sydunipete
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- Joined
- Aug 1, 2008
- Posts
- 255
- Virgin
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- Gold
I tend to prefer Virgin Australia over Qantas. I find their customer service better and their on-time record just as good if not better. They've come a long way especially since a change in CEO a few years back. This is a bit of a summary of my VA experiences over the last few months and today's hellish passenger experiences. Today caused me to reflect on how far VA has come in recent times. It has emerged from puberty as a real airline. One worth checking out again if you haven't popped by recently.
Firstly - a quick look around the airport will show you how far VA has come in recent years. It's trivial I know, but how much more professional is a flight number starting with VA rather than the original DJ? On-board gone are the "Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ...." replaced with a mix of recorded and personal messages that are professional, adult and welcoming.
I travel economy, but thanks to good procurement arrangements most fares provide me with access to the lounge. The newish lounge in Sydney and Melbourne are light, bright and well equipped. This morning for example there was a wide selection of breakfast (nothing hot), 2 barista stations (the coffee was just ok), plenty of reading material, more than sufficient space, a well staffed service desk and a view of the tarmac. Compared with international lounges I've experienced it is youthful, fresh and a pleasure to spend a few minutes in.
Melbourne is currently undergoing renovations. But this afternoon it still had plenty of space - but I flew out before peak hour. There's a good range of beer & wine, some good cold snacks and the same colour scheme and concepts that provide relaxation space, work space and quiet(ish) space. Gone are the Nintendo machines (or whatever they were a few years back).
The gates at both Sydney and Melbourne have been remodelled. There's clearly marked priority boarding lanes (which unfortunately I didn't get to sample), plenty of work benches with power at each gate all in the same corporate colours. I've not yet seen anything as good as this around the world.
There are now a variety of aircraft type, flights between Melbourne and Sydney that depart every 15 minutes in peak hour, a real business class (not Euro business). It really feels like a grown up airline.
Has it lost some if it's youthful energy? Perhaps, but the friendly customer service is excellent. For example - today in the lounge I visited the loo (restroom) leaving my notebook (an old fashion writing book, not a computer) and an enthusiastic lounge cleaner obviously picked it up. When I returned to hunt down my book it had already been given to the front desk and they were about the page me.
On the negative side twice I tried to change my flight (I was on a fully flexible fare). Once on the phone and once at the lounge. Both times it took several interactions before both times I was told it wasn't possible. Each time, the first person I spoke to didn't have enough information to promptly tell me it wasn't possible. (Today was a crazy day for flying to Melbourne as the Liverpool Football Club was playing a game down there.) Also my boarding pass wasn't accepted at the automatic reader at the lounge entrance. I call it the Lounge-Dragon-o-matic. The human lounge guardian then came out and said I wasn't allowed in and it took two or three "yes I am", "no you're not" interactions before he could see my travel class was indeed allowed. It might be staff training or it might be a simple matter of printing the travel class letter a bit bigger on the boarding pass or stamping it with "lounge access".
VA is now an airline with a global alliance network covering most major locations. You can earn and redeem points just about anywhere in the world.
It really is a real, grown-up airline. Well done to the management team.
Unfortunately my travelling companions today weren't so pleasant (even putting the LFC fans to one side). I got middle seats each time and as I walked down the aisle this morning I could see the problem looming. Mister Creosote (Monty Python fans will understand the reference) or in this case Ms Creosote was sitting in the "F" and half my "E" seat. She had to request a seat belt extension and I'm sure both she and I regretted the unintentional, but impossible to avoid, body contact for the next 90 minutes or so. Please don't flame me. This has already been discussed to death in other forums. Somebody near me also thought it would be a good test of the air conditioning to see how good it was to purify their farts all the way from Sydney the Melbourne. I'm here to tell you the answer is "not very good". Please don't do it.
On the way back my middle seat was between a pleasant young lady and another person who spent there time making a snorting noise that was half way between sneezing and sniffling. It was bizarre. And the same farting person obviously booked onto my return flight just to make a long work day even less enjoyable.
