It's still a very poor business practice, Bazz.

>>Pericles, I also experienced that "flight has been cancelled" shift
to the next flight. However as the flights to Melbourne are every 1/2
hour it was no real inconvenience. I nearly always go in the middle of
the day between 11 and 1 pm<<

There is also a big difference in terms of convenience when they perform the same trick in the early morning. Because that's when people tend to be travelling on business, so a half-hour is actually a serious inconvenience. Especially when you are gambling on the traffic on the Tullamarine Freeway as well. Also, they do not necessarily book you on the next flight out, because that is already full, or so close to full so that not everyone is accommodated. Result: three-quarters of an hour or an hour delay, which royally screws up the entire day's appointments. Trust me, it happens.

It is also the mentality that riles me. That they can actually advertise flight times in the certain knowledge that not all of them will take off.

Underneath it all, there is this well-aired notion that Qantas needs to maintain a two-third share of the domestic market in order for the airline as a whole to stay afloat. In practice, this means that every time Virgin adds a flight to a route, Qantas has to add two. This is an impossible business model to maintain, simply because it gives rise to the sort of behaviour described above: they have an over-supply of seats on that sector, so have to resort to load-balancing - at the customer's expense.

Shameful. And - it has to be said - ultimately self-defeating. By annoying their customer base in this fashion, their load factors will decline anyway, putting more pressure on prices, which will annoy even more customers.

Death spiral. The only way out that they can see is to beg the government to somehow shackle their competition. Sad failure of management.

Yes Pericles, I can understand how annoying that would be at the morning
times when going to a business meeting.

There is no solution, either put up with it or pay higher fares.
It is all part of the great slow wind down of the airline business.
As I said in another post fuel costs have increased about 400% and
seat kms increased 71%, something has to give.

It's still a very poor business practice,
Pericles,
No, it's a poor attitude of travellers who can't understand that common sense has to overide whimsical demands.
I don't fly Qantas very often but I do fly 3-4 times a week with small commuter planes & we are a little more patient & tolerant when a business has some difficulty especially when it's technical.
Qantas is being mismanaged by it's share holders who expect ever more. Qantas personnel are overpaid due to union demands & now they're feeling the repercussions. Didn't see them cry when they sent other airlines to the scrap heap though.

Are you perhaps a manager at Qantas, individual? A middle manager, with an office and a PA, who spends the day in meetings with other managers?

>>No, it's a poor attitude of travellers who can't understand that common sense has to overide whimsical demands.<<

When in doubt, blame the customer, and their "whimsical" desire for the planes to operate against a published schedule. How dare they be so incredibly selfish.

Or hey! Let's blame the shareholders...

>>Qantas is being mismanaged by it's share holders who expect ever more<<

That's a new one. Fancy someone having the temerity to invest in Qantas shares, and then expect the company to value that investment. What cheek.

Sure signs of a company in its death throes.

Are you perhaps a manager at Qantas, individual?
Pericles,
I wish I was, I'd have the Leprechaun earn his keep as well as all others who are on way too much pay. I think Qantas's problem is that it is being run like an ALP Government, no accountablity, no idea, no vision, no nothing, just believing they're just so great & wonderful.

No use blaming customers when it was management that ordered so many new aircraft at a time when competition was increasing and business was in a downturn