The BOOT is perfect for Qantas Affiliate Program....really??????

I received an email this morning from Affiliate Future. A company providing marketing services to help companies generate affiliate sales. They are pitching an affiliate relationship between the BOOT and Qantas. The offer is for $15 a sale. The email invite contained this sentence as the big hook to draw me in

"I’m reaching out [to you] as I think Qantas is highly relevant for your site and traffic"

Why is that people write to me (to anyone) to pitch a business without have spent a moment to read the source material. Here are some quote from the BOOT about Qantas.

re relationship with Amadeus
"Unlike the PR love-ins of the previous announcements, Qantas was very happy to very publicly blame the whole thing on Amadeus. Newly appointed Qantas spokesman David Epstein used all of the tact that his former Labour party bosses are famous for by being very polite in his finger pointing but stating clearly and cleanly" [full post]

re service on the A380
"More and more this [service] becomes Qantas' weak point. It is provided to their schedule not the passengers'." [full post]

re the outrageous prices on the AU-US route
"Right now Qantas is gouging me and every other customer on the Pacific Route (East Coast Australia to West coast USA). " [full post]

re changes to frequent flyer program
"I have been fuming about the recent changes to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program." [full post]

re a VOD system that did not work for two years
"Shame on you Mr Cox and shame on you Qantas. Your customers are telling you the system is busted, your staff are telling you the system is busted and the best solution you can come up with is moving seats. This is completely useless advice" [full post]

re Price fixing in air cargo
"Aaah Qantas - the "spirit of Australia". So long as you mean old fashioned pre-colonial convict spirit of Australia to steal as much as you can from anyone you can." [full post]

And this is just a sample. It is not all negative for Qantas here on the BOOT. There are some high praise/positive posts including these three:

• "Thank you Qantas";
• They remain in my top 5 airlines in the world; and
• "In defence of Qantas."

But this is not a site that (if I was Qantas) I would want to be sending to cheques to or having my booking engine on. Clearly Affiliate Future have just printed out a list of top ranked or trafficked sites in travel - especially those generating links for seat reviews - and not bothered to actually look at the site to see if the content would suit the partner.

Let this be my version of the warning post to PR companies and marketing people. Take a moment - just 5 mins will be enough- to look at my site before you write to me. How embarrassing.

First Class is dead. Long Live First Class.

10 years ago last month(January 2000) British Airways changed business class flying forever when they introduced the lie flat business class seat. I am sure that the revenue management team putting together the pricing and yielding plan for that launch did not realise that 10 years later they would be causing the death of first class. The launch itself completely changed the pricing for the standard 3 class airlines. In the early nineties (with the old Business Classes) the general rule for pricing between Economy, Business and First was "double double". Business was twice the cost of Economy. And First twice the cost of Business. But with flat beds stripping out seats, the pricing had to change. The rule went from "double double" to "by four by one point five". Sydney to Europe in economy was a $2,500, Business by 4 at $10,000 and First by 1.5 at $15,000. The gap between the price of Economy and the price of Business grew too great to withstand the Global F'n Crisis.

Today Qantas announced (during the publication of their results) that they would spend $400mm refitting most of the fleet to eliminate first class in all but 12 of its A380s.

On Jan 26 this year Air NZ announced their new plans for class configurations. They announced a revamped business, high end premium economy and the first efforts at beds in economy class. It does not include a first class (Upgrade:Travel Better blog post here on the announcement).

I therefore conclude that First Class is on its deathbed. My prediction is that within the next 3 years (by end 2013) all but the most luxurious of carriers that have flat or near flat Business Class seats (ie everyone bar Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and maybe Singapore) will follow suit and remove First Class from their configurations. That will leave Business as the new First with a huge gap to Premium Economy and smaller gap to Economy. In effect having moved from a 3 class airlines product to a 4 class airline product to a 2.5 class range of product.

But the change will continue. I predict that over the course of the following 7 years (starting in 2013 and ending in 2020) the seats in premium economy will start to lean a little more, then be spaced out a little further, then go a little flatter, then have their own lounges and check ins and finally an airline will announce Krug being served in "Business Class". We will realise that Airlines are back to the "natural order" of front of the plane with flat beds, middle of the plane with large, very comfortable seats and the back filled with grouchy people wondering why they signed up for the "enhanced transportation techniques" afforded by economy class.

In other words we are witnessing the end of First Class....until they rename Business, flatten out Premium and we go round again. Do you agree?

PS - if you like stories and analysis on the life, death and opulence of first class travel check out Shashank Nigam August 2009 post on SimplyFlying called " Singapore Airlines A380 Suites – A Class Beyond First or a First Class Branding Debacle?".

thanks to x-ray delta one via flickr for the photo of a 1959 707 first class on board lounge area

Qantas to Amadeus – what the hell was that???!?

In 2007 Amadeus and Qantas were riding high. A joy filled press release heralded that their relationship would bloom for another ten years. The then CIO John Willett was full of praise saying

"The development of Altéa [Amadeus' airline customer management system], which has become the leading customer management solution for airlines, has been a milestone for the industry and we expect that the next 10 years will help us to innovate further,"

A year later there was a new CIO at Qantas (Jamila Gordon) and the good times continued. The companies announced that the Altéa system was fully implemented. Gordon was filled with the joy and expectation that can only be found in press releases

"Exceptional customer service is a key competitive weapon and you can only deliver this by understanding the needs of individuals which is what the integrated Altéa system provides." She added, "As the operating environment for airlines gets tougher, it is essential that technology is able to both deliver greater operational efficiency as well as support the implementation of policies that build customer loyalty and drive increased revenues."

