What’s next for Qantas in the post-Alan Joyce era?

If Hudson could implement fast and free wifi would be great for passengers and would have good PR impact, not sure if their solution would be Starlink or an existing satellite: Viasat 3 APAC doesn't appear to have a launch date, a new launch provider has not been found yet.  If they can find an existing internet solution that could be a reasonably quick rollout (circa 3 days per AC).  

Upgrade Sydney / Melbourne J intl lounges asap

Run several more points only flights

Launch PER-JNB and PER-CDG

*Wave a truly magic wand and get permission from Tokyo for SYD-HND a380 flights,  find a 787 for BNE-LAX and do what they can to secure earlier delivery of some of the newly ordered 787s.  

Can we put 'revisit f&b' as number one on Hudson's list? It's time for Neil Perry to join Alan Joyce in retiring from Qantas. It's long overdue anyway for Qantas to even look around at alternatives in this vital area. Perry's food is just same-same while also being lame, lacking real inspiration and a modern approach. Other airlines don't need one big name chef, yet they manage to do meals which are really enjoyable, have real variety. Hudson really should bring on somebody new, or a team of chefs, to totally "re-imagine" in-flight and lounge dining.

Speaking of F&B, Qantas needs to stop being such a nanny when it comes to cocktails in its lounges. Give the bartenders back a proper selection of spirits and ingredients and let them make any classic cocktail a passenger wants. It blows my mind that none of the first class lounges or international business class lounges can make an Espresso Martini!

- Bring back a normal economy meal service, with a proper starter and dessert in international and to a lesser extent, domestic.

- Find a better aircraft than a A330 on the BNE-LAX run.

- Let FF members actually use their points when they want to.

- Expand the Hobart call centre so everyone that calls Qantas has a better experience.

- Speed up the Qantas Club and Business Lounge renovation process.

- Get WIFI on international services ASAP. To not offer this in 2023 is a joke.

How about some new international aircraft out of Brisbane to replace tired old clapped out A330's

and wi-fi on Alliance E190 used by QF and charged at QF prices

The only thing they could do to win me back at this stage is overhaul QantasLink.

Old, slower aircraft in dire need of refurbishing with no wifi or entertainment and poor quality, unfilling food. All for triple the price or more than routes on the golden triangle. That’s true for even large regional centres. If Qantas wants to charge such a premium they need to justify it in some way.

The Qantas pile on is of a sort with others recently.  Danger of throwing baby out with bath water stuff. The airline can improve but so can most.  I’ve had no issues with flying either Qantas or Jetstar since Covid lifted. No cancelled flights, luggage arrived, staff are friendly and professional.  I can get from Sydney to Brisbane or Melbourne in an hour or so and I get a free beer for my troubles.  It costs about the same if I drove and is far less hassle.  It’s all a win as far as I can see. 

I like the live sport Air NZ is now offering. Better get that going.  Otherwise just get me and my bag to where I’m going safely and comfortably and I’m happy.  Everything else is a bonus. 

Sit down with Perth Airport, the WA government and relevant members of the federal government to put an end to the QF-PER war, get more border force staff at the T3 international area and get more international flights from Perth, starting with Joburg and Paris.

I just flew QF145 on Saturday in J. The food offering was a tired beef salad or pea soup. Really. And there was no offer to top up the wine. The return was a ravioli which was okay. The service on the QF148 was good in J. The J and first lounges in Auckland have these signs saying a new lounge is coming. I asked when will that be, and the lady replied hopefully by the end of 2024. The last flight I did on the QF2 in F, the food out of LHR was awful. But they just seem to have cut back on everything to the point that’s it’s mean. I did note as I was on a double status credits run that I got them with 2 hours of landing. On the flip side the staff in SYD DOM last night were just excellent with my daughter who had a medical episode. You could not fault them. 

Where to start from a flyer viewpoint?  

Fix the call centres so they can be responsive to customers on first contact with ticketing issues.

F&B , yes. Had my first ever QF F trip to LAX in June and F&B ranged from ok to wtf. The breakfast eggs and bacon was the worst in millions of flight miles across all classes.  The caviar tartlet says it all about pretending to be premium whilst actually being cheap.

