Qantas are the best airline in the world in my opinion. I have flown to almost every continent (yet to do the over-Antarctic New Years flight with Qantas -but it's on the bucket list). I've flown most of the prestige big airlines (Singapore Airlines, Emirates, etc.). I fly regularly domestically from regional centres and between capital cities in Australia - usually on a monthly to six-weekly basis. I normally fly internationally once a year these days (far less after a DVT and a positively terrifying experience on Icelandair).
Oh yeah, I'm also extremely afraid of flying.
Just the slightest bump is enough to make me break out into a cold sweat, and don't even get me started on night flights or flights through clouds or storms where visibility is low. Forget about LAX-SYD flights over the pacific anymore, and the sound of the fasten seatbelt warning gives me nightmares for two days before I hop onboard. Every.Single.Time.
The reasons that I fly Qantas:
1. I have been on some very scary flights (e.g. during a severe dust storm flying from ADL-SYD; a severe storm from BDG-BNE during cyclone season; in heavy fog and turbulence from MLB-LST where the plane had to hold for fifty minutes before returning to the mainland). Qantas pilots are the best in the business. If anyone can land, Qantas pilots can land. If there is a way to avoid severe trans-pacific ocean turbulence, they will avoid it. I will never forget flying from LAX-BNE in 2011 after a stomach-churning flight (storm cells everywhere, it was unavoidable), to have the captain say, "we've just travelled half-way around the world, and we are exactly on time." He was right - 11 hours and 53 minutes.
2. Staff will go out of their way to accommodate you, both at the airport and in flight. International crews are professional, articulate and experienced. I've witnessed a man have a serious asthma attack on a short regional flight, and a woman go into labour prematurely en route to New Zealand. Staff were exceptional - calm, knowledgeable, respectful of privacy, and attentive. In both cases pilots and crew worked together very quickly to get the plane to the nearest airport and by the time we landed and the ambulance took the stabilised passenger from the plane, Qantas had already re-routed everyone's tickets and flight plans to ensure that no one missed connecting flights, and put everyone else up in hotels. I note that one review on here indicated that the reviewer felt guilty that the staff were 'old' - I look at it differently. Qantas staff have experience. They also care about retaining older staff, rather than pushing them out onto the scrap heap. As long as they are competent, Qantas looks after them. And if I went into premature labour over the ditch somewhere, I wouldn't want a 20-year-old hottie from Virgin Australia peering over me - just sayin' :-)
3. On that note - Qantas employ aboriginal staff, many female pilots, pregnant women, older men and women, other racial minorities (Qantas has a muslim hijab uniform for female employees that wish to dress modestly) and were the gay and lesbian employer of choice last year. And none of these staff are employed just so that Qantas can tick a box - every employee is of the same standard of professionalism that I would expect from the airline. No gimmicks, ever.
4. The food is generally quite good, and there are many options. Love that I can get a lactose free meal when making the short journey between Kingsford Smith and Tullamarine, or that my colleagues can get a hindu vegetarian or halal meal on the same. Decent wine served free on slights after five pm, even if you're just transmitting the 27 minutes between sydney and canberra.
5. Qantas get their final tick from me after a recent experience that I had after a brief and exhausting hospital stay that left me completely wiped out and needing to get home to a regional centre. Qantas insist that your doctor gives you medical clearance to fly. From the moment that I showed this clearance in the departure airport, I was taken by wheelchair to the plane, given water and access to a direct line to call if I needed the doctor, upgraded to first class and given a healthy light meal and a complimentary blanket on the flight, and escorted by wheelchair off the plane. I am in my mid-thirties and wasn't even that sick, just extremely tired from some medications.
I would recommend Qantas to anyone travelling to, or within, Australia. I no longer fly with anyone else if I don't have to. I hope that more customers get a chance to enjoy the great service and clean, safe flights that I do, even if it is more expensive to do so. read more