Key points -
As Qantas faces some potentially explosive industrial action over the next few weeks, analysts have been taking the knife to their forecasts, particularly as oil prices continue to rise and speculation grows of an equity raising.
With so much negativity, the company's shares drifted down to $2.11 a share on Friday, a whisker away from its $2 issue price when it listed more than 15 years ago.
Whatever surveys and customer service reports that Qantas brings up, mounting anecdotal evidence shows it has lost the mindshare of customers. The growing perception is Qantas doesn't care about safety, customer service or its employees.
Flights running late with little explanation, flight attendants with low morale, sour faces at check-in desks and poor IT systems have left a bad taste.
From my own experience, I took a Qantas flight to London in March, with a stopover in Hong Kong. The plane was old, the seat clapped out, food and service poor and on each leg of the trip, the entertainment system failed and took at least two hours to reboot. I complained on March 21 and immediately received an automated response saying: "We are committed to always caring for our customers and responding to your valued feedback in a timely manner."
Besides getting told not to respond to this email as it was an "outgoing only" service that does not accept incoming messages, it took almost a month, April 15, before I received a response.
The letter, titled "apologies", was another standard one that didn't deal with the issues. The fob-off was disappointing from an airline that once prided itself on its high standard of customer service. This is part of the Jetstarisation of Qantas.
There is no doubt that Jetstar has a lot of advantages over Qantas, including fewer unions and different pay scales. These differences have caused a lot of consternation among staff and unions, who argue that younger pilots are being pushed into the lower pay and worse conditions at Jetstar.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-jetstarising-of-qantas-has-left-it-st...
Comments
no suprises here. quantas
no suprises here. quantas once had a high level of customer service, now since jet stars been on the scene and fucking things up, its sunken to a whole new level of shit. way to go jet star, keep proving yourself.
It would be epic for Qantas
It would be epic for Qantas to die on May 4th, the day of virgin's relaunch! :D, and all those reply emails from them are automated in there database, what assholes.
I dunno about taking a knife
I dunno about taking a knife to their forecasts but Qantas is sure taking a knife to its relations with its long term customers in many of its actions including unleashing the delinquent Jetstar uponhan unsuspecting people.
yeah, this is the end for jet
yeah, this is the end for jet star. just ad it to the list of fuck ups. the people have had enough. no more.
You're all delusional...
You're all delusional... hahaha quite funny really. The end of Jetstar my ass! Jetstar is still in great demand and experiencing growth. It's not anywhere near as bad an airline as many of you like to make out. How has it been unleashed upon unsuspecting people? You mean dumb shits who don't understand its a budget airline with a different business model that Qantas in order to compete in a market of Virgin Blue type carriers?
As much as Qantas may have problems, I think it would be a sad day for Australia if the airline shut down and we were left being the only developed nation without an internationally recognised carrier. You probably all happily let go of thousands upon thousands of jobs just to prove your often ridiculous points about Qantas and the Qantas Group.
@ Anonymous - In one way you
@ Anonymous - In one way you are right.. I don't think it's the end of Jetstar.. but hopefully it will put pressure on the appalling Qantas/Jetstar management. In another way you are delusional- you think Qantas management cares about Australian jobs? If you read the article and other news reports you get an idea how poorly staff are treated. Management are running down Qantas and building up Jetstar for profit reasons only- mainly to avoid paying Australian level salaries.. Basically they sell cheap tickets and employ young dumb shits like you Anonymous on a low salary & casual basis and generate huge profits. No matter what - this is a sad state to have our national carrier in.. hardly reason to celebrate.. In this situation no-one wins
Glad to see you're finally
Glad to see you're finally resorting to name calling Phil. I like it. Welcome aboard :)
FYI - Not all, but some airport and cabin staff are employed on a casual or part time basis and hours will vary slightly depending on peak/non peak periods. Early morning/late night and weekend loadings always apply and I assure you the salary is not actually that low compared with other airlines. In fact I happen to know Virgin Blue airport staff are on a lower wage. The majority of head office staff are full time on very decent salaries. It is in other countries however, Vietnam for example, where currency and earnings are far different and local pay rates apply. This of course does allow for profits in for the group as a whole. As Bruce Buchanan has often said, Jetstar makes no apology for being an airline out to make a profit in a very difficult market.
@ Anonymous - I used your
@ Anonymous - I used your words as you used them first and it describes you accurately.. What makes you think you can talk to people so?
Do you think it could be possible to widen your thinking to include the concept that Jetstar could make a profit, treat customers with respect and run a quality business? Only a narrow mind considers all of these things exclusive.
Jetstar probably pays ok salaries, but it employs far fewer staff per passenger than other airlines. It's a sucker punch.. Jetstar staff have no power, checkin staff have to deal with huge checkin lines (more than other airlines).. and somehow Jetstar management have got the staff eating this crap and enjoying the taste.. in some cases anyhow.
You Jetstar guys seem to want to win with words on this site- like we're insulting your football team or something.. why not win with actions? Why not face up to management and find ways of improving the service? Why does it take a month or two for a complaint to be dealt with? Why does it take 2 months for a refund to be issued? Or at least offering the same service without creating customer angst. If you worked for Google you'd be looking for ways to improve the customer experience, work for Jetstar are you're trying to get customers to accept poor service. It's a race to the bottom and you're call celebrating about it. Doesn't sound like a great job to me. Most of the issues raised on this website are the result of poor management of customer expectations. Please don't talk up Bruce Buchanan- Qantas/ Jetstar is poorly run.. and all he's interested in is retiring on a performance bonus and leaving the staff, travellers and tax payers with a second rate airline service.