Remember those words “deliver greater operational efficiency”.

Fast forward to Jan 3 2010 and the Amadeus and Qantas bromance took a blow (though it does not look fatal) when the Amadeus Altéa system appeared to suffer a world wide hour long blue screen of death crash-a-doodle-do. Automated check-in came crashing down. Customers were stuck and airline crews abused. Qantas firstly called it “intermittent” (SMH) . But later an ABC commentator found out that the system had crashed on three separate occasions during the outage period. Delays, angry customers and twitter rant–a-thons ensued.

Unlike the PR love-ins of the previous announcements, Qantas was very happy to very publicly blame the whole thing on Amadeus. Newly appointed Qantas spokesman David Epstein used all of the tact that his former Labour party bosses are famous for by being very polite in his finger pointing but stating clearly and cleanly

"We are seeking assurances this won't happen again,"

(according to a report from the ABC)

The Herald Sun very neatly summed up the response from Amadeus to the blame game “Amadeus could not be reached for comment”. I bet they couldn’t.

Thanks to Aaron Frutman over at Flickr for the phot of Kobe in flight

Resurrection of ReadyRooms - New life for former Qantas online hotels brand

In July 2004, Qantas proudly announced the launch of ReadyRooms (another announcement story here). An online last minute hotel booking system to take on Wotif, Lastminute.com.au (then owned by travel.com.au now owned by Wotif) and RatestoGo (owned by Orbitz). Then sometime around late 2006 early 2007 the ReadyRooms brand disappeared from Qantas sites. It was replaced with a generic "Qantas Hotels" brand. I noticed the brand confusion in this review post of the Qantas online hotels product.

I have just discovered that the ReadyRooms brand and product is back. I spotted a banner advert for the new site and clicked through. Subsequently I have seen a post over at the Publicis Digital site (an advertising firm) saying that they launched the campaign for the new site on October 21 2009.

This new version of ReadyRooms is not being operated by Qantas. Instead, the brand is part of Jetset Travelworld - Australia's number 3 offline travel company. But this does not mean that Qantas has complete divorced itself from ReadyRooms. In June 2008 Jetset Travelworld bought Qantas Holidays off Qantas in exchange for Qantas taking a 58% stake in Jetset (PDF press release here). The "new" ReadyRooms a look, feel and colouring that is not at all like Qantas so there is a clear desire to establish a new and separate brand. But the search results, pricing and hotels are exactly the same as the Qantas Hotels product. Like the Qantas version Jetset's ReadyRooms charges at $4.95 booking fee (called a credit card fee) [note - no fee charged on debit cards. Just credit cards]. Critically - unlike ReadyRooms, the Qantas version of the product comes with frequent flyer miles. In other words Jetset's ReadyRooms is the same product as the Qantas Hotel's product but with less benefits. Not sure that will work.

Jetset have also launched ReadyFlights to sell air. Clearly Jetset have decided their strategy is to go online with a whole new brand approach to get around frachisee issues.

Mile Run: Frequent flyer miles, obsessions and what to do with my relationship with Qantas

I have been mulling over my relationship with Qantas. I have just achieved life time Gold status with them while also qualifying for my ninth year in a row as one of their Platinum fliers. That said, I have not flown Qantas long haul for almost a year. My last trip was economy class Qantas to Singapore almost a year ago. I held my Platinum status through domestic trips on QF and long haul trips on oneworld partners Cathay Pacific, BA and JAL. Choice played a role (I am a big fan of CX Business Class) but more often than not it was price that put me on BA and CX rather than QF - especially as my company has a United preference for Australia to US travel.

So I started a forum thread over at FrequentFlyer.com.au on whether I should chase Qantas Platinum status for another year or move my main frequent flyer account over to BA, CX or American. The discussion is here.

At the same time I cam across this video on the fantastic Elliott.org blog. It is a 18min video documentary of flying enthusiasts/nuts chasing mileage status and bonuses. Including an amazing story of a guy that paid people in northern Thailand to fly a particular routing on Thai four times a day to collect Star Alliance points. Reminded me of the famous Pudding Guy (David Phillips) who earned 1.25mm frequent flyer miles in 1999 just by buying 12,150 yoghurt container sized serves of chocolate pudding.

If you don't have time to watch the video then here are some of the statistical take aways from the video are (in part drawn from a great Economist article from 2005 called "Funny money; Frequent-flyer miles" - pdf version here):

• There are 17-20 Trillion unspent frequent flier miles in circulation;
• This is enough for redemption for 800 million US domestic trip;
  
• This is enough for 160 million first class trips form the US to Asia; and
• (according to the Economist), this is more in circulation that there are dollar bills in the US.
  

As the Econmist says with that much "currency" in circulation and no one looking to restrict or manage supply then regular devaluations are inevitable. In other words - having lots of miles ig great but if you don't spend them then they will be devalued over time. They have to be. Here is the video.

