What can Qantas do to be a better airline?

Once upon time Qantas was best airline in the world because it was owned by state. Last nail in coffin of Qantas glory was deregulation of aviation in Australia. We will never see Qantas in former glory – it is good enough that it became small, safe and profitable airline. My prediction that eventually Qantas became similar to Air New Zealand – few overseas routes for prestige to London and Los Angeles and rest inside Australia.

We need to become more patriotic as a Nation and support our national carrier and our local products.Qantas is a great airline and the safest in the world . Surely being voted the worlds safest airline makes it the best !! I would put safety befor price every  time     

The good old days? Crikey, I sometimes wonder if we really remember what it was like.

No business class for starters. It was first, then cattle. Nothing in between. Qantas was at the forefront in introducing and advancing both business and PE classes.

No IFE, apart from a crappy movie projected onto big screens that everyone had to watch. The sound was kinda piped through these grey hollow tubes. Remember those?

Try and get a hostie to answer a call button in the good old days. You pretty much needed to be in cardiac arrest to justify pressing the sacred button. And boy did you know it if you had abused the privelege.

We had real cutlery back then, that was good. But the food wasn't a patch on today's offerings. Free Weiss bars and apples at the back of the plane? Choice of four different dishes in economy? Woohoo!

A lounge to wait in before your flight serving some of the best food and wine in town? What's that? There was a government run cafeteria at Sydney airport that I vaguely remember sold curried sausages and tea from an old PS urn.

Currently, the airline is consistently ranked in the world's top ten against fierce competition. Its premium product matches the best. It's domestic arm cannot be beat. It has had a near death experience, but is now flying strongly. It will grow as it rebuilds from a distorted cost base. Everyone just has to let go of the 'good old days'. They were rubbish compared to today's airline. Qantas once was a tangible symbol of Australia that could be found in unfamiliar places of the world. We cling to that memory a little too strongly for the airline's good. The world has changed and Qantas has changed with it.

Thanks for the nostalgia trip, but I'll take today's Qantas over yesteryear's anyday.

Hilarious! That was a great read, and so very true.

Further to the discussion, here are the cities served by Qantas in July 1970 (http://www.pprune.org/pacific-general-aviation-questions/371471-qantas-destinations-routes-1970s-1980s.html);

Acapulco Amsterdam Athens Auckland Bahrain Bali Bangkok Bermuda Brisbane Cairo Calcutta Christchurch Colombo Darwin Djakarta Frankfurt Hong Kong Honolulu Istanbul Johannesburg Kuala Lumpur London Manila Mauritius Melbourne Mexico City Nadi Nassau New Delhi New York Norfolk Island Noumea Papeete Perth Port Moresby Rome SanFrancisco Singapore Sydney Teheran Tokyo Vancouver Vienna Wellington

Some of these were stopovers necessitated by the refuelling needs of 707s and the early versions of the 747s. I remember a Qantas flight to London with family that stopped in Bangkok, Calcutta, Tehran, Athens and Rome. A veritable milk run! Yes, Qantas had a slightly larger and perhaps more exotic network, but it was because the planes were thirsty. As soon as the engines became more efficient and therefore longer range, those intermediate stops were dropped.

Nicely put.  I agree that the QF service we experience today is miles ahead of the good old days (your call button point did make me laugh - I've had so many similar experiences in that regard and have quite a few peers who just refuse to fly QF internationally because of similar memories going way back!).  The shrinking international network is if course disappointing, but inevitable given the changes in the market that others have touched on.  I do think that the Jetstar brand has damaged the QF brand, as has the constant barrage of bad news regarding financial performance.  Here's hoping new improvements like the A330 refurbishments and extra routes is the start of something good (and sustainable!).

Changing management would be a good start. Being a little bit cheaper on prices would be great too.

Virgin Airline hostess on Qantas flights

How do you maintain a 2 to 3 tier cabin crew framework, where wages are low, with high churn rate for the lowest level, while offering tenure and an exponential increase in wages for the highest level crew, who are selected solely on merit, values and alignment with the company's managerial culture? All this without falling foul of industrial relations legislation and the wrath of the unions.

For me I would like to catch the next available flight home on my red e deal fare...

Being plat QF whats the hassle really of getting on the next avail flight

OR

goto the lounge and drink their red and eat there food, send me home earlier save half bottle of red!

Seriously what is with that rule.