V Australia..any clue on delay to first flights

[bigpetesol]

Yep, Your right, I stand corrected. I just trolled throught the 4 pages of notes about our booking to check. We cancelled the original overnight accommodation booking (it was for March 1) and changed all our other details in the USA etc to cope with the changes V forced on us without telling us. The third change by V had us leaving Bris at 1700 to pick up the 1930 VA1 to LAX so that wasnt too bad despite the 5 hours drive and the extra flight/stop over in Sydney. We cannot however change all the arrangements again, its too costly for us.

 

[docjames]

BigPete - it sounds like a nightmare. :evil:

Do you have travel insurance? IIRC some policies will cover some costs associated with this sort of problem, and may allow you to take your holiday still.

I think the other posters are suggesting that given the closeness to the times/dates of your (current!) booking, perhaps it might still be worth the (in the scheme of things) minor changes on this last booking, routing via sydney etc, and going away and enjoying your holiday (which no doubt you were/are looking forward too as you went through the hassles of changing it multiple times!).

 

[NM]

Thanks for that - I know how to do maths. You dont seem to appreciate that some of us dont live in capital cities. We live 5 hours drive west of Brisbane and had originally booked for an evening departure so we could travel to Brisbane on the day. That was changed about 5 minutes after we made the booking. I also have to pay a caretaker for the farm, organise my breeders to be cared for by another person, put the pets into a hostel etc. As I originally stated, for some of us, the most minor changes have a huge impact. We did have specific times we needed to be places in the USA with a very tight timeline but have modified our bookings 3 times already. We travel extensively throughout the world, and have been on just about all the major carriers and I have never struck such incompetence as is evident with V. Even Easyjet were better organised and thats saying something.

But you said you asked V Australia to book you via Qantas. The timing for the Qantas flight (QF15) and the timing of the Virgin Blue / V Australia routing would require the same time of departure from you home, whether it is 5 mins or 5 hours from the airport. Check-in for a 10:10am Virgin Blue domestic flight and check-in for a 11:05 Qantas international flight would require you to be at the airport at about the same time. I understand that will require a very early rise to get to BNE by 9am (similar to what I need for a 6am flight during southern state daylight savings time :shock.

If the Qantas flight times are acceptable and can be made to fit in with your home/farm requirements, then I don't understand why the DJ/VA combination is any different.

I was not aware VA had originally scheduled their BNE-LAX flight for an evening departure. I am not aware of any trans-Pacific flights that depart at that tome. Most depart between late mornning (any earlier and then are too early into LAX) and mid afternoon. In fact, the V Australia media release dated 4th July 2008, announcing the BNE-LAX services to commence 1st March, shows the BNE departure time of 11:35am. I cannot find any reference to that ever being an evening departure. What time was your original flight scheduled to depart BNE and to arrive into LAX?

 

[bigpetesol]

As I previously stated, I was mistaken with the Bris-LAX flight but the rebooked Sydney flight was supposed to be 1930 take off. We did origianlly have a planned overnight in Bris prior to departure but cancelled it and organised to fly 3 days earlier - we booked caretakers etc, booked long term parking and car rental and accom in USA, changed a couple of my speaking engagements - all long winded and complicated, I am not prepared to now have to rebook everything again just becuase V australia cant provide the service they promoted in the first place.

V Australia could not guarantee there would not be further changes to our booking. I suspect they are having trouble filling flights and am not prepared to be cancelled out of the US and have to make alternate arrangements to get home.

V have agreed to give us a full refund, all USA engagements have been cancelled so this affects many, many more people than just me. I will boycott all virgin service of any kind from now on and will be surprised if V Australia is still in operation mid year. Woe betide anyone game enough to stick with V.

 

[bigpetesol]

Well here's an update - got a total refund from V after they could not guarantee there would be no more changes or that the flight out of LAX for the return leg would be available?? Guess they want to change that one as well. Have rebooked with Qantas who were a great help. Bris-LAX direct with a 1205 departure and cheaper than V.

Advice to all.... Give V Australia a big miss unless you want days of stress, worry and travel changes.

 

[ANstar]

Advice to all.... Give V Australia a big miss unless you want days of stress, worry and travel changes.

Well I hope some people support them so we dont see a return to the RIP OFF days when QF/Ua had the route to themselves!

 

[stuartfaz]

Well I hope some people support them so we dont see a return to the RIP OFF days when QF/Ua had the route to themselves!

I guess this was the same thing people were worried would happen during the time after TT started sales but hadn't got their AOC.

It's simply the risk you take when you book with an airline that doesn't exist yet.

It sucks when it goes wrong, sure, but it happens.

I hope VA succeeds as well, and I'm sure they'll do alright eventually.

 

[Nigelinoz]

It should also be remembered that a strike at the Boeing plant was the root cause of the delay so it's a bit unfair to blame VA for that.
Yes blame them for not properly reorganising peoples flights and making last minute changes etc,that's something they clearly need to work on,but
don'r blame them because Boeing couldn't deliver the planes on time.
A friend of mine who works for Virgin Blue currently but is to join VA next month tells me they have ample forward bookings for the rest of the year and I believe they will succeed.

 

[ANstar]

.
A friend of mine who works for Virgin Blue currently but is to join VA next month tells me they have ample forward bookings for the rest of the year and I believe they will succeed.