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

thanks to msmail for the photo at flickr

Thank you Qantas

It has been a very difficult week for the BOOT and family. Within moments of turning up for TRAVELtech in Sydney I received a phone call telling me that a close and dear relative had collapsed while on holiday in Berlin, was in a coma and was given a less than 50% chance of living. As you can imagine this was frightening, overwhelming and distressing. Thankfully it is 9 days later and I am on the way home from Berlin to Sydney leaving behind someone who has defied the odds, is in recovery and under the care of fantastic doctors and other family members. With great relief I can now smile and go home.

This is a story for the Business Of Online Travel because there is a travel angle to this harrowing family experience. Within moments of hearing of my relative’s condition I knew I had to get to Berlin fast. I was able – within 60 hours of that first call – to walk into the hospital in Berlin and be a support for my relative and contact for the rest at home all because Qantas did everything they could to be accommodating and helpful. I have been a top tier flyer for Qantas for now 9 years but have also (through this blog) been one of their loudest critics. But when they have come through for me I have also given them praise. This is one of those times. Not only did they get me a points seat on the most convenient flight for me, they we proactive in exploring options and reaching out to me. In addition they were able to deal with my obvious distress and emotional state in a very professional and courteous manner. Thank you Qantas.

I also want to give my thanks to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the consulate in Berlin. They provided support and assistance before and after I arrived in Berlin well beyond any expectation that I had.

Three lies the travel industry keeps telling consumers (with Qantas, Hilton and Virgin Express examples)

Again and again the travel industry thinks that lying to a customer is the best way out of an uncomfortable situation. As a consumer of online travel (a COOT rather than a BOOT) I have come across three standard lies that the industry keeps telling me. They are:

1. I would like to help you but "the system" wont let me;

2. The flight/hotel/boat/train is fully booked; and

3. The flight/boat/train is on time.

Here are those three lies in action. What is common across each of these lies is that I actually received the service or result I was looking for. In each case the service provider gave me something that I did not by rights deserve and helped me out. But I had to work through the lies to get it. The result is that instead of leaving with a fantastic feeling of "thank you for going the extra mile" I leave with "why the hell did you make s$%t up"

Lie 1 care of Qantas "I would like to help you but the system wont let me"

I was in Melbourne yesterday for work, flying Qantas domestic and my meeting finished early. I was on a very restrictive fare so was owed no favours and did not expect any. On the off chance I went to the counter of the Qantas lounge to ask for earlier flight. Either I was going to get a break with an earlier flight or spend three hours on the lounge wi-fi and drinks buffet.

Here is the exchange with the lounge agent as he was busily typing away in the rez system

Agent - " your fare is an inflexible one. Sometimes 'the system' allows me to make a change but sometimes 'they' wont 't let me"

Note the use of the 'they' and the reference to 'the system'. A strong message to me that if there is bad news, it will not be his (the agent's) fault. He went on

Agent- " I am sorry but I can't change these fares"

My colleague and I were about to step aside when another agent (Agent 2) leans over to the first Agent (Agent 1) and says

Agent 2 - "we are getting reports of very bad weather on the way. You should get them [ ie me] out as soon as you can."

Agent 1 - "OK"

He returns to typing on his screen and thirty seconds later gives us two boarding passes for the flight leaving in 25 mins

In one big respect I am grateful to Qantas. I found out (care of a tripit pro alert) that my original flight left almost two hours late. So by putting me on the earlier flight I was home four and a half hours earlier than if I had stayed on the original flight. My fare type did not give me any right to a change. But why did the agent feel the need to blame the system and 'them' when clearly he had complete authority to make a change. I would have understood it if he had told me that my fare was too restrictive and that he would get back to me on a stand by basis later rather than lie to me about how much influence he had.

Lie 2 care of Hilton "The hotel is fully booked"

Back in Cendant days I found myself at the Hilton in Parsippany. A horrible place at the best of times (not Hilton's fault) made worse during one very cold January visit when the company asked me to stay on for four more days than I planned. I called down to the front desk and here is the exchange

Me - "I am due to check out now, but would like to stay. Can I stay longer?"

Front Desk - "I am sorry sir but we are fully booked"

Me - " that's a shame as I would like to stay another four days"

Front Desk - "oh...that's fine I will adjust the check out date"

Me - "do I have to change rooms?"

Front Desk - "no, that's fine...you can stay where you are"

Clearly when I asked to stay longer the front desk person thought I was asking for a late check out not an extension. Understandable given my choice of words But instead of telling me the truth (that for whatever reason late check out was not available) her first instinct was to lie (we are full).

Lie 3 care of Virgin Express "your flight is on time"

I have told this story before in a post about a time I forgot my passport on a trip from London to Brussels. Here is the short version.

I was running very late for a Virgin Express flight (now Brussels Airlines). Here is the exchange with the reservation centre.

Me - "Is this flight on time?"

Virgin Express - "Yes sir, right on time."

Me - "I know you are supposed to say that but I actually need the flight to be delayed as I am running late. So tell me, is the flight on time?"

Virgin Express - "OK sir, the flight is running about 20 mins late."

Me - "Are you sure. I need the flight to be about an hour late for me to make it."

Virgin Express - "OK sir, I am tracking the flight at about an hour and a half late."

Me - "great. Thanks. I'll make it."

Again I benefited from the outcome (catching a flight I should have missed) but the lie was clearly built into the culture and standard customer response script.

