Tuesday 21 June 2022 01:37 AM Qantas: Passengers and workers unleash on the airline and blame CEO Alan Joyce trends now
Furious customers and flight attendants say Qantas has gone from Australia's 'best to worst' - with the airline's once world-class reputation now in tatters after a series of post-Covid blunders.
During its hey-day as a premium carrier during the 1950s and 60s, Qantas provided comforts like fine dining on flights, with cocktail service and onboard smoking.
Continuing throughout the 1990s and in the wake of the September 11 2001 terror attacks, the Spirit of Australia was known for delivering a high level of service for a fair price.
But that stellar reputation could be starting to falter, Griffith University air transport and tourism management expert, Professor Gui Lohmann, told Daily Mail Australia.
And anyone hoping for a return to the airline's early years is likely to be disappointed with increased competition leading to cost-cutting throughout the industry, and Qantas transformed into a publicly-listed company that must make a profit.
Qantas employees and sacked workers have levelled extraordinary allegations against the airline. CEO Alan Joyce is pictured with Qantas crew in a stock photo
Customers say there is a complete lack of support staff at airports which is leading to massive delays, missed flights and lost luggage
'If you look at Qantas or any airline now, it's going to become more difficult to maintain that very high loyalty status they have previously enjoyed because passengers are far more conscious of costs,' Prof Lohmann said.
'They just want to go from A to B.'
Three decades ago, 90 minute flights in places like Australia and the US cost about $100. Despite inflation, passengers can expect to pay about the same today.
'Technology allows us to transport more people, but as a result, the service is going to be different,' Prof Lohmann said.
'What Qantas used to be is actually unsustainable from a financial point of view with so many competitors.
'I still think that Qantas is this iconic Australian airline experience, and yes - it's going to take a lot to change that - but the business is changing, and they are under a lot of strain.'
Gui Lohmann, a Professor of Air Transport and Tourism Management at Griffith Institute said anyone hoping for a return to the glory years of aviation are likely to be disappointed. Pictured: The interior of a Qantas b707-138 which began service in 1959
Pictured: The First Class upper deck lounge of a Qantas Boeing 747 in 1971
Increased competition has led to rampant cost-cutting throughout the industry. Pictured: An economy class Qantas flight in the 1970s
Disgruntled workers recently revealed to Daily Mail Australia what it's really like to work for the Flying Kangaroo, levelling extraordinary allegations against the airline amid a bitter court battle that could result in a multi-million dollar payout.
The Transport Workers Union took Qantas to court in late 2020, when it was ruled the airline illegally sacked nearly 2,000 baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff before outsourcing their jobs to foreign-owned providers, including Swissport.
The trickle-down effect has seen jaded customers, including Frequent Flyer members, saying they are looking to other airlines when flying.
The Trade Workers' Union says Qantas's issues start at the top, and point to Alan Joyce's mismanagement of the airline over the pandemic and its thousands of laid-off staff.
'The fish rots from the head. The short-term focus of senior management on boosting profits to see share price blips has devastated Qantas' once trusted service and left Australians outraged,' TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine told Daily Mail Australia.
'Blaming passengers for delays over the Easter long-weekend while refusing to reinstate the highly trained workers it illegally sacked despite there being obvious demand for experienced workers in the industry shows how out-of-touch the Joyce-led management team has become.'
Mr Joyce at the time said the reason for the long queues was because passengers were not 'match fit' for travel and forgot to take their laptops and aerosols out of their carry-on luggage at the security gate.
Although the airline face continued to fend off the criticism, Mr Joyce told 2GB radi on Friday it was not acceptable and promised the upcoming school holiday break would be far smoother.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to the CEO for further comment but were told he was 'unavailable'.
A Qantas flight attendant in a floral dress serves a passenger a scotch on a 1970s business class
Qantas' various social media accounts have been littered with complaints from angry customers looking to reignite their travel plans post-pandemic.
On Thursday, Guardian columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith and her family were left stranded in Dallas, Texas after their flight back to Australia was abruptly cancelled.