45% load factor for forward bookings to June. Not bad IMHO for an airline with launch problems due to boeing and in the current economic climate.

I guess that can only increase once they actually start flying and get brand awareness in the states.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...e-banks-economy-20090206-7zu5.html

Virgin Blue chief executive Mr Godfrey said forward bookings for V Australia between now and June were at around 45 per cent capacity, with increased pick-up expected when the airline's first B777-300ER lands in Australia on Monday and the carrier is officially launched.

V after they could not guarantee there would be no more changes or that the flight out of LAX for the return leg would be available?? Guess they want to change that one as well. Have rebooked with Qantas
.

Lets hope you arent on a cancelled QF service. They have been canceling one of their daily flights each week since late NOV making it 6 x weekly.

 

[bigpetesol]

I spoke to the Qantas people when I made the booking and they made it very clear the flight was well ticketed and would not be cancelled, with no plans to alter departure times on either leg. They seemed to know what they are doing, unlike the V Australia staff who had no idea the flights had been delayed in the first place. V are still advertising and peddaling Brisbane to LAX direct commencing March 1st so clearly are misleading the public the forcing a re-schedule on them. You can go book via a myriad of websites with March 1 date....not very honest. Caveat Emptor.

 

[NM]

V are still advertising and peddaling Brisbane to LAX direct commencing March 1st so clearly are misleading the public the forcing a re-schedule on them. You can go book via a myriad of websites with March 1 date....not very honest. Caveat Emptor.

V Australia web site shows VA7 (non-stop BNE-LAX) commencing 29th March. ExpertFlyer shows the flights for 29/3, 1/4, 3/4 and 5/4 as loaded into the GDS but not currently available for sale (all booking classes show "R"). So I can't see how any any websites would be able to offer VA7 prior to April 8th. Which web sites were you able to see offering the flights from March 1st? The only VA flights from BNE to LAX I can see offered prior to April 8th are routing via SYD. The first date the V Australia web site would allow booking the non-stop service is 8th April, which is being offered for $1548. All the on-line sites I checked similarly only offered VA7 from 8th April. I am not seeing anything that I could define as "not very honest" .

Qantas QF15 departures are generally reliable. They will not (ever) cancel the flights due to low sales. It has had some well publicised lengthy delays due to mechanic problems, but that can happen to any flight on any airline at any time. The schedule for this flight and its predecessor QF175 have been fairly stable for many years, only altering with the change to/from daylight savings time in the USA to retain the 7am arrival slot.

 

[Nigelinoz]

As an exercise I tried with several websites to book BNE-LAX on March 1 and all of them offer a quote on a V Australia fare but it is quite clearly a
V Blue flight from BNE to SYD and V Australia SYD-LAX,
On no site did I find a direct V Australia BNE-LAX being offered.
I have yet to find anything too dishonest.,of course,i am more than happy to be proven wrong.

 

[trooper]

..so QF will guarantee NO schedule changes... ever?

I think a whole porcine squadron just took off......:mrgreen:

 

[drron]

April 8th looks like the new date for BNE-LAX.
Also announced MEL-LAX and SYD-JNB
Branson launches V Australia fleet - Travel - smh.com.au

 

[Groundfeeder]

with increased pick-up expected when the airline's first B777-300ER lands in Australia on Monday and the carrier is officially launched.

I noticed on the media blather around Mr Branson last nite that the V B777 looked a lot like a 200 - would it have the legs (wings?) to make it non-stop?

 

[ANstar]

I noticed on the media blather around Mr Branson last nite that the V B777 looked a lot like a 200 - would it have the legs (wings?) to make it non-stop?

It would indeed have the wings to do it!

United are apparently swapping out their MEL-SYD-SFO flight to a 777-200er later this year

 

[DJ737]

Hi there

United fly MEL-SYD-LAX-ORD, the SFO flight is SYD-SFO-JFK.

Cheers
DJ737

 

[crazydave98]

It would indeed have the wings to do it!

United are apparently swapping out their MEL-SYD-SFO flight to a 777-200er later this year

Michael, I would like to know how you came about that information. We looked at teh B777-200ER and it did not have the legs to do SYD-LAX (or more preceisely LAX-SYD) with a full payload. It just makes LAX-AKL with 313 pax which is good for AirNZ, but UA would take a real hit on payload if they tried to operate to SYD. Delta are using the B777-200LR to do SYD-LAX even though they have the 200ER in their fleet and operating out of LAX already.

cheers

CrazyDave98

 

[ANstar]

United fly MEL-SYD-LAX-ORD, the SFO flight is SYD-SFO-JFK.

Currently yes. A lot of people have had Itenary changes and it seems to indicate (from the posts on FT) that the 777 will be used MEL-SYD-SFO and the LAX 747 will terminate in SYD.

They are getting change planes in SYD messages for their MEL-LAX flights. The seatmap is also unavailble for the SFO flights.

The change appears to go from March 29 though June 3.

Michael, I would like to know how you came about that information.

I guess it is a rumour started by some UA staffers at this stage, so take it with a pinch of salt until the GDS's get changed (If it is accurate).

 

[banjalot]

So, after multiple changes, I sent off a complaint about V Australia's lack of notifications regarding changes to my itinerary.

No reply.

T minus 18 days until I fly on the first ever VA2 flight!