Entertainment systems
Not affilliated with Qantas airlines
- in fact, they hate us



Qantas announce Media Awards
From: TV New Zealand (more at: tvnz.co.nz) Posted May 18, 2009

Tvnz.co.nz has taken out one of the top awards at the Qantas Media Awards. The sport website won the award for best overall sports site.
The judges said it was the "best designed sports site by far."  TVNZ were also finalists in the following categories:  Best News Website, Best
Breaking News Story for coverage of the motorway shooting in Auckland in January, Best Multimedia/Video Presentation for Exclusive
overage of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series [Ed: somehow Qantas missed the opportunity to give an award to this web site:-]

Qantas A380 will not have internet access as promised
From: Sydney Morning Herald (more at: www.smh.com.au) Posted Jan 2, 2009

QANTAS has shelved plans to offer live internet access on its A380 planes from next month. Qantas will instead offer only a limited selection
of what it calls "cached internet content".  A Qantas spokeswoman said the internet plans had been pared back due to "logistical and
regulatory issues" encountered by its connectivity provider, OnAir. Qantas has refused to give further details of what content will be
included - other than qantas.com - or how much the service would cost.

Newspaper: Qantas Entertainment Systems Fails - Very Often
From: Sidney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au)

QANTAS passengers are becoming openly abusive and threatening over failures in the airline's multimillion-dollar entertainment system on
long-haul flights. The problem - which affects 27 aircraft in Qantas's 747-400 fleet and 10 Airbus A330-300 craft - is so common that the
Flight Attendants Association of Australia has formally complained of cabin crew exhibiting "stress related problems" caused by aggressive
passengers.

Qantas has formed a team to fix problems in the audio and video on demand system, which has left passengers without movies, music and
other entertainment for extended periods of their flights. Overhead reading lights connected to the system have also been rendered
useless for hours, staff say. On January 19, 2007 the association wrote to Qantas management about the entertainment system. The
association said the airline had a duty of care to better protect cabin crew against angry passengers. Association president Steven Reed
told The Sun-Herald yesterday some cabin crew were becoming so upset by the abuse that they became physically ill. Last week Mr Reed
requested a meeting with Qantas general manager of aviation health services Dr Ion Morrison and Qantas occupational health and safety
committee chairman Michael Von Reth to devise a strategy to help staff cope. Qantas executive general manager of engineering David Cox
acknowledged the problems. "As with any complex system there have been some technical issues," he said.

"The problems usually involve a small number of seats and the passenger can be moved to a different seat in these cases. We are
dedicating considerable resources to address these reliability issues, including through the supplier Rockwell Collins." Smarthouse.com.au,
a technology website, has received complaints from its readers, with some seeking to alert others about the problem. Avron Newstadt, 36, of
North Bondi, flew from South Africa with Qantas before Christmas. "When I got on I realised pretty early into the flight that my TV wouldn't
load," Mr Newstadt said yesterday. "I was fortunate that my neighbour's was working and we swapped for part of the flight while he slept.
"The staff were confused and were doing their best to fix it, albeit unsuccessfully. "We weren't warned about it happening. We weren't
offered any compensation either, although I didn't want to make a fuss. There were blocks of seats that had the same problem."

Qantas Entertainment & toilets fails - Customers Angry
From: M. Kleef (blogs.technet.com)

I fly a lot and I always fly with Qantas. I'm a Platinum flyer with them. Lots of Microsoft Australia staff also fly with
them though lately something really bad is happening. Their quality has hit the bottom and things on the aircraft
are always broken and staff are always making excuses for it.  Here's a recent example. Last week I was in
Singapore and was on their new A330-300 aircraft on the way there and the way home. Jeff was also flying
Qantas on their 747 service to Singapore. When I got to Singapore, Jeff lamented at the quality of his flight.
The in-flight entertainment system was broken, his seat's meal table pulled right out of the seat and clearly
wasn't fastened to anything, and worst of all the toilet was flooded with water and flight attendant staff made the comment "that happens all
the time". On the way home I had a similar experience with my in-flight entertainment screen not locking into position and flapping free so
the staff had to use stickers to hold it in position. I even took a photo of it. Then this week I flew with them to Sydney. On the way over the in-
flight entertainment system broke again on an A330-300 meaning people couldn't select anything and the audio was stuck on loud...I hate
to mention that the toilet was also flooded with urine. Glad I had my shoes on. Last night I flew home - the flight was delayed for "mechanical
problems" and so in order to avoid further delays I switched to another flight but several colleagues of mine were still stuck on that one.
They were delayed by 3 hours. Again stuff broken on the plane with audio in the in-flight entertainment stuck on mono and broken seats. Its
sad that this great airline is not choosing to make customer satisfaction a top priority. I just hope something is done.