Attitude to pax, yes.  Some crews are too complacent.  First (world) again but bringing the wrong wine three times running in F just says I'm not focused on the task, as does not offering a F pax breakfast..  (Crews vary of course) 

Then there is the suggestion that the new A321XLRs will be fitted with recliners in business so it's a Jetstar fit-out at a premium price. 

I think it is fair to say that Joyce was pushed more then he walked. Regardless, I'd like them to:

* focus on customers and not political issues

* remember that happy staff give better service (I think that is going to take a while)

* find Melbourne and the rest of Australia - and stop being Sydney's airline.

Hopefully some massive improvements to service and quality of food. I just returned from London on QF 1/2 for the leg Asia/LHR, with Aus/Asia flown on SIA in business. The two airlines are so far apart on quality of product as well as polished service, it should be a massive concern for the incoming CEO of Qantas.

No wonder they don’t want more Qatar flights.

Hudson has a lot of work ahead of her, to bring back the airline to a premium airline. Joyce may have been good with revenue and profit, but it’s come at a huge cost to customer service, overall flight experience and customer loyalty. 70% of my international is now with other international carriers, and I only maintain FF Platinum, rather than FF Platinum One status, to the decline in Qantas overall.

Things I would like to see her focus on:

         Better inflight meals. Neil’s food isn’t great, and his so-called salad is a joke. If that’s the best he and Qantas can do, he should leave as well.

        Lounge upgrades for Sydney Business Domestic, International and Melbourne International. These are well overdue, especially for Sydney being the busiest airport in Australia.

         Upgrading of the A330 fleet. These are now very tired, and it will be a longtime before we see any replacements.

         Allowing FF members to use points more easily for flight rewards.

         Wi-Fi upgrades for the entire fleet

         A more consistent service from the flight crews.

Sparsky doesn't QF own 30% of Alliance and still trying for 100% 

Get rid of overseas call centres, especially Frequent Flyer!They're nice enough people but incapable of thinking outside the square.

I recently spent thirty minutes of my life I'll never get back trying to change my wife's Frequent Flyer profile.

I gave up in the end and changed it on Qantas.com in three minutes.

They need to appreciate customer loyalty rather than bottom line. I, along with others, lost my Chairman's Lounge membership after 12 years because "'The criteria for membership has changed". Hopeless!

I always travel First or Business Class and haven't set foot on a Qantas aircraft for four over four years.

Bring back special meal availability for halal, kosher, vegan, etc on domestic flights, rather than have passengers sitting there unable to eat or forced to bring their own food like on Jetstar and Virgin.

I have been Platinum for 22 consecutive years, but Qantas is wearing thin. They actually hold us captive, because we all done want to loose our status by changing.

I agree with all of the above, especially regarding the food and bev. Time to get rid of Neil Perry and his crap food.  Have recently returned from LA in first and the food was way below average, and wine list about what I would see at a Pub, in fact ran out of the red I was drinking, only loaded one bottle. The Qatar flight in business was light years ahead on the Syd-Doha flight earlier, especially the catering.

When will Adelaide get some Qantas Int flights. As Cathay have not returned to Adelaide, perfect opportunity to commence flights to HK. But I forgot, this would mean one less plane for Sydney.

Regional is also a joke. I was in Whyalla, flight cancelled at 5pm, put me on a flight 24 hours later. Hired a car and drove home to Adelaide, no compensation.

I could write an epistle on Qantas's shortcomings, but I wish the new CEO all the best, so let's see what she can do. 

They have a substantial list to bring them up to a competitive airline, F&B, lounges, WIFI, fleet (BC on small range aircraft), frequent flyer usage avails and at reasonable rates, call centres, website updates etc

I would like them to improve all onboard entertainment - This is very disappointing.

Amend their European flight planning either through Singapore or Perth for all 5 capital cities (plus Cairns, Darwin, and Canberra etc) to then offer connecting legs to London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt etc It would put stress on the lounges but offer great choice from more Aus cities

Make San Fran the new NA West Coast hub (can LA and Dallas - I get this may hurt connections but it wont be too bad)

One thing that is overlooked but does see a major drop in business once it is achieved and then flyers go onward to gain lifetime status on other programs like Star Alliance is the LTP threshold. Qantas has a major opportunity to retain customers on P level for years with a more achievable goal like its British Airways and AA counterparts but it does not. Instead the extremely ridiculous number set of 75000 status credits to attain LTP is very unattainable for most. I would love if Hudson did a review and reduced the extremely high threshold to something more like BA etc around the 30000 mark. Most flyers in their lifetime struggle to achieve even 14k for LTG, so most still wont reach 30K but it is achievable compared to the current mark. Most give up after LTG, so here is a good opportunity for Qantas to retain business with higher tier flying customers. 

