A Qantas WP1's observations on the Virgin Platinum experience

[pshepvic]

Couple of things that I don't think are quite right here:

- The $30 fee is only for reward seats booked over the phone, not for the comp upgrades for Plats - I believe from another thread the fee that appears on the itinerary is an internal accounting to effectively charge a cost centre for the upgrade but you should not be charged for it. If your ccard has actually been charged I would call Virgin and dispute it - it may be that the staff didn't understand that the fee only applies to points rewards booked over the phone.

- If you cancel a fare and hold it in credit, that credit can be used towards any booking - does not have to be the same route. I've done this several times - including using a cancelled MEL-SYD return to pay for part of a one way MEL-BNE returning then OOL-MEL. You may not be able to re-route a current booking which I agree is not great, but it's not hard to cancel it and put it into credit, then use the credit towards the new booking. I don't think you pay the cancel fee when putting it into credit (that is only payable if you ask for a refund). I haven't paid any cancel fees anyway, on both saver and Flexi fares, when I've put them into a credit shell.*

* also just thought about this - the good thing is you don't have to use the whole credit at once (like you do with QF). You can use part of it and the rest will be retained and can be used towards whatever booking as you like.

 

[pshepvic]

These are the Velocity T&Cs:



You can see there that the $30 fee is only for reward seats booked over the phone. Comp upgrades are not reward seats (in fact, you can use the upgrade as long as there is a J seat available at the time of requesting it, it does not have to be a reward seat or specific fare bucket).

[edited post to correct my appalling grammar - my mother would have been ashamed!]

 

[DC3]

... The $30 fee is only for reward seats booked over the phone, not for the comp upgrades for Plats - I believe from another thread the fee that appears on the itinerary is an internal accounting to effectively charge a cost centre for the upgrade but you should not be charged for it. If your ccard has actually been charged I would call Virgin and dispute it - it may be that the staff didn't understand that the fee only applies to points rewards booked over the phone ...

Thanks. It looks like a phone call tomorrow is definitely in order.

 

[MichaelD]

pshepvic,

Thanks for your comments/clarifications.

I can't yet see the actual charge for the Flexi fare that I upgraded on my cc statement, so I will watch that one closely to see if the $30 fee is actually charged or not (actually $60 for MEL-SYD-PER - used up 2 upgrades, not 1 which also doesn't seem quite right*). It certainly appears on the itinerary and certainly came as a nasty shock when I saw it. It's still a fantastic benefit, regardless.

Cancelling to a voucher: I am not game to try one of my forward bookings to test this out, but I did specifically ring the GCC with my request to "I want to cancel my Flexi flight from SYD-CBA and use the $ to pay for a flight from SYD-MEL" only to be explicitly told that I *had* to pay a $100 cancellation fee and then rebook as the fare could not be re-routed. I then clarified that if I did the exact same thing online that I would only be out of pocket $80 which the GCC rep concurred with, so I did it online with gritted teeth and a nasty taste in my mouth.

If the GCC gave me incorrect advice...well that's another BAD in my comparisons - the GCC staff are definitely enthusiastic, but seem to make lots of mistakes.

*UPDATE: I was *told* it would use 2 of my upgrades and agreed to this, there are 2 x $30 charges on the itinerary, but only 1 upgrade has been deducted from my FF account, so the GCC are clearly still a bit confused on all these new features.

I *still* say that Flexi fare + comp upgrade is an AMAZINGLY cheap way to get a MEL - SYD - PER Business fare (specifically wanted to try the A330 J product and as a bonus hopefully will get a 737 J product as well) but this is NOT the polished premium Qantas experience on the phone.

 

[sydney_kings]

Whilst I'm not a WP1 (only approximately 3000sc this year - all economy unfortunately), I too have moved over to Virgin for the next two months to see the other side.

I definitely prefer the Virgin 3A seating over the 4A. Also, in four flights, I've been lucky to have been upgraded twice! My last op-up with Qantas was in April this year (flying at least weekly). Service is like for like to me and don't rate one better than the other.

Lounge facilities are mixed. I prefer the Qantas menu/food options, however, Virgin wins on the choice of beers (Beez Neez) and soup. Apart from Melbourne, Virgin's lounge facilities appear to be a fair bit smaller than Qantas, especially considering that Gold/Plat's share the same lounge. Also, please allow patrons to take the odd newspaper/magazine on Virgin - stock up please! - Qantas doesn't mind people taking newspapers and magazines, Virgin should at least follow with newspapers!

