lizF

I was tired on arrival into Brisbane late the other night and should have told the pilot about my experience with service on his flight seeing we waited for the same carpark pickup and were chatting about Pauleen Hanson ( who was also on the flight) instead.
However I wish to rectify the situation so will do so here on this site in the hope that someone at Qantas will see it.
We had row 7 seats but the plane was not absolutely full and I took myself down the back in the hope of finding a couple of seats so I could sleep. The whole back row was empty so I got in there and was a bit hot sitting waiting for take off. Quick as a flash a steward gave me some water to drink and directed the air to me. After take off I got out my pillow and lay across the three seats and to my surprise the steward tapped me and asked if he could get me a pillow - I said that I had one thanks and he said that "one is good but two will be much better and a blanket will just top it off". Next thing I was being tucked into my little bed by the steward armed with two pillows, a blanket and spring water in case I got thirsty. I had a lovely rest and upon waking the steward was there again asking if I would like a drink after my rest. It wasn't just me either, others around me were getting similiar attention i.e. moving people so they would have two seats, organizing pillows and blankets. The service was absolutely wonderful and if this is the way Qantas is going to continue with in their training and choice of staff, the fact that you get this service, food, drinks makes the price difference worth every penny.
So here is a plug for Qantas staff on the Melbourne to Brisbane flight leaving Melbourne at 8PM Good Friday night. I trust that you will keep up the wonderful work and I also hope that it was not a once in a lifetime service.

tropo

Well done LizF, we should always give thanks to airline staff/or airline for a job well done.
We see too many people in this day & age who just want to whinge or complain. I always find that if you treat airline staff, the way you would like to be treated, they return the service twofold.
On our last flight to London with Emirates, I noticed some "demanding" people asking for extra wine or beer, to be given the cold shoulder by the staff, but when they came to me, I smiled and thanked for a great service, in turn the cabin steward, smiled and gave 2 wines instead of one, and said, "You deserve it, enjoy"
Then I complemented an attractive female steward on her lovely smile, she said thank you, and when we arrived on our 2nd leg at Dubai, she handed me complimentary Emirate playing cards, and said thank you for the compliment. Gosh it doesn't hurt to be nice does it.
Anyway, well done Qantas.

lizF

I have written to Qantas as well Trop saying that I was sorry that I had not got the name of the Attendant concerned. However from what I saw, all of the staff were so pleasant to everyone that I just wonder if they were all as nice as the one I had.

Mucky

Wow, that's great service, Liz can you wave your magic wand over BA crews? my experience of them is that they really can't be bothered and wish they were someplace else.


Muck

wally34949

Anyone who has ever flown on a U.S. airline recently will be stunned by Qantas. I flew from Perth to Sydney on Qantas back in December, 2005. Free, three-course meal, free beer or wine and free earphones for the movie.

I just booked a flight from San Francisco to Vancouver on Qantas. One way was only $125. Lunch is included!

Decktime63

I traveled to Australia and flew Qantas last April. I, as an American flyer was stunned with the service! It was one of the great attractions of Australia! Bravo Qantas!

Percy

Hey Qantas, you better take a bow !!!

It is rare to have such treatment from an airlines.

lizF:
Glad you are being looked after so well down there.
Have a good time

PS: Do you know what Qantas stands for !?


Percy

GregY2

This will be wrong on some detail I suspect but I think Qantas stands for "Queensland & Northern Territory Air Services"

Neil_Oz

Close enough, Greg, just substitute "Aerial" for "Air". The company was founded in outback Queensland in 1920 by a former WW1 pilot with a single biplane and is the second-oldest international airline in the world, next to KLM. Today's Qantas is the product of the merger of two government-owned airlines, Qantas and Australian and was subsequently privatised. I first flew with them in the early '70s and have always found their service pretty good.

Percy

You are correct Neil -Oz

I made sure I read up on Qantas before I came.