Why does the industry do it

My theory is that the industry has created so many complex rules around pricing and yield management that enforcing the resulting restrictions and consumer segmentation has become more of a focus than serving the customer. The rate complexity requires customer care agents to either be very blunt with customers (I am sorry you can't have that because you didn't pay for it ) or undermine their pricing (ok I will give this to you even though you should pay) or lie (I wish I could do it but I can't). The pricing/product differences are a challenge but the right response is better customer care training, improved customer profiling and trusting that giving a customer a last minute helping hand is not going to do long term damage to your pricing structure. Lying to a customer is not (and is never) the right answer

Any thoughts? Do you have examples of when you were lied to or asked to lie to a customer?

Update - other great "lies" that I have seen in twitter responses include

• "the hotel is right by the beach";
• "your flight is boarding now".
  

thanks to La Tête Krançien's at Flickr for the photo

Seat Review - Qantas A380 International Premium Economy

Madame BOOT was in Venice recently for work. Yes she is a road warrior traveller as well. And Yes there are people that work in Venice. Her trip gave the BOOT family an opportunity to review Qantas' new A380 Premium Economy Product. Her quick summary of the experience "Happiness is a low base". Her expectations of Qantas service going into the flight were bad and results were above her expectations. I asked her - "Did you feel like the service was of a standard that should come out of a $10mm investment in the new Qantas customer care centre". Her reply "the customer care is there so long as the customers do not interfere with process. The "process culture" rather than customer care culture of Qantas continues to hold back their product from the high level rating that the seat, entertainment and technical components deserve.

Update - my own review of the product is here where I rate Qantas Premium Economy as the best in it's class

The BOOT rating for Qantas International Premium Economy on the A380 is a 4.0 stars out of 6 or Good Seat". Here is the detailed review (Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews)

Getting on Board	Score 1.0
Madame BOOT had the additional bonus of a Gold membership to help with lounge access. Qantas' business class lounge is well stocked, large and comfortable. It gets a little crowded in nearly abandoned Heathrow Terminal 4 but Sydney and Singapore are a real oasis. As to boarding itself there is a dedicated queue for premium economy which filters straight upstairs for a simple and easy boarding process. A drink is offered immediately and cabin crew where available for help.
The Seat	Score 0.5
"Good but not incredible" was Madame's initial response. The recline is nowhere even in the realm of business class but does allow for sleeping. Unfortunately the foot rest was in the wrong position and at the wrong angle for Madame meaning that her feet were left dangling. This made it hard for her to find a comfortable position for her height. The space between the rows was noticeably greater than economy with "no sardine feeling". But the exit row seat for her return from London to Sydney came with a cost. The exit row extends across the cabin and gives more room to the middle section of seats but this is then used by passengers and (most appalling) staff as a thoroughfare. Means that her relaxation was constantly and regularly interrupted by staff members looking for a short cut from one aisle to the other. Thankfully the VOD screens come out of the arm rest rather than seat in front so the regular herd like movements of wandering crew did not interrupt viewing. The interruption by staff reduced the score here form a 1.0 to a 0.5. The staff culture having a negative impact on the quality of the seat.
The Service	Score 0.0
More and more this becomes Qantas' weak point. It is provided to their schedule not the passengers'. Here are some examples. My wife woke at one point and asked for food outside a meal service (as encouraged by the menu). She was offered a sandwich but then made to wait over 30 minutes so they could bring it along with the next cabin service and therefore not interrupt their routine. On the way to London (not the A380) for a meal Madame was offered "lamb or fish". She asked for "fish", was provided with "lamb" and after a quizzical glance was told by the crew to "eat the lamb and ask for the fish if still hungry later". On the return flight Madame was very unwell and needed to use the bathroom. She stood and tried to give her tray to a crew member to allow her to get to the bathroom quickly. The crew member refused to accept the tray as he was busy. Not good enough Qantas. The training centre is not paying off.
The Food	Score 0.5
"Unremarkable" but closer to business class than economy.
The Entertainment	Score 1.0
Thankfully all of the glitches in the Qantas VOD system have been fixed. There is plenty to choose from. Madame commented particularly on the great selection of non-movie entertainment such as Louis Theroux docu-comedies. She particularly liked the dedicated "kids" button that allowed direct access to the children's entertainment.
The BOOT factor	Score 1.0
She loved the A380. Comments like "it is much quieter", "better air quality", "roomier", "space around you feels bigger". The plane makes a difference. Such as shame that the service culture takes away from this.
Final Score	4.0 - Good Seat

Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews

Lies, damn lies and statistics about Jetstar

I hate it when Airlines use statistics to tell bald-faced lies and make themselves sound more successful they they deserve to sound. I hate it at a purest marketing level and also because it helps perpetuate consumer mistrust of travel companies.

I came across a piece on TravelWeekly (AU) titled "Jetstar edges out rivals in share battle". Summary of the piece is that the Qantas owned Jetstar is now ahead of Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand in Australia in term of international market share. This (in theory) puts Jetstar in the number two international carrier spot behind Qantas. Jetstar's share (according to the article) is 9% of the international market in May up from 6.1% the previous year. But over the same period Qantas' share dropped from 26.2% to 22.4%. A large part of the drop in Qantas is because Jetstar flights replaced Qantas flights. A simple carrier for carrier switch by the parent company. Clearly the near 3% lift in Jetstar numbers was helped by the near 4% drop in Qantas carriage share. Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan (in his press release on this story) clearly attributes the results to the performance of the airline and does not credit being given free traffic and passengers by Qantas. By "free customers" I mean customers they did not have to earn by marketing to and beating a rival to acquire.

