Strategic Airlines

A relative newcomer to the skies of Australia – Strategic Airlines: We should hold our hands up for this great little airline. A relative newcomer to the skies of Australia, with its scheduled flights and low cost base seat pricing let’s hope it can maintain this standards for the comfort of us all. With full in-flight service and comfy seats along with a seating plan configuration, not… Read more ·  1

to, cram its aircraft so far in a 3+3+3 in economy but to maintain the 2 + 4 +2 configuration. How long they can afford to do this we will all have to wait and see. It is much more comfy for the passenger with this format for the flights which Strategic undertake. Those over say 3 hours.

My flight was on Flight VC246 Brisbane to Phuket travelling Business Class on 11th August 2011. The flight scheduled to depart at 10.15am did so, on time, and without delay. 30 seats in the forward cabin,2 +2 +2, sadly so, I see this for Strategic as only 7 were taken. Business fare priced for this flight at just over $1,000, compared to economy from about $550 – 600, seems a fair price to pay for this level of comfort. The seats are of the old business class type and not the newer type of fully reclinable. These seats had very limited recline although the same distance or even more between rows than these latest type seating. I gauge by the number of window shades I have and on strategic I have a full three plus a bit each side. Maybe this is why so many business seats were empty.

I prefer more seat recline and this was my reason for returning on a night flight with Air Asia X via Kuala Lumpur rather than opting for the Strategic direct night time flight Phuket to Brisbane. A flat bed will win every time if you have a choice of flights in Business class of a night time. Daytime, price and flight times that sway me. But of a night, it has to be the amount of Zeds possible. Sorry Strategic, I hope you have plans to upgrade and change your business seating soon, as I see it, you are losing valuable money with all these empty seats. Every time I fly Air Asia X, and I do often as I’m based on the Gold Coast, their flat beds are always sold out both ways.

Strategic on-board food service. This was better than Air Asia X and better overall than Jet Star’s, Star Class but, not as good as other premium full service operators that I have flown with from time to time. Nevertheless, taking the price paid per kilometer this has to be a very good deal with good overall service.

Economy on this flight was almost full to capacity with only one or two at most free seats. But when I walked the economy cabin it felt spacious due to the 2 + 4 + 2 seating. A much better economy configuration than the now common place policy of most airlines of “cram in and squeeze the door shut” type of 3 + 3 + 3. I’d rather pay that little bit extra and arrive that much better off, in economy, than arrive with a few more dollars and having to tolerate that big guys muscles digging my ribs for 5 hours or even 10 hours.

In-flight entertainment was good but not as good as Singapore or other full service airlines. But again better than Air Asia X and Jet Star international flights. So hats off to Strategic a good job overall, keep up this level and improve on what you have and you’ll see me again. Particularly now you go to the Americas, albeit up to now, only to Hawaii. Soon I hope you’ll try your best for Los Angeles or another east coast airport. 8/10 strategic, to get 10/10 you’d have to change to a flat bed. But for a new guy you’re doing the right thing. Please keep going forward.

Will never fly them again – We flew Melbourne to Phuket and return on Strategic, now Air Australia. The aeroplane was an old atlas jet plane. The inflight entertainment was not working and neither were the individual reading lights. On the way there we had no individual airconditioning. Where we sat a foul stench kept occurring. The crew were predominantly Turkish with not… Read more

even basic English. They were unfriendly and unhelpful.

On the way home, again no inflight entertainment and no individual lights except for the one in the row I sat in which could not be turned off. The staff could not do anything to fix this issue. This made it difficult to sleep when all lights were out except for this one. The breakfast was a ham sandwich and they had made no provision for vegetarians. Again, we had the same unfriendly Turkish crew.

I flew with 8 other family members and none of us would fly this airline again. There is budget and then there is Strategic. I would rather pay a bit more and get an aeroplane that had the basics of individual lights and airconditioning. I spoke to other people on the flight and the general consensus was that they would also not use this airline again.

Bad service, bad amenities

Do not fly. Avoid at all costs – I recently travelled with my wife's family from Melbourne to Phuket, return. Regrettably the experience on this airline, now stylishly known as AirAustralia was appalling. From the condition of the foreign plane, to the foreign staff with barely a word of English, to the lack of entertainment systems, to the numerous broken systems including… Read more

lights, air con, and toilet smells wafting throughout our region of the plane...it wasn't what we paid for.Julia Gillard would not allow cattle to be sent to Indonesia on these planes. Tried communicating like many others via their FB page, however the site is heavily filtered to not allow anything but blatant self promotion. Individuals are blocked after daring to make critical comment. How is an airline like this able to continue flying? Is there no governing body watching and protecting Australians from this type of predatory behavior? I realize there are gaps in the system, but this is the AVIATION industry and I (maybe naively) thought there would be much tighter regulations governing the behavior of rouge operators.