Website facilities wise, I prefer Qantas at this stage, it may be familiarity, but I find the Qantas site more user friendly and a better look and feel.

Probably the most noticeable difference between the two carriers is the schedule. I notice Qantas frequency of flights are much better than Virgin's (it does become a great excuse to zip off from meetings on time rather than stay back).

So overall, Qantas probably hasn't lost me as a customer (even though the flight cancellations nearly did), but I'm more than happy to "test" Virgin for a few months before deciding on my preferred carrier.

 

[simongr]

Great summary and associated thoughts about this. For me this again reiterates that Virgin is not some shining beacon of pure brilliantness but simply a pretty decent airline that is a bit of a refreshing change to QF.

I am intending to flick flights to DJ next year - mostly out of boredom more than anything. I do want to see some clarity on the food issue. If I am flying home on a Friday evening I want some food in flight. I don't want to sit out in the gate areas. Flying MEL-SYD I was told that there was no hot food on board...

 

[v8Statesman]

Yep, I seem to remember referring to it as "prison food" (for which I'm laying claim to poetic license, as I've never had the real thing to make a fair comparison.. :!

I have, You'd be surprised how well prisoners here are fed! Oh I was allowed to go home each night. I was a contractor, not a guest

 

[DJ332]

5. GOOD. The enthusiasm of all the Virgin staff can't be beaten. There seems to be a genuine air of excitement and a desire to go the extra mile to make my flying experience a good one. They don't have the refined polish of Qantas yet, but the enthusiasm is definitely there.

I have to laugh whenever I read someone commend QF's 'polished service'. Can only speak for economy, but regardless of how long the sector is (ADL-DRW, MEL-ADL, SYD-CNS, SYD-ADL or whatever), I've found the cabin crew pretty disorganised on the whole. Worryingly, it's the experienced (older) staff who seem to be the worst.

Last time I flew ADL-DRW on the direct QF754, the mature cabin crew took almost two hours to complete the meal service on a 767. There was absolutely no order to the proceedings: staff were running up and back between the galley (touch trolley, run to the galley Pam Ann style), shouting directions to each other, handing meals over the centre seats to each other when they were running low and not appearing particularly 'refined' in their service delivery. Some meals were obtained directly from the galley to give to pax rather than from the trolley. Then......they forgot to serve us. Admittedly, we were right up the back (thanks, classic reward!) and there was a group of at least 8 UMs next to and behind us, but I was still disappointed by how lax it all was.

QF domestic is still a pretty good product and the crew were friendly enough, genuinely sorry when we alerted them to the fact they missed us. However, I must say DJ staff have been more efficient and professional in my recent experience, and normally better presented as well.

My two cents.

 

[v8Statesman]

QF domestic is still a pretty good product and the crew were friendly enough, genuinely sorry when we alerted them to the fact they missed us. However, I must say DJ staff have been more efficient and professional in my recent experience, and normally better presented as well.

QF lovers, DJ haters and DJ lovers, QF haters alike really should sample AA Y. Thankfully I've never done it, but know several who have. They'd never complain about the same wrap week after week

 

[markis10]

I can't yet see the actual charge for the Flexi fare that I upgraded on my cc statement, so I will watch that one closely to see if the $30 fee is actually charged or not (actually $60 for MEL-SYD-PER - used up 2 upgrades, not 1 which also doesn't seem quite right*). It certainly appears on the itinerary and certainly came as a nasty shock when I saw it. It's still a fantastic benefit, regardless.

As someone who has used the complimentary upgrades I can assure you the $30 fee will not be one paid for by you, its merely an internal accounting issue, it was not that long ago we were used to seeing strange $$$ on paper tickets that bore no resemblance to the fare paid, this is not dissimilar to that!

As also mentioned, the fare can be put into a credit shell to be used by anybody to anywhere later on after a fee is paid (and must be done via a phone call), my company has used this extensively to their advantage. I also note you did not mention fly ahead, IMHO this is a massive advantage to the road warrior that leaves QF in the dust as far as benefits go that are published.

I think its good that the two dominant FF schemes here are not total copies of each other, that way there is a good chance most will see value in what one or the other offers, those of us lucky enough to have lifetime status in one and earned status in the other can pick and choose to match our needs on the day, who needs best fare of the day when you can have best airline on the day .

 

[medhead]

Some meals were obtained directly from the galley to give to pax rather than from the trolley.

These could have been special meals, which are served direct from the galley based on my observations.


Sent from my iPhone using Aust Freq Fly app so please excuse the lack of links.

