Qantas greedy-gutsiness reaches new altitude!

I used to give the Qantas of yesteryear the thumbs-up on the Cairns to Horn Island leg.

Those were the good old days. Passengers could take a suitcase and additional luggage, packed with food, since prices on TI are fairly exy. There’s a good reason for this.

If you want to drink fresh cow’s milk and champagne and eat baby spinach and Wagyu beef, all of which need to be freighted up from south-east Queensland and further afield, you gotta take the cost on the chin. Or the hip pocket.

We live a simple culinary life in an effort to limit the extremely high cost of living on TI. Between the fish Tony catches, the fruit and vegies we grow and the great weekly deals offered by the local IBIS supermarket, our food bill is just manageable.

We don’t drink, well, Tony doesn’t drink. I might scoff a glass of wine every three or four weeks, but I don’t buy alcohol and wouldn’t know a Cabernet from a Chardonnay or a Rosé.

Many years ago, much to my family’s disgust, I issued a military style ban on junk food, so we saved on food as well as dental expenses.

However, I do take every opportunity to stick to our food budget, and a great way is to buy some semi-staples when I am in Cairns. I bring them home in my luggage.

Check out the price comparisons:

Item	Brand	TI price	Cairns price
1kg cheese	Generic	$15.29	$6.47
1kg powdered milk	Generic	$12.07	$6.99
1kg frozen corn kernels	Generic	$7.66	$1.99
250g cream cheese	Generic	$3.68	$1.99

You get the picture – food on TI is very costly, but that’s because we, stupid humans (myself included) insist on sticking to an essentially European diet within a few degrees of the equator where none of that type of food grows.

So, in the past, I have taken a few kilos of powdered milk in my backpack, and an esky as luggage on the flight from Cairns to Horn…at no cost even if my luggage weight exceeded the limit. My record was 105kg!

Then, a few years ago, Qantas actually started enforcing the 23kg baggage limit. Initially it was a huge shock, and a costly one. But I worked around it. You could still bring a suitcase and an esky, and providing it was 23kg max, you weren’t up for excess baggage fees. It was a safety issue, I was told. I understand, I said, each time I coughed up the excess $$.

Then last year, things got really dirty. Qantas instituted a cunning rule (which applied in practice to the check-in at Cairns, not Horn Island): any second piece of luggage would incur $30 in excess baggage fees…even if both your suitcase and second bag weighed less than 23kg in total.

That is not the “spirit of Australia”. That is corporate greedy-gutsiness.

I should pause here to mention how wonderful the ground staff, pilots and cabin crew always are. And a big thanks to Annie on the morning flight from Cairns to Horn on November 1!

Back to my story. Two pieces of luggage weighing a total of 23kg can’t possibly compromise safety. For the 17 years I travelled with two or three or four bags, there was no safety issue, even if they weighed way more than 23kg.

But, if you are a diamond frequent flyer Qantas club member, or whatever it is, you get extra kilos at no extra cost. Safety? Rubbish.

Come on, Qantas, where is your spirit of Australia? We are not a huge population on the busiest domestic route. We are struggling families trying to keep our food bills down.

I am getting to the point of my long story…

I recently flew to Cairns with my son. We had a total of 41kg between us, but at the check-in on Horn, I was slogged a $30 third item fee (the employee was very kind about it). Staff at the Horn Island check-in had never actually enforced the 2011 rule before.

That got me mad. I wanted to bring back some cheese and frozen vegies. Then I realised there’s no point getting mad. Get even.

So I did. For the trip back, I packed up some frozen peas and corn and block cheese and a leg of lamb for good measure! Into an insulated bag it went and then into my suitcase.

The final score:

One piece of luggage.

21.5kg.

One to Catherine Titasey.

One up to Qantas.