Birdwatching From United States, joined Sep 2003, 2577 posts, RR: 58 Posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 6420 times:
I just dug up an incredible fact:
If you search the term "Qantas" on Google, you get 1.550.000 hits. Searching for the misspelled "Quantas" gives you a whopping 1.320.000 hits! Is there ANY other airline (or even any other company) that is misspelled almost half the time?
AeroWesty From United States, joined Oct 2004, 15634 posts, RR: 66 Reply 3, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 6284 times:
I doubt if even 0.5% of the flying public, let alone those who've never set foot on a plane, know the name Qantas is an acronym, and therefore assume when they see it spelled correctly, believe they are encountering a misspelling. Even the spell checker on a.net doesn't recognize it, and wants to replace it with the word "cantos".
Accargo From Canada, joined Sep 2004, 610 posts, RR: 9 Reply 4, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 6243 times:
I believe that Qantas is usually misspelled because most if not all spell-checkers do not recognize Qantas as a word, and will offer Quantas as the "correct" spelling. Even the spell check here does not recognize Qantas. Queensland And Northern Territory Air Service
That's hilarious! But yes, very useful to some customers.
Quoting Accargo (Reply 4): most if not all spell-checkers do not recognize Qantas as a word, and will offer Quantas as the "correct" spelling
I'm glad that Word 2003 at least does the opposite. Its Finnish version then again still tries to ruin the Finnish language by using English defaults on everything...
MidnightMike From United States, joined Mar 2003, 2892 posts, RR: 37 Reply 6, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 6191 times:
Oh hell, the schedulers at Qantas would always bust my balls about mis-spelling the company name, whenever I write Qantas I always have to check to make sure that it is spelled correctly...
Star_world From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2001, 1119 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 6182 times:
Quoting Sabena332 (Reply 2): Qantas seems to know that, you will also get to the official Qantas homepage when you type www.quantas.com in the address bar of your browser.
Interestingly, Qantas seem to assume that it's our American friends that make this mistake commonly as it diverts to the US homepage, not the default Australian one that qantas.com goes to!
Backfire From Germany, joined Oct 2006, 0 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 6149 times:
People who constantly moan about 'Qantas' being misspelled have too much time on their hands, in my opinion. And it's funny how many of those people can't then seem to agree what the bloody name actually stands for.
It's the airline's fault in the first place for picking such a dumb acronym - it could easily have incorporated the 'Qu' from 'Queensland' and then there wouldn't be a problem.
But no. By a stroke of 'genius' some idiot decided that the word should be spelled 'Qantas' - forgetting that 'Q' without 'u' is practically unheard-of in English and thereby making the sort of common-sense error which ought to appear on the Top Ten list of stupid marketing blunders. The fact that the airline has to redirect people away from 'quantas.com' shouldn't be seen as a success - in branding terms it's a failure.
Birdwatching From United States, joined Sep 2003, 2577 posts, RR: 58 Reply 10, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 6127 times:
Quoting Backfire (Reply 9): By a stroke of 'genius' some idiot decided that the word should be spelled 'Qantas' - forgetting that 'Q' without 'u' is practically unheard-of in English and thereby making the sort of common-sense error which ought to appear on the Top Ten list of stupid marketing blunders.
C'mon, relax. You have to take into consideration that Qantas is a *very* old company and brand name. Back in the old days there wasn't that much concern about branding and customer recognition and all that. It was an acronym, and they used it, and it sounds good IMO.
Now the pronounciation is a different story, you might say that "kantas" would be a more appropriate pronounciation... or why doesn't everybody pronounce it the way they wish.
Thats my 2 cents.
[S] [A] [L] [>] S U I D - A F R I K A A N S E L U G D I E N S
Sydscott From Australia, joined Oct 2003, 1621 posts, RR: 6 Reply 11, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 6077 times:
Quoting Backfire (Reply 9): The fact that the airline has to redirect people away from 'quantas.com' shouldn't be seen as a success - in branding terms it's a failure.
What a stupid statement.