Passenger: Qantas Video System Breaks - again
From:  T. Hughes (tims-boot.blogspot.com) Posted Mar. 28, 2008)

On a recent trip to London on British Airways I discovered that the flight video on demand service was nor working. The same bug that has
plagued Qantas for so long. I commented that while both systems seemed to have the same bug that the BA attitude and response was
much more apologetic and customer focused than that from Qantas. Now BA have gone one step further in sending me a letter and
GBP100 worth of vouchers to be used in the on-board shop. That is an Australian $250 apology for not being able to watch a movie. The
contrast against the culture at Qantas could not be more stark. The response from David Cox at Qantas Engineering was "As with any
complex system there have been some technical issues,...The problems usually involve a small number of seats and the passenger can be
moved to a different seat in these cases” [not always]. So while BA apologized and took strong steps to compensate a customer for TV
failures, the Qantas response was no apology and a statement more like "not a big problem and not our fault".

Qantas Covers Up Entertainment System Problems
From www.smarthouse.com.au By D. Richards

Airline spin doctors are attempting to cover up a massive failure of the Qantas in-flight entertainment system which has forced passengers
to fly long distances with any form of entertainment for up to a year.The issue first revealed by SmartHouse News a week ago is so bad that
Qantas airline staff have now turned to their Association in an effort to protect themselves from angry passengers. Hundreds of emails sent
to SHN reveal that the problem is widespread across the entire Qantas 747/400 fleet and has been for more than 12 months.  last week  the
Executive General Manager of Qantas Engineering, David Cox said " We have had some issues with our new on demand IFE system. As
with any complex system, there have been some technical issues. Although we have had some intermittent problems, the system is
generally working well. The problems usually involves a small number of seats and the passenger can moved a different seat in these
cases"

We are dedicating considerable resources to address these reliability issues, including through the supplier, Rockwell Collins". The lack of
entertainment on Qantas aircraft is now occurring on most Qantas International 747/400 flights and has been for a long time as emails to
SmartHouse reveal. David Lyons of Sydney said "I travel frequently between Sydney and LAX, 6 times in 2006.Ever since the on-demand
system has been available there has been at least one problem per flight.  Everything from no entertainment for the whole flight to more
typically reverting back to the old movie program where movies run to a schedule.  I have also had the experience where the controller
doesn't work properly or at all, and where the picture on the screen has been so blurred as to be unwatchable.  I am a Gold Frequent Flyer,
but even with this status it is rare to get even a verbal apology.  Unfortunatley on the Sydney LAX route there isn't much competition - my
experience of United on this route was even worse!  I believe that if more carriers were able to fly this route - perhaps then the Qantas
service would improve and prices fall.   

Michael Malyniak  of Melbourne wrote " My recent flight from London to Melbourne via HK experienced consistent entertainment problems
(across all classes) resulting in the entertainment system having to first be re-booted (taking 45 minutes) and then be completely shut-down
and restarted (this time taking 1hr15min). On both occasions the entertainment system did not operate.  The on-board service manager
however then managed to successfully set up a couple of films (in non "on-demand" mode) by bypassing the Q-Entertainment system
altogether. It took approximately 4hrs from takeoff to establish a mediocre entertainment environment. During this rebooting/restart process
the on-board service manager informed passengers not to touch the controls in their armrest as it would help the system because the
system problems were being caused by everyone accessing the system at once, he said. It certainly is incredibly frustrating as a passenger
to be denied of a so-called world's best entertainment system and more so for the on-board staff who desperately try to fix an issue which is
beyond their control".

Anita Kristina Rozankovic-Stevens  said "3 of the long haul flights I have taken in the past year Melbourne-London had major problems with
the in flight entertainment system.  And every time the cabin crew 'attempt' to fix it, it has never actually resolved the problem, despite their
assurances. I have seen  it affect a few seats and the whole economy class cabin at once. The  one thing I am yet to see is cabin staff offer
another seat to a  customer with a 'working' entertainment system." She added  "I am looking to fly with another airline now because the lack
of  services and stuff ups are so common with Qantas that I have began to expect them. After paying thousands of dollars of my ticket
numerous times a year, all I get is a few inches of leg room and an awful meal". Andy Horsefall of Sydney said " I'm a regular traveler on
Qantas (platinum frequent flyer) primarily to Hong Kong and LA/New York. This is not a new or recent problem. On various flights (107/108)
throughout 2006 the system had to be re-booted. So it begs the question that if they are working on it then they have failed to resolve it for
some time which suggests the fix is not an easy nor quick one. And how long have Qantas kept this quiet?