Advice please - BA or VA Y+ to the UK from Sydney - which is a better option?

[womble123]

I'm a Qantas FF but their Y+ offerring is $1000+ more expensive....

 

[notzac]

Do you mean VA or VS?

If VA, you should be aware that you will have whY+ from SYD-AUH and then regular whY AUH-LHR.
If VS, you'll have whY+ the whole way.

I've not flown VS so I have no idea what their whY+ service is like -- but $1000 is quite a bit of a difference for the FF points. Do you have status with QF (or any other airline)?

 

[womble123]

Virgin Atlantic. No status I'm afraid. and lots of QFF points I never seem to be able to use.

 

[ozmille]

I would not pay for BA whY+ unless if you can get codeshare on QF metal.

 

[Globetrotter]

My partner had to fly to London last minute early last year and I only had enough points to cover LAX/LHR/LAX on BA in PE. We had to puchase a standard economy class seat on VA BNE/LAX/BNE.

Feedback.

BA PE was cough
VA Y was excellent

If it was me, I'd go PE on VA because if Y is excellent compared to BA PE then PE on VA should be brilliant!

 

[womble123]

cheers, appreciate all advice

 

[awilcockson]

BA PE was cough

Excellent, really looking forward to my 10 hours LHR to DFW in BA whY+ in a couple of weeks now

 

[Globetrotter]

Excellent, really looking forward to my 10 hours LHR to DFW in BA whY+ in a couple of weeks now

Oh sorry! Maybe BA have upgraded PE in the last 12 months. If not, sit in Y for an hour then move to PE for the rest of the flight, you'll definitely appreciate PE more

 

[awilcockson]

Oh sorry! Maybe BA have upgraded PE in the last 12 months. If not, sit in Y for an hour then move to PE for the rest of the flight, you'll definitely appreciate PE more

Haha good idea, might have to try that. From what I've heard BA whY+ isn't the greatest, at least the 3 other long sectors are in QF why+ (not that it's that great either, but I guess it's better than whY).

 

[ozmille]

Haha good idea, might have to try that. From what I've heard BA whY+ isn't the greatest, at least the 3 other long sectors are in QF why+ (not that it's that great either, but I guess it's better than whY).

BA have upgraded their PE product but not on all routes and definitely not to OZ. Maybe you will be lucky on the DFW flight.

 

[awilcockson]

BA have upgraded their PE product but not on all routes and definitely not to OZ. Maybe you will be lucky on the DFW flight.

Let's hope so, and apologies to OP for side-tracking your thread.

 

[smckay]

If the dollars aren't the issue go QF. I flew VS Y+ last year syd-lhr return and I was disappointed. I even told the QF hosties at Heathrow I really wanted to go with them rather than with Sir Dicks offering.

QF is my choice for my next trip and I will forgo my near-silver status on VS to go QF.

 

[pauly7]

If the dollars aren't the issue go QF. I flew VS Y+ last year syd-lhr return and I was disappointed. I even told the QF hosties at Heathrow I really wanted to go with them rather than with Sir Dicks offering.

QF is my choice for my next trip and I will forgo my near-silver status on VS to go QF.

Yep agree. VS in general isn't fantastic they haven't updated in a while and have fallen well and truly behind the 8 ball.

 

[smckay]

....and if the $1,000 is the total difference, about 1/3 way home you will be regretting not spending the extra 500 bucks each way. I actually was not looking forward to the return flight at all. How can that be in a 'Premium' seat and service???

 

[sydstar]

This is a question I am quite interested in as well. I have noticed QF place a premium (pardon the pun ) on their Y+ and was interested to hear what the general view of other options was.

Particularly, the value of VA Y+ to Europe, with the shift to EY Y at AUH. I have seen fares advertised for as low as $2600 rtn, and was interested to know what others thought of this as an option, mainly with the stopover and then moving onto a different carrier and 'down' from Y+ to Y, and comparing this to the VS offering via HKG, which I regularly see around the $4000 mark.

 

[smckay]

I'm not a 'frequent' flyer (in my dream world I am on every plane I see float over Sydney ) but I have travelled both QF Y+ and VS Y+.

QF was 2009 LAX-SYD and was a very nice experience. Greeted by name - Mr and Mrs. - decent food including snacks on demand such as a ham and cheese baguette, decent seat that reclined ok and left feeling Very Special (jeepers, how do the business class folks get off feeling???). Noise cancelling head phones, some nice little touches.

Virgin Atlantic was last year SYD-LHR. What a disappointment. Hosty never knew my name let alone call me Mr. Food was basically Y with china plates and steel tools. Booze? Very hard to obtain and a struggle. No complimentary paper. Going through Asia I found the whole shebang was focussed on that market; asian food dominated (even breakfast), staff were mostly asian. I sorta felt that being a pommy airline we'd get a lass from Birmingham (what song is that line from folks?) but not to be. In fact, the best service we got was from an English hosty from LHR-HKG which was a shame as that was mostly night and everyone was <trying> to sleep
Seats; hard, flat, uncomfortable. I ended up using the pillow stuck under my rump for the entire trip back in order to be comfortable. What killed me was that from SYD-HKG, economy was basically empty and and all the plebs were stretched out across 4 rows of seats, sleeping soundly, whilst I moved and wriggled and cursed in my expensive seat. I found this out as I toured the facility due to noted yukky chair.
Entertainment system should be sued for using that name. Economy headphones, ordinary screen, RED sytem is difficult to use. Nothing modern, nothing to talk about.

In short, I am planning my next trip back to UK early next year and unless I can jag a good price on QF paying cash for Y+ I will go the upgrade via points route. And the A340 is a noisy muthasucka; Only been on one A380 but enough to make me look at QF31/32 combo next ride.

Just my opinion but I won't be taking VS in a hurry unless the price is so cheap that it is stupid not to fly and make Silver status (wil they call me Mr. then?)

EDIT: Forgot status_seeker was referring to VA but maybe similar to VS?

 

[sydstar]

EDIT: Forgot status_seeker was referring to VA but maybe similar to VS?

That's ok, the whole VA/VS thing is a bit confusing. Although I was more interested in the VA Y+ and switch to Y at AUH, thanks for the VS comparison. I've heard conflicting stories about VS, some great in Y+, others awful. I've also heard the Asian market is of more importance to them on the SYD-HKG-LHR route than the Australian market

I wasn't sure if the OP had looked at the VA Y+ option and if others had any experiences on the switch of classes at AUH and whether the significant savings offset the last ~7 hrs in Y

 

[smckay]

for me I'd much rather upgrade than down grade. So going would be a bummer, returning would be nicer. Assuming VA Y+ is decent