I have a love hate relationship with the flying business.

My dad has been working for Haeco (a branch of Cathay Pacific) for over 25 years. Without him and his job, I won’t be at where I am now. Because of this job, I also have more opportunities to travel and I caught my first plan when I was three.  Although I have not yet fly in business class or first class… oh hang on, I did got an upgrade when I flow to Bangkok few years ago with my cousin… anyway, my point is that I am very familiar with the economy class service level from my experience.

When I went to Australia to study, I will go back to Hong Kong at least once a year to see my parents. By that time, I’m used to travel alone. I often observe how some people do not know how to operate their personal entertainment unit or feel embarrssed to stand up and do a little stretching execrises. As well as how well the flight attendences handle annoying customers, or whether they have smile on their faces.

I used to fly with Cathay Pacific a lot because of my dad’s work, however after I turned 24 I no longer have the privilege to fly with Cathay’s cheap staff air ticket.  I’ve since fly with few different airlines, including but not limited to Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, Continental Airlines, China Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Dragon Air and etc. The most frequent one is Qantas, both domestic and international.

Although Qantas is the first commercial airline in the world, its services has been declined for the past 5 years. I believe one of the cause is that the company wanted to cut cost. Qantas has switched all their aircraft maintenance to overseas, and they won’t purchase any new aircraft until approxmiately year 2020. The flight attendences are old and rude, no smile when serving and the food is horrible!  The air craft was so hot during my last travel from Hong Kong to Sydney. I was literlly dripping sweat! It wasn’t an one off mistake, my aunty also had the same experience.  Qantas used to be ranked as one of the world class airline, equal to Cathay Pacific. I’m not too sure about this now. 

Qantas has been allianced with Air Asia last month. From the airline point of view, this has strenghen its Asia routes as well as their aim of cost cutting. However from the customer point of view, Qantas has offically down graded. If I travel to Malaysia and purchased a Qantas air ticket, I would have some level of expectation on their services. I could not imagine how would I feel if I end up catching a Air Asia air craft; receving their services; and concering about my safety just because of this alliance.

My last few travel with Qantas was truely disappointed, it is frustrated to experience such bad services when you know they could do better. Qantas is no longer a world class airline in my heart.