Has any QFF's switched over to Virgin, or may?

[LJS DeBarba]

...They run wide-bodies on both PER-SYD and PER-MEL with a decent choice of departure times.

The 737s are just a touch too small for any interstate flight out of Perth. Totally agree with your comment - especially since MEL-PER is my most common flight.

 

[[email protected]]

what's this Virgin match? I am QF gold will they match this if I switch, ps new to the forum, how do you work put the codes that keep being talked about

 

[obsgyn]

Virgin has still to change their inflight service mentality to get business passengers. The Flight attendants spend almost all the time in the air being sales people. when an airline charges you for a glass of water, that is beyond a joke. Spend more time doing the job you are trainede for and less time being a sales person and a cleaner. expensive waste of resources. When Virgin wakes up and compete on a equal footing with full service airlines, then they may get more corporate business. Considering the difference in fares is not that great depending on when your ticket is purchased. When you are called to your boarding gate and your plane has not even landed with its last passengers.

 

[roego]

I switched when I went with 2 cases to travel to Cairns just a little while back and the combined weight was 18kg. However because I had 2 cases I had to pay an extra $20 for the second one.
If I get a larger case to put more in it I would have trouble lifting it in out of the boot.Mr.Joyce should try it.
He should also stop trying to run Qantas on a Tiger philosophy but charging first class service rates.

 

[[email protected]]

what's this Virgin match? I am QF gold will they match this if I switch, ps new to the forum, how do you work put the codes that keep being talked about

just heard Virgin will fly Brisbane/Gladstone good for competition I fly return every weekend ? should I change ? well qantas are just about to open the Q club thats certainly a reason not to change over

 

[JohnK]

The short answer is no and there is no reason for me to switch either. Just because Qantas is screwing Platinums does not mean that Virgin is an exciting alternative.

The long answer

- No alliance (I do not care if Virgin formed 1,000 partnerships, they need one of the major alliances to be competitive)
- Lack of customer focus (it is fantastic that most announcements are for new business class seats, but who cares though?, the majority of people travel economy)
- Lack of professionalism (I still feel as though cabin crew continue to treat passengers like children)
- Luggage (it is great that some of you have status and others travel with carry-on only but I hate paying $12 extra for luggage especially when Qantas has similar airfares, if not cheaper, anyway)
- Boring FF program and what appears to be expensive award redemption rates apart from a few loopholes
- Inadequte computer systems (stop charging me $12.95 insurance for a one-way flight when the option to select it was not even on the screen (I was adding luggage to a flight and although the confirmation screen had $12.00 I was charged $24.95!), and what is worse my credit card was charged immediately but I have to wait 7-10 days to get my money back)

Virgin needs to get their act together before I consider giving them more than a few flights a year.

 

[Jack Melon]

The short answer is no and there is no reason for me to switch either. Just because Qantas is screwing Platinums does not mean that Virgin is an exciting alternative.

The long answer

- No alliance (I do not care if Virgin formed 1,000 partnerships, they need one of the major alliances to be competitive)
- Lack of customer focus (it is fantastic that most announcements are for new business class seats, but who cares though?, the majority of people travel economy)
- Lack of professionalism (I still feel as though cabin crew continue to treat passengers like children)
- Luggage (it is great that some of you have status and others travel with carry-on only but I hate paying $12 extra for luggage especially when Qantas has similar airfares, if not cheaper, anyway)
- Boring FF program and what appears to be expensive award redemption rates apart from a few loopholes
- Inadequte computer systems (stop charging me $12.95 insurance for a one-way flight when the option to select it was not even on the screen (I was adding luggage to a flight and although the confirmation screen had $12.00 I was charged $24.95!), and what is worse my credit card was charged immediately but I have to wait 7-10 days to get my money back)

Virgin needs to get their act together before I consider giving them more than a few flights a year.

1. If you have been listening, Virgin have partnered with Air New Zealand, Delta, Singapore Airlines, Etihad and Skywest. Now Virgin has got enough on there plate at the moment with all the re-branding, they just opened the BNE lounge yesterday! Virgin may join star alliance next year. In my opinion i definitely thing they will.
2. Virgin has re-branded to get the corporate market, you your self, but if the front end of the plane is a great success, they will focus more in economy, but they already are, by brand new economy seats which are the most comfy domestic 737 seat, brand new in-flight entertainment systems to rolled out, which i can guarantee you will be much better then Qantas, very exciting! Mood-lighting sky interior and a fresh new product. Most people in this forum are business travlers, they want change from Q, and are interested.
3. The cabin crew are undergoing training to be more professional, and dramatic changes are already being made. They have beautiful new uniforms- very professional, sexy and stylish.
4. Well if your annoyed with the baggage, buy a flexi ticket, which in fact is cheaper then Qantas's cheapest deal. Baggage-23kg included, fully flexible, food and drinks, in-flight entertainment included.
5. Well, as for FFP, stay tuned! The relaunch is just weeks away, John Borghetti will make sure it is better then Q, already a surprise has been announced with Platinum. No more velocity, a complete new FFP very soon.
6. All you have to do is click No, i do not want travel insurence, why is everyone else able to do this but yourself, and other airlines do the same, just click no from yes, not hard.