At a conference last year a Jetstar rep put up a graph showing the domestic number passengers that Jetstar was carrying per month since its launch in 2004 and compared that to the number of passengers that Ryanair was carrying four years after its launch. On that comparison Jetstar was way ahead of Ryanair, the clear implication being that Jetstar is a better LCC that Ryanair at this stage of their development. They supplement this on their website by praising themselves for winning awards such as the "Top 5 Carriers for Passenger Growth 2009" award.

However just like international it is unambiguous that Jetstar owe more of their domestic passenger growth to the huge amounts of "free" traffic/passengers they were given from Qantas routes being handed over to Jetstar than to any creative marketing or pricing on Jetstar's part. In fact I would argue that a number of their marketing campaigns would do more to turn customers off the airline rather than on. Whereas Ryanair had to steal/lure away each customer from BA, easyjet, Aer Lingus, Jetstar simply had to wait for the customers to turn up looking for a red rat tail and then resign themselves to being served by people dressed in grey and orange.

I am not arguing that Jetstar is a bad airline. They have a much more enjoyable product offering than Ryanair and other LCCs I have flown. But to celebrate this growth as if they had started from a zero base (like Raynair and Virgin Blue) is disingenuous to say the least.

Am I being too tough of Jetstar? What do you think?

Thanks to StarvingFox at flickr for the photo

Top 5 ways to know that your airline is trouble

Madame BOOT's sister lost a day and hundreds of Euros this week with the collapse of Italian low cost carrier MYair as her flight from Paris to Venice ceased to be. Two things came out of this. First - it is one thing to have travel insurance (which my sister-in-law has), but it is another to find in the fine print that the policy excludes costs from airline bankruptcy. This is definitely something all consumers should be checking before buying travel insurance. Second- it turned me to thinking about the top five signs that your airline or flight is in trouble. Here they are

5. Like USAir flight 1549- Kamikaze Canadian Geese are seen in the vicinity for your aircraft;

4 Like United Airlines - you put your very creative but completely incomprehensible sea orchestra advert on Youtube and hit 16,500 views. Then an unknown Canadian country and western band do a cheesy song on your baggage handling stupidity and who cares customer service attitude and it gets 4.3 million views and a distribution deal with iTunes;

3. Like Alitalia - the leader of your country (Berlusconi) promises to revolutionise your national carrier (Alitalia), keeping it in local hands, restoring it to its former glory and bringing back profitability, sunshine and smiling children. Result a much smaller airline, part owned by foreigners Air France, merged with a smaller rival (AirOne), still stuck with the same union contracts and children crying over lost baggage;

2. Like Qantas - you spend 2 years developing a brand new video on demand system and claim that it is the best in the world. It does not matter that it is not the best system in the world but it does matter that for more than two years the VOD system does not work ; and

1. Like Italian Low Cost Carrier MYair - your airline is so badly run that even the Italian Civil Aviation Authority feels compelled to suspend their lunchtime nap and annual "bring your mates to work" day celebration to suspend your licence.

Update - had to add a number 6 that I remember

6. Like World Focus Air - your airline has a "W" as the key brand icon and changes its name from "World Focus Air" to "Ank Air" but keeps the "W" prominently displayed on the plane (check out the original post and picture if you do not yet get the almost not safe for work reference)

What other signs do you have for an uncertain traveller to watch for?

thanks to break.com for the photo

Qantas Hotels - temporarily unavailable

Bad day at the office for Qantas.com. First time I have seen on their website a promotion around "no hotel booking fees" and at the same time their "hotel bookings are temporarily unavailable" Oops. Image below.

Qantas customer service centre tour - the BOOT is feeling hopeful

Back in February Qantas announced the launch of a new Customer Service Excellence centre.

This tripped my interest because I have long commented on the need for customer service improvements at Qantas. I have described the current culture as a "process culture" meaning that the staff looked to follow the processes set for them and get you through the flight rather than focused on making the flight the best it can be. I do this as both a blogger and top tier (platinum) flier with Qantas.

To Qantas' credit they agreed to talk to me more about the Customer Service Centre, to answer some questions I had on it and offer me a tour.

I serve a lot of criticism Qantas' way but in the case of this centre I was very impressed. You could see where the money was spent. They have invested in creating a physical location for each of the main cabin experiences (first, business, premium economy, international economy, domestic economy, Qantas link). They have filled the space with plenty of employee morale building activities but also what appeared to be genuinely well thought out training spaces. For example in addition to having fully functioning mock aircraft cabins for service training I saw a a dedicated sommelier training section for on board wine training (there are some 2-2,500 accredited "sommeliers in the sky"). Another example was the way I say classes being set up directly in the mock on board and lounge environments. Classes made up of teams from different parts of the business looking at customer care issues.

Qantas are claiming that this centre represents a $10mm investment and will cover all elements of the business. Every single person will go through it in an aim to make the customer experience part of every element of the business.

Beyond the building they have also set up the training to be applied to all members of the company. The comms staff taking me on the tour used the phrase "end to end customer experience" to explain the aim of having every single company employee from all departments to come through the training. They are aiming to have 18,000 people through the centre this year (110 a day).