Here's a suggestion for Vanessa Hudson:

As a gesture of goodwill, extend EVERYONE'S Frequent Flyer status by 12 months.

Given that business (class) travellers make up roughly 12-15% of airline passengers, but account for as much as 75% of profits. It's long overdue that Qantas start returning some of these profits back to the premium passengers (and not shareholders) that are helping prop up their bottom line.

Whilst we're creating wish-lists (feedback):
- Lose the 737-800's on the long SYD/MEL/BRI > PER sector & save them for shorter sectors
- Sort out the F&B offerings (bring back premium - wines, spirits & meals for Business Class)
- Fast-track the lounge upgrades
- It's 2023 & theres no excuse for not having wifi on sectors outside AUS
- Do better by your staff - both ground & flight crew

Make lifetime platinum actually attainable.  

Just stop being petty, you are supposed to be a full service airline, stop closing your regional lounges and kick people out because it’s 2 hours until next departure, offer the same consideration to your customers when things don’t go to plan that you expect from them, bring back staffed service kiosks at airports and stop being Jetstar with a kangaroo on the tail. 

o  A profitable (after tax etc) airline business that can invest into the future for both customers and staff, and if really necessary, investors as well

o  On-going focus on safety: not like the recent Q400 issue with leaking hydraulic fluid and still departed to then have an emergency landing, seriously, have a good look at yourselves, this was just dumb

o  Generally domestic is a 'lift and shift' business, but if I'm paying more than the alternatives I would like a little 'sweetener' on the way through as well, your choice, but your future Qantas

o  Fix SYD dom bus lounge, it's a very ordinary space, so is the food etc etc etc, just gut it and start again, happy to wait outside for a few months while this happens (maybe)

o  Like others 75k points for LTP is just not achievable in a world where most business travel is being cut and also at the back of the plane.  I'm trying, but it will not happen.  As others have said 30k points may be a better target, but I'm sure the actuaries will sort this one out...

o and can we get some jets on regional (aka country) routes, just for the fun of it...:)

Can we get something else other than DIY sandwhiches at the lounges?

Definitely bring more service to BNE. Don't forget your root, don't forget what Q stands for in Qantas. 

Bring back 787 (hopefully back to double daily) BNE-LAX.

Bring back BNE-SFO and BNE-ORD. Even UA can see the need for BNE to US by offering daily LAX and SFO, why can't QF see it remains a mystery to me.

Totally agree with Flybetter in regards to LTP. 75,000SC is a totally ridiculous aim and 30,000 is achievable.  I have been continuous Plat for 22 years and have amassed 29,452SC. A lot of flying for little reward for being patriotic.

I have been told that the high figure is because Qantas do not want to over crowd lounges. with older people who upon reaching LP, only travel once or twice a year when they retire.

Now Joyce is gone, hopefully the new regime will look after the people who make the profit for Qantas.

I'm not necessarily looking for more perks or stuff; what I'm after is something simpler.  I'd like Qantas to lose the smug arrogance it has projected throughout the Joyce and Dixon eras.  

It needs to channel its Australian roots and project a business always doing its best for customers, staff and shareholders.  It needs to embrace competition and, rather than seeking to get protected from competition, it needs to proudly adopt a can-do approach and say "We admit to never always being perfect but we will always seek to be better than our competition and acknowledge when we fall short." 

Hudson would do well to fly Economy class for the first 2 years in office (and NOT use the Chairmans lounge), so she can see for herself what the regular flyers have to deal with.  

But can she walk past those Business class seats and rub shoulders with the working class in the Business and regular lounges?  

Being CFO worries me in case she’s just a bean counter. 

I think QF should focus on customer experience.  Targeting the experience before and after a flight (ie the 11 months before and the +14 days after)

It would be nice if the occasional complimentary upgrade came back, rather than always having to use points which you earn less of than 5 years ago and cost more to use. Along with other customer loyalty niceties 

The worse economy International food offering of any airline.

