Definitely varied experiences with Qantas and I believe that's due to what level your frequent flyer status is and I accept that. Just not a great general experience for the non frequent flyers.

The reason why I put off flying with Qantas for so long was the previous experience (around 10 years back) I had with them, I was stuck at Melbourne airport for like 8 hours... Checked in and all was ok till we needed to board and they said there were maintenance issues. Got sporadic updates throughout and they offered us like a $10-15? food voucher to get some food. As it ticked pass the 7 hour mark, I asked them to provide some documentation that the flight had been delayed for more then 7 hours so that I could claim against insurance which I thought was normal process. They provided the document just as we finally boarded and it stated they were only delayed for 6 hours...... So you can see my reluctance to fly with Qantas anymore.