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medhead

Seven weeks of joy have come to an end

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by
medhead
, 30th May 2011 at 10:22 PM (369 Views)
As the title suggests, I have had 7 joy filled weeks and they ended today. The last seven weeks have seen me flying with Virgin Blue/Australia on Monday mornings. It really has been a enjoyable, the staff have been consistently friendly and helpful. I have always got great seats when it comes to checking in. Unfortunately Virgin Australia doesn't have seat preferences and as I don't do windows I've had to move from 3A to 7 or 8 aisle a couple of times. Towards the end, however, check in had me seating in the aisle up front. Does the system learn?

With the changes to Virgin Australia the food in The Lounge has also improved over the seven weeks. Better range of cereals, crumpets on offer, improved other bread products and the consistent barista coffee.

I also got the chance to try The Lounge in SYD shortly after the opening of the premium entry. That was a wonderful experience and also The Lounge was good as well. I even tried The Pie on my flight after using the premium entry. The Pie was great - a must have.

The best enjoyment has been the priority boarding for Velocity Gold. At 6 am, leaving The Lounge 10 minutes early is not a problem in order to take advantage of the pre-boarding call.

By comparison this morning I was back with QF. I get into the QP to find a better selection of cereals and even creamy rice. Trouble is I didn't see the macadamia museli that DJ offers. I'm not a cereal person at all, but I do make an exception for macadamia museli. The creamy rice is also a favourite, but why, for the love of god, does the Adelaide QP have a layer of water on top of their creamy rice? After picking up my usual bircher museli, I turn to the bread products to find that there are no english muffins. Now bread is ok, but I like muffin. And crumpet is even better. After downing all that, I wandered to the gate early to check for a priority boarding call. Instead I got the QF scrum the very second that the gate agent reached for the PA. Some clown even walked into the back of me. It is totally beyond comprehension that Qantas seems to be incapable of getting this stuff in order. At least I had an empty middle seat.

Overall, for a 6am flight DJ seems to be winning. At time of the day I don't need all mod cons, in fact, I really don't want anything. So being confront with uninspiring offerings is a challenge. At least The Lounge offerings don't make me lose the will to live. Maybe that''ll change in another 30 flights.
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Comments

  1. MatF's Avatar
    For QF510 yesterday morning, the priority boarding call was made - first for the elderly and passengers requiring assistance/etc, and quickly thereafter for Business, OWE, etc. But as usual, the scrum had already formed, and indeed the two FA's on the scanners had already started scanning people through even before the elderly/people requiring assistance call was made. It's a joke.

    Until there's a separate scanning area/line for priority boarding, I can't see how it's ever going to work. Who's going to barge their way though the scrum? and the gate staff do nothing to stop the scrum from forming (unsure if that is even possible).
  2. medhead's Avatar
    Must say I have no idea what Qantas' problem is, maybe consistency as usual. I do think DJ do a good job of managing expectations when it comes to the scrum. They always seem to make a first announcement to say that boarding will start soon and to provide general information. Then they do the call of child and assistance, however they seem to know who these people are, as well as the PE and Gold call. Maybe I'm getting these calls mixed up a bit. The last call is for general boarding or maybe by row boarding. Basically DJ have trained the passengers that there are multiple announcements and they don't need to jump on the first announcement.

    The other thing is the staffing arrangements. DJ usually have 2 ground staff that are at the gate for a while, and maybe one of the cabin crew. Get to the gate and staff being present is not a sign to move. Unlike Qantas where the appearance of a ground staff member basically means rush the gate, don't wait for the call as you mentioned and often the cabin crew have started boarding. Raising the question about who controls the boarding process?
  3. serfty's Avatar
    Maybe you'll reconsider this as you can add a window/aisle preference to your Velocity profile?
  4. medhead's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by serfty
    Maybe you'll reconsider this as you can add a window/aisle preference to your Velocity profile?
    I'm not sure. It is a good development and I've put in my preference. I have noticed that my seat options with DJ are not as good now that platinum has been introduced. There seems to be some glitch where I am platinum on the velocity website, but I'm gold on my BP and according to the list given to the cabin crew. It will be interesting to see what happens in November when the seat choice takes effect.

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