Opinion

Qantas misses runway with Rebecca Vallance comms

Yesterday’s announcement of Qantas appointing prominent female fashion designer Rebecca Vallance to create new uniforms should, in theory, be cause for celebration. Supporting Australian design talent and refreshing a brand’s visual identity are typically positive moves for any major corporation.

But timing, as they say, is everything. PR crisis communications expert Sally Branson explains.

SALLY BRANSON

September 5, 2025 9:02

Qantas misses runway with Rebecca Vallance comms

Rebecca Vallance and Qantas staff

This uniform redesign was first floated months ago, right in the heart of one of Qantas’s most significant reputation crises.

Now, barely three weeks after the airline was ordered to pay a staggering $90 million industrial relations payout, we’re seeing this soft PR push resurface.

This seems to be a disconnect from brand polish and core business.

Here’s the challenge facing Qantas: while they’re announcing designer uniforms, everyday consumers are asking fundamental value questions about service delivery. Will my flight be on time? Why do airfares keep climbing? When will the core service issues be resolved? Will be bags be at the same destination I am? Is there any value in a points program?

Surely, they could have dug up some of the 1970s uniforms…

This comes in the same week research showed household savings rates falling as people prioritise family holidays over savings, with household spending, especially on hospitality and travel being a key driver of growth. In a cost-of-living crisis, families are still choosing travel, but they want to see genuine value for their money.

When customers are questioning your ability to deliver on your primary value proposition – safe, reliable, affordable air travel – announcing a focus on uniform aesthetics can feel tone-deaf.

Especially when the existing uniforms are perfectly serviceable.

After the $90 million ruling, you can bet core business travellers were asking how they, as end users, would be covering those costs. A new designer uniform announcement hot on the heels, although a normal evolution of any brand, has those same core business customers asking: who pays for this?

Every business is at risk of misplaced priorities, and we are seeing it play out in our biggest airline.

This messaging misstep also gives other competitors an extraordinary opportunity to learn by comparison. Every brand can examine Qantas’s approach and ask themselves: what’s our promise to the consumer? When facing operational challenges, how do we prioritise our communications to reinforce that core promise rather than distract from it?

This isn’t about dismissing the value of brand identity or supporting Australian designers. It’s about understanding what your stakeholders need to hear from you at any given moment.

For Rebecca Vallance (one of my favourites), this is an extraordinary career milestone and professional achievement that deserves celebration. We should be celebrating this iconic Australian partnership, and we would be, if this wasn’t part of such a long line of missteps.

Sally Branson

As someone who travelled on four Qantas flights in the past four days and will continue to do so as I need to be available for interstate clients, I am that end consumer. Travel is a business necessity for me and over the past two years I have encountered numerous issues around customer service. In one instance, three emails to customer service went unanswered for three weeks.

The amount I spent on flights this week could have bought me quite a few of those gorgeous Rebecca Vallance outfits, and at the airport I listened to flights being delayed and cancelled and heard more than one irate customer at the service desk.

Delays and cancellations can be explained away once or twice, but when there are so many questions and operational missteps, consumers understandably feel resentful when they see focus placed on initiatives that feel disconnected from their immediate concerns.

This analysis shouldn’t negate that incredible story or diminish what this partnership represents for Australian fashion on the global stage.

But for a brand that has faced six years of mounting reputation challenges and operational missteps, the message this sends is problematic. It suggests energy and resources are being directed toward surface-level brand polish rather than addressing the fundamental service delivery issues that affect every passenger experience.

Qantas serves as a powerful case study precisely because it remains an iconic Australian brand with deep emotional connections. That heritage makes every communication choice more significant – and more scrutinised.

These uniforms still have some life in them

The lesson here isn’t that companies should never invest in brand refresh initiatives. It’s that communication strategy must be aligned with stakeholder priorities and current brand challenges. When trust in your core service delivery is shaken, leading with operational improvements and customer-focused initiatives will always resonate more strongly than aesthetic updates.

Great brands (and leadership) understand that sustainable reputation recovery starts with delivering excellently on core promises. Once that foundation is solid, then comes the time for the beautiful uniforms, the designer collaborations, and the brand elevation initiatives.

The sequence matters. And right now, for Qantas, getting that sequence right could make all the difference in rebuilding the trust that truly matters.