Quoting Backfire (Reply 9): It's the airline's fault in the first place for picking such a dumb acronym - it could easily have incorporated the 'Qu' from 'Queensland' and then there wouldn't be a problem.
Tell that to the people that founded Qantas back in the 20's when it started flying to Longreach, Charleville etc. Then it quite literally was the Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service. I don think you'll find an airline in North America or England that has had exactly the same branding from almost 80 years!!!! Besides all the Australians know how to spell it and the fact that some Americans, along with many others, don't shouldn't surprise anybody.
Marara From Australia, joined Oct 2001, 650 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 5992 times:
Sorry guys but Q.A.N.T.A.S. actually stood for Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd but today it stands for nothing as Qantas is no longer an acronym its just Qantas Airways Limited.
Backfire,
man you really need to take a chill pill. That idiot founded the second oldest airline in the world.
[Edited 2005-04-14 01:43:43]
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. Jerome K Jerome
Chinaeastern From China, joined Apr 2004, 339 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 5919 times:
it is actually quite annoying to see the miss spell form of QANTAS. i mean from a non english speaker's point of view, as i am, anything in the abbreviated form is more or less annoying. however, i find the five letter combination of QANTAS visually attractive and the insertion of the unneccissary "u" not only simply looks dam but also makes the "Q" brand less stand out from QANTAS.
And it isn't really that hard to remember how to spell it correctly either, (probably cuz i've seem more QF aircrafts than any other airlines so far)
by the way, if you do the same kind of search @ google, you can find quite a lot of miss spellings for other airlines too. for example the name for GA which i still do know how to spell correctly, so i use GA all the time
maybe we should add QANTAS into the dictionary so people can run a spell check b4 submittinng, just as everyone knows how to spell Virgin Blue
AirPacific747 From Denmark, joined May 2008, 298 posts, RR: 25 Reply 15, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 5919 times:
I just did the same search on "Quantas" and "Qantas" lol and when I searched, it found 1.370.000 pages about Quantas and "only" 869.000 about Qantas... so way more than 50% spelled it wrong
Jalalabad From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 18, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 5706 times:
Quoting QANTASFOREVER (Reply 17): To appease morons like you? I very much doubt it. The acronym is a relatively new brand - it was known for many years as Q.A.N.T.A.S (although constant literal pronounciations of this led to the use of the name "Qantas".) Really - your inability, or the inability of anyone else to comprehend the word "Qantas" needs to seriously evaluate the way they approach the english language. It is a proper noun like any other proper noun - resistance to this word is to resist the english language.
I'd have to say Qantas is the one resisting the English language..
In all honesty the Aussie members that get all wound up when someone miss spells Qantas, just need to relax instead of blasting the other member, now I'm ready to get and by the aussie members
Don't forget to check out my youtube movies in my profile!
QANTASforever From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 22, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 5616 times:
Quoting Jalalabad (Reply 19): I'd have to say Qantas is the one resisting the English language..
Really? So people who use acronyms are resisting the english language. Ever heard of the CIA, FBI, USAF, NATO?
Quoting 777ER (Reply 22): In all honesty the Aussie members that get all wound up when someone miss spells Qantas, just need to relax instead of blasting the other member, now I'm ready to get and by the aussie members
You will if you keep referring to us with that bastardised abbreviated colloquialism.
Qantas077 From Australia, joined Jan 2004, 5479 posts, RR: 54 Reply 24, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 5570 times:
what really jerks me is that people on here miss spell the name when it's written right in front of them, i know some people are simple, but how stupid are people to mispell the name when it's right in front of them!
Backfire
go learn something about QANTAS other then the shit you have dribbled here, you no sweet FA about the company which shows in your response. here is a good place to start! http://www.qantas.com.au/info/about/history/index
I support the Palestinian cause but there is no flag available for me to display!
UpperDeck79 From Finland, joined Feb 2005, 1139 posts, RR: 1 Reply 25, posted (4 years 7 months 5 days ago) and read 5562 times:
Quoting LeanOfPeak (Reply 18): UpperDeck79, you need to change your language settings in Word.