Ms Gordon-Smith estimated 300 passengers were deserted in the American airport at 2am, with some forced to splash on hotels while others had to sleep on the floor.
'Qantas cancelled QF8 at 2am, ~300 people in an airport. OK, it happens. Then 'we have no plan for hotels, keep your receipts', so the people with liquidity took a $100 uber to the only hotel. The rest slept on the floor. 9am when we'd been told to check in. No Qantas staff came,' she tweeted.
'150 people, some with kids, some with walker frames, who'd had 4 hours sleep on a marble floor, were standing in Dallas waiting for the flight they'd been told they'd be boarding and *not one ground staff member* came to the airport. No texts, phone calls, no updates on Google.
'The DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport) staff had to say "we've been trying to reach the Qantas team, they are not answering, we don't know why".
'THEN peoples' Qantas apps start saying they'd been on the cancelled flight, so now no-one has an "active booking". The flight has disappeared from the internet.
On Thursday, Guardian columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith and her family were left stranded in Dallas, Texas after their flight back to Australia was abruptly cancelled
Ms Gordon-Smith likened the situation to 'Lord of the Flies' and said there were 300 people who were stranded in the American airport
Ms Gordon-Smith said Qantas customers had 'nowhere to go' and the regular Qantas desk wasn't 'just unmanned it has become a Lufthansa desk'.
'No blankets, no hotel vouchers, *no* communication, and not one staff member at the airport to tell the 300 people who *you'd told to turn up at 9am* where their plane was,' she said.
'300 people have checked bags to nowhere.'
In a response, Qantas said they have staff on hand at the airport assisting the 300 Aussies trying to get home.
'We know that this is a difficult situation for our customers whose plans have been disrupted, and we apologise for the inconvenience,' a Qantas spokesperson said.
'Our team at Dallas Fort Worth Airport provided customers with assistance after the initial delay and are helping customers ahead of the delayed departure.'
Mr Kaine said Qantas's massive staff layoff has led to 'untrained' people in key positions, creating a 'perfect storm of chaos'.
'Qantas' management team is public enemy number one when it comes to the mass exodus of skilled workers from aviation. Under the leadership of Alan Joyce, it has waged a decades-long war on secure jobs by targeting workers through overzealous redundancies and illegally outsourcing close to 2,000 secure ground crew jobs to external companies with poorer conditions,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
'Permanent jobs with strong conditions lost because of Qantas management's actions have been replaced with highly casualised or part-time work with low pay.
'Without an attractive offering to bring experienced workers back into the industry, those that remain are under enormous pressure to plug roster gaps, work alongside untrained office workers in baggage rooms, skip breaks and work to exhaustion.
'Surging passenger numbers in these conditions led to the perfect storm of chaos and confusion passengers experienced over the long weekend.'
Qantas rejects the the unions claims that untrained staff are in key positions.
Airports around Australia and the world are experiencing cancelled flights, huge queues and lost baggage - with Qantas at the centre of the chaos
Many loyal Qantas customers have expressed their displeasure with the airline on social media, claiming it has moved away from its historically high standards - with one woman writing a brutal open letter to the 'mean spirit of Australia'.
'Maybe instead of spending money on glossy new ads filled with Aussie talent, you perhaps could do the bare minimum and answer the phone when your customers need assistance?' Dr Sara Marzouk wrote.
'Maybe you can invest in providing jobs onshore by establishing call-centres where the staff actually have a clue about what they can and cannot do?
'Stop blaming this on COVID. These issues of poor customer service pre-dated the pandemic but have been exacerbated by them. No other airline has shown such contempt.
'You need to do better.'
Another woman named Dee tweeted at Qantas on Monday,
'When did you change to a high-cost low service airline? Gone from best in class to worst,' a woman named Dee tweeted to the airline's account.
Angry Qantas customers say the once-beloved airline has gone from Australia's 'best to worst' after a series of cost-cutting measures were introduced through the pandemic
Others said Qantas' service has become 'horrible', saying its offshore call centres had made managing their booking a nightmare.
The airline has
