt high-end yield a lot.

Blackcloud

Interesting observation. It was this reason why QF NZ domestic failed, and likely DJ as well, most businesses and government workers stopped booking QF due to reliability issues and then poor schedules. Of course it remains with JQ over here, we do not book them for work if there we need to be in a place at a certain time.

Lonely Flyer

We are coming home from Rome in July on EK in J. The leg DUB-SYD is on the A380

Coathanger

In the SYD J Lounge now and am impressed with the small changes that do make a difference.

I really like the island dining concept and definitely approve of the abundance of fresh strawberries to go with the Mo�t & Chandon (which is regularly refilled by the lounge staff). Didn't opt for the plate of the day but there are definitely some solid offerings for dinner (green pork curry with steamed rice).

Overall the lounge looks fresh and the enhancements (particularly the food offering) are both noticeable and welcome.

Sure it's not the FLounge but nice to have an 'enhancement' that is actually an enhancement.

ollieinmelbourne

I agree the Air Sydney (sorry QF) business lounge in SYD has improved. So has the QF club a bit in SYD too. Wonder how long it will last before the penny-pinching starts again. Not sure about other 'enhancements'.

IMHO, they need to have a look at AKL. I was there one morning very recently, staff were glum and there was not a scrap of food left on the buffet. When I spoke to the staff member, I heard her go through the swing doors and complain to her colleague saying that she "was past caring." She later returned and offered me some bread to toast, saying that they get treated really badly, only paid $13NZ an hour and that as QF is a big company, they don't really care about the customers or the staff either.

Funny how airlines and service business are. They treat their staff poorly, but then expect them to be nice to their customers. Of course, they are commercial businesses and must compete, but treat staff and customers badly and provided there is some competition, you wont keep either for long.