Come back next year to see the product fully rolled out. Just keep up to date.

 

[medhead]

Virgin has still to change their inflight service mentality to get business passengers. The Flight attendants spend almost all the time in the air being sales people. when an airline charges you for a glass of water, that is beyond a joke. Spend more time doing the job you are trainede for and less time being a sales person and a cleaner. expensive waste of resources. When Virgin wakes up and compete on a equal footing with full service airlines, then they may get more corporate business. Considering the difference in fares is not that great depending on when your ticket is purchased. When you are called to your boarding gate and your plane has not even landed with its last passengers.

Well since the job they are trained to do is save us in an accident I'm thankful they are not doing the job they are trained to do.

 

[straitman]

I have tried to change when I can, but it seems I always end up back with Qantas.

My trip to Singapore two weeks ago the company who made the booking booked me Qantas.

Coming back from Broome this week I had it planned to fly BME-PER on Tuesday then PER-MEL on Wednesday, both with Virgin. In the end I was delayed a day out of BME and flew BME-MEL direct with Qantas.

 

[JohnK]

1. If you have been listening, Virgin have partnered with Air New Zealand, Delta, Singapore Airlines, Etihad and Skywest. Now Virgin has got enough on there plate at the moment with all the re-branding, they just opened the BNE lounge yesterday! Virgin may join star alliance next year. In my opinion i definitely thing they will.

Perhaps they will join an alliance but in the mean time partnerships are not an alliance. In my opinion of course.

3. The cabin crew are undergoing training to be more professional, and dramatic changes are already being made. They have beautiful new uniforms- very professional, sexy and stylish.

Work in progress and in the mean time does not look good. By the way I am not saying that Qantas is any better.

4. Well if your annoyed with the baggage, buy a flexi ticket, which in fact is cheaper then Qantas's cheapest deal. Baggage-23kg included, fully flexible, food and drinks, in-flight entertainment included.

I am sorry but Qantas red e-deal is much cheaper than Virgin lowest fare most of the time for my travels. SYD-BNE on a Sunday night and BNE-SYD on a Friday night. Outside of school holidays Virgin does not even come close and when sales are on the Virgin cheap aifares have extremely limited availability and Qantas works out cheaper even before considering luggage. If you happen to find cheaper than please let me know.

5. Well, as for FFP, stay tuned! The relaunch is just weeks away, John Borghetti will make sure it is better then Q, already a surprise has been announced with Platinum. No more velocity, a complete new FFP very soon.

Struggle to reach Virgin Gold so why would I even consider Virgin Platinum?

6. All you have to do is click No, i do not want travel insurence, why is everyone else able to do this but yourself, and other airlines do the same, just click no from yes, not hard.

Now here is the funny part. I was adding luggage to an existing booking and when I looked at my email 4 hours later there was insurance included. There is no option to include insurance when simply adding luggage only. I added luggage to 2 bookings and one was fine but the other was not. I suspect there is a bug on the Virgin website.

And by the way the Qantas website when making a booking is set to neutral on all add-ons. If you do not select then it prompts for a selection, It does not default automatically to insurance included. That is clear deception. And why would I pay Virgin $12.95 for insurance when I can purchase fully comprehensive insurance anywhere in Australia (including $4,000 car rental excess cover) for ~$20?

Come back next year to see the product fully rolled out. Just keep up to date.

I think it will be lot longer than 12 months but yes I will keep my eyes out for anything useful that Virgin may decide to release and try to entice customers.

And just as well we all have different opinions. And please note I am not defending Qantas. I am simply not buying the illusions Virgin is trying to sell....

 

[greenfish]

Just to second JohnK's comments, my peak time BNE-CBR flights are nearly always cheaper on QF despite never checking baggage. However the Velocity PE tickets are a steal, so have booked a few of these for Friday evenings.

I love my DJ PE ticket conditions though:

"All Guests must wear footwear (thongs are acceptable), shorts/pants/skirts or similar, and shirts (singlets are acceptable). Clothing displaying offensive language or symbols must not be
worn."