Actually make business class redemption seats available to Europe. Even 12 months out there’s none anymore. Never any on Qantas metal, barely any on Emirates unless you go through Asia and very few other options. Food still pretty ordinary in business class (QF70) despite an “enhancement” this year. Doesn’t really compare to Qatar business catering. Flew domestic economy the other day and lunch was a couple of carrot sticks and dip.  New A321XLR aircraft must have a flat bed in business if they’re going to be (ultimately) used on long flights to Asia otherwise QF won’t be in the same race as SQ/CX/MH/TG sending widebodies to AU.

- Wifi on international flights is a must.  I would love to fly QF direct from LHR to PER but cannot purely for the lack of wifi.  As a small business owner I cannot be disconnected for 17/18 hours.  I don't care about streaming Netflix or checking social media but I need a service where I can at least check and respond to emails at points during the flight.

- The food.  In EVERY class.  Honestly is just so bad.  In business it is boring, sparse and neither pleasing to the eye or the palette.  The ridiculous Supper Service on long haul flights where there is no starter, some side 'salad' of a few green leaves.  Change it.  Introduce a one hit service on a tray with a starter, main and dessert all served at once and get rid of the slow clunky lay a table service on night flights.  

In economy if you want to be cheap and not pay the caterer to make up trays for your catering at least also offer a starter.  I cannot think of any other full service carrier that considers a 'meal' on a long haul flight to be one hot foil of food and a bread roll.  Jeez, even BA does better!

Where to start – the number one priority should be on bringing back their premium customer service once offered.

·         Upgrade their food and beverage offerings across all classes (inflight and in lounges) – current offerings are small and certainly paired back and often under the guise of being “environmentally friendly” especially for economy class.

·         International economy should bring back the full meal service like the old days - on a tray that includes appetiser, desert cake or fresh cut fruit, main meal, cheese/crackers and bread roll followed by Magnum ice creams that they used to hand out.

·         Ice is no longer offered with beverages, and you now have to ask for a plastic cup (they assume passengers happy to drink from the can)

·         Printed Menus for economy class long haul

·         If they really want to go all out – offer hot towel service across all classes for long haul flights before departure and prior to landing (Singapore used to offer that pre-covid – so Qantas could be proactive and offer what SQ used too do)

·         Bring back amenity kits in economy class long haul

·         Bring back the Q entertainment magazine (I loved flipping through seeing what I wanted to watch rather having to scroll through the entire entertainment system to see – much quicker and easier to flick through the printed entertainment guide).

·         Upgrade Qantas Club food and beverage and business lounge offerings ASAP as a priority 

SQ, EK et al seem to serve amazing food without long in the tooth celebrity chefs. How long can they keep milking that neil perry 'salad'??!!

David, thanks for making the judgement call to suggest some specific changes.

From my perspective the appalling food and wine content in recent years has been a huge bug bear in F, with poor product differentiation from J. The Neil Perry product can be excellent in the lounge but often fails miserably in the cabin.

Perhaps if his budget were different he could deliver the food he can be capable of.

Additionally staff  service training and delivery at all levels are inconsistent. I can usually tell how a flight is going to be within 5 minutes of seeing how the CSM on each flight conducts themselves. 

A great Qantas crew can have a refreshing mix of precision, wit and generosity - the indifferent "bare minimum approach" is all too common - much of this is a projection of their unhappiness with their employer and the bewildering range of contracts and outsourcing to International crew (including not having a proper crew base in Perth to save cost, whereby Perth crew could fly the international flights) and the Sydney and Melbourne international crew often treating the nonstops from east to west coast as a "break".

The likelihood of an ex-CFO appreciating all of this is very low.

Hello all, 

I think Vanessa could take a left out of Virgin CEO, Jayne’s, play book and work hard behind the scenes to get things right as people are discussing above, then come out and talk about what’s going to happen, as it is happening. The public will not listen to any more promises or spin. They want to see the changers in the lounges, with ticketing, in the air and on the ground, then trust will start to build again. I wish her luck and feel for the front line staff that have been at the brunt of this for the last years, let’s give them space.