Thanks, but I have of course already done that.
I meant the fact that 95 % of people don't know how to or just don't care to change a couple of extremely stupid defaults for automatic correction while typing... The defaults are useful in English but definitely not in Finnish. You can even notice on newspapers sometimes that the journalist had used Word with the English defaults.
AY and ANA rock!
26 Jalalabad: I'm not against acronyms (or Qantas), I was merely responding this comment: English has no convention for pronouncing "q" without a "u", so how can t
27 VHXLR8: Whilst not an English word as such, there is one word that we commonly use in English that has a Q without a U, Qatar. I know that it's origins are n
28 QANTASforever: Qantas is an invented proper noun - true. Although, all nouns - in fact all words were invented at some stage or another. Does a word's age determine
29 Jaybird: I've actually seen QANTAS misspelled in Air Transport World magazine more than once .. what does it say when a magazine written for airline managment
30 Filton216: I have to admit that I have misspelt Qantas as Quantas but everyone makes mistakes. filton216
31 Lekohawk: Wow... that was really uncalled for. However, before you assert that Americans don't speak English... you'd better check your own proficiency. You wa
32 'Longreach': Hahaha. The Qantas brand is one of the most successful and recognizable brands in the Australian market place. Branding failure or marketing blunder
33 AMSSpotter: Good point. I did a search on Google and tried to avoid the problem you mentioned. The results are a little more promising, +Qantas +Australia: 696,0
34 9V-SVC: I kept wondering to myself, how does the word Quantas comes about ? How many times they were being corrected that it's Qantas not Quantas but they ref
35 Ryan h: I remeber from the earliest days of school it was drummed into me and many, many others, that a Q is followed by a U. I sometimes spell Qantas wrong,
36 N62NA: One of my pet peeves is when I hear People Express airlines called Peoples Express...
37 Jonty: if it stands for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd, what was its name when it was referred to as Qantas Empire Airways Ltd. becaus
38 Qantas077: it's actually one of the top 10 recognised brands in the world also, can't be that much of a marketing disaster if it's that well known worldwide, th
39 Airways1: Here's a picture of their timetable from 1928.
40 Qantas077: that is quite a piece of history Airways, where did you get that from?
41 Dugway: I found something quite funny when I was recently in the Baggage Claim area in the North Terminal of LGW. There was a sign explaining which airlines b
42 Backfire: Some of you guys are so easy to wind up. I normally can't be asked to get involved in the Qantas/Quantas spelling debate, but this was just too good t
43 Braybuddy: It's probably the catchiest and best known flag-carrier name in the world which doesn't include the country's name. Even people who aren't interested
44 Russophile: It was referred to as QEA. http://www.qfom.com.au/collections/story/wings.html
45 Lufthansa: It is so not one of the best 10 known brands in the world! Dream on. I'm sure Joe smith, who works in Albertson's supermarket and lives in Boise knows
46 Cyclonic: Ok, ok, this has all gotten a little out of hand! Lets just all calm down now people!
47 CitationJet: I am beginning to miss the "NW DC-9", "dirty AF planes" threads. I think we have beat this to death. We all know that Qantas is spelled wrong quite of
48 Britair: On a lighter note: When I worked for Qantas many years ago, on my first day the trainer said "Now first of all lets get one thing clear, there is no U
49 QANTASFOREVER: No you weren't. I know what you were doing - you can't pull the wool over my eyes. QFF
50 Blackhawk144: Lufthansa, I'd venture to bet that there are many people who have heard of Qantas and have never heard of... MERCK NIVEA ERICSSON DANONE BACARDI CATER
51 Sydscott: Substitute "you are" into the sentence I wrote and ask yourself whether it makes sense or not. Speaking English vs speaking American. You probably me
52 Sydscott: Just read 777's post. I'll go round up all the Air New Zealand haters that still aren't over Ansett shall I??? (Is that better mods???)