The theory behind this is that they recognise while price is a clear factor in decision making by customers it is not the only one. Qantas want this training program and supporting internal work to drive the customer service to be a decisive factor in customers' choosing to fly with Qantas. I get this approach and think it is the right focus for the Qantas brand. I have been in customer research events where initially customers talk about the importance of price. Then you confront the customer with the impact of price based decisions (distance from the beach, level of facilities, number of staff, quality of food) and customer quickly tell you that what they meant is that value is what they are looking for not just price

By nature I am a surly traveller and past experience around Qantas leaves me to be hesitant to provide too much praise but I left the tour filled with hope that the monetary investment and staff time commitment that this centre represented indicated a turning point in Qantas' approach to customer service. So Qantas...you have now raised my expectations and set me up to be interested in the product again. Please don't disappoint.

Here are some more photos of the centre

Appendix
Below is an email exchange of questions and answers with Qantas during the research for this post. The answers are a bit too PR/Comms controlled for incorporation in the main part of this post but I will publish them here for you if interested.

The BOOT: What is your feeling as to the perception customers have of Qantas' level of customer service? Is this perception at the level you would like it to be?

Qantas: Our customers tell us we generally provide a high standard of customer service. However, our ambition is to be recognised as the world’s best premium airline and as an organisation that is defined by customer service excellence, so we are raising the bar.

The BOOT: Are there particular areas of customer service/care training that are a focus of this centre? Are there areas of weakness in customer care that have been identified as requiring focus?

Qantas: With regards to customer service excellence, we consider two concepts of equal importance. A consistent, brand-aligned and seamless customer experience is critical to our success and that every employee, customer facing or one or more steps removed, has a vital role to play in the customer experience.

The BOOT: What role has the Qantas Advisory Panel played in your planning for this Centre and customer service training in general?

Qantas: The Qantas Customer Advisory Panel supports our business with the ongoing refinement of our customer product and services. We work with the Panel on a regular basis to validate and test strategies and initiatives and to determine where we need to focus our efforts. Our research indicates there is an opportunity to drive consistency across the touch points and the Centre provides us with a resource to do just that.
The BOOT: Have any changes been made in the way you train staff or focus on customer service as a result of the feedback from the Qantas Advisory Panel? If so, what changes?

Qantas: The Panel tells us we need to be providing our customers with a consistently high standard of customer service at every stage of the customer journey.

Qantas has always been very customer service focussed and we train people in many ways using contemporary face-to-face methods, a variety of print collateral, digital (including eLearning) and broadcast tools. However, the Qantas Centre of Service Excellence provides us with a unique opportunity to bring all our customer service excellence training under the one roof – and, using the state-of-the-art brand experience space, along with techniques that immerse our people in the different product offerings and service expectations, people are inspired and clearly understand what is required to realise our vision.

In addition, as we recognise that every employee has a role to play in the customer experience, we are now taking a cross-functional approach to customer service training. Throughout 2009, the Centre will host nearly 18,000 people – more than half of the Qantas Group in ‘exceptional’ service training – from CEO, Alan Joyce right down to the frontline. The training is well underway and the positive feedback indicates the fresh, adult-style approach to learning benefiting the audience greatly.

The BOOT: Will the training at the centre be for Jetstar staff as well or just Qantas?

Qantas: The Centre is focussed on the Qantas brand experience, however we do represent our successful two-brand strategy to illustrate the depth and breadth of our domestic network offering.

The BOOT: How will you measure the return on investment for you/shareholders in this Centre? Put another way, how does Qantas put a price or "asset value" on customer care improvements?

Qantas: Customer satisfaction scores, brand recognition / loyalty and shareholder return will be considered when measuring the return on our $10 million investment.

The BOOT: With more air crew being based overseas are there plans for more of these centres in other locations (Bangkok, London)?

Qantas: On 27 November 2008 we opened the London Cabin Crew Training Centre which boasts the same guiding principles as the Sydney based Centre of Service Excellence. Its purpose-built experiential design has training and interview rooms for learning and development, events and wine training along with cabin simulators that represent our First, Business, Premium and Economy inflight offering.

Regarding other locations, we ensure that our learning and development programs can be executed off-shore to ensure that our teams, no matter where they are based, receive the same experience.

The BOOT: How much do the training programs differ between the different classes (econ, prem econ, bus, first) and the different environments (check in, lounge, air)?

Qantas: Training is tailored to the stage of the participant’s career (New trainees through to Managers) and the different customer product and service offerings. However we are aligning our ‘standards’ and ‘signatures’ right across the touch points and have four service behaviours: that provide us with a united way of working ensuring that the service our customers receive, is exceptional, at every stage of their journey.

Seat Review - Qantas international economy class

Recently I flew economy class on Qantas from Sydney to Singapore and back. It was the first time I had flown long haul economy in about 5 years. I was nervous but by keeping the flights to single legs and flying during the day I found it manageable. The Qantas economy experience was better than I expected with some pleasant surprises but still some disappointments in service delivery and entertainment. The service elements drags down an otherwise great experience.



