DeadVim

I am dirty, yes.

Pollyana

Go onto the Qantas site and have a look at your booking and see which fare type it is - they have Sale, Red-edeal, Supersaver and a couple of others, which are all economy. Most of them (except possibly "Sale") can be cancelled but you may only get credit, not a refund. It depends which actual fare type you booked.

Also on the Qantas homepage at present there is an orange banner which links to info on refunds/changes as a result of the current situation - at present they are only sorting out tickets 24 hours ahead. No way will they give you a refund now for a flight in March UNLESS your original ticket class allows it. Economy isn't enough for anyone to tell you what class it is.

quoll

Had booked DH a seat with Qantas yesterday to fly next Friday so keeping that it will be settled by then. If it isnt then there will be no Qantas so it will all be academic anyway. There is only so long that the company can survive without an income and I shouldnt think it would be that long really.

Mind you if DH isnt at Heathrow on Saturday I am going to be mighty p*ssed off!

Usually I have no problems with Qantas at all. I have yet to have a bad flight with them and whilst they continue to be good value for me and mine (they were fabulous when I had to change a ticket due to personal issues a couple of weeks ago!) I will continue to patronise them if I have to go back to Australia at all.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Not even close.

That CEO has wrecked QANTAS reputation globally. How many people flying QANTAS around the world were even aware that there were industrial problems, problems that, in my opinion, are of his own making? How do they feel about QANTAS now, possibly having been stranded, by the actions of a ****wit of a CEO, out to make a 'point'?

If you want to make major changes, then you take the workforce with you. He has spectacularly failed to do that.

IvanM

Failed to take only three of ten Unions.

Ticket sales were already falling badly. I suspect they might freeze. Hopefully there will be the mother of all sales when the dust settles.

We will see what FWA can do and if they will force the unions back to work.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Some pretty fundamental parts of the company covered by those union groups, most notably the pilots. It's 45 years since QANTAS pilots took any action and even now, they haven't done much in the way of strike action. Certainly not enough to have the door slammed in their faces.

Little man syndrome from Joyce.

IvanM

International pilots.

IvanM

Fake tan?

Wol

Making announcements to passengers and wearing red ties as a gesture isn't exactly professional.

sonlymewalter

It's not the union's fault and it's not Joyce's fault.It's both of them. They are both egotistical arseholes. Where is the customer in all this. The unions and Joyce have forgotton who they really work for

sonlymewalter

And the Gillard government have failed abysmally for allowing these clowns to do this to it's customers

Smart? Mature? Good business acumen?

Not arf

DeadVim

Alex Ferguson Whisky Tan.

GarryP

If you stop and think about this, why don't you fly Qantas?

Personally it's for two reasons. The price is too high, compared to Singapore/Emirates/etc. and the quality of the service is poor. You might get forced into using Qantas for particular domestic flights, but it's something you try to avoid.

Now it appears that a substantial part of the cost problem is down to poor management. They have a poor and wide fleet of different types of aircraft, which are old and inefficient. They have bet on the Dreamliner being delivered to replace many of their fleet, but its massively late. So yes, there is scope for reducing costs, but the main problem seems to be the poor management rather than salaries.

As for the quality issue. If you are a 'premium' brand, then you need to be focused on customer service. Here they have the endemic Australian problem - they really don't get customer focus. The last 1st tier airline with seatback video, surly hosties - they deliver a Ryanair service without the low prices.

Finally, I was chatting last night with a friend in SE Asian aviation. He made the good point that SE Asian countries don't want an Asianified Qantas at their facilities. Let's face it, starting up a airline isn't that complicated. You lease some aircraft, hire some pilots, subcontract much of the support and put some focus on attractive hosties and a logo. All it needs is the investment capital and you're away. But its also a 'national pride' issue. Why would a country want Qantas setting up shop when they could have their own domestic business, and taxes?

The prescription, therefore, is clear.

1. Get rid of Joyce and the board. They've proved they aren't competent in their roles, and are in fact a liability.
2. Take onboard a German model for industrial relations - all sides working together towards a common goal.
3. Look at innovatively revolutionising their service. Air travel has become a chore, a pain, or a nightmare. Therefore they have scope to deliver a high quality service that people will want. Think airline for the iPhone generation with the same focus on ease of use. At the same time they have the scope to change their business model to drive out predominately management overhead.
4. Although they can cut costs and thus prices (and need to), they need to compete where the competition aren't. The Joyce model of trying to push the airline downmarket is not viable.
5. DON'T **** up the Australian market, because without that, they are nothing.

koalakim

Best point made so far!

Having worked in a heavily unionised print company the union at times was a pain in the rear end, our rep had a bust up with his manager and pulled us all out for the afternoon! I even had to join the union before I even got an interview with the company.....whilst I can see that there should be someone to represent the workers sometimes the unions just take it too far, it's nothing more than blackmail. However, the timing does unfortunately tie in with Mr Joyce's pay ...but then the voters voted for it so maybe the shareholders are at fault?

Maybe the CEO's do get paid a lot (would lurve a $5mil salary..just think of all those shoes I could buy ) but they get paid a lot because at the end of the day they are responsible for that company, if an A380 falls out of the sky the CEO takes the rap, just think of the situation that chap at BP was in after the oil spill. However, some CEO's are worth their money and others aren't, but maybe the Aussies don't like it because he is coming down harder on the unions - ah takes me back to '80s UK. Interestingly reading some of the comments on The Age, I wonder if they would have been made if Joyce was an Aussie, seems there is a lot of bashing going on because he is Irish. It's amazing what I hear in Aus about the unions and all their working demands, can't work in the rain, can't do this, that...no wonder we pay so much for everything in this country as companies must bear a huge cost, it's a wonder anything ever gets done or built. They should try being a self-employed person ..yeah, us self-employed people need a union!!!!!!

I've only flown QF a few times but they aren't a patch on other airlines as far as service goes which is a shame because you would expect more from an Aussie airline.

It's a bold move but it seems that QF are strangled by the unions more than Virgin so if QF wants to move forward maybe they should shut it down and start again with new terms and a new attitude. At the end of the day the CUSTOMER wants CHEAP fares and that's all they are interested in, the unions and management have to work something out....good luck to them, they will need it.

p.s. just seen GarryP's comments...good points!

IvanM

I prefer the Mozilo
http://www.paleisthenewtan.com/2010/...eo-angelo.html