Qantas, Ah the chaos and as for the AGM….

October 28, 2011 Leave a comment

It’s Friday and home again.  I lost a few colleagues this week to job changes and internal transfers and they will be missed but the wheels have not fallen off.  As for the “Spirit of Australia”, more industrial action but some time I wonder that Qantas are their own worst enemy but more on that later.

Lets talk food:

We were offered water this week and a mountain of packaging – as if the carbon foot print of the flight is not enough!

 

But I did find a good use for the “Recycling” bag.  It made a great place mat!

 

Industrial Action and Luggage.

The baggage handlers were meant to be having a stop work starting at 4 PM n Melbourne but they got revenge in a new and more insidious way.  Put the luggage from the advertised carousel on another and not tell anyone.  We must have stood there for 15 minuets looking at luggage from another flight going around and around.  Rather amusing in hindsight which I did not see at the time.  This was nothing compared to the circus that was the Qantas AGM today.  The PR people did a ring around so the institutional investors went with the flow and the direction of the board.  This did not stop the pilots, unions and a number of smaller shareholders have a swipe at the board and CEO, Alan Joyce.  Emily Bourke from the ABC’s World Today summed it up with this “The Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce, has hit out at three unions he’s accused of trying to veto management plans for the company. Mr Joyce says the company has to alert the ASX that the industrial action has cost the group $68 million so far, and is driving customers away. The unions have rejected the claims, and asked why the board would consider granting Mr Joyce a large pay increase”.  He must really love his job some days!

Next 7 days

Next week I am staying in Melbourne, what with the Melbourne Cup and work related activities based in Bourke Street, I have got a reprieve from Canberra but not work!

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Qantanomics, The Economics of Cancelled flights and more.

October 26, 2011 Leave a comment

Qantanomics is where “The Spirit of Australia” look after the bonus pool with no regard for  “those annoying people who take up valuable space on the aircraft”.

As previously indicated, I was rolled by Qantas due to “Industrial Action” but that did not seem to stack up this morning.  Qantas fly two direct flights from Melbourne to Canberra each week day before 9 AM.  The first flight (7:20AM) is a 767-300 and the second (8:30AM) is a 737-800.  Based on their own data, that would give you somewhere in the vicinity of 390 to 420 seats in a combination of Business and Economy seating configurations.  On Tuesday(25/10/2011), Qantas  then cancelled the first flight and ran a full 737-800 on the second flight.  This would indicate that they calculated they were taking a bath on the seat yield across the two flights so conveniently dropped the first flight and blamed the ongoing industrial action for the cancellation.  Good one, you must think we are fools.

The other side of Quantanomics is the yield that can be extracted before flyer start drifting access to Virgin Australia.  Since July I ave flown to Canberra every week and in August, I had a side trip to Brisbane.  In this period, I have spent over $12,500 and on my present flying regime, I will not break out of  the  entry level flyer status, Silver flying every week till Christmas so looks like the investment in the Qantas Club was a necessary requirement!

Tired using the iPhone app to check in.  I did and see what happened:

When I asked about this in the Lounge, the response was the problem must be with my phone – checked that, no problem, wrong app – checked that, no problem.  Ahh well it could not possibly be our (Qantas) fault as you were checked in successfully.  I hope the people who manage aircraft safety do not work on the iPhone app’s!

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5700 Flights a week and 60 destinations

October 24, 2011 Leave a comment

What a start to the week away. Last week I got email indicating that my regular 7:20 flight to Canberra had been cancelled. I found it in the spam filter! So after being moved to the 8:30 flight I got a text message to say my flight had been cancelled. Not to worry, it was the same flight. It would appear that I was not the only person who spam filters had problems with Qantas emails.

You would think that nearly 100 years of pedigree and more than 5000 flights a week, the “Spirit of Australia” would run a slick operation, well think again. Board plane 8:10, close front door 8:30, finish loading cargo 8:40, forget to close cargo door – check 8:45, find tug driver and taxi out 8:55 and finally take off 9:10. It took an hour to go 400m and this is not uncommon. Remind me again how many flights a week they handle. Experience count for nothing in this game and furthermore, they were not on strike.

Anyway, let’s focus on what is important, my stomach! I have spent a lot of time dissecting Qantas’s take on Dinner, well Breakfast isn’t what it once was!

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The only item that I consume is the coffee – still not bad, the same can not be said for the muffin.

Next time at commuterflyer, the economics of cancelled flights and holy moley, I did my BAS (quarterly tax statement) and you should see the amount I pay Qantas and what I get for the money.

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The great disconnect

October 24, 2011 Leave a comment

It’a Thursday and I am on my home early this week. I am working out of Bourke Street this Friday and looking forward to the change of scenery.

The Disconnect!

Oh my! I got a email from Qantas this week telling me about all the wonderful improvements Qantas are making to the service. Some one forgot to tell the staff.

The Canberra Qantas club was akin to a tip and they charge for the privilege. The cleaners must have gone on strike and taken the cleaning products with them – I anticipate a bout of Qantas Club belly. This is similar to Bali belly except you pass nothing other than water because there is no food!  The other disconnect was the seating on the flight – lets just say there was a bit of seat swapping after we took of to “even” the load.

It would appear that the recycling push is off this week. Plenty of rubbish but nothing to put it in but at least we got DINNER !

The quality of the produce brings a tear to the eye.

20/10/2011

 

 

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