53 Sydscott: Blackhawk144 & Lufthansa may also be interested in this article outlining the top global brands by impact for 2004 and then top brands by region. htt
54 Lufthansa: MERCK - big pharmaceutical company... if you were old and had probs you'd know it. Based in New Jersy. NIVEA - leading global brand of moisturisers an
55 AeroWesty: I'm just wondering why we never see Qatar Airways misspelled.
59 UpperDeck79: ...because Qatar is NOT pronounced "kwa-tah".
60 Chinaeastern: Good point, i've never actually thought about that b4, absolutely hilarious
61 Backfire: When you can correctly write 'misspell' and 'know', appropriately capitalise, use punctuation effectively and learn to argue without resorting to pro
62 Blackhawk144: How have I got to be kidding you? Do you think I was joking? I seriously have never heard of those companies, I'm sorry! Anthony
63 UpperDeck79: Seeing you are 13-15 years old according to your profile, I'm not at all surprised that you have never heard of Bacardi.
64 QANTASforever: I fail to see where anyone involved in this discussion had advocated such a thing. If you want to start a thread about the correct use of the word "T
65 Backfire: Are you done? Good. I'd normally cane any attention-seeking submissive who was that impertinent to me, but I'll let you off. [Edited 2005-04-15 15:28
66 Sydscott: From memory there was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald just after the Rugby World Cup about how the B&D Mistresses and other more "diverse" la
67 NumberTwelve: Totally disagree, for me Aussies are everything but arrogant and they know that they aren't the centre of the world. You mixed it up with the America
68 Airzim: Merck & Co., Inc. Corporate Headquarters One Merck Drive, P.O. Box 100 Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889-0100 USA 908-423-1000 Merck operates as MSD outsid
69 QANTASforever: lol I find it funny that you are the only person in here who cannot see who the true attention-seeker is. Re-read your original post, and the reactio
70 Backfire: I did. And I stand by my original opinion. I don't need the reassurance of knowing others agree with me. Now since you're beginning to bore me with t
71 UA772IAD: Here are the ones in the dictionary (mind you, most are either Non English-Names/words, abbreviations, prefixes/suffixes, or accronyms): Q Q (PHYSICS
72 Zrs70: Peple put two much emfasis on speling in this forum. The funy thing is that so many ot us use bad grammer, pour spellling, and to make mistakes.
73 Lekohawk: OK, I'll do just that: "Well you are an American and since they dont speak English, or in the case of your President a communicable dialect, I fail t
75 Jalalabad: Some of those are the pronunciation of the phonetic letter (like H is pronounced aitch) and the rest represent sounds that don't exist in the English
76 Sydscott: I'm sorry was there a question in all that diatribe??? Please enlighten me as to where I have taken any of this thread personally?? In your opinion o
77 Lekohawk: The question was... why shouldn't it have been pronounced as it is spelled? You must also ask yourself if the brand has the ability to expand (Worldwi
78 Sydscott: Perhaps not being so touchy next time would help. From my list above QF is one of the top 10 brands in the Asia Pacific. It is therefore logical to c
79 Sacflyer: NATO is an acronym. CIA, FBI, and USAF are abbreviations.
80 Sacflyer: You misspelled "misspell" twice in the same sentence!!! And spelled it wrong two different ways!![Edited 2005-04-20 17:50:07]
81 Qantas777: Ifeel blessed to have the Qantas777 brand name!
82 Blackhawk144: Sacflyer, CIA, FBI, and USAF are not abbreviations...what are they abbreviating? They are acronyms. Anthony
83 Danialanwar: do a search for QAUNTAS and you get 136 matches ... including at least one (no two including this thread) from airiners.net
84 Sacflyer: Well, CIA is an abbreviation for Central Intelligence Agency, FBI is an abbreviation for Federal Bureau of Investigation, USAF is an abbreviation for
85 Lekohawk: Actually... I was referring to the first part of your comment. You know, that little bit that said: But, I've addressed all that ad nauseum at this p
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But yes, very useful to some customers.
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You can even notice on newspapers sometimes that the journalist had used Word with the English defaults.
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