OOL <-> CBR & SYD <-> CBR no J???

[Casual Class]

I am looking at popping down to Canberra and was surprised to find there are no J seats between OOL and CBR, I found this quite surprising. Upon further research I found that there is no J between SYD and CBR either. Now I understand that some options use ATRs which has no J but it is possible to travel to CBR from either SYD or OOL on only 737s and Embraers, which either have actual J or pseudo J. I would have definitely thought there would be a J market for travel between SYD and CBR, QF does offer J on this route. DJ does offer J between MEL & CBR and BNE & CBR, some of these routes are operated by ATRs and J is not available on those flights but all other aircraft on that route do have J. What I found really interesting is that there is even J seats for MEL-(738)-SYD-(E190)-CBR, while travellers flying direct from SYD on the same flight as the second leg in that journey would not have the option to fly J at all! Anyone else find it odd that routes between these majors ports with lounges do not have J?

 

[DeSchmidt]

I suspect the vast majority of J travel between Sydney and Canberra is on QF - they seem to have the government market sewn up. It is probably questionable whether Virgin see the need for a J class on this route given it is such a short hop - is J really worth it for 25mins in the air???

 

[Jack Melon]

OOL-CBR-OOL is operated by an Embraer E190 Aircraft, they have not been fitted with business class... yet, so they will not sell business class until so.

 

[Casual Class]

OOL-CBR-OOL is operated by an Embraer E190 Aircraft, they have not been fitted with business class... yet, so they will not sell business class until so.

There is a single direct OOL-CBR and CBR-OOL flight daily, however there are other indirect options throughout the day, most of the via SYD. I was under the impression that on other routes Embraer are currently now being sold with J in the old red PE seats.

 

[jamesatfish]

I saw this anomaly late last year for SYD-CBR flights.

To give Virgin a try after being status matched to Platinum I booked CBR-SYD-ADL-CBR in PE in October, and was quite happy with the flights. When my wife and I needed to fly CBR-SYD one weekend in December I tried booking PE on Virgin again, but none of the CBR-SYD flights showed PE as being available to book. I checked some other dates just to see if those flights were indeed fully booked, but couldn't find any PE flights CBR-SYD at all.

I just ended up booking QF J instead.

 

[DeSchmidt]

I just ended up booking QF J instead.

What do you receive on a SYD-CBR flight in J - surely they wouldn't have time for a meal? Is it just a cup of coffee and small snack?

 

[jamesatfish]

What do you receive on a SYD-CBR flight in J - surely they wouldn't have time for a meal? Is it just a cup of coffee and small snack?

If it's an early morning flight they do serve a hot breakfast (usually omelette or similar) along with filter coffee. Lunchtime and evening flights also get a hot meal of some sort with beer / wine / soft drinks as the beverage choices.

If the flight gets a fast-track into SYD rather than a holding pattern then it is certainly a rush to finish your meal before everything is collected again for landing.

 

[Meggsy]

OOL-CBR-OOL is operated by an Embraer E190 Aircraft, they have not been fitted with business class... yet, so they will not sell business class until so.

I am not sure this is correct Jack as the E190's servicing MKY from BNE have business class fares for sale and these acft have not been reconfigured. I think it is a conscious decision by VA not to sell them but for what reason, who knows. Perhaps they are to become all ATR routes only and no point introducing it only to then withdraw it.:?:

 

[Ewing]

What do you receive on a SYD-CBR flight in J - surely they wouldn't have time for a meal? Is it just a cup of coffee and small snack?

Qantas provide the full meal service in J between CBR-SYD and vv. About the only thing they don't do is hot towels, nor is there a choice of meals as there simply isn't time (especially as the 734s have a J load of 20 pax and it's often full).

Breakfast is a typical omelette or eggs and bacon, pastry, etc. Lunch and dinner is a hot meal. Snack flights is often something like a smoked salmon salad.

I used to fly it regularly in my old employment position. Despite being able to fly J, I do not miss flying QF560 (6:45am CBR-SYD) or QF795 (6:40am CBR-MEL) anywhere up to 3 times a week one bit.

You learn to eat very quickly. I flew SYD-ADL after a run of CBR-SYD and the first thing the CSM said with a grin when collecting my meal after I devoured it in record time was "You fly from Canberra a lot, don't you?"

 

[anat0l]

What do you receive on a SYD-CBR flight in J - surely they wouldn't have time for a meal? Is it just a cup of coffee and small snack?

A couple of recent examples of J snacks on the QF J SYD-CBR services. In both cases, tea, coffee and alcohol was served, as well as warm rolls.

It did help that my aircraft was "upgauged" to a 738 that day (usu 734 with max J rows), so less people to serve. We even had an opportunity for wine refills (but I took it easy). I have to feel sorry for the crew when they have the full complement to serve. As for yourself, well, there's not a lot of time to eat.







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[darkslayer88]

OOL-CBR-OOL is operated by an Embraer E190 Aircraft, they have not been fitted with business class... yet, so they will not sell business class until so.

E190's are used sometimes but for most of my flights (about once a week last year) it was a 737. I just had a look and most of my flights that are booked for this year are showing as 737's.

I had some PE flights booked for later this year (booked before the introduction of J) and got a call a few weeks ago to say that J would not be on the route when I fly and so they gave me a partial refund and moved to a normal economy ticket.

 

[Casual Class]

E190's are used sometimes but for most of my flights (about once a week last year) it was a 737. I just had a look and most of my flights that are booked for this year are showing as 737's.

I had some PE flights booked for later this year (booked before the introduction of J) and got a call a few weeks ago to say that J would not be on the route when I fly and so they gave me a partial refund and moved to a normal economy ticket.

Hmm, so the plot thickens...

It's appears that this is not a simple bug or oversight. If DJ are flying aircraft with J seats, why would they make those seats unavailable?? The only marginal cost I can think of in regard to J is better food and drink and surely the marginal revenue would exceed marginal costs in that case. Its not these are regional ports either. Given that CBR and SYD have a lounge and OOL is getting a lounge (that many are eagerly awaiting) that would imply there is a sizeable J market for these ports.

To further complicate matters as I said if you try to book MEL-CBR there are some options that go via SYD that allow you to book J...

Specifically the following routes can be booked with J

15:00 pmMelbourne
16:25 pmSydney
DJ 853

17:35 pmSydney
18:30 pmCanberra
DJ 662

16:00 pmMelbourne 17:25 pmSydney DJ 859 18:05 pmSydney 19:00 pmCanberra DJ 664

 

[Mattg]

On QF807 one evening (SYD-CBR) the CSM announced over the PA "could all of our business class passengers please accept my apologies that we didn't get time to serve a meal."

That would suck if you'd paid all that money...

 

[anat0l]

On QF807 one evening (SYD-CBR) the CSM announced over the PA "could all of our business class passengers please accept my apologies that we didn't get time to serve a meal."

That would suck if you'd paid all that money...

I would've yelled back, "Can we get it to take-away?"

 

[jamesatfish]

I would've yelled back, "Can we get it to take-away?"

On one flight SYD-CBR (actually after the Qantas AFF lunch last year) there was no catering, so we all got a takeaway bag with the Y meal when we boarded the aircraft, and J passengers were given a bottle of wine to take away also...