 

[MichaelD]

As also mentioned, the fare can be put into a credit shell to be used by anybody to anywhere later on after a fee is paid (and must be done via a phone call), my company has used this extensively to their advantage. I also note you did not mention fly ahead, IMHO this is a massive advantage to the road warrior that leaves QF in the dust as far as benefits go that are published.

Can I ask what the fee for putting a booking into a credit shell is? Now that I have been made aware this is possible, I can inform the GCC of this as well next time I need to change a flight.

Fly ahead - yes indeed, I used this on the day of the Qantas grounding to get home a grand total of 15 minutes late (bought a Virgin fare for the next day and then just boarded the first flight with a fail-to-board). Doesn't apply if you have luggage, though - lucky for me that day was pretty much the only day this year I travelled without luggage.

 

[pshepvic]

Can I ask what the fee for putting a booking into a credit shell is? Now that I have been made aware this is possible, I can inform the GCC of this as well next time I need to change a flight.

Fly ahead - yes indeed, I used this on the day of the Qantas grounding to get home a grand total of 15 minutes late (bought a Virgin fare for the next day and then just boarded the first flight with a fail-to-board). Doesn't apply if you have luggage, though - lucky for me that day was pretty much the only day this year I travelled without luggage.

The fee is $60 online or $80 via call centre. To rebook using the credit shell you have to ring the call centre however they waive the normal $15 fee on saver fares when rebooking.

The fee for Flexi is $80 online (weird that it is more) however I've cancelled Flexis online several times and it's gone into a credit shell with no fee charged, plus I've used that credit with no fee either. Might be the corporate deal we have though.

 

[markis10]

Flexis should have no fee, only fare difference.

 

[dk4]

Flexis should have no fee, only fare difference.

I think that QF & DJ have different meanings for the term "flight changes". DJ excludes origin/destination changes as "flight changes" whereas QF includes them? (QF explicitly does not charge a fee on flexi saver credit notes, but conversely will not offer a refund.)

Ticket value can be used towards a new booking for travel anywhere on the Qantas network within 12 months of the date that the original ticket was issued

So at DJ - O&D changes can only be made by cancelling a ticket, which incurs a charge (for off the shelf flexi fares) even if the refund is issued as a credit note?

This would align DJ more closely with JQ's business model than QF's.

(Noting: JQ being a ticketless airline, has the advantage of no 12 month limit on ticket life.)

 

[MichaelD]

The fee for Flexi is $80 online (weird that it is more) however I've cancelled Flexis online several times and it's gone into a credit shell with no fee charged, plus I've used that credit with no fee either. Might be the corporate deal we have though.

I'd suggest my original point stands as valid. $80 is an unacceptably high fee, especially when considering my most common route is MEL-SYD @ $219 for a Flexi fare with Virgin.

Losing almost 1/2 of the fare is not very Flexi at all!

Right at the moment, I will only travel DJ when I am 99.99% sure that I won't need to change the routing, especially if it's on a routing I don't regularly fly.

 

[oz_mark]

So at DJ - O&D changes can only be made by cancelling a ticket, which incurs a charge (for off the shelf flexi fares) even if the refund is issued as a credit note?

This would align DJ more closely with JQ's business model than QF's.

(Noting: JQ being a ticketless airline, has the advantage of no 12 month limit on ticket life.)

What do you mean it more aligns with the JQ business model? According to the rules of a Jetstar flexible ticket:

Fully Flexible fare - No fees for date, time, name, origin & destination changes (fare difference may apply)

 

[dk4]

What do you mean it more aligns with the JQ business model? According to the rules of a Jetstar flexible ticket:

You are, of course, quite right - I should have specified that I was referring to a Plus bundle rather than a Max bundle.

 

[serfty]

The fees are listed here:

View All | Virgin Australia

and specifically for flexi: (Flexi | Virgin Australia)

[h=3]Domestic Bookings[/h] [h=4]Online Changes and Cancellations*[/h] *Fees are charged per person, per booking

Flight Change Fee	Any fare difference
Cancel Fee	$80

Changes and Cancellations made via our Guest Contact Centre*

*Fees are charged per person, per booking

Flight Change Fee	Any fare difference
Name Change Fee	$80
Cancel Fee	$100
Refund Fee	$100
Baggage Service Fee (Applicable when adding Baggage to Internet bookings)	N/A
Guest Contact Centre Fare Difference (GCC fares are higher than Internet fares)	N/A

 

[DJ332]

These could have been special meals, which are served direct from the galley based on my observations.

Half way through the service? My understanding was all SPMLs were served first.