In Reply to: QANTAS v GARUDA posted by Nick on Friday, 13. August 1999 at 10:27 Bali Time:
In my many trips to Indonesia I have flown both Garuda and Qantas.
I find both to be fine airlines.
The posts in this thread hint or assert that Qantas staff are less accomodating than Garuda's. When you look at it - Qantas is reflecting us (ie Australians) - while Garuda is reflecting Indonesia. Australians are in the main just not as patient and caring as Indonesians.
However in Qantas' defense I believe that the staff are extremely efficient and the planes are immaculately cared for. In a crisis I would defintely trust by soul to the Australian company.
If you're a drunk, an obnoxious passenger, have a bunch of screaming undisciplined kids, want a coke every 5 minutes etc - I would recommend that you take Garuda - for you will every bit of patience and gratiousness that Indonesians are better at providing than perhaps anyone else.
These values are why we go there is the first place. The irony is that if we learnt and internalised these Indonesian values - we would be very happy flying Qantas and occasionally meeting a staff member with "attitude"