The Qantas Q Bag Tag & Why It’s a Fucking Crock

The Bitter Bitch reviews Qantas’ new permanent bag tag system

When I finally decided to book my trip to Australia, I’m not going to lie, I was a little surprised with the airline choices. For a country the size of the United States, the Aussies literally have three airlines to choose from: Qantas, Virgin, and Qantas’ broke ass little brother, JetStar. And because of the eccentric itinerary I put together, I would be flying all of them over the course of 11 different flights.

Since I’m not too familiar with any of those airlines, I decided to deep dive into all of their sites, see what is standard with a ticket, baggage situations, the usual, and I happened to end up in Qantas’ Marketplace, where I see what looks a lot like an Apple AirTag. Come to find out, hot on the heels of the Lufthansa anti-AirTag controversy, Qantas released their own version of a permanent and traceable bag tag. I was intrigued! Unfortunately, they weren’t available for purchase again until July 2023, so I patiently waited until this batch hit the market and promptly had one sent over to my mates in Sydney for safe keeping. Not surprisingly, the tag only ships domestically as of now. Which is fine as I’ll be braving my first JetStar experience as my long haul from Honolulu to Sydney. Perhaps not the brightest choice but certainly the cheapest.

So what does the Q Bag Tag do?

Qantas’ Q Bag Tag replaces the need for a paper tag altogether, so rather than standing in line to see an agent to print your bag tag, you would simply take your bag to the drop off area where your boarding pass is scanned and synced with the tag.

What’s so special about the Q Bag Tag?

Not only is it supposed to streamline the check-in process, the real magic, in my opinion, was the idea that, regardless of whether you booked your flights together or separately, your bag *should end up at your final destination. This is paramount for me and the real reason I purchased the tag. For example, I bought a roundtrip ticket from Melbourne to Exmouth, but on the day of my returning flight, I’m jumping onto another flight to Brisbane with very little downtime, meaning I won’t have the time to exit security, recheck my bag, and go back through security to catch my second flight. The Q Bag Tag eliminates that, as it stores all your flight information and delivers your bag to your final destination. Hallelujah!

What’s the drama?

It seems not all Qantas hubs work correctly, mainly the Cairns airport. And five hubs do not support the system at all, namely Hamilton Island. I’ve been seeing a lot of people saying that the product is great WHEN it works, but when it doesn't, it’s just the same ol’ shit. Another issue I’ve heard from a lot of people is that the tag does isn’t supported by JetStar, Qantas’ own economy line. Because JetStar is so cheap, most people traveling domestically choose JetStar over Qantas anyway, making the tag ineffectual. I can see how that seems like a sham, especially because I too am flying CheapoStar and would love to have the luxury of my tag working seamlessly throughout my trip, but I can also see the other side, which is an obvious money grab for Qantas.

As for the product itself, I love the concept and have high expectations for it. I love the idea and hope it works as it claims, but I have my reservations. We all know how airlines work, or don’t rather.

UPDATE:

I have no qualms with the new bag tag, because I never used it. Not once. Not one fucking time.

From the perspective of an outsider, Qantas appears to be at the forefront of Australian airlines. But appearances can be deceiving, and once I arrived, I got a much different perspective of the company as a whole.

During my time in Australia, I had little downtime to watch the news or follow up with current events. But one event could not be ignored and that was the inquisition into Qantas Airline and their blatantly illegal practices. I just happened to be there during the thick of it and was able to see it firsthand. The premise was that Qantas received over six million dollars from Australian fliers alone during the pandemic and failed to allow those customers to rebook, making flights unavailable or disproportionately priced, even accepting payments for flights that had already been cancelled by the airline.

Of every flight I had booked during my month long trek, all but one was deferred to another airline, most importantly a connecting flight out of Airlie Beach through Brisbane, a flight that was mismanaged from the very beginning. Rebooked for a different time, then a different date. After hours of calling customer service and American Express, I finally was able to rebook. But as I logged in to check in for my flights that day, the flight was nowhere to be found.
Once at the airport, I was informed that the first leg would be completed by Jetstar, Qantas’ exceptionally budget sister airline. While my flight still started with a Q, and showed in my Qantas app as a Qantas flight, I expected the airline to honor the push through of my baggage and ultimately be able to test the effectiveness of the bag tag. Nope. They wouldn’t. And with only a 50 minute window between flights, that left me little time to leave security, retrieve my bag, and recheck. But the airport attendant assured me that in the Brisbane airport that would be no problem.

An hour and a half later, my Jetstar plane landed on the tarmac, wheels smoking like it was stolen, with 11 minutes til take-off. This resulted in a 40 minute delay, which would have been no problem IF the airline had chosen to honor the original flight. Tears were shed. Flip flops were lost. I did not get arrested, but that is a story for another time.

The conclusion to the question of whether or not the bag tag works? I don’t fucking know, but I can tell you I also will never be finding out. I’m committing myself to never flying Qantas, and most especially Jetstar, ever fucking again. I’d rather row myself on a folded cardboard box to Australia than fly with them one more time.

XOXO, The Bitter Bitch