Qantas has lost that Aussie spirit

Picture this. You are sitting on your couch at home in Perth at eight on a Thursday evening, 12 hours before your flight to Sydney. Relaxing after a busy day, you receive a text that sends your blood pressure sky-high.

‘We may have more passengers on your upcoming flight … than seats available. This can happen for a number of reasons … To confirm a seat on an alternative flight, click on this link.’

You then click the link and find the only option that will allow you to attend an important virtual interview scheduled for 6.30am WST/9.30am EDST and your school reunion at midday on Saturday turns out to be the red-eye, which departs at 11.55pm, less than three hours away.

After confirming the flight change and amending the pre-booked parking, you hastily shower, throw more clothes than you need in a suitcase, and lock up the house, thankful you had the foresight to offload the dog to his alternative happy place earlier in the afternoon.

You then drive to the airport, doing deep breathing exercises to relieve aching temples and tightness in your chest.

Once you’ve parked, rushed to the terminal and checked-in your bag, you head for the lounge, which is heaving with people departing on the last flights of the day.

Politely, you ask the front desk staff if they can confirm that you will be able to shower at the lounge once you land in Sydney. The response is ‘no’, because you don’t have a business class ticket, are not booked on a forward journey or are not at platinum level.

Dismissed without a solution, you ask yourself why their problem has become yours?

As your blood pressure rises again and your head continues to pound, you go into problem-solving mode.

First, you email colleagues in Sydney, beginning with the obvious: ‘I know you won’t read this until the morning, but I need your help’.

As a plan B, you also send an urgent email to the apartment operator to see if you can check-in early, knowing you are unlikely to receive a reply overnight.

Well, this happened to me on Thursday February 29 on a flight that cost $1,082.63 plus the surrendering of 178,000 points.

Since then, the expletives I have used to describe Qantas are unpublishable.

The above are the hallmarks of a budget airline, not the flying kangaroo I once loved.

Qantas is lost in a mire of less-than-adequate service, which has become the norm. Flights depart late, staff are surly, food has been reduced and meal options are often depleted by the time the cabin crew is halfway down the plane, some flights to and from Perth have no blankets or pillows and (in my experience) the toilets are pungent and dirty.

I am not alone in my criticism.

Australian journalist Phillip Adams was so outraged at the brand’s lack of alignment with on-the-ground and in-the-air reality he said Qantas should stop using the ‘spirit of Australia’ tagline.

His post to then-Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, on Twitter (now X) in June 2022, says it all.

“I’m the author of ‘the spirit of Australia’. Then deserved, now tragically inappropriate. My slogan is hereby vetoed. Please remove it from all fuselages, tickets and advertising.”

What’s happened to our beloved Qantas to put it in such a poor state?

The board and executive, past and present, should be ashamed of what’s become of our nation’s once-treasured brand.

Newly installed chief executive Vanessa Hudson and her team have lots to do to get Qantas back to the level it once was. As part of the old guard, only time will tell if she is up to the task. As customers, we hold on to the lure of new aircraft and more flight choices.

In the meantime, I applaud and thank the airline staff who go out of their way to provide good service, fly us safely, and troubleshoot when necessary. The rest are a lacklustre group that needs retraining in customer service.

Qantas, you’ve become a disgrace. It’s outrageous that one of the jewels in Australia’s corporate crown is now no better than a flawed imitation of its former self.

• Marion Fulker is an adjunct associate professor at UWA