So I'm going to pull on a singlet and thongs for tomorrow's trip through the DJ lounge in CBR. What exactly is similar to shorts/pants/skirts? Boxer shorts?

 

[LiamR]

I love my DJ PE ticket conditions though:

"All Guests must wear footwear (thongs are acceptable), shorts/pants/skirts or similar, and shirts (singlets are acceptable). Clothing displaying offensive language or symbols must not be
worn."

So I'm going to pull on a singlet and thongs for tomorrow's trip through the DJ lounge in CBR. What exactly is similar to shorts/pants/skirts? Boxer shorts?

That's pretty formal for some of the Gold Coast brogans up here. Boardies, thongs and a singlet is the norm, not to mention the oversized sunglasses (that are never worn) hanging off their singlet. Thongs get flicked off their feet once they are aboard.

 

[Necoflier]

So just curious, will any of you, be switching to the new virgin australia for business travel now or in the future when the complete new product is rolled out?

Not yet waiting to see what is in offer.

 

[777]

- No alliance (I do not care if Virgin formed 1,000 partnerships, they need one of the major alliances to be competitive)

Genuine question, but why? Obviously if you do a lot of intra Europe or intra China travel (for example) *A membership would be a huge boon but equally Virgin's partnerships are pretty impressive and growing by the day - in one stop routes from Australia they appear to be catching up if not surpassing QF.

- Lack of customer focus (it is fantastic that most announcements are for new business class seats, but who cares though?, the majority of people travel economy)

In my recent experience the customer focus at Virgin is excellent. Why do you assume it is not?

- Lack of professionalism (I still feel as though cabin crew continue to treat passengers like children)

Again, is this based on recent experience or an assumption based on an experience on DJ from one or more years ago? I have had cringeworthy experiences with DJ in the past but i fly them 40 times a year or more and can't remember the last time it happened.

- Luggage (it is great that some of you have status and others travel with carry-on only but I hate paying $12 extra for luggage especially when Qantas has similar airfares, if not cheaper, anyway)

Well, that's a basic cost proposition which is simple enough if DJ fight + Luggage is more expensive than QF flight including (one piece) of luggage then that's a pretty simple equation. In my experience DJ flights (including luggage) are on average cheaper for the routes i fly but that depends a lot on where and when - YMMV and fair enough if it does.

- Boring FF program and what appears to be expensive award redemption rates apart from a few loopholes

Work is being done on this. Definite room for improvement though,

- Inadequte computer systems (stop charging me $12.95 insurance for a one-way flight when the option to select it was not even on the screen (I was adding luggage to a flight and although the confirmation screen had $12.00 I was charged $24.95!), and what is worse my credit card was charged immediately but I have to wait 7-10 days to get my money back)

I agree it's ridiculous. Although the defaulting thing disappeared for a while and has suddenly come back again. I got caught out for the first time in years yesterday. Fair criticism in any case.

Virgin needs to get their act together before I consider giving them more than a few flights a year.

Just curious if you think there are *any* areas where DJ beat or at least rival QF. There appears to be a stack of them piling up in the Virgin threads but perhaps they are less obvious or less relevant to the casual DJ flyer.

 

[medhead]

I am sorry but Qantas red e-deal is much cheaper than Virgin lowest fare most of the time for my travels. SYD-BNE on a Sunday night and BNE-SYD on a Friday night. Outside of school holidays Virgin does not even come close and when sales are on the Virgin cheap aifares have extremely limited availability and Qantas works out cheaper even before considering luggage. If you happen to find cheaper than please let me know.

This is not my experience really. I've put my averages out already but overall Virgin has been $14 cheaper on average for my commuting. So the same as qantas if including baggage on average, but not more expensive. For all my flights this year Virgin has been about $25 cheaper on average. I think the massive advantage of Virgin is the happy hours. These are generally for days only a month or 2 out. Compared to Qantas when the cheap non sale fares can only really be had about 3 or 4 months in advance and sale fares maybe down to 2 to 3 months.

I also can't fault the crew on professionalism on every flight, but that is a subjective thing. Even had a CSM who I thought was ex-qantas. Nope, worked his way up from baggage handler as it turned out.

 

[Moopere]

Genuine question, but why? Obviously if you do a lot of intra Europe or intra China travel (for example) *A membership would be a huge boon but equally Virgin's partnerships are pretty impressive and growing by the day - in one stop routes from Australia they appear to be catching up if not surpassing QF.