It was interestly to hear,if you saw the Rainman movie with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise , that Dustin said that Qantas was the only air service in the world that has never has a crash.

Is this still true.?

Wasn't it this WW1 pilot and four other people that founded the Royal Flying Doctors Service out of the Outback.?

Thanks for your information, you are our man Down Under.

Percy

Neil_Oz

Percy, thanks, I'm just the most verbose of quite a few Australians on this forum.

Qantas is still fatality-free. We should also count Australian Airlines, which Qantas absorbed in 1993, and I wasn't sure about their record. However www.airdisaster.com lists only two crashes under "Qantas", one in Mauritius in 1960 and the other at Bangkok in 1999, no fatalities. There are no entries for Australian Airlines or Trans Australia Airlines (its original name), so I suppose they also had a clean sheet before the merger. Qantas' website does mention incidents during WW2, including a flying boat shot down by Japanese Zeros near Surabaya, but no deaths are recorded. On that occasion the pilot was wounded and had to swim 8 km to shore. And it happened again to the same guy - this time he had to swim 19 km! All up 3 aircraft were destroyed by enemy action and two lost in accidents. This is fascinating stuff! Back in the Dark Ages I used to work for Qantas, but I heard only the sketchiest stories from that time. I did hear, though, that after the fall of Singapore Qantas operated Catalina aircraft on the longest non-stop route in the world - 5600 km between Perth and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), in radio silence. The flight took 28-32 hours.

And you're right - in 1928 Qantas agreed to operate flights on behalf of the newly-formed Flying Doctor Service. The idea was suggested by an Australian airman who was killed in action in France in 1918 and picked up by the Rev. John Flynn after the war.

Interesting history, all right. Few people would remember that Qantas used to be a round-the-world airline, operating flights to London via San Francisco and New York and also via Papeete, Acapulco, Mexico City and Nassau. Both routes lost money and had to be canned.

wally34949

One of the things I noticed about Qantas was when the "Fasten Seat Belt" sign came on, the flight attendants sit down and strap up. For this reason, the fasten seat belt sign was usually turned off 3 minutes after take-off and not put back on (unless necessary) until about 3 minutes before landing. The reason: They want everyone to take the fasten seat belt sign seriously.

On a typical U.S. airline, the fasten seat belt sign is turned on during the boarding process to encourage people to board the plane faster, not turned off until the plane reaches 30,000 feet and there are no bumps, and turned back on 30 minutes before landing. Furthermore, if too many people are waiting in line for the toilet, it is turned back on. That's why no one takes the fasten seat belt sign seriously on a U.S. airline.

But if the landing gear is down, please take the sign seriously!!!

JohnFitz

It is terrific to hear positive things about them but I must say I find Qantas service erratic on both international and domestic routes in both economy and business class . I really think it depends on the crew on the flight . Service is always efficient but rarely exceptional . I flew twice internationally with them last year being Europe via China and then to India , in business class both times . I must have flown 6 times domestically last year in both classes . On the European trip it was a shared flight beween them and SAS . The difference in the atmosphere , food and service was noticeable in that SAS was far superior in every way . On the Indian flight you had the impression that you got what you had to get but no more.Add to that wonky electricals on the entertainment front , a plane out of the Ark and a return ticket woprth $5500 and I was left unimpressed . Given that Qantas is an expensive airline to book with I think they need to lift their game to the level Liz experienced as the norm / benchmark in service rather than prompting her very nice but I get the impression , totally surprised happiness at it .I know others I talk to share my jaded views.I left behind my brand loyalty with them because of their erratic nature quite some time ago .