Disgraceful – I was one of around 2000 passengers stranded in Phuket when the one and only Strategic airline was grounded... That's not the problem...the problem was the absolute disregard for the passengers that needed to get home and their absolute lack of communication advising any of us what the time frame may be... It took a representative 48hrs to… Read more

advise the stranded passengers what the issue was and by this time, we had reluctenlty purchased other airline tickets to get home to our children.

On return to Australia (which should have been Saturday), it was learn't that the passengers that should have been on our flight did not leave until the following Tuesday.

There were hysterical people and not one rep was able to be found.. the Thai staff also had no idea! On the first night of cancellation, we were bused to a feral hotel 40mins away and given no explanation. The next day we are told we will leave the following night.... back to the airport, back thru customers etc etc.... We look up to see the same flight 'delayed'... funny, we found out that it had not even left Malaysia and would not be anytime soon.... could we get any other answers? No....... so, with 2 children at home, we booked flights out with Thai airlines. We missed 2 connecting flights and all up it cost us (2 adults) an extra $2500 for a 2 week trip!

Compensation of any king from Strategic......You must be kidding! Not only did they not reply to emails, they even hung up on me twice! They are the most insensitive, irresponsible and disgraceful airline I have ever flown with (and I travel a fair bit).... They are a disgraceful< do not< do not,ever book with this 3rd world airline who outrageously call themselves Australian... shame on you.

No, NIL, None....communication skills or customer service skills

Entire service is fundamentally flawed - avoid – Yet another member of the family who's not happy. Our tickets were bought through Strategic at about $1200 each for Melbourne->Phuket return. Strategic / Air Australia current have a sale at $700 and Business Class about about $1300. So we paid for full service. Our documentation from Strategic promised individual entertainment systems, choice of… Read more

meals, etc.

At check-in we got little armbands to say we were premium passengers. This got us free food. Little else.

The plane used for the Mel/Phu leg appears to be broken. It's not something that didn't work on the day. It appears that's just the way it is. It's an AtlasAir plane with a predominantly AtlasAir crew. Young Turkish girls with little English in some cases and little care in most. We saw them for the meal service and then they spent the time playing on their ipads in their seats. They were disinterested and didn't have the air of authority that most cabin crews do. They wandered past people standing in the aisles while the seatbelt signs were on without ever saying anything. My wife slept on the floor 'cos our kids slept across our seats and they never noticed.

The entire in-seat/armrest system didn't work. Which meant no entertainment, no individual reading lights and no cabin crew call button unless you happened to be in the aisle seat and could stand or reach to the one on the ceiling. It was like that on the way to Phuket and exactly the same on the way back. Only one overhead light on the plane worked but it could not be turned off so the poor guy in that seat spent the entire flight with his hoodie pulled over his face. The cabin crew didn't even think to find him another seat (there were a few).

Because the individual lights didn't work, they didn't turn down the main lights in the cabin until 11:30pm (7:30pm departure) and turned them back on 3 hours later. 9 hour flight. 3 hours of dark(ish)ness. 4 days later and my kids still haven't come right.

For breakfast they said their was no vegetarian option. Just Ham & Cheese. Then proceeded to give me a cheese & salad sandwich. When I asked her what it was - pointing at the salad - she said "Ham & Cheese". So two wrongs sometimes make a right.

The Aussie cabin crew told us we could write to Strategic / Air Australia and we'd get a $50 voucher. To spend with them. Why the *#%* would I want to do that? Especially on an airline that flies to 3 places in the world. If they did the Mel/Syd hop, that'd be alright. Who cares about conditions on a 60 minute flight. People stand on trains twice a day to get to work for longer than that. But if I can't afford to go to Phuket, Bali or Hawaii in the near future, a $50 voucher is worthless.

And then they tell you it's $5 for a blanket. Customer service people! If you'd just said - hey, we understand the plane is a bit broken and you aren't getting the entertainment you paid extra for and you can't turn on your light to read, here, have the blanket for nothing - people wouldn't be so upset.

But they knew the plane was broken. It had been for at least 10 days and they still mentioned in the pre-flight announcement that you could turn on your light by pressing the button on your armrest. WHY would they think that?

And now, if you post to their facebook page anything negative at all. Or point out to people who are asking about the entertainment system the answer which AA aren't giving, they delete you comments and then ban you.

Nice one. Pilot - one of the best landings in Melbourne I've ever had. Was reading my book and was surprised as we touched down. Didn't even notice the decent. Touchdown was perfect. Everything else.

