Sahar Mourad
Travel Trouble

Qantas responds to Shonky award

Qantas has responded to CHOICE’s decision in awarding them a Shonky for constantly disappointing customers. 

The Australian airline has been accused by the consumer’s association of failing customers with its unusable flight credits, delayed flights, disappearing baggage, and endless call wait times.

Now Qantas has fired back at the decision for a Shonky, explaining that the award was unfair and based on data that was factually incorrect.

“These awards are clearly out of date and the data Choice is using is itself a bit shonk,” they said.

“We've been very transparent with our performance figures, both good and bad, but Choice is using figures that are just wrong.

“No one is disputing the fact we had issues earlier this year, and we apologised for that, but it's disappointing that Choice failed to acknowledge the impact that Covid  and border closures have had on the entire aviation industry.” 

Just hours after Choice announced the Shonky, Qantas responded with improvements the airline achieved in October. 

“The national carrier’s operations have improved every month to be around, or better, than pre-COVID levels,” they revealed. 

“Qantas customers had more on time flights and fewer cancellations in October, as the national carrier’s domestic performance continued to lift.”

Statistics show that flight cancellations dropped to just 2.2 per cent and are now below pre-Covid levels. 

Mishandled bags are also “steady” with six in 1,000 passengers experiencing problems - back to pre-Covid levels. 

“This has been achieved as the number of bags being checked-in per customer has risen 15 per cent this year compared with pre-COVID rates, as leisure travel has surged,” Qantas said. 

Flights that are on time continue to improve with a whopping 74 per cent of flights departing on time, with that number only at 69 per cent in September. 

This was due to extreme weather in NSW and Victoria. 

Image: Shutterstock

Tags:
Qantas, shonky, CHOICE, travel, Australia