Agree with most comments above, adding below 

1. Food & beverage a definite easy fix, Neil Perry needs to go

2. Lounge improvements, especially SYD & MEL domestic

3. Achievable lifetime platinum, should be around 30,000

4. Wifi internationally 

5. Gold or Platinum, P1 etc free of charge domestic flight change for earlier flights (SYD,MEL, BNE) similar to old CityFlyer days. Some lounge staff will move you to earlier flights at no charge, but many won’t…..when you’re running every 30 mins SYD-MEL and you only get cheese & crackers on board, why not move people if seats are available 

6. International economy seat pitch, flights to Asia in economy on A330’s is painful at 31cm

7. Try and fast track the new aircraft orders, especially wide bodies for Asia, Premium Economy etc

Train Qantas Frequent Flyer call centre staff so they know at least as much about the program as Frequent Flyers, and empower them to resolve issues without having to refer the to the black hole that is their supervisors.

It’s taken months so far to try to sort out a Qantas mistake that terminated my partner’s QFF year a month early, which left her short 200 status credits! 

Fix the call centres, particularly get rid of those located in some countries where a significant proportion of people are willing to make things up or frankly lie just to get you off the wait queues, and refuse to pass you on to the duty supervisor when you ask for them (not that they are any better).

Really, don’t even try that “we will give them more training” line or “teething problems through lack of experience or familiarity” BS spin. When people call the call centre and spend hours in the queue, it’s because they can’t get the answers from the website (which they have plenty of hours to search through while waiting), we don’t need untrained people reading the same website trash and their “interpretation” of what is written (which a regular traveller can smell the BS as they are being explained). 

QF customers pay the premium for the first world experience, not get fobbed off by third world call centres.

There are certainly other things on my list, but the call centre issue need to be fixed right now to stop further damage. They are not getting any better with helping with time since 2020.

They need to review motivation of their regular customers.  Not to give lifetime status to its most loyal and biggest spending customers, isn’t a great approach (+50 years of being Platinum won’t guarantee you make it). 

Most other airlines give it in 10-20 years of qualifying for their top level. 

I’m Platinum for over 20 years and Platinum One on a few occasions, but I gave up and now travel HON Circle with Lufthansa (which leaves Platinum One for dead, both in benefits but also treatment in airports and on planes). So they’ve lost $100k pa from me !

Please review the Platinum life eligibility to be in line with other Oneworld members, around 30-35K status credits … I’ll come back!

Seriously, can it be fixed with so much being cut from every business unit?

It really is on life support and at it's end of life cycle as we know it and I really wonder what the Chairman and ex CEO think about that.

Customers are getting ripped off on regional flights. For example, you can fly Syd-Mel for fifty bucks on Jetstar, but it can cost ten times that to fly Syd-CFS. 

And international isn’t much better. I just flew Syd-LAX and endured a non-refurbished A380 in both directions. Sub-standard experience, particularly for the price. 

Open up more classic rewards in all classes, especially for transcon and overseas flights. I don't want to spend my hundreds of points on more toasters, but on travel! If high value frequent flyers can't access reward seats, the value of the QFF program is severaly diminished, and they will be incentivised to wander to other international carriers.

Open up new routes from smaller cities like ADL,DRW and make PER a western International hub so all of Australia can feel the love not just the BIG 3! 

It’s not rocket science!

They just need to review what they are providing versus the other global premium airlInes and they will quickly identify where they have fallen behind (and it’s in many areas) over the last 5 years. 

Most of it is from cutting costs, to improve margins, without realizing the impact on quality, brand and eventually customer loyalty. 

From simple stuff like cheap hard paper towels in the bathroom in BC to declining food quality and general poor attention to customer service from onboard to call centers. 

Eventually the cost cutting tips you over a cliff, when customers start rebelling … where we are today!

Unfortunately I’m not sure if a new CEO with a finance/CFO background is the right person for this job, because it’s going to take investment and reduced profits to get back on track. 

I have far less lofty aims. I want an airline to fly me to my destination on time on the flight I booked. At present Qantas can do neither. I don't mind what the decor is or the paltryness of their inflight offering . I just want to get where I booked on time.

