For as long as I can remember, Qantas has always promoted how their fares have 'everything included.' For years as I drove into little Adelaide Airport, there was a giant billboard at the entry road with a Qantas aircraft seat stacked high with luggage, movies, food and drinks to illustrate this. But increased competition from…
Continue reading: Is Qantas Considering Introducing ‘Buy-On-Board’ On Some Routes?
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I don't love Air NZ unbundled fares on Trans-Tasman though am flying them soon to WLG, I am very glad that QF is staying full service on all routes
If (When?) QF does this, I think the newed outcry will come because QF'll follow the same practice as nearly every other airline: "full service" economy prices now become the "Basic Economy" prices. It's dressing up a fare increase and telling pax that it's actually a positive update to fares based on "customer feedback". Fares go up all the time - we get that. But it's airlines thinking passengers are dullards that rubs folks the wrong way.
I think the bigger issue is that Qantas still has a very good domestic/Trans-Tasman product with meals, bags, entertainment, etc. It sounds like they want unbundle everything and remove all of it immediately. The US3 slowly removed items in bites that consumers could accept or tolerate. The haste in removing everything too quickly might be the reason for the outrage.
Qantas has rigorously declined planning to do such. Plus Aussies pay a lot for their travel. Even for a 1 hour flight SYD - MEL, they except a meal service. This is why LCC's don't do that well Down Under.
I disagree that consumers would pick a LCC over a full service carrier if listed on a booking site. Qantas always gets my $$ over a LCC on international flights. Consumers in Australia already have a huge choice of LCC flights between cities. Qantas would only be adding a further complexity to their booking processes that would just cut into their own revenue. Flyers would just pick the cheapest Qantas ticket over a more expensive Qantas ticket - hence less revenue.
The only way I see it being successful is for Qantas to scrap Jetstar but considering all the Union history around the birth of Jetstar - I can't see that happening anytime soon. Jetstar was designed to lower operating costs and it is very profitable for Qantas.
I think the issue for Qantas is not LCCs, but the fact that this is how Air NZ prices.
I contribute to a Qantas cabin crew FB page & this was brought to our attention 2 days ago. Apparently the survey sent out to their focus group (ie: frequent flyers) received too much push back so this idea has been nixed- for now...
Qantas needs to remember that a biscuit and 100ml of soft drink does not make them a full service operator. Charging often $100 more for even a domestic flight is ridiculous.
People fly with Qantas because of service and because of loyalty, and as the service is continually lowering, apparently because of cost, people will start utilizing Virgin Australia Domestically, and Qatar and Cathay internationally.
As an Australian now living overseas, I greatly appreciate my gold status, but the rewards from Qantas are very poor compared to their one world competitors, especially due to their fuel surcharge.
Begs the question why show loyalty to an airline that shows the poorest loyalty to their customers?
All these points are mute now, Qantas has confirmed that it won't go ahead with extra charges, as reported by AusBT
https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-says-it-has-no-plans-to-charge-for-meals-drinks-and-baggage
No intention ‘on’ is not the same thing as no intention ‘of’.
The former indicates a lack of decision on a topic. The latter indicates a decision.
Watch this space, I think.
@David Stevenson - "I disagree that consumers would pick a LCC over a full service carrier if listed on a booking site". You can disagree, but that's what happens. Every single booking site you'll ever use lists the options by price as default - that is the single most important factor for the majority of the flying public.
The difficulty for the likes of Qantas is that the number of people who don't hold that as their most important factor - you being one of them - are rapidly decreasing. They therefore want to attract those who look mainly by price without alienating those who will pay whatever for a good service. A very difficult task!