What I would like from the new Qantas CEO

Hi Everyone,

Having been a Qantas P/G FF customer for 13 years these are the major improvements that are on my wish list for the new Qantas CEO.

Firstly, please fix long term bugs and errors in the booking and reservation management system that people have been asking for for years. For example where there are three connecting flights (operated by Qantas) and the second flight is cancelled, please don't change that flight so that it leaves before the first one arrives ( this happened again to me last week on route to Heathrow.)

Secondly. The call centre is trully dreadful. I loved the old call centre where I could actually get things fixed quickly and the staff were experienced and very knowledgeable. Today I was told by a Call Centre staff member that the reason I didn’t get double bonus points on QF9 was because it was operated by another franchise and not by Qantas!

What's on your wish list?

C.

Hi all,

Thanks @Bait for posting this. This will probs be a popular thread.

For me it’s two things, onboard soft product and booking issues.

With the soft product I just really want them to be smart and do whatever they were doing pre-COVID. I went on a domestic flight on Good Friday in Economy and they served curry, during Easter. Like what are the menu designers thinking. Their not serving their customers, only shareholders (a story for a another day 😉). Also the food and staff (that were experienced and throughly trained in 2019) post-Covid needs to be better and that was sorta thrown out the window during COVID but was never restarted like QR, Turkish ect.

With the booking issues, please make it possible to make complicated bookings (when I see complicated I mean 4 flights with two airlines) and use the multi-city function without showing an error code. This makes us either use travel agents which can cost lots or calling and we all know how that experience goes

Cheers,

QFflyer_10

I'd like to see a vast improvement in the food offering on board. The 'meal' service in Qantas economy, both domestic and international, is nothing short of appalling. I'm talking about the food quantity and presentation. Those tiny little trays with a piece of bread balancing on top look ridiculous. Go back and look at what was offered 20 + years ago and go back to that, please. Bring call centre operations back on shore and please make it easier to modify flights online or via the mobile app. No one wants to call the dreaded call centre and be on hold for four hours, or have the call drop out after waiting forever.

Like most of us I could list a dozen things Qantas should be doing but in the end it all comes down to two words: customer service. Putting the customer first. Ditching the excuses. Service as an end in itself, in every aspect of operations.

Open the Qantas lounges earlier and keep them open, tired of sitting outside closed lounges before first flight in the mornings and other times being told I have to leave and sit out in the terminal as the lounge is closing for an hour or so in between flights, it’s just petty.

I absolutely agree. It does seem like the Hobart Qantas Club has recently changed from the "open one hour prior to each Qantas flight", to now being open all day until the last Qantas flight, which is a good thing.

This is my five point wish list, together with some questions that I would be asking management if I was Vanessa Hudson.

(1) A customer-centric management approach.

Why does Qantas now feels like American Airlines? Why are schedules now a loose guide? Who made the decision that it's fine to break your word to customers by cancelling flights or changing aircraft if the flight is at risk of becoming unprofitable? Why are flight crews crammed full of new hires and under-appreciated veterans who are either incapable of disinclined to provide the customer service Qantas used to be known for? Why do I now only receive vegan meal options? Why do customers now feel like an inconvenience or afterthought at almost every customer service touch point?

(2) Improvements to lounge network and premium status amenities.

Why is the most significant domestic Business Lounge in your network (Sydney Domestic) also the worst? Why are trivial regional lounges like Hobart and Adelaide getting big capex programs when the one that is probably trafficked by the most pax revenue is in appalling condition and frequently without seats, despite promised upgrades? Why are you collapsing most of your international first lounges into overcrowded single tier Qantas Clubs? Why would you expect me to continue to spend $10-30K on an international ticket when I have to elbow 75 years olds with Qantas Club memberships out of the way in order to claim scraps out of a bain-marie everywhere other than the Sydney, Singapore and LA? Why is literally every premium security and boarding line never policed at all even though they are conspicuously full at all times with people brandishing red e-Boarding passes? Where are the surprise and delight activities for high status flyers that used to occur?

(3) Substantial investment in computer systems.

Why is the booking and ticketing system incapable of coping with minor changes, cancellations or wrinkles? Why are you cutting back on in-person customer service and call centres when your systems can't actually handle customers and their routine needs. Why does it take 8 weeks to get DSCs when they used to be immediate? Why does nobody respond to customer service issues once they are logged for further action?