For Qantas to return to a prestige brand on par with SQ, EK and QR:

- There is a solution to the ageing A330 issue. The replacement A350s and 787s won’t start arriving for another half a decade, but QF doesn’t need to do more ‘wet leases’ to temporarily cover for the A330s before A350s come. Transfer the 11 Jetstar 787-8s to Qantas, repaint them and refurbish them into Qantas seats and branding. That’ll allow them to retire 8-10 of their oldest A330s, and hopefully fly those 787s on longer routes to India and LAX, to contain the damage those A330s are doing to their image - and keep those 788s even after the A330 replacements arrive; no loss for JQ since it’s a budget airline. The A330 is an absolute misery and embarrassment to the Qantas fleet, and the fact that it’s the backbone of the QF international fleet only makes matters worse.

- High speed free wifi on international flights. All international flights. Now!

- Fix that website and app. Clearly their current IT provider needs to follow Joyce out the door. And relocate all call centres back to Australia, like what Commonwealth Bank has done. 

Qantas has a few things to fix to get me back on board. Much has been covered by others and referring back in time, to those who accuse commentators of Qantas bashing, I think should probably take note of the events of the last couple of weeks should maybe rethink:

Skytrax worlds airline awards. 2022 Qantas was 5th. 2023 Qantas was 17th. Why?

Qantas truly needs to consider their customers and staff over their CEO and shareholders. Without customers, there is non business, without staff there is no business.

Need to get new planes and quickly. What they have now is old and very tired. Interiors held together by black fabric tape does not cut it for what should be a top tier airline. 

Need to get their pricing right. When I started regular internationals business travel, Qantas would always appear on my corporate travel site in the first 3 or 4 of the trip selections available. Prices have crept up and up over the years. Do the same search today and qantas is way down the list and 50% more expensive than a perfectly adequate alternative, even some of the top tier players form basically the same route. I cannot justify that cost to my management and I am sure that many others would be in the same position. For this reason I have gone from obtaining Platinum 1 down not Platinum for quite a long time to where I currently am, falling back to LTG, just 4 local sectors and 1 international with Qantas in the last 12 months.

Lounges. I must say that the First lounges are ok having used them quite a lot travelling mainly on other Oneworld airlines. Have not been in Melbourne and Sydney international Business Class lounges for quite a long time now, imagine that have not changed much in the last 10 years or so but expect to be trying these out very soon. Domestic lounge food is pretty basic and always has, not something that I would ever look forward to. Barista made coffee is quite good. 

Inflight food across both economy and business class is nothing special when compared to other airlines I travel with. Really needs to come up a notch or two!

Recognition of customer loyalty does need some focus. I have Lifetime Gold and have had for quite a while now due to 35 years of frequent flying with QF. When they announced Lifetime Platinum, I thought, great, in with a chance here until I found that I needed 75,000 status points to qualify.  That is never going to happen. My theory, lower the bar to 30,000 points. Lock in a stack of people like me, getting the higher privileges and we provide a nice guaranteed revenue stream for the red roo. Keep as is and we will be hunting around for the best deal every time with no particular loyalty or maybe sending our loyalty and our nice little travel budgets in another direction.

How about focusing on cities other than just Sydney.  

Put back in place: 

- Mel - Sing - LHR A380 

- MEL - BKK route instead of a low value, often cancelled Jetstar offering.  We are sick of going via Syd or having to travel to Singapore and transit to a Jetstar flight.

Qantas/Jetstar flights favour Jetstar and their ripping off on their extras.  For example, a flight to Bali - Qantas lands at 9pm, involving a great inconvenience if not staying near the airport, whereas Jetstar lands at 10am, involving an extra cost of luggage, food etc. Passengers want a full-service airline thank you, as advertised, not a RyanAir type coopycat.  give us the choice.  

The first change is to treat customers as valuable, not just commodities.  Qantas needs to start treating its Elite FF as important and stop giving away status, which cheapens its value.  The boarding fiasco is a result of everyone being a priority member, even people who never fly.  Qantas status has been watered down. In addition, the Qantas value is no longer there.  A small premium to travel on a top airline is okay, but a massive premium to travel on an average airline is no longer justifiable.  After 35-years as a QFF, I struggle to justify flying Qantas and it gets harder every day.  I'm P (have been for over 20 years), LTG (have been for years), LTG equivalent with competing groups, and Qantas has taken away any reason to be loyal.  They seem to be pursuing a strategy that doesn't value loyalty, charges a premium, delivers mediocrity and has tired aircraft.

