Tag Archives for qantas.
Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is back with a memoir and media tour offering apologies for flight credits, ghost flights, illegal outsourcing, passenger-blaming, and his A$17 million stock sale. But the mea culpas mostly read like justifications: Qantas survived, others were worse, and Joyce still wants credit for “getting more things right than wrong.”
Rove Miles now transfers 1:1 to Qantas Frequent Flyer, with a 50% launch bonus through August 14 and live Qantas award searches on Rove’s website. Qantas members receive access to additional seats unavailable through American, Alaska or British Airways, plus unique partners including El Al and Aircalin.
A passenger’s power bank exploded inside the Qantas International Lounge at Melbourne Airport, spraying “battery acid everywhere” and setting his clothes on fire. Staff and another traveler pulled him into a shower to smother the flames as 150 people were evacuated from the smoke-filled lounge. The man was treated for burns and later released from hospital.
The Qantas lounge is the best business class lounge option in London Heathrow’s Terminal 3 for oneworld. The Cathay business class lounge is good! But during the hours where Qantas is doing sit down dining it’s a cut above. And it’s certainly better than the British Airways and American Airlines lounges.
I recently flew American Airlines first class between Los Angeles and Sydney with my family. We used the Qantas first class lounges in both cities. I’ve been to both many times, and reviewed them both, so I’ll write about them here together. That makes for a nice opportunity to compare.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce had to symbolically take the fall for the tragic decline in reputation and treatment of customers during and coming out of the pandemic. He was retiring anyway so he resigned two months early. This had basically no effect on him or on the airline, but was played as though he was paying a price, and that this was a moment to turn the airline around.
Now the board has ‘cut his pay’ and has ‘done so retroactively’. But it’s just a smokescreen to continue the government protection racket that dragged down the Qantas experience in the first place.
American Airlines upgrades on Qantas are now live. It’s managed by PlusGrade, the company that sells ‘bidding for upgrade’ programs to airlines. And it’s a “cash or miles” upgrade option. Basically you have the ability to upgrade on Qantas, as a Qantas member might, but pay using AAdvantage miles. And this is the oneworld upgrade program.
I won’t tell you exactly what the baggage handler wrote on the luggage, but it’s the same as a tourism slogan for Australia’s Northern Territory. You can see for yourself in the photos.
Flight attendants on a December 20 QantasLink flight from Melbourne to Hobart, Tasmania wore Palestinian flag pins. One (non-Jewish) passenger reported feeling “incredibly uncomfortable.”
A crewmember who was photographed with the pin inflight, and whose photo has gone viral, has vowed to “fight against” this passenger.
Sometimes there’s no avoiding it, and you need to put more than one airline in the same reservation. That’s supposed to be the point of airline alliances, and joint ventures are supposed to work even better, though in practice they rarely do.
And sometimes it’s cheaper to book a codeshare or partner itinerary. Just know that this savings isn’t ‘free’ but rather comes at a customer service cost if there’s a schedule change or if your plans change.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