Just don't put your self through it – I purchased full service Strategic Airlines Melbourne-Phuket, Dec return Jan, now changed to Air Australia! The aircraft was the old and dirty decrepit one from Turkey. On the flight to Phuket I started to dehydrated and feel unwell (the temperature in the cabin is very warm) and buzzed a number of times to get some water, in the end I told my… Read more

husband to go get it as there was no way the hostesses were going to respond. On the flight back they ran out of bottled water in the 2nd hour of a 9 hour flight, so much for keeping hydrated! ( They would not let us carry our own water on board even though it was purchased after passing through customs) They then offered cups of water which I asked a Hostess where she had got it (as I knew the bottled water had ran out) it was 'Thai' tap water (MMM Yummy) A young man in a seat near us was feeling unwell and physically fell in a heap on the floor in the aisle, the hostess saw him there and took off in the other direction, leaving another passenger to help him to his feet and into the toilet. The seats are filthy and either wont recline or if they do wont then return to upright, the whole entertainment handset doesn't work leaving out without both entertainment or a reading Light. The actual Air Australia staff were very nice but the majority of Staff are from the Turkish Airline and are rude and not interested in helping the customer at all. I will never fly with Strategic/Air Australia again and I feel ashamed to call them Australian.

Never ever again, do not give it a go! – Never ever again! The worst service ever! I really thought that a new airline would have everything covered and wanted to give it a go. It ended up being the worst flying experience, even if they do not not refund return flight, I will buy another ticket with a different air line, just a thought of flying with this air line again makes me… Read more

sick.

I bought tickets for my family flying from Europe for Melbourne holiday. Flight Phuket - Melbourne - Phuket. 9 hour flight turned into 3 day night mare so far. First delays, then cancellation of flight with no information given on what was going on. My family was left to wait in the hotel which was close to airport but far away from anywhere else in Phuket, they would sit by reception waiting for the news, not able to go anywhere. Two days later they were told that finally they were going to fly out 6 30 pm flight to Brisbane and no details of how they were to get from Brisbane to Melbourne. After checking in and getting to the gate, they were told that there is another 5.5 hour delay. I am not sure if they will make it here to Melbourne at all.

All of this is due to technical issues with the air craft, not weather. My family could fly around the world a couple of times by now and if we knew it was going to take so long we would have arranged tickets at our cost on another flight ourselves. Looks like this airline does not have any back up plan and is not willing to send passengers to their destinations with other airlines in case of cancellations. They did not send an sms or email and do not answer their phone either, website had limited general updates.

So far my family is waiting for their flight for over 50 hours and no information on when they fly out. Avoid at all cost!!!

continuous delays of flights, flight cancellation, poor communication to waiting passengers, poor service

Very good – My family and I flew Strategic/Australian airlines as they are now called to Hawaii, returning Saturday 3 Feb. We initially booked months back because of their incredibly cheap deals. A few days prior to our flight out I logged on this forum to check people's comments as I had heard some poor reviews. After reading quite a few reviews I become… Read more

extremely apprehensive as the majority of the reviews were very poor, although most reviews were Phuket and Asia bound flights. However we had planned this for long time and too late to cancel plus I was assured that as a minimum their safety standards would need to comply with Australian Aviation Standards.

Keeping an open mind we boarded our flight; our Hawaii bound flight was great, staff were helpfull, professional, polite, courteous and all spoke English, plane was clean and seating comfort were standard. Fully aware that the ticket price did not include food and beverage we were prepared up to the point of having brought our own water. However full service was provided at very reasonable prices and food quality was on par with other carriers, constant supply of water was provided all flight long free of charge, overall the trip was very comfortable. I held my reservation pending the return flight, however the return flight was of an equal experience.

Normaly i wouldn't bother sharing my experience within a public forum like this, but after reading all of the poor reviews about this airline i felt compelled to provide my unbias feed back, if for no other reason other than for staff morale as they really deserve to be commended. So in summary I would have no hesitation on recommending them. Inexpensive

Never again !! – We flew brisbane to phuket 22nd dec first the flight was delayed for over a hour then was told inflight entertainment was not working great for our family of five. Next a bag of vomit was found in seat pocket in front of us from a previous flight.The Turkish staff were arguing with air Australia staff in the aisle it was a outright disgrace. Was… Read more

given our meal which was ok and about a hour and a half on i went and asked if there was any spare meals left over , i was told that they throw them out cause they tend to spoil after an hour , i said to her that's ok ill still have one . I was charged $12 even though they were going to throw them out what a joke.