A few quick thoughts from me:

Immediately offer all holders of credits an instant refund, no restrictions. If customers opt to keep their credits as credit, so be it.

Simply fare conditions and make them more apparent. Clients have gotten used to COVID flexibility on the usually highly restrictive fare types and this has complicated and compromised the associated credits. Simplify it, publicise it and move forward.

Wind back the website from its current ‘all things to all people’ and get back to the basics - flights and redemptions. Ever since they moved from a text-based website into the highly graphical, script-reliant, multi-media, endless scrolling monstrosity currently available I have lost count of the number of times I’ve had time outs, errors, incorrect info or misleading content. It’s confusing. Qantas isn’t an ‘lifestyle’ it’s an airline, point to point - that’s the core business. Put all the lifestyle somewhere else, not embedded into what should be, and what use to be, a very simple transaction. Even the booking process involves multiple screens, white space and scrolling hate it. Again, get back to the basics - if they want to have the frills, spin it off onto another website.

QFF Profile and account. I’m generally happy with the level of functionality and what you can do to make profile and account changes, booking changes, seating etc, however the usability aspect of it leaves a lot to be desired. It shouldn’t be a multimedia experience, it should be direct, easy to follow and intuitive.

Qantas App. When I use the app (current iPhone and IOS) it is often out of sync, so it usually has to sync up which doesn’t take long but when you’re using an app you want immediate service. When booking or checking it flicks between the App and the iPhone browser. Either have a fully-function app or don’t, not some hybrid. Look at the simplicity of apps offered by Lufthansa, LOT or Swiss. I was in Europe recently and honestly, I could book and pay for a flight with one hand from download of the app, searching for flights, purchasing, adding tickets to my iPhone wallet, checking in and then flying so, so, so simple. Get back to basics, put all the frills in a separate app.

Simply the Frequent Flyer redemption process. On the old text-based website redemptions were easier to find as the website was quicker, you could easily do multi city, look across a range a dates and alliance carriers, look across all class types and broaden the search across 2 to 3 months or longer.

Upgrades, they just have to fix it, whether redemption, points-upgrade, bid or complimentary. I’ve been OWP and lifetime Gold for about ten years and have never had a complimentary upgrade. I have never had a bid offered, nor a complimentary. The one time I was told an on-departure upgrade was available I was also told there was no catering so I opted not to take it.

Aircraft Product. I don’t care how old the aircraft is. I care about product and service. The product on QantasLink is tired, especially the Q200/300/400. I quite like the 717s, despite the age. Other airlines have managed to put a business product in their turboprop fleet, why hasn’t Qantas? Even Fiji Airways which Qantas owns almost half of has managed to put a business product in their ATRs….. so if Qantas is going to charge like they do on turboprop services at least provide a comparable product. If they don’t then price accordingly, like REX does.

Catering. Something seems to have gone out the window here. I have no idea what is going to happen when I get on board. It used to be easy to see what catering was offered on what flights, what you could expect at various times of the day and in which class. Some people have different needs, respect it. Simplify it and publicise it.

Competition. Respect the competition and embrace the challenge, they’re a commercial reality. When a new entrant enters your route don’t flood it with cheap seats to monster them out, that’s bullying, for an airline that claims to respect people’s diversity it’s not a good look. Many QFFs want to fly Qantas but in situations where they can’t it’s good to know we can walk across the hall to a competitor knowing they haven’t been priced out of the route.

That’ll do for now.

Some of these suggestions really aren't realistic. My suggestions that are:

- Publicly admit the brand is tarnished and set clear goals to achieve by Christmas to rectify this. For example, as a sign of goodwill, support Qatar Airways additional flight application, and refund covid vouchers. 

- Wet lease at least 8 additional 787s or A330s - fly them to secondary markets like CGK, DPS, BKK, ICN especially if they have inconsistent seat types, and free up the 787s, A380s and newest A330s for premium routes. You shot yourself in the foot by not ordering more aircraft years ago, you need a stopgap until the planes you have actually ordered arrive.

- Retire Neil Perry.

- Accelerate the timeline of all lounge refurbishments. You made the profit, so invest in your product.

- Have a monthly long-haul 'points plane' flight - its an easy and fun way to excite your FF members.

Remember your reputation is in the hands of others, your customers and staff mainly.