The BOOT rating for Qantas International Economy is a 3.5 out of six or "Good". Here is the detailed review (Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews)

Getting on Board	Score 0.5
It is hard to give a fair measure of the economy class boarding experience as my Qantas frequent flyer platinum status means I can check-in via the first class window and board early. That said the people around me appeared to flow quickly. Sure we took off late - but that is now a given at Sydney airport
The Seat	Score 0.5
Snaps to QF for giving me the best economy seat they could (exit, aisle, left hand side). The seat itself is comfortable (standard 31'' pitch). The recline is standard economy with the adjustable headrest being a real bonus. The controls for the video system are in an odd spot. They are at knee height meaning each time I moved while watching a movie I bumped the control and interrupted the film. Eventually I needed to take it out of the holder and hung it over the side of the seat.
The Service	Score 0
Qantas runs a process culture at present. Meaning that staff are well versed in processing a customer through the stages of each flight. But they are missing the important part of customer service - meeting the unexpected needs of the consumer. Great customer service comes with a customer is surprised by how quickly their needs are anticipated and met. During the flight I made a number of requests that were ignored or took too long to fulfil such as request for drinks outside of food service and requests for another pillow. Am hoping to find out more about planned improvements here soon.
The Food	Score 1.0
Food is one of Qantas' consistent strong points. The meals were tasty with fun touches in desert and snacks
The Entertainment	Score 0.5
I come to any review of Qantas inflight entertainment with a bias drawn from continued system failure and apparent ambivalence from Qantas (previous stories here). On this occasion the entertainment system worked and there was a fine selection of movies but there were sill three annoying features: 1 The placement of the control (see above); 2. The time to activation. Qantas seem to delight in waiting as long as possible before turning on the service and playing compulsory videos to further delay the time before I can press play and zone out. Competitors in this space make videos available as soon as the seatbelt sign is off. On QF it can take as much as 20 mins past that point; and 3 Limited TV shows. Competitors such as Cathay and Virgin Atlantic are offering whole seasons of shows (watched a whole season of '24' on a recent CX flight). These are missing from Qantas. But it was working so can't complain (too much)
The BOOT factor	Score 1.0
Two things pleasantly surprised me about the flight 1. A trolley service after the main meal with hot chocolate and peppermint tea came as a complete and very pleasant surprise. I would not have thought to ask for peppermint tea but it hit the spot on refreshment mid flight 2. A trip planner leaflet was handed out listing when during the flight things would occur such as meal service. This little thing (which I've not seen before) made the flight more enjoyable as it took out guess work from the flight
Final Score	3.5 - Good Seat

Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews



thanks to fboosman on flickr for the photo

Qantas and BOOT are talking

Quick update - My post yesterday generated a nice response from the Qantas Media Office. Will share with you soon what I find out about their new customer service training centre

Qantas feeling world pain and wont return my calls

Despite a revenue growth of 2% to $7.92 billion, Qantas has joined the list of airlines being beaten up by the economic smack-down. Profits are down 66% to $210mm for the second half of calendar 08 from $618mm the previous year. Shares are currently in a trading halt - at time of writing - pending an announcement on a capital raising (full news story here care of SMH). I would not normally run a post on declining results for an airline like Qantas (because that is what we have online newspapers for) but in this case it reminded me that I have been trying to get in touch with Qantas media/comms staff and have heard nothing.

Last week Qantas announced a new $10 million customer service training centre. This peaked my interest as I have regularly commented that Qantas appears to have a culture of process rather than service. I wrote to the media contact at Qantas (bottom of the press release) and asked if they would be interested in giving me a briefing on the new facility. That was last Friday. As of today - Wednesday - no reply.

Now it is possible that they think I am so negative on Qantas that it is not worth giving me a briefing. But that would be an unfair assessment of the BOOT. While there are plenty of critical comments on the blog about Qantas - especially on the glitches/failures on of the in flight entertainement system - I also have positive comments such as my post "In defence of Qantas" and have rated Qantas as number 5 on my list of top 5 airlines. But even so, surely they would want to talk to any commentator - especially negative ones- about service improvements. The other possibility is that that the Qantas media/PR team simply do not reply to bloggers. If that is true, then they have their heads in the old media sand. There are so many examples of social media impacting on Qantas as a brand. My blog is the number two hit in Google (on my results) for "Qantas VOD". Message board and info-blog FrequentFlyer.com.au is the number two in Google for "QFF" (the shorthand for Qantas Frequent Flyer). Twitter is awash with commentary about Qantas etc etc etc

I hope the real answer is that they just haven't gotten round to writing back yet. If so, Qantas - if you're listening - email me.

Qantas and British Airways merger means bringing the pacific pain to the Kangaroo Route

Story on CNN that BA is in talks with Qantas over a merger (thanks to iKangaroo on twitter where I spotted the story).

I hate this idea.

Right now Qantas is gouging me and every other customer on the Pacific Route (East Coast Australia to West coast USA). Qantas earns 40% more revenue per passenger kilometre on that route than the Kangaroo route because...they can. And they "can" because there is no competition. The only "competitor" (if you can call it that) is United. The US and Australian governments have restricted who can fly this route - ensuring profit good times for Qantas and high prices for me. There are possible long way round options with Canadian and Hawaiian Airlines but the routings and timings are terrible. V-Australia (Virgin Blue's long haul play) is due on the route in Feb 2009 but there is only limited capacity improvements expected and how they will connect out of LA to other US destinations is not clear. Basically Qantas own this route and take advantages of customers because of it.

I ranted about this a lot in a recent post - "Open Skies between the US and Australia: There is no one I don't hate right now".

