NEWS: Qantas are making major cutbacks. All Qantas-operated flights will now terminate at Hong Kong and Bangkok, except for Singapore, which will be the sole way to get to London. It will also scrap the long-haul route to Buenos Aires, scrap four Boeing 747s, and defer delivery of the final six A380s by up to six years. Qantas is sponsoring Malaysia Airlines into oneworld, which means you'll be able to earn Qantas miles on Malaysian, which may be used for codeshares to take people onwards from Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul, Rome and Amsterdam.

Qantas is a full service distinctly Australian airline with three separate mainstream businesses. The flying kangaroo of Qantas lands in many of the cities of the world, flies an intense internal network between the 5 main cities in the continent of Australia, plus a small feeder network to small outback communities, and now also has a low cost offshoot that is threatening to become bigger than the parent.

The old Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services used to be partly owned by British Airways, and some of its features are very familiar to those who fly the UK's airline, such as its Frequent Flyer scheme (pretty good with some decent perks) and food (basic on pretty much every internal flight, but hot on longer flights). However its "robust" customer service is distinctly Aussie, and the cabin crew have been known to greet passengers with an eloquent "yeah mate?" - reviews are not always favourable. ... read more.

At times it can seem inconsistent, however by and large it does what it does well, and it endears Qantas to most of its customers - of whom on a long haul flight half are backpackers, and the others mostly Aussies who travel mostly because Australia is such a long way from anywhere. Domestically, you could be forgiven for thinking you are on a bus service, and the route from Sydney to Melbourne is the 4th busiest by traffic in the world, far exceeding most domestic USA routes, and Qantas still hangs on to a 65% share of the Australian domestic market and carries around 18% of all passengers travelling in and out of Australia

Qantas 767 economy class seats

Qantascityflyer is the name for the domestic service linking the main cites, like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. It tries to run rather like a bus service, with take off on the hour, each hour. There is inflight entertainment, and it will consistently be priced just a little bit more expensive than VirginBlue. There is now a free wine or beer service in economy on Weekday departures after 4pm.

Qantaslink is a wholly owned subsidiary which flies many of the smaller outback routes for Qantas. It flies mainly small prop planes with minimal facilities, and no inflight entertainment. The trading companies consists of Easterns, Southern, and National Jet (which also runs services under it's own brand). Qantaslink also used to include Impulse Airways, which Qantas took over, and used as a vehicle to start the low-frills service Jetstar.

Jetstar is wholly owned by Qantas but is managed separately as a low cost airline, originally using the old Impuse Airways planes - the old Boeing 717s - but these are now replaced by A320s. It operates using pretty much the Ryanair model, with no free inflight food, flight connections or baggage transfer. You can spend Qantas Frequentflyer points on Jetstar, but not earn them (except on expensive JetFlex fares).

JetStar also operate international services on lower-density routes that Qantas would otherwise abandon. These norally use brand new widebody A330 aircraft, and have in-flight entertainment (audio) available for a fee on most of its flights. Video players are available (for a fee) on a few services. Nearly all JetStar flights now have a Qantas code share for incoming international customers, so you may accidentally end up on these flights. JetStar has a two class configuration for non-Tasman International services with what it calls the "StarClass" but this is little more than premium economy.

Australian Airways is a brand that no longer exists, although some planes were until recently still in Australian colours. It had long haul international flights, with one-class with some frills (such as meals) approach. It came into being when Qantas found that some routes, such as to Cairns, were mainly used by cost-consious backpackers and so it couldn't justify two or three class planes. Many of these routes are now flown by Jetstar.