On our return flight 7/1/12 again inflight entertainment broken , i asked for a beer and was told 5 min it took 1 hour to receive it, about 7 hours into the flight i asked for a cookie for the kids was told by Turkish staff $3 each, i paid for a full service flight and get charged this what a joke. you would think that with broken entertainment they would go out of there way to try and make up for it but no. My seat was broken and would only go back 1/4 the way of other seats could not get any sleep cause of this (night flight). The Turkish staff should find a new profession as they are so rude and cant speak English that well.As for the air Australia stuff they were nice and polite i really feel sorry for them having to deal with all the crap that they do because of the way the airline is run. the company really need to look at themselves as everyone i spoke to around me and at customs and on the way back to pick car up on shuttle bus swore they would never fly with them again.I will never fly with this company again they would not know what customer service was if it came up and bit them in the bum. Air Australia Go back to flying cargo as your no good at taking care of people on your flight.

Terrible and Disgusting. Never again – Unanswered letter to Air Austraia: (Mon 9-Jan-12) "I do not know how you can put such a plane in the air and take money for advertised services you plain and simple cannot deliver. I will explain: Our flight on 23 Dec, Brisbane to Honolulu was barely acceptable. After about a 1hr delay sitting in the departure lounge, it took over 2 hrs… Read more

of flying time to eventually get a drink.

Thereafter we were offered drinks, snacks and meals off the menu, and then we never saw your staff again. Very tatty.

Entertainment did work properly and was not as advertised. Half the shows were missing.

Seating was very cramped for a 10hr flight.

Flight back on Sat 7th, as described above was an utter disgrace.

• Our seats and those in front of us had no ‘upright position ’ or “lean-back” lock position – you just pulled them up and pushed them back as you saw fit to do. This made the already cramped seating even more uncomfortable and cramped, as the seats in front of us just eased backwards naturally. If you reclined your seat by leaning backwards, the only way you could put it back into an upright position is to do it manually.

• Our arm rest was broken – see attached picture – and no offer was made by any of your on-board staff to cover this with a small pillow, cloth etc. We were merely told “this plane needs a few things done to it”

• We were handed ‘complimentary ear-plugs” - What for I do not know as there was no sound to listen to, no movies to watch, we were not even able to turn on the reading light – in fact the controller hand set was ‘dead’ – no power! We were offer a glass of wine for the inconvenience!!!!

• One toilet was out-of-order. On-board staff advised this had been the case for over a week now, and as this was a French plane, parts had to come from France, and as Air Australia was a small customer, these part would take some time longer to arrive in Australia. What a yarn....

• The operable toilet soon ran out of paper-towels and tissues – not one on-board staff member saw fit to check for this and replenish these items. With 1/2hr from Honolulu, this basin was blocked and was soon full of water and impossible to drain for the remainder of the flight.

• We witnessed no less than 4 or 5 situations where customers were expressing serious concerns with staff members.

The flight departure time from Honolulu is still listed on your web site in your timetable as 10.a15am (it is actually 12:15pm)

The night before our flight (Fri 6th) we logged onto Honolulu Airport web page and they still had the flight listed as 10:15 departure.

I emailed yourselves that same night (Fri before our flight) – and am still awaiting an answer to my email. Pretty poor service I would say.

On arrived here in Brisbane last night, our pickup person also claimed that Brisbane Airport had arrival time as 4pm and not 6pm, (I am not able to verify that) so they sat around for 2hrs waiting.....

I have to say this was our worse flying experience ever.

In the past 12 months this was our 3rd overseas trip, and first with Air Australia.

It is also our last with Air Australia.

I do not believe you have the right to treat customers like this.

Nor do I believe you have the right to advertise products and services you knowingly are unable to deliver."

Lastly - if you post anything factual and negative on their Facebook site, it is removed immediately.

Old plane, broken seats, broken arm rest, no music, no movies, no reading lights, out-of-order toilet, blocked basin, poor service

Worst airline ever! It is very simple, what ever you do never flight with them! – The worst experience in my life! I go over see a lot and been with many airlines before and strategic airline or should I say air Australia is by far the worst ever! What bad about it is ? everything , just everything so I am not going even to take the time to explain . All the costumers on this flight where angry.

worst airline ever – Planes are not safe..they have no back up plane and are too cheap to put you on another flight. A plane is sure to crash soon and then it will be too late

Better than I thought – I recently flew with Air Australia (Strategic Airlines)Perth-Curtin/Derby, return. It was much better than I had expected. There was not a great deal of legroom on the Airbus A-320 on which I flew and there was no on-board entertainment, but I otherwise found the service to be excellent. On the outward flight they served a complimentary hot… Read more

breakfast and a complimentary hot lunch on the return flight. The food was quite good by airline standards - better than what Qantas offers. The staff were friendly and helpful.

While the cramped seating was a bit of a bummer, it didn't matter on what was a two hour flight.

Based on my experience, I recommend Air Australia. The food and friendly staff. Cramped seating.