Qantas has just unveiled a new safety video, and my gosh… it’s long. I mean, I have a flight this evening, and I found myself checking the time throughout the video, to make sure I don’t miss it.
Qantas highlights “magic place” destinations in new safety video
Qantas’ new safety video stars both staff and frequent flyers from the airline, showing them in unique destinations across the globe. Specifically, it features Qantas pilots, cabin crew, and customer service agents, as well as members of Qantas’ Frequent Flyer program.
Each person shares safety information from their “magic place” destination, and the video features 14 of these. These destinations aren’t just in Australia, but are from all over the world, ranging from Finland, to Italy, to Mexico, to Morocco, to New Zealand, to the United States.
Here’s how Catriona Larritt, Qantas’ Chief Customer Officer, describes the new video:
“First and foremost, the video is about familiarising our customers with safety procedures and we try to make it as engaging as possible, in particular for regular flyers who might otherwise tune out.”
“We are proud to feature our own well-travelled team members and customers, to not only deliver the safety message but also promote travel and tourism by inspiring people to explore destinations they may not have experienced throughout Australia and beyond.”
The new video will progressively be rolled out across the Qantas fleet, with 75 different versions, including 12 different languages. You can see the video for yourself below.
This new video replaces the Qantas Centenary themed video, which has been playing since 2020.
I don’t like Qantas’ new safety video
Let me say that the people in the video all seem lovely, and I totally appreciate the beauty of the destinations that they’re highlighting. However, this video seems more like something that should be available optionally through inflight entertainment to showcase some of the favorite destinations of Qantas staff and customers, rather than the safety video that everyone has to watch.
The version of the safety video published online is nearly 10 minutes long, and that’s for a video in a single language. Looking at the comments on Twitter/X in response to the video, I don’t see a single person who has something positive to say about the video, and some of the comments crack me up:
- “As a platinum one frequent flier, I’d prefer you just focus on, oh, I dunno, in flight safety during the inflight safety video? Why do we need a long video with all this added inapplicable information? Just opens up the door to misunderstanding and people tuning out. Focus on SAFETY!”
- “Ladies and gentlemen thank you for traveling Qantas. And we welcome you to Sydney. Sincere apologies for the delay due to our ridiculously long safety video having us depart Melbourne 10 minutes behind schedule”
- “Be faster if you just showed the Lord Of The Rings trilogy (extended edition)”
- “They’ve taken everything that’s wrong with Western safety videos and turned it up to 11.”
Now, in fairness, Qantas is responding to just about everyone, sharing that this is an extended version, and a condensed version will be screened onboard. I’m not sure I even understand the point of publishing an extended version of a safety video online. I mean, this is a safety video, right?
Even with a shorter version of the video, I just don’t get it:
- While it’s normal for some airlines to have destination themed safety videos, the focus is almost always on destinations in a carrier’s home country, or destinations that a carrier serves; in this case, Qantas is highlighting many places it doesn’t even fly to
- It seems to me like Qantas’ goal is to add a human touch to a safety video to make the brand seem more relatable, given all the issues the airline has had in the past couple of years; this seems like an odd way to go about it
- While I don’t mind the trend we’ve seen of airlines trying to make safety videos interesting and engaging, I can’t help but feel like at some point videos like this become confusing to those who don’t speak English as a first language, given how abstract safety instructions are, and how the safety details are just sprinkled throughout the video
No matter how you slice it, there’s just way too much fluff in here. Even if you condensed the video, what’s the point of showing 14 different destinations just so that people can understand how to fasten their seatbelt or put on a life vest?
Bottom line
Qantas has unveiled a new safety video, which is the first new video from the airline in a few years. The safety video highlights some favorite travel destinations of employees and customers, though I can’t help but feel that it’s all just a bit too much.
What do you make of Qantas’ new safety video?
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