Is Executive Traveler becoming a Qantas mouthpiece?

Long time reader

I feel this website is going backwards and just pumping out Qantas PR statements and not really reporting any useful news or information.

Ive found myself using this website less and less.

Sad i use to read it regularly.

Just my thoughts im sure some will agree and many will disagree.

Probably got to do with whats available to report on at the time. QF having gone through quite some bad PR is pumping out a lot of "good news" stories. Naturally, it will get picked up and reported on. The same with Virgin /Rex/ Bonza and any other carrier operating around Aus, if they had more news i'm sure they would report on it.

I'm no Qantas fanboy (exactly two of my last 60 or so flights have been on Qantas) and, like everyone, I'm amazed by what I've been reading all year about Qantas' appalling -- and declining -- customer service standards. But ET has never been, and was never intended to be, a paragon of hard-hitting investigative journalism. It's a small website with (I guess) only 1-2 FTE journalists which doesn't necessarily have the resources to look under the bonnet of every dodgy press release that comes its way.

I get that. And that's fine with me. When I want hard-nosed commentary, I'll look elsewhere.

Oh it's that time of year again to accuse this site of being a QF mouthpiece... the year is flying by!! It'll be Virgin's turn before we know it!

I've also recently been thinking the same thing about pro-Qantas articles on this website. It's certainly become noticeable of late. Another thing that 's also standing out are the stories that this site posts on its facebook page, they're often months old at the time of posting.

After most Qantas related articles there is no provision for comment I've noticed. When you do comment and state facts they are increasingly censored and not published. Not really the ET we've all come to respect.

Thanks for making such a juvenile remark about Alan Joyce being Irish, that immediately tells everybody you're an ignorant idiot whose opinions mean nothing.

Ah, the silly season is upon us once again and it’s time for the annual “Executive Traveller is [insert ambit unfounded claim here]” :)

We’ve addressed similar claims in similar past threads, but just to recap:

• Executive Traveller is not ‘sponsored’ by any airline. We’ve had times when people claim we are pro-Qantas, then somebody comes along and says we are pro-Virgin. Simply put, we are not pro- or anti- any airline: we are independent. But there’ll always be people who choose to believe otherwise (see also ‘flat earthers’).

• Reader comments: also addressed in the past. Comments are often held for moderation and we don’t publish comments considered off-topic, comments which add no value or ‘comments’ which are just a pointless rabid rant (keep those for your own social media channels).

• Qantas’ operational issues: every airline has been having operational issues. Executive Traveller deliberately does’t report on operational issues. Those are being extensively covered in mainstream media you already consume every day: newspapers, TV, radio and online. We have no 'value' to add to that reporting, and the time & resources spent in endlessly covering those same stories would detract from stories that are unique to Executive Traveller and better suited to our readers.

• Mix of stories: if an airline is more active in areas relevant to Executive Traveller and its target audience then you’ll logically see more stories on that. And with Qantas holding a 70% market share and having an extensive domestic and international network, you’d logically expect our content to reflect that. We’ve had periods when Qantas is more active than Virgin and the story mix reflects that, then Virgin revs up and you’ll see more Virgin stories.

• Republishing selected stories: we’ve got plenty of great content that’s relatively timeless and will be appealing to new readers, so why would we not share it again? You don’t have to read it, and it doesn’t detract in any way from the new content we produce.

David

I am not for one moment suggesting that 'Et' is pro Qantas but I have thought that over the past several years it has become much less international in coverage and content. It used to be an interesting read covering many international airline stories and airlines with relevance to traveling Australians and those that have interests in AU but latterly it seems to have become much less so and to be frank rather parochial with much less mention of US and Asian airlines that serve Australia and NZ and thus interesting to those that travel to and in Australia. I write as someone that lived in AU for 18 years have a business there and in NZ but now live for many years in Hong Kong. I understand that my viewpoint perhaps differs from most of the readership here.

Fully agree: given Qantas’s premium focus then it is logical that many of the stories will reflect that. Personally I would like more economy cabin stories as many if not most of the folk there are also business travellers but I do get your focus: coming from a platinum flier who flies economy as that is the bosses rules. However There are not that many of us in economy: I know as we are the ones who get a personal welcome.

He is actually Australian, with an Irish accent which far to many probably don’t understand or choose not to.