Qantas Airlines
Qantas (which originally stands for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) Airlines is Australia’s national airline and the oldest in the English speaking world. Second only to KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) as the second oldest continuously operating airlines, Qantas was founded in 1920 in Winton, Queensland. At present, it has a mainline fleet totalling to 137 aircraft. Qantas and its subsidiaries operate a total of 234 aircraft. Jetstar Airways, JetConnect, Qantas Freight, Qantas Defence Services, Qantas Holidays, Express Ground Handling, Q Catering and QantasLink are its subsidiaries.
Worldwide Destinations
Its main hubs are Sydney and Melbourne Airports, while secondary hubs include Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Singapore Changi Airports. Its focus cities are Cairns International Airport, Darwin International Airport and London Heathrow Airport.
Qantas presently flies to 82 destinations and six continents that include Johannesburg in South Africa; Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Mumbai, Jakarta, Manila, Singapore and Bangkok in Asia; Frankfurt and London in Europe; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and New York in North America; Buenos Aires in South America; Noumea in New Caledonia; Auckland, Christchurch, Queenstown and Wellington in New Zealand; and, in Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.
Award Winning Airlines
In 2008, Qantas has been voted best airline in the world by the research consultancy firm Skytrax. Skytrax is a UK-based consultancy firm that conducts research for commercial airlines.
Qantas has figured prominently in the Skytrax service awards. It has been a consistent name in the top five airlines category for five consecutive years. Skytrax also awarded Qantas as best airline in Australia in 2005 and 2006; and best regional airline in Australia in 2006.
Aside from the service awards, Qantas has also garnered awards in the entertainment and wine divisions since 2002.
It won WAEA Avion awards as best overall in flight entertainment for the year 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006; as Inflight entertainment guide in 2005 and 2006; and WAEA Avion awards for best entertainment for Inseat systems for 2006.
Flying with Qantas also means looking forward to its collection of wines, proof of which are its wine awards for the last three years. It won Best First and Business class wine list in the 2005 cellars in the Sky Awards as well as Most Original First class wine list in 2007 and 2008 in the same award-giving body.
In the 2007 cellars in the Sky Awards, Qantas again won several accolades such as Best First Class, Best Business Class Sparkling Award and Best Consistency of wines across business and first.
Frequent Flyer Programme
Qantas has a Frequent Flyer Programme that continues to rewards its loyal customers as they accumulate points. These points are based on the distance flown and travel class. When they reach the required number of points, they can redeem their rewards by exchanging it for hotel accommodations, flights, car rentals and other travel related incentives.
Qantas is a member of Oneworld, the third largest airline alliance in the world next to Star Alliance and Sky Team, and partners with credit cards, car rental companies, hotels and other companies related to travel.
To join this programme, any Australian or New Zealand residents must pay a one-time joining fee to become a Bronze Frequent Flyer. Residents of other countries can also join this programme but they don’t need to pay the fee. The customer’s account remains active as long activities continue at least once every three years. To accumulate points, any member of the programme must fly with Qantas and its partner airlines to earn Status Credits. Based on the accumulated points, one may further get elevated to Silver Status (Oneworld Ruby), Gold Status (Oneworld Sapphire) and Platinum Status (Oneworld Emerald).
Qantas Club
Qantas offers more benefits to its customers by presenting perks such as lounge access, priority check in, priority luggage handling and increased luggage allowance through membership. Through paid subscription (you may choose between one, two and four-year period), you can become a member of the Qantas Club, the airlines’ official business-class airline lounge. Another way of becoming a member of the Qantas Club is by achieving Gold or Platinum frequent flyer status.
For highly select customers, there is an invitation-only lounge that has amenities better than the Qantas Club known as the Chairman’s Lounge.
A typical lounge features workstations, showers and bar where travellers can access the internet for free and unwind while waiting for their flights. These lounges are located around the world.