lizF

Not so much surprised at the service on a Qantas flight John but more surprised at that service compared with other airlines because for the last 6 flights I have been flying on the " I hope we are going to be happy passengers today everyone- Virgin Blue" and the budget airline Jetstar due mainly to the fact that Qantas does not do a direct flight to where I wanted to go.
Because we booked one day before flying at Easter I had to fly Qantas.
I have had some excellant flights on Qantas and prefer their service to any other airline International or Nationally, Business or Economy. The last time I flew Internationally in Business Class with them I had a scratchy earpiece for the TV and was given my choice of French perfume free for my unfortunate piece of equipment - the fact that I slept all the way and didn't use it did not phase the staff at all and they were most apologetic, which was in stark contrast to Air NZ who could not care two hoots that nothing worked on the row I was in all the way from LA, including lights, TV, games, button for staff etc etc or the nice but stern manner of the staff on Finair. The "I don't care less" attitude of BA and the " Gosh, don;t disturb me attitude of A.A. - not to mention the most pathetic Club lounges of the latter airline which show a sign saying " you can buy your sandwiches and drinks here" " BUY THEM "!!

lizF

Neil, TAA or ANSET went into the sea off Mackay in the 50's with loss of lives - I cannot remember which one but I got off in Bundaberg and it was obviously doing the milk run and on leaving Mackay crashed just after take off.

Neil_Oz

Liz, AA's lounge sounds like what United humorously calls its Red Carpet Lounge as I remember it. A bit tired and unwelcoming (that applied to both the ambience and the staff) and yes, you paid for snacks and drinks. To add insult to injury I ordered a beer in the LAX lounge, had a bottle unceremoniously deposited on the bar and, believing that when you start drinking beer straight from the bottle the barbarians are at the gates, asked for a glass. I got my glass, along with a look that appeared to cast doubt on my sexual preferences. On that occasion I declined to tip, and received an even more contemptuous look.

This is an airline which I think was (is?) majority-owned by its staff, a sobering thought. OK, that was some years ago, but the fact that UA is now I think in bankruptcy protection mode suggests not much has changed.

Now - aha! - a different search on airdisaster.com reveals that a TAA F27 crashed near Mackay on 10/6/1960 with 29 fatalities. As this predated the merger Qantas can probably keep its fatality-free status on a technicality.

Ansett had two fatal crashes, both involving Vickers Viscount aircraft - 1961, Sydney, 15 dead; 1966, Winton Qld, 24 dead.

You must have felt like I did when on 18/1/1977 I just, by a whisker, caught the Blue Mountains-City train BEFORE the one that the bridge fell on at Granville with 83 killed - and out of habit I would have been sitting in the very carriage in which almost everyone was killed.

Mucky

Hi everyone,
You know, that's what I love about this forum.
When a post from an OP like Liz publicly praising quantas for great service, does the rounds and ends up with everyone on a flight being dead.

lol

;-)

Keep up the good work

Muck

lizF

Mucky, in the olden days of flying in Queensland the only planes were a DC9 or a Folker Friendship - both of which gave me flight phobia for about 20 years. On both planes they had curtains between the flight deck and the passenger seating and that was usually open so on decending you had a great look at the ground. The flight left Brisbane, put down for 20 minutes in Maryborough where everyone got out and had a coffee then on to Bundaberg and from there Rockhampton, Mackay and ports thereafter.
The funniest thing I ever saw was the "Air Hostess" running and waving her arms about in the air, behind our plane trying to get it to stop when it was about to try and take off from Maryborough. We had obviously all got back on the plane and left her there! The plane did stop and she got on and off we went.
The DC9s used to fly at about 9,000 ft and the story went that if you looked down and saw little things running about then they were ants, if those same little things we standing still then they must have been Council Workers ( love that oxymoron).
Yes Neil I most certainly believe in "when its your time to go, then its your time to go" but it is somewhat unpleasant when you have been talking to people and then hear that their plane crashed.... it proves the point Neil that you and I must be bad if its the good that die young!

lizF

OK MUCK!

Does OP when written from you stand for - over proof?

OR

Older Person?

Mucky

Outstanding person.....thought you would know that Liz !!
Love the stewardess story, just goes to show how airtravel has changed, for the better? I'm not so sure.
;-)

Muck