Things Virgin Australia Does & Doesn’t Do Well

[Wing Nut]

Son and I did MEL CBR last Monday arvo, no issues. Carry on made security quick, boarding was efficient. Crew were great with a quick whip around the cabin with the drinks cart. The red was decent. Internet was a dead set rort but given the flight was 45 min, can easily live without it. Wouldn't do this for a longer flight but short hops, Virgin's just fine

 

[engbren]

Other than that, you seem to be extolling the virues of QFF over Velocity. I find it slightly more nuanced, but you're on the right track...

Both programs have their benefits. Velocity works well for me for my corporate travel - I fly frequently enough (roughly a return flight every 2-3 weeks), with most of my travel domestic economy. I am constrained by a corporate policy which is enforced somewhat strictly. I enjoy the status benefits like priority boarding and lounge access that gold has to offer.

With some effort, I could work my corporate booking system to find Qantas flights that meet the policy but the harsh reality is that I don’t fly often enough with the right class of fares to gain status with Qantas from my corporate travel alone and I don’t value the status enough to do a status run. My recent flights have been enough to tick over the retain but in the past I’ve been a bit light and family pooling and flybuys SC earns combined with the lower hurdles to attain/retain has meant Velocity makes it easier to attain/retain gold status.

When international travel is on the cards, Velocity previously delivered good lounge access (I can recall accessing The House in SYD when flying Hawaiian airlines and being treated to à la carte dining, the Air NZ lounge complete with its hot dog stand on SIA trips in the as well as a nice lounge in LAX and when travelling on the Virgin 777 in economy as a gold I routinely was given an exit row seat as well as some nice chocolates from business or premium). Lounge access has worsened for international trips since then and VA no longer flys long haul to the USA. As I am no longer travelling internationally for business, this degraded lounge access isn’t so much an issue for me.

 

[westsurf]

Having just re obtained my Platinum after a year of hiatus I have found that the quality of offering has dropped significantly. I always fly business class:

Lounge | Being PER based I am often fighting for a seat with the extreme FIFO crowd numbers here. Food offering is getting close to abysmal particularly at breakfast being as I fly out mostly mornings. No eggs, no bacon. Chicken suasages and beans don't count.

Pre Flight | I've never snagged an earlier flight returning to PER. I've also had next to no luck with the economy to business free upgrade excepting approx 3 years ago.

Priority Boarding | Really if practically half the plane inc X seats is priority whats the point? Leaving MEL-PER it seemed 40 people in front of me were priority. I did see three people get asked to set aside and wait.

On Flight Staff | Very hit and miss and my last flight from PER-ADL had two staff members who acted like they were in the high school play ground before take off. Hearing about ones sex life was simply ridiculous. Albeit on the previously mentioned MEL-PER they happily fed me drinks after knowing I was being picked up at the airport. On the whole they are polite.

Having to fight for carry on luggage space with the attendants in business?. Further to be told my carry on is oversized? It's metal Rimowa ... it meets all international / domestic requirements. Again, this was PER-ADL.

On Flight Food | Well as mentioned that's a lotto. The offering seemed to have fallen in quality. The bacon (yes bacon on flight) was so burnt it was inedible.

Protection of business | well apart from telling others that the loos at the front are for business ... none of my recent flights have had the curtain. Bring back the dividers.

The latest Platinum tags are useless ... Thankfully I still have my old GOLD status one for my check in luggage. The new one just went into the bin as it's bulky, not personalised, and wouldn't survive a couple of rounds on check in baggage. Not that I would want to chance it.

Sadly, despite being a committed Virgin flier over Qantas I feel that I'm just another piece of cattle. I'm just hoping they return to PER-DPS as I practically live there and am really over the budget airlines such as AirAsia.

My final pet hate ... 2FA via email!