Partnerships are great if you are not in an alliance. I'd rather see DJ with them than without. But honestly, when you have to rely upon them (because of no alliance) its a big PITA. Each partner is connected to DJ in a slightly different way, with different 'perks' and conditions, blah, blah. Planning long trips is hard enough, mapping through partners is much much worse.

 

[nlagalle]

1. If you have been listening, Virgin have partnered with Air New Zealand, Delta, Singapore Airlines, Etihad and Skywest. Now Virgin has got enough on there plate at the moment with all the re-branding, they just opened the BNE lounge yesterday! Virgin may join star alliance next year. In my opinion i definitely thing they will.
2. Virgin has re-branded to get the corporate market, you your self, but if the front end of the plane is a great success, they will focus more in economy, but they already are, by brand new economy seats which are the most comfy domestic 737 seat, brand new in-flight entertainment systems to rolled out, which i can guarantee you will be much better then Qantas, very exciting! Mood-lighting sky interior and a fresh new product. Most people in this forum are business travlers, they want change from Q, and are interested.
3. The cabin crew are undergoing training to be more professional, and dramatic changes are already being made. They have beautiful new uniforms- very professional, sexy and stylish.
4. Well if your annoyed with the baggage, buy a flexi ticket, which in fact is cheaper then Qantas's cheapest deal. Baggage-23kg included, fully flexible, food and drinks, in-flight entertainment included.
5. Well, as for FFP, stay tuned! The relaunch is just weeks away, John Borghetti will make sure it is better then Q, already a surprise has been announced with Platinum. No more velocity, a complete new FFP very soon.
6. All you have to do is click No, i do not want travel insurence, why is everyone else able to do this but yourself, and other airlines do the same, just click no from yes, not hard.

Come back next year to see the product fully rolled out. Just keep up to date.

If i didn't know any better I'd say you were a Virgin Fanboi ... At the end of the day remember that many of us have reasons why we fly with the airlines we do. Personally for me nothing you have mentioned here are making me want to swap. In fact Virgin have done their best for me NOT to fly with them.. And TBH I really can't complain about the service and treatment I have gotten from QF lately. But just to make some points from above:

1. read again: partnerships are not the same as an alliance. OW is still a better option than above.. come back again if/when Virgin join *A. Also their crediting from other airlines is hit and miss. I took a skywwest flight earlier this year and nothing ever credited even after I put in a claim. Took a mail to the rep here to get it credited - and then I discover no SC's. Shocking. Even my JQ flights credited without an issue in my QF account. There are also many more QF Lounges in Aus compared to DJ and as I travel all over that is a major point. Virgin still have a long way to go there.

2. your assumption about the 737 have the most comfortable seat.. The killer for me here is I hate leather seats and one thing I have stated before is I will still rather fly in a QF 767 than any 737 that is 3x3 seating. Especially going MEL-PER. And if I'm correct here not all Virgin aircraft have IFE - infact their new planes don't have anything yet.. QF's new 737's have IFE installed already and the existing fleet is being upgraded as well. And not all of us want to change.

3. Can't comment on how the DJ crew are, but all the QF crew I've had lately in both Y and J have been great. in fact 2 I have had nominated for an staff award (to which QF emailed and phoned me about)

4. Virgin is not always cheaper ok? I've seen plenty of times were QF fully flex was cheaper than DJ. Latest one was last month going to HBA. QF were the cheapest option. And we didn't need to add on luggage or food.

5. You are only assuming it will be better, rather than speculate, let's wait and see what is offered first? Their first round of the re-vamp with the status credits was both good and bad. They have said they will offer Platinum, but really how different will it be? again have to wait..

6. I think Johnk was referring to the fact he did select no, but it still selected it for him anyway.

At the end of the day some of us have a choice who we want to fly with, some don't. For those that do, you need to respect their decision to fly their particular airline. They have their reasons (some very well researched) for their choice. At the end of the day Virgin isn't for everyone, just as QF isn't for everyone either.

 

[QF WP]

Ah, the exuberance of youth. Very measures response nlagalle


Sent from my iPhone using Aust Freq Fly app

 

[cove]

I need the product to be right so why would we need to be the early movers to Virgin. Currently they have one destination that i could use being Perth to Sydney in J so I am with Nlagalle at this point.That said I would not want Virgin to do an Ansett and disappear.

 

[BAM1748]

Agree with nlagalle and the points mentioned.

QF simply has a better route map for me, lounges in the right places, service is good, price is comparable to DJ and as I have a stack of points with QF; why would I change?

DJ offered Gold straight off, but offering priority boarding is something that does nothing for me, I like getting on last so no one is pushing past me.

Matt