(4) Substantial fleet investment.

Why are all the planes I fly on comically old? Why do many still lack Wifi (or functioning Wifi) a decade after it became commonplace and reliable internationally? Why is there a cabin maintenance or IFE issue on every second flight I take? Is this indicative of broader problems with your engineering/maintenance program? When you buy new planes why are you fitting them with outdated early 2000s products like the Thompson Aero Vantage seat from 2009? Who thought this was a commercially sensible idea in circumstances where your major international competitors like EK and SQ now have substantially better hard product (and frankly much better soft product) than you on most international routes aside from Aus East Coast to US West Coast routes?

(5) A recognition that Qantas' place in an oligopolistic market depends on it renewing its social licence.

When you take a chunk of taxpayer coin and return a massive profit while gouging customers relentlessly for travel that is often non-discretionary you irritate people immensely. When you inconvenience businesses and individuals through persistent unreliability you damage relationships and trust. Charging more and offering less (the Qantas model for the last 5 years, at least) might work for a while. People might suck it up given the reach and strength of your loyalty program, particularly when your sole domestic competitor is rebuilding. But most consumers reach a point where the goodwill reserve they have for a service provider is spent and they look elsewhere. They also look to their governments to provide better regulation. Qantas' goodwill store is verging on empty (at least for this consumer, and likely for many who responded to the trusted brands survey).

Ditch EK and align with QR instead.

100% - service before safety before schedule

(If a flight get canned no worries it happens, just provide some service would be nice)

Greg959's 2nd point: Fix the premium boarding chaos. Just spend a day at VA terminal, they got this down pat.

I would like to see substantial upgrades to QantasLink to reflect the price they charge.

I just flew Bonza from Sunshine Coast to Rockhampton and it was superior in pretty much every way - clean, new jets, power points in seats, good selection of food and great selection of beer, more legroom than the Dash 8, quieter, friendlier service... And it cost less than a third of Qantas (even factoring in bags, extra legroom seat selection, meals, drinks, transport from Brisbane etc.)

Whether Bonza makes money on that or not, I don’t know, but if both airlines flew from BNE to ROK, I’d fly Bonza every time just on quality of product alone - even if they cost the same as Qantas. Qantas’ or Qantaslink’s product should be better than the low cost airline at least!

How about making sure that if you’re going to fly old planes, make sure they’re in good nick. I’m currently on a near 20 year old 737 as we speak. The safety video didn’t work properly. The inflight television program was on for a little bit but now non existent. The seat pocket in front of me is broken and completely taped up so it can’t be used or tear any further. And one of the two toilets at the back of the main cabin is broken and shut off from use. The sooner these A321s arrive, the better.

What's wrong with 75 year olds? I take offence. I am a fit and well dressed well read polite 75 year old unlike the entitled poster here!

90% benchmark on all advised privileges of tier status including:

Priority domestic security screening queue in all major capital airport peak hours (Sorry excluding DRW ADL who doesn't have a dedicated international terminal, particularly when your international gate involves another screening and immigration process, and hence a far larger number of well wishers , by proportion, getting into the general (domestic) secure area to send international pax off)

Priority board (and booting out pax from the queue who are not entered to it)

Priority luggage (actually first coming out of carousel, together with cabin crew's…. They -used to- do it for them particularly for international flights, where one trailer is dedicated to prior/cabin crew checked in luggage), nothing is worse than getting out of the plane, walk 300m -or feels like it after a long flight- go through immigration and then find that you are no better off than the last person off the plane, while the cabin crews have got out of the airport 15 mins prior.

Priority access to local call centres (we are sick of waiting on the phone to talk to people who are poorly trained, know no more than what an inexperienced customer can do for themselves online, and lying about what they are supposed to be able to do…. Or maybe they are not lying, just really as hopeless and mediocre as the service they provide)

It's not a lot, just what we expect on the T&C you advertised, but only enacted to get out of your obligations but not enforced to what you are supposed to do as part of the services

This is all great and will be nice to have, but first get the planes running on time, stop withholding capacity to force prices up, provide customer service generally (then specifically as above) and stop the race to the bottom.