Is Qantas even pretending to be a full service airline any more? The latest wheeze from Alan Joyce’s giant travel lottery system is to in effect tell vegetarians, people with diet restrictions and travellers of faith to forget about being fed because the only thing they’ll get is meat.
Regular business traveller John Dee discovered recently that Qantas has adopted a “one-size-fits-all” approach to food on its regularly delayed flights: only meat — no kosher, gluten-free or halal options.
A Qantas spokesperson confirmed to Crikey “for domestic flights shorter than 3.5 hours in Economy Class, Qantas offers a single refreshment option per flight, such as a chicken pie or a zucchini and onion frittata. If the option on a particular flight is not suitable for vegetarians, we try to offer an alternative of a small sweet or savoury snack, which is vegetarian.”
And it’s true that on shorter legs there are sort of non-meat options — you can have some crackers and shrink-wrapped cheese or a small refrigerated muffin as you “sit back, relax and enjoy the service”. In fact, that’s all you’ll get. If that isn’t to your liking or you can’t stomach gluten, bad luck. Qantas seems to think its default passenger is some red-blooded Aussie who loves chowing down on flesh.
Qantas’ contempt for its workers — who it’s seeking to punish with big real wage cuts after illegally sacking 1700 of them during the pandemic — is clearly filtering through to its view of its passengers, who can look forward to delayed or cancelled flights on its ageing aircraft, losing their bags to some purgatorial airline dead zone, and not being able to eat if they prefer not to consume animals, or are people of faith with specific dietary requirements. And all for significantly higher fares.
Such is the extent of the awfulness of the experience of travelling on Qantas that there’s now a real question of whether there are any areas of the airline’s service left to be trashed, as a once-proud “national carrier” completes its descent to the levels of a budget airline plying the smaller routes of a developing country.
From the huge queues at check-in (which are your fault, Joyce said) through to the lottery of waiting to see if your bag makes it out the other end, Qantas seems to have gone out of its way to make the whole travel experience as much of an ordeal as possible. Only the long-suffering air crews, reduced to handing out Jatz and cheese and asking if you’d like some water with that, continue to try to cling to some standards of decent service — and are told to cop big wage cuts for their efforts.
Has Alan Joyce taken Qantas as low as it can get? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
I would have thought anyone with dietary restrictions wouldn’t rely on airlines to accommodate them. Even without dietary restrictions, I try to find options before / after a flight rather than rely on the food on board.
I’d think the better focus for an airline would be getting people and their belongings from A to B safety and efficiently. Food is an on-board PR exercise rather than an essential part of a flight – at least a short haul flight.
Too right.
This would be a “First World problem” if ever there was one.
Flying RyanAir which is an Irish owned very budget European airline, going through the departure area, travelers are encouraged to buy your own food to take with you and this works well. You can “sit down and shut up”. I had always said that I would never fly with them but last time we were in the UK, we flew to Dublin and were very pleasantly surprised. Due to mobility problems, we found the security people were so helpful and they organised wheelchair transport – over our protests, I’m delighted to say – which made the whole journey stress free.each way. It’s always been mocked but it sounds as if Qantas has slid down the ratings and would now rank below most other airlines. Which is such a shame as it was always something to be proud of. Perhaps Mr Jpyce might consider putting some of his many bonus payments into improving the service?
Why is it necessary to have a meal on a flight less than 3.5 hours in length? Is it so difficult to fast for several hours?
People who eat on short domestic flights are probably the same people who go to the cinema and insist on buying a large bucket of popcorn and large container of soft drink just in case they get peckish sitting in a comfortable seat.
Eating meat also is unnecessary. The article isn’t about necessities. It’s about a service Qantas used to offer, but now do not.
They used to do their own meal preparations, now it’s outsourced to a foreign owned entity. Which is why even long term employees, who stayed on when the caterer was bought out, could not get jobkeeper. Joyce has a lot to answer for. This is just another.
Totally agree.
Here’s an idea for cost-cutting Joyce, stop providing any food on domestic legs. It’s an unnecessary indulgence. Passengers require water to prevent dehydration but none are likely to keel over from starvation.
The savings would be substantial & could be diverted to restoring that commendable engineers’ apprentice system which has been relegated to Qantas history.
Sounds like a good way to lose market share to Virgin and whatever other competition is left in the Australian commercial air travel market. I’m all for it.
Giving people a meal keeps them occupied and keeps them in their seats. I believe that was the original purpose of meals on short haul.
If not in their seats where would they otherwise be?
Trying to walk off DVT from the cramped seating in zoo class?
The isles (you asked).
The Scottish or Irish ones?
The Arans?
So they should probably get their insulin levels checked.
Small bottles of juice or packets of biscuits should be available onboard should any diabetics need them.
Some don’t know they are pre- diabetic, I think constant hunger is a sign somethings up with blood sugar. Yeah, I’ve had to look after someone in an insulin crisis and get them something sweet, staff must be instructed what to do?
This has been the way from at least April when I flew with a group of students from Melbourne to Darwin. The lack of dietary options was frustrating (I’m vegan) but what was particularly problematic was the lack of knowledge whether the food they did have was allergen safe. I have students with some severe anaphylaxis and the cabin crew tried their best but said they honestly had no clue if even a nut-free dish was actually but free.
It’s pathetic.
I hate to sound unsympathetic, bur with severe dietary requirements, as I also have, I’d pack my own foods. A ex-airline personnel recently wrote a list of don’ts, and eating the food is one of them.
“It raises the question of whether there’s any part of the Qantas “service” that hasn’t been trashed under the current management,”
But I suspect that’s mainly due to long past Management. Or more recently the RAAF.
As a lifetime passenger of Qantas and one of the grateful pax who were hauled out of Cairo in early 2011 during their Spring Revolution, I have rapidly lost interest and respect for the company after Joyce took over.
And given Qantas “management” practices over the past nearly 2 decades and especially the last 5 or so years, I think its a case of “when” not “if” for their first jet aircraft loss.
If you look at the board I don’t think that there is anyone with engineering qualifications/experience so the fatal maintenance cost cut will go through unchallenged.
So Qantas is rapidly becoming an ex-airline which will require nationalisation to rebuild. Virgin has become an American airline and is trying to buy out Rex. I am going by car.
I love it when people who advocate for privatisation on grounds of “efficiency” complain that Qantas has to compete with publicly-owned overseas airlines (Like Qantas used to be)
Privatisation the root of all evil . .. worse service and higher costs – EVERY TIME
We go by train where available, always Sydney/Melbourne.
I wish there were high-speed trains…
As long as Alan Joyce doesnt runthem