Under Alan Joyce, Qantas is being downgraded to "junk"?

The recent political/social media campaign was definitely a ploy to get some action from Canberra. I mean, they weren't exactly playing up their patriotism when they were fighting the unions.. 

I'm also not saying being downgraded isn't a bad thing, just that its not as apocalyptic as some claim. I do think if nothing happens (Qantas sale act is changed, or more restrictions on Virgin, or government support), it is going to die a slow death. 

Unfortunately the inherent operational systems employed by QF have absolutly no empathy with its customer base and hence very high levels of customer dissatisfaction .Until management trash the current QF customer support manual and start over with the passenger in mind its competitors will continue to erode its once highly loyal customer base.CX staff in Hong Kong have just been awarded a pay increase and bonus for this year to be paid in December..... see John Slosar's address on the CX website and maybe this will reinforce why there is such negativity towards the Current QF CEO and management. QANTAS needs a total corporate re -engineering.It would appear none of the past initiatives implemented by AJ have worked .

I'm not saying what you're saying is necessarily wrong, but I think some of these comments I've read in the media are somewhat naive and is equivalent to someone comparing Hyundai with Ford, and say, Ford management must have been incompetent, and Hyundai must have been brilliant, since Hyundai is growing, profitable, etc, while Ford just keeps declaring bankruptcy. In reality this is driven by political and economic factors largely outside the companies' control.

Some countries have a lower cost workforce, and some countries are less unionised. It doesn't explain all of Qantas' troubles, but it does explain some. The customer service issues are just an effect of this problem, its a lot easy to invest in good customer service when you're profitable. Qantas having great customer service wouldn't magically make it profitable.