Today's on-time record was pretty good. We were 15 minutes late into Melbourne (due to work on the apron) and a few minutes late back in to Sydney.
Firstly - a quick look around the airport will show you how far VA has come in recent years. It's trivial I know, but how much more professional is a flight number starting with VA rather than the original DJ? On-board gone are the "Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ...." replaced with a mix of recorded and personal messages that are professional, adult and welcoming.
I travel economy, but thanks to good procurement arrangements most fares provide me with access to the lounge. The newish lounge in Sydney and Melbourne are light, bright and well equipped. This morning for example there was a wide selection of breakfast (nothing hot), 2 barista stations (the coffee was just ok), plenty of reading material, more than sufficient space, a well staffed service desk and a view of the tarmac. Compared with international lounges I've experienced it is youthful, fresh and a pleasure to spend a few minutes in.
Melbourne is currently undergoing renovations. But this afternoon it still had plenty of space - but I flew out before peak hour. There's a good range of beer & wine, some good cold snacks and the same colour scheme and concepts that provide relaxation space, work space and quiet(ish) space. Gone are the Nintendo machines (or whatever they were a few years back).
The gates at both Sydney and Melbourne have been remodelled. There's clearly marked priority boarding lanes (which unfortunately I didn't get to sample), plenty of work benches with power at each gate all in the same corporate colours. I've not yet seen anything as good as this around the world.
There are now a variety of aircraft type, flights between Melbourne and Sydney that depart every 15 minutes in peak hour, a real business class (not Euro business). It really feels like a grown up airline.
Has it lost some if it's youthful energy? Perhaps, but the friendly customer service is excellent. For example - today in the lounge I visited the loo (restroom) leaving my notebook (an old fashion writing book, not a computer) and an enthusiastic lounge cleaner obviously picked it up. When I returned to hunt down my book it had already been given to the front desk and they were about the page me.
On the negative side twice I tried to change my flight (I was on a fully flexible fare). Once on the phone and once at the lounge. Both times it took several interactions before both times I was told it wasn't possible. Each time, the first person I spoke to didn't have enough information to promptly tell me it wasn't possible. (Today was a crazy day for flying to Melbourne as the Liverpool Football Club was playing a game down there.) Also my boarding pass wasn't accepted at the automatic reader at the lounge entrance. I call it the Lounge-Dragon-o-matic. The human lounge guardian then came out and said I wasn't allowed in and it took two or three "yes I am", "no you're not" interactions before he could see my travel class was indeed allowed. It might be staff training or it might be a simple matter of printing the travel class letter a bit bigger on the boarding pass or stamping it with "lounge access".
VA is now an airline with a global alliance network covering most major locations. You can earn and redeem points just about anywhere in the world.
It really is a real, grown-up airline. Well done to the management team.
Unfortunately my travelling companions today weren't so pleasant (even putting the LFC fans to one side). I got middle seats each time and as I walked down the aisle this morning I could see the problem looming. Mister Creosote (Monty Python fans will understand the reference) or in this case Ms Creosote was sitting in the "F" and half my "E" seat. She had to request a seat belt extension and I'm sure both she and I regretted the unintentional, but impossible to avoid, body contact for the next 90 minutes or so. Please don't flame me. This has already been discussed to death in other forums. Somebody near me also thought it would be a good test of the air conditioning to see how good it was to purify their farts all the way from Sydney the Melbourne. I'm here to tell you the answer is "not very good". Please don't do it.
On the way back my middle seat was between a pleasant young lady and another person who spent there time making a snorting noise that was half way between sneezing and sniffling. It was bizarre. And the same farting person obviously booked onto my return flight just to make a long work day even less enjoyable.
Today's on-time record was pretty good. We were 15 minutes late into Melbourne (due to work on the apron) and a few minutes late back in to Sydney.
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