not-for-new-yorkers:

The QANTAS international call center is in New Zealand. They were surprised I could differentiate the accent.

I ended up talking to the woman about how beautiful Auckland is while my ticket processed.

For an iconic Australian brand, this is an epic branding fail.

It is appalling - I was doing so many calls to them as I was changing flights etc and I picked up on it straight away. I thought the service was so shoddy compared to what I would get had I been speaking to a Qantas Club rep that now, I only call the Qantas club number in Australia through Skype.

Agree totally with your point about branding - bad bad bad.