Currently we (travelling consumers) have been spared this gouging on the Kangaroo Route (Australia to UK/Europe and a Qantas Trade mark) because more than thirty carriers fly this route in addition to BA and Qantas from the well respected - Singapore, Cathay, Emirates, Virgin-Atlantic, Etihad, to the mid ranges - Malaysian and Thai, to the micro and niche - AirAustral, to the "no way in hell would I get on it" - Garuda.

But the UK and AU governments let BA and Qantas enter into a "Joint Services Agreement(JSA)" in 1995 allowing them to

"coordinate scheduling, marketing, sales, freight and customer service activities"

In other words to engage in behaviour that otherwise would be anti-competitive. When accused of this BA and Qantas point to the above facts - that 30+ carriers fly the route as proof that competition continues. However since the JSA was signed the following airlines have pulled out of the route - KLM, Alitalia, Air France, Lufthansa, Lauda Air, Austrian Air. Do you see a common theme? In fact there is now not one Continental European carrier flying the route. Not one. All have been forced to pull out because of the scheduling and marketing collusion of BA and Qantas under the JSA (OK..maybe in the case of Alitalia there have been other causes).

I have a (legitimate) concern that a merged BA and Qantas will have further competition consequences and help Qantas to extend their Pacific gouging to the Kangaroo route. If the government is listening please squash this. Then again it is the AU government(s) that allowed the JSA and Pacific Route dominance to continue.

Update - Delta have announced they will fly the route around July 2009. The Cranky Flier has written a post showing what this means in terms of flight schedules across the Pacific.

Qantas story and ad mishap in Age newspaper

Australian Broadcasting Corporation media industry show Media Watch picked up a great "why did we put that ad on that page of the website" story involving Qantas and the online version of Melbourne's Age newspaper. Check it out.

Skytrax vs the BOOT - who do you agree with as the World's Best Airline

This year at the Skytrax 2008 World's Best Airline awards was Singapore Airlines' year (once again). Let's see how the Skytrax top 5 compared to the BOOT.

The Skytrax top 5 Airlines:
1. Singapore Airlines
2. Cathay Pacific
3. Qantas
4. Thai Airways
5. Asiana

The BOOT top 5 Airlines
1. Singapore Airlines
2. Virgin Atlantic
3. British Airways
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Qantas

Amazed to see that neither BA nor VS made the top ten in the Skytrax list. As hard a time as I give Qantas - I agree that they deserve the award for the Best First Class Lounge. The Sydney lounge is in a class beyond any other I have visited. It is with some interest that I note that Qantas is nowhere to be found on the list of best inflight entertainment. It seems a minimum criteria for the award is that the inflight entertainment system works

Qantas Frequent Flyer Any Seat change - a 1 cent slap in the face

I have been fuming about the recent changes to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. In classic Qantas speak, they have announced a revolution in their program through the launch of Qantas Any Seat Rewards. Rather than limiting the number of seats available for purchase with frequent flyer miles, they split the seats that can be purchased into two types.

There are "Classic Award" seats. These are seats available under the same fixed points basis - 64,000 for one way to London Economy. How many of these are available on any particular flight is anyone's guess.

Then there is the new Any Seat Awards which do not limit the seat availability (other than number of seats on the plane) but it is price on application. Qantas will only tell you the Any Seat points price once you call them. Shocking stories are emerging. Over at frequentflyer.com.au they are running a competition for the "Most Expensive Anytime QFF Award". A couple of examples.

• Perth to Alice Springs under classic is 16,000 points. Under Any Seat 203,000 points; 1169% premium;
• Perth to Sydney to LAX to New York return in first class under classic is 384,000. Under Any Seat 2,459,244 points. A premium of 540%; and
  
• Sydney to Frankfurt business return in June 2009 (a full year away) is 256,000 under classic. Under Any Seat 1,137,133. A premium of 354%.
  

Only Qantas could have the outrageous gall to spend millions on marketing to promote as a benefit to me a program designed to increased the cost of frequent flyer seats.

One of the people posting raised a fantastic example of Qantas using this program to rip off consumers. User "platy " tracked a Honolulu to Sydney one-way flight departing in a month's time for 128,000 points. This is a flight that can be bought for $400 inc taxes. That means 320 points per dollar. Eight times the usual redemption rate. On a business class trip to the US I usually collect around 42,000 points (including status benefits) at at cost of around $12,000. That means I am getting about 3.5 points to the dollar. If it costs me 320 points in the dollar to get an Any Seat reward then Qantas is valuing my loyalty at a reward of about 1.09 cents in the dollar. For every dollar I spend they want to reward me with a 1% rebate. I suspect that we are seeing the end of value in the Qantas Frequent Flyer Program.

In a world where they consider to reward loyalty with a 1% discount then there is no longer any point balance value to loyalty with Qantas. There maybe other value drivers for customers such as lounge access but points are no longer a reason to be a QFF.

If you think it is just bloggers that are mad then check out the rant by Paul Sheehan in the today's Sydney Morning Herald under the heading "Qantas Burns a Precisous Resource" . He concludes that

Qantas enters the oil shock era as one of the world's strongest, largest and best-managed airlines. But the last four times this once doggedly loyal Qantas frequent flyer went to Europe he flew on Air China, Etihad and Finnair

Note to Qantas and Qantas Frequent Flyers. Singapore Airlines has been running an Any Seat Reward style program for years. The difference they tell you up front the price for redeeming a seat not allocated to frequent flyers. The difference is simply double.