Bring back a focus on your regular customers, overseas call centres are not equipped to deal with anything other than the simplest of issues. Many time we know more about your processes than they do, and when we attempt to educate them they hang up.

Please bring back the Hobart FF team.  You have a lot of ground to make up with your customer service in general, give us a reason to fly with you again.

Once the a321 xlr arrive the return of Adelaide to Singapore.I remembered the days of the 767's on the flight and these new planes are close in size to their forerunners.my times on that sector were jumbo,767 and a330.

Neil Perry has got to go. Hudson needs to be brave enough to send clear signals that her reign will be very different to the Joyce era, and this is not just making change for change's sake but making real changes which benefit passengers.

I really don't think this is a matter of Perry not being given enough money to spend on f&b, more that he has gotten his hooks into Qantas for not only meals but now also the drinks and even cocktails as well as all manner of 'service training'. All of this has been outsourced to Perry and an army of Perry employees as consultants. So Qantas is his 'golden goose', but the meals are just so boring, and ironically they swing from being 'pretentious' to incredibly boring and lazy.

Even look at the 'special' menu for the First Lounge VIP area at https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/here-is-qantas-secret-first-class-lounge-menu. Seriously, some sashimi and a minute steak with chips are considered 'special' treats for First passengers, Platinum Ones and CLs? That's just lazy and insulting.

It's all very good asking for constructive suggestions but as has been shown the CEO and the Board do their own thing anyway and seemingly without a lot of thought for the benefit of  the Airlines main source of income " the passenger"

It's high time for the new CEO and Board  to rethink the past mistakes and consider the passengers best interest first.

They only have to visit web sites to see the hundreds of complaints and suggestions.

It's all out there all they have to do is look and listen, but will they ?

Greetings to all in sundry who have taken the time to post 'a substantial number of 'Negative and Positive' comments about the current standing of our National Carrier. 

With over 50 years of travel under with the Flying Kangaroo under my belt, noticeably things started to slip in the 'Jimmy Bow Tie' era, then with Dixon the decline gathered pace, to where the painful presence of Joyce has left the image of the airline in tatters. 

Yes all are screaming out for a host of improvements to occur, but it will not happen quickly as many would like to think, as there will be no 'silver bullet' as the task the new CEO has on her hands is substantially mammoth to expedite.

To start, immediately professional and commercially minded people should be recruited, so a dedicated and meaningful Timetable can be put in place and the agenda made public so each box can then be ticked enabling "Lazarus" to be restored to life again.

A root and branch review of QFF Points and the avaialbility of Award Flights when and where the earner wants to use them. With some give and take manageble conditions, such as within 90 days advance notice and within a week of your preferred travel departure date. If there is a seat avaiable the aerner should be granted the seat.

I'm talking Business Class International.

My priorities:

Increased availability of Business Classic Rewards for overseas flights.

LTP more attainable (even 3x LTG)

Better access to useful call centres.

Qantas needs to restart its Singapore Hub! Fly A330s from Singapore to Bangkok, Hong Kong and into India.

Fly from places like Townsville, Cairns, Adelaide, Darwin etc to Singapore

Ask passengers what they want to eat on each leg.

Start putting the customer first and bycustomer I mean the one time economy passenger, not the frequent flyer in business class!

Some great suggestions on this thread.

Definitely fast track the lounge upgrades, Sydney domestic and international are embarrassing. 

F&B in QF Club needs an update, everyone is over toasted sandwiches.

Greater access to reward seats.

Dash 8’s desperately need a refresh. These routes in QLD cost a premium and the product is poor.

Call centres in Australia, resourced with enough well trained staff to make this part of the customer experience a good one.

Oh, and when they destroy my suitcase, don’t respond after 3 months saying “We accept no liability”!  Own it!

Telstra bought back Australian call centres - they work!    Qantas needs to do likewise so someone can help sort issues such as flight changes, AWD tickets bookings, sort refunds, etc etc.   

Virgin (OS call centres I know) WANT to resolve problems and for me - always have

Value your staff and let them know it!  And give them a happy workplace.  Count your resolved problems as a plus and commend staff for fixing them.

And award seats - I have paid for my frequent flyer points up front - Qantas should stop trying to prevent me using them!!  On every flight there are a range of ticket options eg: Red-Edeals, full economy etc - there should also be a range of award seats available.